Cardano surges as Hoskinson teases major scaling upgrade and RealFi launches
Cardano (ADA) saw its most significant rally since May, climbing 8% to $0.27 on October 5. This surge marked its highest price in five months and stood out as Bitcoin and Ethereum remained relatively stable, allowing ADA to outperform much of the broader market. The rally renewed focus on Cardano’s development roadmap, particularly its upcoming scaling upgrade, Linear Leios.
The immediate catalyst for the rally was a post from Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson. He shared a chart of ADA’s price movement and added the hashtag #LeiosIsComing, drawing attention to the upcoming Linear Leios scaling upgrade. This upgrade is designed to expand Cardano’s transaction capacity while maintaining the security of its existing Praos chain.
Linear Leios, detailed in CIP-164, is being tested through the public Musashi Dojo network. During testing, it achieved a throughput of 26.8 TxkB/s, approximately six times the current mainnet capacity of 4.51 TxkB/s. The network processed over 127,000 blocks, with 63 stake pools participating. The upgrade aims to separate main-chain production from additional transaction data, creating more space for applications as demand grows. Cardano plans to deploy Linear Leios via the Dijkstra hard fork in late 2026, pending further testing and governance approval.
The rally also followed the October 1 mainnet launch of RealFi, a Cardano-native stablecoin protocol focused on real-world assets. The project completed a public testnet with over 3,000 verified active wallets and has integrated with platforms like Lace, Liqwid, and SundaeSwap. This launch introduces a new use case for Cardano, connecting on-chain liquidity with tokenized real-world financial assets.
Technically, ADA’s rise to $0.27 brings the $0.28 area into focus as the next key resistance level. The rally demonstrates how traders react to ecosystem launches and infrastructure progress. However, sustained upside will likely depend on Cardano’s ability to convert development milestones into greater network usage, liquidity, and application activity.