How much is 1 ADA?
One ADA is worth $0.1723 — the ADA-to-USD rate as of 2026-08-01 19:21 UTC, +0.77% over the past 24 hours. The figure on this page refreshes hourly from CoinMarketCap data.
BAKED FROM THE HOURLY RATE AS OF 2026-08-01 19:21 UTC · NOT A LIVE CALCULATOR
ADA vs. other Layer 1 coins
| Asset | 24H | 7D | 30D | 90D |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cardano ADA THIS PAGE | +0.77% | +4.14% | +8.30% | −31.26% |
| Bitcoin BTC | −0.75% | −2.84% | +1.68% | −20.55% |
| Ethereum ETH | −1.56% | −1.85% | +8.36% | −21.05% |
| BNB BNB | −1.89% | +1.55% | +3.22% | −6.82% |
AS OF 2026-08-01 19:21 UTC · DATA: COINMARKETCAP · DEEPER TINT = LARGER MOVE · 90D IS OUR LONGEST SNAPSHOT WINDOW
ADA price context
Cardano's all-time high is $3.09, reached on September 2, 2021. At today's price of $0.1723, ADA trades 94.4% below that peak. Its lowest recorded price was $0.0193 on March 13, 2020.
Over the past 30 days ADA has moved +8.30% and over the past 90 days −31.26%.
Circulating supply is 36,504,641,982 ADA , against a maximum supply of 45,000,000,000 ADA. ADA's supply is capped at 45 billion, with roughly four-fifths already circulating. Staking rewards are paid from a declining reserve plus transaction fees, so new-supply pressure shrinks over time — but with a cap that large, percentage moves depend more on demand than on issuance.
Cardano all-time high
The gap to the record
Getting back to $3.09 from here would take a 17.9× move — that multiple, not the percentage, is the honest way to read a drawdown. The figure above updates every hour as our price snapshot refreshes; the record itself is an editorial fact recorded from CoinGecko.
All-time low
Cardano's recorded all-time low is $0.0193, on March 13, 2020 (CoinGecko). From that low to today's price is the other end of the same story — aggregators differ on launch-era data, so we name the source we cite.
Cardano price history
Our sourced price record for Cardano begins in 2021 — the coin may have traded earlier, but we list only years we can back with a citable source. Its all-time high is $3.09 (Sep 2, 2021), its recorded low $0.0193 (Mar 13, 2020), and it trades at $0.1723 today. Every row below names where its figures come from.
Cardano price by year
Rows from 2021 through 2023 are editorial records — each cites the source it was taken from. Rows from 2024 onward are computed from our licensed CoinMarketCap daily data; for those years, high and low are the highest and lowest daily closes in our series, not intraday extremes.
| Year | Open | High | Low | Close | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | $1.66 | $3.10 | $0.9910 | $1.31 | Coinbase (ADA-USD) |
| 2022 | $1.31 | $1.64 | $0.2391 | $0.2457 | Coinbase (ADA-USD) |
| 2023 | $0.2456 | $0.6950 | $0.2300 | $0.5937 | Coinbase (ADA-USD) |
| 2024 | $0.5962 | $1.30 | $0.3107 | $0.8502 | Our CMC data |
| 2025 | $0.8511 | $1.12 | $0.3508 | $0.3508 | Our CMC data |
| 2026YTD | $0.3330 | $0.4269 | $0.1407 | $0.1723 | Our CMC data |
What moves Cardano's price
- US ETF decisions: spot Cardano ETF filings entered the SEC pipeline in the 2025 altcoin-ETF wave, and each procedural milestone — acknowledgment, delay, approval odds — reprices ADA the way earlier decisions repriced BTC and ETH.
- Governance-era milestones: the Chang hard fork (September 2024) and Plomin hard fork (January 2025) handed treasury and constitutional control to ADA holders and their elected DReps; how that on-chain government spends and functions is now a coin-specific driver.
- The usage-versus-valuation gap: Cardano's DeFi TVL and fee revenue are small relative to its market cap, so sentiment shifts when on-chain usage numbers move in either direction.
- Roadmap and founder announcements: scaling work (Hydra, the proposed Leios upgrade) and the Midnight privacy sidechain — whose token distribution includes ADA holders — generate recurring event-driven moves, as do Charles Hoskinson's public statements.
- Retail sentiment cycles: ADA has one of crypto's largest retail holder bases, and social-media-driven rotation in and out of 'ETH alternatives' hits it faster than fundamentals change.
“spot Cardano ETF filings entered the SEC pipeline in the 2025 altcoin-ETF wave, and each procedural milestone — acknowledgment, delay, approval odds — reprices ADA the way earlier decisions repriced BTC and ETH.”
About Cardano
Cardano launched in September 2017, created by IOHK (now Input Output) under Ethereum co-founder Charles Hoskinson, together with the Cardano Foundation and Emurgo. Its differentiator is process: core protocols like the Ouroboros proof-of-stake family were published as peer-reviewed academic papers before implementation.
The network rolled out in named eras — Shelley brought decentralized staking in 2020, the Alonzo upgrade added Plutus smart contracts in September 2021, and the Voltaire era (2024–25) delivered on-chain governance, making Cardano one of the few major chains whose treasury and rules are formally controlled by token-holder votes. Cardano uses an extended-UTXO accounting model rather than Ethereum-style accounts, and scales through the Hydra layer-2 protocol and partner chains such as the Midnight privacy sidechain.
ADA tokenomics
Supply is capped at 45 billion ADA. About 25.9 billion were sold in a 2015–2017 public sale (heavily concentrated in Japan), with roughly 5.2 billion allocated at genesis to IOHK, Emurgo, and the Cardano Foundation. The remainder is distributed over time as staking rewards from a reserve that shrinks with each epoch, supplemented by transaction fees. Delegating ADA to a stake pool requires no lockup and carries no slashing risk, which keeps most of the supply staked while remaining liquid.
How to buy Cardano
ADA is listed on every major exchange, including Coinbase, Kraken, and Binance. Holders who self-custody in wallets like Lace, Yoroi, or Daedalus can delegate to a stake pool — rewards have historically run in the low single digits annually, funds never leave the wallet, and there is no unbonding period.
Cardano news
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Cardano FAQ
Can you stake ADA, and does it lock your funds?
Yes, and no lockup: Cardano delegation keeps ADA spendable in your wallet while it earns rewards, and there is no slashing. That design is why a large majority of ADA is staked.
What was Cardano's all-time high?
ADA peaked at about $3.10 in September 2021, in the run-up to the Alonzo smart-contract upgrade. The hourly-refreshed price at the top of this page shows where it trades relative to that peak.
How is Cardano different from Ethereum?
Both are proof-of-stake smart-contract platforms, but Cardano uses an extended-UTXO ledger model instead of accounts, ships protocol changes through peer-reviewed research and formal methods, and now runs constitution-based on-chain governance. Ethereum has a far larger DeFi and developer ecosystem; Cardano's bet is that rigor and governance compound over time.
Who controls Cardano now?
Since the Plomin hard fork in January 2025, protocol parameters, treasury spending, and hard forks require on-chain approval by ADA holders voting directly or through delegated representatives (DReps), under a ratified constitution — the founding entities no longer hold unilateral control.
Does Cardano have smart contracts and DeFi?
Yes — Plutus smart contracts went live in September 2021, and the chain hosts DEXes, lending markets, and stablecoins. Its DeFi footprint remains small relative to its market cap, which is one of the standing debates about ADA's valuation.
What is Cardano's all-time high?
Cardano's all-time high is $3.09, reached on September 2, 2021 (source: CoinGecko).
How far is ADA from its all-time high?
As of 2026-08-01 19:21 UTC, ADA trades at $0.1723 — 94.4% below its all-time high. Reaching the ATH again would require a 17.9× move. This figure refreshes hourly with our CoinMarketCap data.
What was Cardano's lowest price ever?
Cardano's recorded all-time low is $0.0193, on March 13, 2020 (source: CoinGecko). Aggregators can differ on launch-era data; we cite the source shown.
Will ADA reach a new all-time high?
We don't publish predictions. What can be said factually: ADA trades 94.4% below its all-time high, and this page tracks that gap with hourly-refreshed data.
Related
Price data: CoinMarketCap, refreshed hourly. Last updated: August 1, 2026, 19:21 UTC. Historical figures (all-time high/low) are recorded at page creation and reviewed periodically.
This page is factual information, not financial advice.