Cardano Outperforms Bitcoin After Founder Announces Deal With Cathie Wood-Backed LayerZero, Midnight Launch Timeline

Cardano’s price rose more than 5% to around $0.27, leading gains among major cryptocurrencies.

• At Consensus Hong Kong, Founder Charles Hoskinson announced that Cardano will be integrating Cathie Wood-backed LayerZero onto its blockchain.
• He also confirmed that the new privacy-focused token, Midnight, which is set to run as a partner chain to Cardano, will go live in the final week of March.
• Google and Telegram were cited as collaborators supporting the Midnight project.

Cardano (ADA) led gains among crypto majors on Thursday morning as Bitcoin (BTC) recovered from yesterday’s slump after U.S. jobs data came in hotter than expected. 

Cardano’s price was up over 5% in the last 24 hours to around $0.27, while Bitcoin’s price only rose 1.6% but managed to climb back over $68,000. Retail sentiment on Stocktwits around Cardano rose to ‘bullish’ from ‘neutral’ territory over the past day while chatter fell to ‘normal’ from ‘high’ levels. 

Why Is Cardano’s Price Rising?

The uptick in Cardano’s price comes after Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson announced a deal to get Cathie Wood-backed LayerZero (ZRO) ported over to the Cardano blockchain during a keynote speech at Consensus Hong Kong on Thursday. 

While ZRO’s price outperformed the broader market on Wednesday, the crypto token fell over 4% in the last 24 hours to around $2.19. On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around the coin remained in ‘extremely bullish’ territory over the past day, with chatter at ‘extremely high’ levels.

Hoskinson also confirmed that Midnight, a privacy-focused blockchain project long anticipated for a while, will go live in the final week of March as a partner chain to Cardano.

"We have some great collaborations to help us run it," he said on stage. "Google is one of them. Telegram is another. We're really excited, there's more that will come."

LayerZero is a blockchain aimed at powering institutional-grade markets that received investment from Citadel Securities on Wednesday.

Dogecoin, BNB Join Cardano In Thursday Gains

Dogecoin (DOGE) and Binance Coin (BNB) each saw gains of more than 4% each on Thursday morning. DOGE’s price rose 4.1% in the last 24 hours, while BNB’s price moved 4.3% higher. 

On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around DOGE fell to ‘neutral’ from ‘bullish’ territory over the past day, while retail sentiment around BNB remained in the ‘neutral’ zone.

Ripple’s XRP (XRP) and Ethereum (ETH) also saw gains marginally higher than Bitcoin as well, moving higher by around 1.9% each. Solana (SOL) underperformed the other top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, edging up just 0.8%. 

The overall cryptocurrency market cap gained 1.7% over the last 24 hours, reaching $2.4 trillion. CoinGlass data showed around $330 in crypto liquidations, with a near-even split between long and short bets being wiped out. Bitcoin spot ETFs also saw capital flows turn negative again, with $276 million in outflows recorded on Wednesday.

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