Recently, I've seen many people discussing ADA (Cardano), and I suddenly realized that this coin is indeed undervalued. Although BTC, ETH, BNB are well-known giants, ADA's performance over the past few years has actually been quite steady, with a market cap consistently hovering in the top ten, yet it rarely becomes a hot topic.

First, let's talk about what ADA means—ADA is the native token of the Cardano blockchain. Cardano was founded in 2015 by former Ethereum co-founders Charles Hoskinson and Jeremy Wood, and went live on the mainnet in 2018. Simply put, ADA is like the blood of the Cardano ecosystem, used for transfers, staking, and governance participation.

Currently, the circulating supply of ADA is about 370 million, with an circulation rate of around 82%, and the latest market cap is approximately $9.24 billion. This number doesn't seem small, but compared to top-tier projects like BTC and ETH, it’s not particularly eye-catching.

Why does Cardano exist? That’s an interesting question. The BTC network is congested, and gas fees are ridiculously high. ETH has improved a lot, but issues like cross-chain interoperability and forks haven't been fully resolved. Cardano was born in this context—to address performance issues using the Ouroboros algorithm (a PoS consensus mechanism), and to enable interoperability through sidechains and smart contracts. Theoretically, TPS can reach 250, far surpassing BTC’s 7 and ETH’s 30.

From a technical perspective, ADA has several obvious advantages. First is energy efficiency—PoS consensus consumes much less power than BTC’s PoW. Second is its smart architecture—separating the settlement layer and the computation layer, balancing security and speed. Plus, with three teams working together—IOHK (technology development), EMURGO (project oversight), and the Foundation (external affairs)—its strength is undeniable. Its resilience in bear markets also indicates good community cohesion.

However, in reality, ADA’s ecosystem development has been slower than expected. TVL (Total Value Locked) is only about $3.2 billion, ranking in the teens among public chains, far behind Ethereum. DeFi projects are not very abundant; after Sundae Swap launched, various bugs appeared, and other projects also faced issues. This is ADA’s biggest weakness—its underlying technology is solid, but the application layer remains a shortcoming.

For those interested in investing in ADA, there are mainly three ways. First is staking mining—using Daedalus or Ledger wallets, with stable but modest yields. Second is spot trading—suitable for medium to long-term holding, which can be done on major exchanges. Third is contract trading—if aiming for short-term gains, CFD trading allows two-way trading and leverage.

Regarding ADA’s future, I see two key points. One is the technical roadmap—Cardano has planned five phases from Byron to Voltaire, aiming for full decentralized governance. Accelerating this progress could change market perceptions of ADA. The other is whether the ecosystem can truly take off—if it can attract more real applications and developers, no longer relying solely on market cap rankings, it can truly prove its value.

The performance of ADA in 2025-2026 depends on several factors: the speed of technological implementation, ecosystem expansion capacity, and market cycle influences. If the industry enters a new bull market, ADA might rise with the trend; otherwise, it depends on whether Cardano can break through its ecosystem to support the price. Overall, ADA is a project with solid technical reserves but needs to fulfill its promises—worth ongoing attention.