Cardano
Cardano Rallies 30 Percent on AI Payment Integration and Short Squeeze
Cardano gained nearly 30 percent following the announcement of an AI payment test and subsequent short liquidations.
Cardano rose 29.9 percent during the week ending September 23, 2026, climbing from $0.20 to $0.25, while XRP advanced 22 percent to $1.58. Despite the weekly gains, both assets remain lower over the course of 2026, with Cardano down 23.5 percent and XRP down 13.9 percent year-to-date.
The price increase followed a September 21 announcement by the Cardano Foundation confirming its integration with x402, an open payment standard designed to let autonomous software and AI agents settle web service requests using ADA or native stablecoins. The rally was further accelerated by a short squeeze, which forced traders with bearish positions to buy back tokens as prices moved higher.
The article notes that Cardano's x402 functionality has so far only completed a single testnet transaction without real economic value. By comparison, other blockchains have already processed extensive volume under the standard, which was created by Coinbase in 2025 and transferred to the Linux Foundation, with Base and Solana recording over 100 million transactions and XRP Ledger logging over 1.4 million.
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