About Cardano
Cardano (ADA) is a proof-of-stake smart-contract platform launched in 2017 by Charles Hoskinson, one of the co-founders of Ethereum. Development is led by Input Output (IO), Emurgo, and the Cardano Foundation, and is structured around a methodology of peer-reviewed academic research, formal methods, and a phased roadmap (Byron, Shelley, Goguen, Basho, Voltaire). ADA, named after Ada Lovelace, is the native asset used for fees, staking, and on-chain governance.
Cardano runs the Ouroboros proof-of-stake protocol, where stake pools elected by ADA delegators take turns producing blocks across roughly five-day epochs. ADA has a fixed maximum supply of 45 billion, with rewards drawn from a treasury reserve that gradually releases supply as staking occurs. Smart contracts use the eUTXO model and are written in Plutus (Haskell-based) or Aiken, with off-chain logic supported by Hydra layer-2 channels.
Cardano's ecosystem includes DEXs (Minswap, SundaeSwap, WingRiders), stablecoins (DJED), NFT marketplaces, and identity, lending, and oracle protocols. The launch of Voltaire-era on-chain governance in 2024 introduced delegated representatives (DReps), a constitution, and treasury-funded Catalyst grants. A large staking community delegates ADA to thousands of independent stake pool operators around the world.
Crypto Market Watch tracks the live Cardano price ranked #14 by market capitalisation, 24-hour and 7-day price changes, market capitalisation, trading volume, circulating supply, and all-time highs and lows on this page. Data refreshes continuously throughout the trading day so investors can monitor ADA market activity in real time.
