Before delving into Cardano statistics, it is important to mention that Cardano is one of the largest proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchains and its native token the ADA is also one of the largest cryptocurrencies in terms of market capitalization
In this statistics research, we intend to shed light on some amazing Cardano statistics including how the blockchain and its native cryptocurrency are being adopted across the world.
Key Takeaways
Before getting into details, here are some of the key statistics:
- The total value locked (TVL) on Cardano is approximately $53.97 million.
- There is a maximum supply of 45 billion ADA.
- About 16% of ADA’s total supply is owned by the Cardano founders, with the remaining 84% being split among investors.
- Currently, there are more than 3 million Cardano wallets.
- Cardano surpassed the 1,000 smart contracts milestone on January 27, 2022.
Cardano Blockchain statistics
1. Cardano blockchain was founded in 2017
Cardano was developed by a team led by Ethereum co-founder Charles Hoskinson and launched in 2017 and named after the 16th-century Italian polymath Gerolamo Cardano. Its native token, the ADA, is named after the 19th-century mathematician Ada Lovelace, who is widely regarded as the world’s first computer programmer.
The blockchain is currently overseen by the Cardano Foundation, IOHK, and EMURGO.
2. At its launch, ADA was the largest PoS cryptocurrency
According to data from CoinMarketCap, at its launch, ADA was the largest cryptocurrency using a proof-of-stake blockchain, which is considered to be a greener alternative to proof-of-work protocols.
3. Cardano uses less than 0.01% of the energy used by the Bitcoin blockchain
Hoskinson in February 2021 estimated that the Cardano network uses about 7GWh annually, which is less than 0.01% of the 119 TWh used by the Bitcoin blockchain according to data provided by the University of Cambridge.
4. Cardano ranked at position 26 out of 600 global brands for brand intimacy in 2022
According to the US advertising industry magazine Ad Age, cryptocurrencies performed “surprisingly well” for brand intimacy in 2022. Cardano was ranked 26th out of 600 global brands, the highest position for a cryptocurrency.
5. Cardano has signed partnerships with at least two governments
In 2018, IOHK announced a partnership with the Ethiopian government to investigate ways to deploy Cardano in the country and in April 2021, IOHK and the Ethiopia Ministry of Education announced plans for an identity and record-keeping system on Cardano and Atala for the country’s school pupils.
In 2019, the Ministry of Education in Georgia signed a memorandum of understanding with the Free University of Tbilisi to use Cardano and Atala, IOHK’s decentralized identity software, to build a credential verification system for Georgia.
6. Over 100 smart contracts were deployed within 24 hours after the Cardano ‘Alonzo’ hard fork launch
In September 2021, more than 100 smart contracts were deployed on Cardano after the Cardano ‘Alonzo’ hard fork introduced smart contract functionality on the Cardano blockchain.
7. The number of smart contracts on Cardano has surpassed the 1,000 smart contracts milestone
In January 2022, the number of smart contracts on Cardano surpassed the 1000 smart contracts milestone.
8. The Cardano Shelley upgrade in 2020 was aimed at making Cardano 50 to 100 times more decentralized compared to other large blockchains
According to Hoskinson, the Cardano Shelley upgrade that took place in 2020 aimed at making the blockchain 50 to 100 times more decentralized compared to other blockchains. Hoskinson predicted that the upgrade would allow for hundreds of assets to run on the blockchain.
9. There are over 3 million Cardano wallets
According to CoinMarketCap, the number of Cardano wallets surpassed the 3 million milestone in February 2022. The number of wallets surged by more than 1,200% between December 2020 and February 2022.
10. Cardano network implementation is divided into nine eras.
Cardano network implementation is divided into nine eras (upgrades) all of which introduced new features to the network. These eras are the Byron era, Shelley-Era, Allegra hard fork, Mary hard fork, Goguen-Era, Alonzo-Sub-Era, Babbage-Sub-Era, Basho-Era, and the Voltaire-Era.
11. On average, a new block in Cardano is created every 20 seconds
Time in Cardano mainnet is divided into epochs, which last 5 days, and every epoch is divided into slots each lasting one second.
In total there are 432,000 slots in every epoch and 21,600 blocks are created in every epoch. That means that a new block is created every 20 seconds, on average.
12. Cardano processes about 250 ADA transactions per second
At the moment, Cardano can process about 250 transactions per second. However, after the launch of its layer 2 (L2), developers expect it to be able to process up to 1 million transactions per second.
Cardano’s ADA cryptocurrency statistics
13. The maximum supply of ADA cryptocurrency is 45 billion ADA tokens
According to data on CoinMarketCap, there is a maximum supply of 45 billion ADA tokens.
14. Only 31 billion ADA tokens are currently in circulation supply
Out of the 45 billion ADA tokens that were minted at launch, only 31 billion ADA tokens representing 84% of the total supply are currently available for investors and traders.
15. The ADA currently in circulation supply was released after 5 rounds of public sales
According to CoinMarketCap, Five rounds of public sales of Cardano tokens were held between September 2015 and January 2017, the same year that the Cardano blockchain was launched.
16. The price of ADA in its pre-launch sale was $0.0024
Cardano’s ADA price during its pre-launch sale was $0.0024.
17. The current price of Cardano (ADA) represents a 1000x return
Despite the current crypto winter, Cardano’s price is still more than 1000% hired compared to its price at pre-launch sales.
18. IOHK owns about 2.5 billion ADA tokens
Approximately 2.5 billion ADA was allotted to IOHK at the launch of the Cardano blockchain.
19. EMURGO owns about 2.1 billion ADA tokens
At launch, 2.1 billion ADA tokens were also distributed to EMURGO which was part of the team that developed Cardano.
20. The Cardano Foundation was given 648 million ADA tokens at the launch
As part of the ADA tokens distributed to the founders of Cardano, the non-profit Cardano Foundation was awarded 648 million ADA tokens. The main purpose of these tokens was to promote the platform and increase levels of adoption.
21. 16% of the total supply of ADA went to the founder
In general, about 16% of the total 45 billion ADA token supply was distributed among the founders of the Cardano project.
22. Hoskinson’s technology company donated $500K worth of ADA to the University of Wyoming
In 2020, Hoskinson’s technology company donated ADA worth $500,000 to the University of Wyoming’s Blockchain Research and Development Lab.
23. ADA price rose by more than 116% in a month after the Alonzo hard fork
The price of ADA surged by about 116% in a month after Charles Hoskinson announced the launch of the Alonzo hard fork in August 2021.
24. The total value locked (TVL) in Cardano is $53.97 million
According to data from DefiLlama, the total TVL locked in Cardano was $53.97 million as of November 23, 2022.
25. MiniSwap decentralized exchange controls 54.62% of the TVL on Cardano
Out of the $53.97 million worth of assets locked in Cardano, MiniSwap DEX controls about $29.48 million which represents about 54.62%
26. The second largest DEX on Cardano is WingRiders with a TVL of about $9.7 million
The WingRider decentralized exchange is the second largest protocol on Cardano. It had a TVL of $9,718,191 as of November 23, 2022, according to DefiLlama.
27. There are currently more than 12 DeFi protocols operating on Cardano
According to the information on DefiLlama, there are more than twelve decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols that currently operate on Cardano with half of them being decentralized exchanges.
28. Lending Pond and Aada are the top DeFi lending protocols on Cardano
As of November 23, 2022, Lending Pond had a TVL of about $473,543 while Aada had a TVL of $357,594.
29. The DJED: SHEN collateral ratio of Cardano’s stablecoin Djed is within the range of 400% to 800%
$DJED’s algorithm is based on a collateral ratio within the range of 400%-800% for $DJED and $SHEN to ensure there’s enough $ADA in the pool.
The Djed stablecoin is an over-collateralized algorithmic stablecoin, built on Cardano and powered by COTI. It is pegged to USD, backed by the base coin ADA, and uses SHEN as its reserve coin
30. One ADA is the equivalent of 1 million Lovelace
Just like one BTC is the equivalent of 100 million satoshis and one ETH is the equivalent of 1 quintillion Wei, one ADA is equivalent to 1 million Lovelace.
31. On the Cardano testnet, the maximum amount of tADA per day is 1000 tADA.
The Cardano testnet is an independent network separate from the Cardano mainnet and has its tokens called test ADA (tADA) which are provided to the users of the Cardano testnet by a web-based service called Faucet.
The Faucet has a limit of 1000 tADA a day.
Although the tADA tokens have no ‘real-world value, they allow users to experiment with Cardano testnet features, without having to spend real ADA from the mainnet.
32. One must stake at least 2 ADA tokens to start staking
To begin staking, every new validator on Cardano must stake 2 ADA, that’s a register key deposit, and pay a small fee. The 2 ADA can be redeemed by undelegating the staked ADA.
33. An attacker would require to carry out a 51% takeover of the blockchain to obtain 51% of the ADA in circulation
Being a PoS blockchain transactions are processed by validators based on the amount of ADA coins they have staked. However, for one validator to control the process wholly, they would require to own 51% of the total ADA tokens in circulation supply.
Conclusion
Being one of the largest blockchains that use the PoS consensus mechanism alongside Ethereum, which recently upgraded to a PoS network, Cardano has become a force to reckon with within the crypto space.
We hope that the above Cardano statistics provide insight into Cardano blockchain and ADA adoption across the world.