Weekly Cardano Digest #95

Hydra goes live, $19B is liquidated, and Cardano steps into traditional finance through S&P’s new digital asset benchmark.

Author

Lucas Macchiavelli
October 13, 2025

Hey Cardanians! Welcome aboard the Weekly Cardano Digest #95!

We've filtered through all the noise to distill crucial updates into a breezy, 5-minute read. No need for you to sift through endless info — we've got you covered. Ready to delve into this week's top Cardano news? Let’s dive in.

Here are the topics of the week:

  • ⚡ Hydra 1.0 Launches: Cardano Enters New Speed Era

  • 🧨 $19B Liquidated: The Biggest Liquidation Event in Crypto History

  • 📊 Cardano Added to S&P Digital Markets Index

  • Weekly Development Report

  • & More!

⚡ Hydra 1.0 Launches: Cardano Enters New Speed Era

Hydra Node v1.0.0 is live, unlocking a new era of speed and scalability for Cardano.

During internal testing, Hydra reached 1,000,000 transactions per second (TPS), far beyond VisaNet's peak of 65,000 TPS. 

In fact, “Hydra Doom” processed more daily transactions than Visa, Mastercard, and PayPal combined.

Hydra is designed for real-time apps, gaming, and DeFi, delivering low latency and minimal fees. It represents one of Cardano’s core scaling pillars, now ready for real-world deployment.

🧨 $19B Liquidated: The Biggest Liquidation Event in Crypto History

The crypto markets just experienced the largest liquidation event ever recorded due to Trump tariffs, over $19.16 billion in positions wiped out in a single day.

For context:
▪️ COVID Crash (2020): $1.2B liquidated
▪️ FTX Collapse (2022): $1.6B liquidated
▪️ Today: $19.16B liquidated

This liquidation wave was nearly 20x larger than the COVID event. Yet historically, after such extreme capitulations, crypto markets have often rebounded strongly, in 2020, Bitcoin doubled within 100 days.

📊 Cardano Added to S&P Digital Markets Index

S&P Dow Jones Indices has launched the “Digital Markets 50 Index,” offering institutional investors exposure to a diversified basket of 15 major cryptocurrencies and 35 leading blockchain-related stocks.

Among the selected assets is Cardano ($ADA), now officially part of the S&P Cryptocurrency Broad Digital Market Index alongside Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana.

This is not just symbolic. Inclusion in an S&P index means Cardano can now be tracked by institutional trading desks, ETFs, and fund managers looking for diversified crypto exposure. These indices are used in structured products, rebalancing strategies, and asset allocation models, opening the door to steady, programmatic inflows from traditional markets.

As legacy finance continues integrating digital assets, being part of benchmark indices like this one positions Cardano for long-term visibility, legitimacy, and liquidity, beyond the cycles of hype.

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Essential Cardano’s weekly development report

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