What it is
Cardano’s mainnet opened in September 2017. ADA is the native asset: fees, staking, and the unit people trade. The project ships in named eras — Byron, Shelley, Goguen, Basho, Voltaire — instead of one big-bang release.
ADA
Cardano
Last updated Sep 1, 2026
A proof-of-stake ledger shipped in eras, not in a weekend.
Live price
Checking the price.
- Launched
- 2017
- Consensus
- Ouroboros proof of stake
- Settlement
- About 20 seconds per block
- Supply
- 45 billion ADA cap
- Job
- Smart contracts
How staking works
Ouroboros is Cardano’s proof-of-stake protocol. People delegate ADA to a stake pool and the coins stay in their wallet. Delegation is not the same as sending ADA to a stranger. If a site asks you to send the coins to “stake,” stop.
What beginners get wrong
Research papers are not a product, and a slow roadmap is not a promise that the price must catch up. Cardano is its own ledger. It is not Ethereum with a different ticker, and it is not XRP.
Sources
The 2017 launch, the 45 billion cap, and Ouroboros are summarized from Cardano’s documentation at docs.cardano.org. No price target lives on this page.
Not financial advice. Knowing a ledger is not the same as buying the asset.