Cardano

ADA is the native coin of Cardano, a proof-of-stake blockchain, used to pay fees, delegate to stake pools and vote on governance.

Cardano is a public blockchain whose consensus protocol, Ouroboros, came out of peer-reviewed academic research. Its mainnet began on 23 September 2017, and in July 2020 the Shelley hard fork began handing block production to independent stake pools. ADA, named after Ada Lovelace, is the network's coin: it pays transaction fees, is delegated to stake pools to secure the network, and gives holders a vote in on-chain governance.

Supply is capped at 45 billion ADA. About 31.1 billion existed at launch: 25.9 billion from a voucher sale in 2015–2017 and 5.2 billion given to the three founding entities, IOHK (now Input Output), EMURGO and the Cardano Foundation. The rest sits in a reserve that is released slowly: each five-day epoch 0.3% of it is added to fees to pay staking rewards, and 20% of that goes to an on-chain treasury. In September 2026 about 6.1 billion ADA remained in the reserve and the treasury held about 1.37 billion ADA.

Holders delegate ADA to a stake pool without moving it: coins stay in their wallet and remain spendable. Since 2024–2025 ADA holders also elect delegated representatives (DReps), who vote with a constitutional committee and stake pools on upgrades and on every treasury withdrawal under a written constitution. In 2026 the treasury funded a 70 million ADA programme for stablecoins, oracles and bridges, and in July 2026 the Van Rossem hard fork became the first upgrade approved entirely by on-chain vote.

No single company runs Cardano, but Input Output, EMURGO and the Cardano Foundation remain large holders and developers, and Intersect coordinates governance and budgets. In July 2026 EMURGO left the Pentad coordination group after a wallet exploit. Cardano's DeFi and stablecoin activity is small, at under $70 million each in September 2026. In the US, ADA is named as a digital commodity in the SEC's March 2026 interpretation.