According to SEC records, Grayscale withdrew registration statements for three planned U.S. altcoin exchange traded products on August 7, 2025, ending the current registration process for its Cardano, Hedera and Polkadot funds. The filings were accepted between 4:33:37 p.m. and 4:36:47 p.m. ET, a span of exactly 190 seconds. As reported by crypto.news, the filings are withdrawal requests, not SEC rejections, with Grayscale confirming it no longer intends to proceed with the planned distribution of shares under those registration statements. The rapid sequence began with the Cardano filing at 4:33:37 p.m. ET, followed by Hedera at 4:34:55 p.m., and concluded with Polkadot at 4:36:47 p.m., demonstrating a deliberate and coordinated decision rather than a reaction to sudden events. The withdrawals were sponsor-initiated, not SEC rejections, with Grayscale giving no reason and potentially able to submit new registrations in the future.
Cardano's ADA traded near $0.1885 on August 11, down approximately 4.7% over 24 hours and back below the $0.20 level after Grayscale withdrew the registration statement for its proposed standalone Cardano exchange-traded fund. The token has repeatedly struggled to reclaim this critical resistance level, making a confirmed daily close above it essential for extending the recovery. According to AMBCrypto, the Average Directional Index (ADX) stood at 25.20, indicating that a moderately active trend may be developing, while the positive directional indicator (+DI) remained higher at 27.14 compared to a -DI reading of 13.89, suggesting buyers still retain the directional advantage. However, capital flows present a weaker picture with the Chaikin Money Flow (CMF) at negative 0.01, indicating that selling pressure has recently outweighed accumulation, despite ADA remaining near resistance. Volume Profile data places the largest concentration of recent trading activity between approximately $0.16 and $0.20, with a confirmed daily close above $0.20 potentially strengthening the recovery and bringing $0.22 into focus. Analyst Ali Charts flagged three warning signals, noting that the number of wallets holding between 1 million and 10 million ADA had fallen from 2,370 on August 2 to 2,340, alongside a death cross between Cardano's MVRV ratio and its seven-day simple moving average, and a Tom DeMark Sequential sell signal on the daily chart.
Polkadot [DOT] fell below $0.80 as sellers erased another part of the token's early-August recovery, with the weakness coming after Grayscale abandoned plans for its proposed Polkadot Trust ETF. According to AMBCrypto, DOT traded near $0.774 on August 13 after its latest rebound was unable to move beyond $0.87. The token has now dropped below $0.79–$0.80, an area that previously helped buyers contain declines, but as it is unable to hold that level, it leaves the recovery looking increasingly shaky. There was an increase in trading activity picked up when DOT turned lower in early August, with On-Balance Volume continuing to fall, suggesting buying interest has weakened alongside the price. The next area to watch is around $0.75, with buyers defending that level potentially giving DOT another opportunity to challenge $0.80, while a break below it would instead put $0.70 back in view. Even a return above $0.80 would only be an early improvement, but DOT would still need to overcome $0.86–$0.90, where it witnessed a sell-off, before the broader recovery becomes more convincing.
The timing of Grayscale's withdrawal coincides with a significant regulatory milestone for Cardano futures. CME Cardano futures completed six months of trading on August 9, satisfying one of the SEC's generic listing criteria that allows commodity-based ETPs to list without separate case-by-case approval. According to CME's official release, Cardano futures began trading on February 9, 2026, with Cumberland DRW and Wintermute executing the first ADA block trade. The SEC's generic listing standards, approved in September 2025, allow qualifying commodity-based ETPs to list when their underlying asset has had a futures contract trading for at least six months on a CFTC regulated designated contract market. However, this milestone does not automatically revive Grayscale's product, as the company has withdrawn its registration statement and no securities were issued or sold under the filing. The next question remains whether Grayscale or another issuer will submit a fresh standalone ADA registration now that the futures threshold has been met.
Despite the market challenges, Cardano's underlying protocol development continues with the Van Rossem hard fork activating on July 18 at Protocol Version 11 after approval from DReps, stake pool operators and the Constitutional Committee. According to Intersect, this marked Cardano's first hard fork completed under the network's full governance framework. The upgrade introduced Plutus and cryptographic improvements alongside stronger VRF key uniqueness rules for stake pool security. While these developments formed part of the fundamental backdrop behind ADA's early August recovery, they have not been sufficient to keep the token above $0.20. For traders, $0.20 remains the clearest near-term level to reclaim, with failure to recover that area keeping $0.17 in focus under bearish scenarios, while a move back above $0.20 would weaken the immediate downside setup. The latest whale data requires context, as wallets in a different large holder cohort had accumulated more than 240 million ADA during the earlier rally, with the two datasets tracking different wallet sizes.
