Cardano

ADA is used as gas for Cardano transactions, as collateral in Plutus smart contracts, and as the staking asset that secures the chain. The Cardano ecosystem includes DEXes, lending platforms, stablecoins and NFT marketplaces, though it remains smaller than Ethereum or Solana in raw activity.

Cardano is also heavily involved in public-sector pilots - identity, land registry and education credentialing programs in several African countries - reflecting the founder's focus on building infrastructure in regions underserved by existing financial rails.

Cardano (ADA) is traded on a wide range of centralized and decentralized exchanges. The most liquid markets for ADA sit on tier-1 venues - the sort of exchanges where institutional desks and professional market makers rebalance continuously - which is what keeps the spread tight and the last price tied closely to fair value.

The price and 24-hour volume on this page combine the exchanges ReadPrices tracks for ADA. Before you trade, compare the fee schedule and the order-book depth on the venue you plan to use: the same coin can cost noticeably more to buy on a thin market.

The reported 24-hour trading volume of Cardano is $493.41M. Volume is a live reading of how much ADA changed hands across all tracked exchanges in the past day and tends to rise during periods of price discovery and fall during consolidation.

For traders, the ratio between volume and market cap is often more informative than either number on its own: a high vol-to-mcap ratio indicates liquid, actively traded supply, while a low ratio suggests that most holders are sitting on the asset.

Cardano reached an all-time high of $3.09 on September 1, 2021, and an all-time low of $0.0193 on March 12, 2020. It is currently trading -91.23% from its peak and +1305.64% from its bottom.

The distance from ATH is a useful gauge of recovery potential during a bear market and of stretched positioning during a bull market. Combined with the all-time-low figure it provides a quick statistical frame for thinking about where ADA sits in its long-run price range.

Cardano's market capitalization is currently $8.75B, and it is ranked #17 by market cap on ReadPrices. Market cap is calculated as the current price multiplied by the circulating supply (37.55 billion ADA are actively circulating today).

Market cap is a common but imperfect measure. It reflects the theoretical value of every circulating token at the current market price, but it doesn't capture how thin the top of the order book might be - an important caveat for tokens with low floats or illiquid cap tables.

The fully diluted valuation (FDV) of Cardano is $10.49B. FDV is a projection of what the market cap would be if every token that will ever exist - including those that have not yet been unlocked, mined or issued - were in circulation at the current price.

FDV is a useful second reading alongside market cap. A large gap between mcap and FDV signals that future token emissions could dilute current holders, while a small gap indicates that supply is already mostly out.

Over the past 24 hours, Cardano has moved -3.50%. Over the past seven days, the change is -14.20%. Comparing these figures to the change in the whole crypto market cap (shown in the line at the top of this page) tells you whether ADA is leading, lagging or tracking the broader market.

For deeper analysis, the Categories page groups coins by theme - Layer 1, Meme, DePIN, AI, RWA and so on - and lets you compare Cardano against its closest peers. Each category page lists its coins with their seven-day price lines in a single view.

Like any crypto asset, the right way to store ADA depends on how often you plan to use it. Long-term holders typically self-custody using a hardware wallet such as Ledger or Trezor, which keeps private keys offline and immune to most remote attacks.

For active traders, a reputable custodial exchange wallet can be appropriate, especially one with clear proof-of-reserves attestations. Whatever approach you choose, the most important rule is to keep your recovery phrase offline, never share it, and never enter it into a web form or attached to a DM - no legitimate support agent will ever ask for it.