ADA Reclaims Rank 14 as Founder Touts 281% Combo Return From His Own Token

ADA has clawed back to roughly $0.20 after briefly falling below $0.14 and dropping to 18th place on CoinMarketCap last month, a rebound that saw it flip Stellar (XLM) for 13th place over the weekend before retracing to 14th. The rally has drawn a fresh bullish push from Jure Karamarko, founder of SongMarketCap, who told followers on X that betting against Cardano is a losing trade — while leaning on the performance of his own project’s token to make the case.

The numbers behind the claim

Karamarko’s thesis rests on two data points: ADA is up 28% over the trailing 30 days, and an unnamed Cardano native token gained 120% in the same window. Combined, he argues, a portfolio split between the two would have returned 281.6% over the month. He did not name the token directly, but the figures track closely with SONG, the native token of SongMarketCap — the project he founded.

On-chain price data cited alongside the post shows SONG up 4.84% over 24 hours, 11.2% over seven days, and 113% over 30 days, trading at $0.00425 at press time. That monthly figure sits close to, though below, the 120% number used in Karamarko’s combined-return calculation, and the token’s sub-cent price and founder-linked origin place it firmly in microcap territory — a segment where percentage moves are easily amplified by thin liquidity rather than broad demand.

Rank flip adds context, not confirmation

ADA’s climb past XLM in market cap ranking is the more verifiable signal in this story. The move to 13th, followed by a slip back to 14th, reflects genuine capital rotation into Cardano-linked assets during the recent rally, independent of any single native token’s performance. That distinction matters for traders parsing Karamarko’s argument: ADA’s own 28% monthly gain is a market-wide, exchange-verifiable figure, while the SONG-linked 120% comparison originates from a founder marketing the token he created.

The mixed reception on X reflects that split. Bullish commenters embraced the combined-return framing, while critics flagged that the thesis leans on short-term price action in a token with an obvious conflict of interest attached to its promoter. Neither the SongMarketCap token’s market cap nor its liquidity depth were disclosed in the post, leaving traders without the context needed to judge how replicable the 120% figure would be at size.

What traders should track

For desks positioning around Cardano’s ecosystem, the cleaner signal remains ADA’s rank battle with XLM near the 13th-14th spot and whether the 28% monthly gain holds against broader altcoin flows. Native-token claims tied to a single promoter’s own project warrant separate scrutiny, particularly given the token’s sub-cent price and the absence of independent volume or holder-distribution data in the source commentary.