What Is Cardano (ADA)? How It Trades, Hour by Hour

What is Cardano? Cardano is a proof-of-stake smart contract blockchain, and ADA is its native coin. For a trader it is a large, liquid, slower-moving coin, but "slow" is relative. Over the 90 days to 14 October 2026 ADA's average daily range was 6.46%, 2.36 times Bitcoin's 2.74%, and its daily returns correlated 0.78 with BTC. CoinGecko shows 37.55 billion of a 45 billion maximum supply in circulation.

Below: what Cardano is and what ADA does, our 90-day hourly and weekday profile, supply, where ADA trades, the BTC link and a 1h structure read. Every number is computed from dated data or taken from a source we fetched on 15 October 2026.

What is Cardano and what does ADA do

Cardano's own documentation (docs.cardano.org, checked 15 October 2026) describes it as "a decentralized third-generation proof-of-stake blockchain platform and home to the ada cryptocurrency", with a smart contract platform aimed at more advanced features and enterprise-level DApps. ADA is staked by delegating to a stake pool. The docs say rewards are generated automatically by the protocol, not managed by pool operators, and are paid each epoch to everyone who delegated to a pool.

CoinGecko (15 October 2026) ranks ADA 17th by market cap at $0.2301 and files it under Smart Contract Platform, Layer 1 (L1) and Proof of Stake (PoS). For trading purposes: a top-20 coin listed on every major venue we checked. Its range is narrower than the mid-caps in our other coin posts, though still well above Bitcoin's.

How ADA trades: the 90-day fingerprint

We took every 1h ADAUSDT candle from 17 July to 14 October 2026 (2,160 candles, Binance) and averaged the high-to-low range for each UTC hour.

• Average daily range: 6.46%. Bitcoin's was 2.74% over the same window, so ADA's is 2.36 times wider. Over the last full year the daily average was 6.2%.
• Busiest hour: 14:00 UTC (17:00 MSK), averaging 1.84% per hour, then 15:00 (1.68%) and 13:00 (1.52%).
• Quietest hour: 11:00 UTC (14:00 MSK), at 1.03%. The peak is 1.8 times wider.
• By session (our UTC buckets): 13:00 to 21:00 averages 1.38% per hour, 00:00 to 08:00 averages 1.21%, 08:00 to 13:00 averages 1.16% and 21:00 to midnight averages 1.13%.

The pattern is a clear New York afternoon peak on a calm base. Outside 13:00 to 17:00 UTC most hours sit close to 1.0 to 1.4%. The trading sessions tool shows these windows in your own time zone.

Weekdays and wide days

Over the 90 daily candles, Thursday was ADA's widest day at an average 8.04% range, followed by Friday at 7.30%. Sunday (5.43%) and Saturday (5.55%) were the narrowest. Weekend days averaged 5.49% against 6.86% on weekdays, so ADA's weekend range is about a fifth narrower.

55 of the 90 days (61%) had a range above 5%, the median day was 5.99%, and only 7 days were below 3%. So "quiet" does not mean a still coin. The widest days were 22 August (21.6% range, closing 1.4% below the open), 21 August (17.5%, +15.1%), 6 August (13.5%, +5.2%) and 8 October (13.5%, −9.1%). We attach no news to those days, because we have no dated source that ties them to a specific event. What the data does say: a typical day moves about 6%, so a 2% stop sits inside ordinary noise.

ADA supply

CoinGecko on 15 October 2026: 37.55 billion ADA circulating, a 45 billion maximum supply, an $8.64 billion market cap and a $10.35 billion fully diluted valuation (FDV), about 1.2 times market cap.

Circulating supply is 83% of the maximum, which leaves 7.45 billion ADA not yet in circulation. We did not find a dated unlock calendar for ADA in Cardano's documentation or on CoinGecko, so we do not draw an unlock chart or put a date on any future release. If a source for one appears, we will add it.

Where ADA trades

We read 24-hour spot volume from the public tickers of nine venues on 15 October 2026 at about 18:28 UTC.

Binance printed $36.5 million, 36% of the $102.7 million across the nine. Coinbase (about $14.8 million, converted from ADA volume at the last price) and Kraken (about $10.5 million, the same conversion) come next. Together they carry about a quarter of the total. Gate ($8.5 million), OKX ($8.1 million), Bybit ($7.4 million), MEXC ($7.2 million), KuCoin and Bitget (about $4.8 million each) follow. Derivatives dwarf spot: Binance's ADAUSDT perpetual traded $212.8 million, 5.8 times its spot volume, and Bybit's perpetual traded $93.3 million against $7.4 million spot. You can follow new listings of other coins on the listings tracker.

ADA vs BTC

Over the 90 days, ADA's daily returns correlated 0.78 with Bitcoin's. In our other coin posts the same calculation gave 0.68 for SUI, 0.53 for ZEC and 0.40 for STRK, so ADA is the most BTC-led of the group. 0.78 squared is 0.60: about 60% of ADA's daily variance lines up with BTC.

The rolling 30-day correlation started at 0.50 on 17 August, rose to 0.76 by 21 August, passed 0.86 on 5 September, peaked at 0.91 on 19 September and ended at 0.80 on 14 October. A link this tight means BTC's direction explains most of ADA's day, and ADA's quiet stretches mostly coincide with Bitcoin's.

Reading ADA's structure

The chart shows ADAUSDT on the 1h timeframe from 12 October 18:00 UTC to 15 October 17:00 UTC, with the BiasNex engine's structure events and the previous-day high (0.2391) and low (0.2266).

Price peaked at 0.2440 at 20:00 UTC on 12 October. The engine marked a bearish break of structure (BOS) at 0.2353 at 05:00 UTC on 14 October, another at 0.2315 at 12:00 UTC the same day, and a third at 0.2270 at 02:00 UTC on 15 October. The low was 0.2159 in that same 02:00 hour, 11.5% under the high and below the previous-day low, and the last close in the window was 0.2312, 7.1% above it. In market structure terms that is a stepped decline followed by a liquidity sweep-style probe of the low. At about 18:27 UTC the engine read bias as neutral in a range context. The live read is on the Ethereum markets page, the closest live smart contract coin page; ADA does not have its own page yet. The chart is a snapshot of 15 October.

Risks

• Not a still coin. A 6.46% average daily range, with 55 of 90 days above 5%, is wide for a top-20 coin.
• BTC dependence. A 0.78 correlation means ADA's direction mostly follows Bitcoin's, with a daily range about 2.4 times wider.
• Derivatives-heavy. Perpetual volume is 5.8 to 12.6 times spot on the two venues we checked, so funding and liquidations can drive moves that spot volume does not explain.
• Weekend calm is a sample, not a rule. The weekend range was about a fifth narrower over these 90 days, and a single news day can break that.
• Size from the stop. Use the position size calculator with a stop outside the typical range.
• Browse the category. See other coins in the Coin Library.

FAQ

What is Cardano? Cardano is a proof-of-stake blockchain with a smart contract platform. Its coin, ADA, is staked by delegating to stake pools, per the Cardano documentation.

When does ADA move the most? At 14:00 UTC (17:00 MSK), averaging 1.84% per hour over the 90 days to 14 October 2026. By weekday, Thursday and Friday are the widest.

How many ADA are in circulation? About 37.55 billion of a 45 billion maximum (83%) as of 15 October 2026, per CoinGecko.