This post ‘How to Buy Cardano (ADA) discusses everything you need to know before investing in this innovative cryptocurrency. Cardano is currently the 8th most valued crypto with a market capitalization of around $23 billion (as of 28th Dec 2023). Cardano is one of the key rivals of Ethereum through its promise of a faster, more scalable, and cheaper blockchain platform. Therefore, Cardano is also called an ’Ethereum killer’.
Cardano was founded in 2015 by Charles Hoskinson, who was also a co-founder of the Ethereum blockchain. The Cardano network was officially launched in 2017. Today, Cardano is one of the most prominent cryptocurrencies that can explode in 2025.
In this guide for buying Cardano, we are going to discuss the ins and outs of Cardano. After reading this beginner’s guide on buying Cardano, you will know why this new-age crypto platform is uniquely positioned in the broader crypto market.
Cardano is a highly scalable and energy-efficient blockchain platform supporting smart contracts. Cardano is considered a third-generation blockchain platform that improves on Bitcoin’s (first-generation blockchain) and Ethereum’s (second-generation blockchain) technologies. One of the key features of Cardano is that it has advanced smart contract functionalities. Smart contracts help parties enter into blockchain-based contracts without the need for intermediaries.
Even though Ethereum was the first prominent blockchain to support smart contracts, Cardano promises to build a more sustainable, scalable, and flexible smart contract platform. Note that smart contracts are essential to developing blockchain-based applications (also called decentralized applications or dApps) like gaming or trading platforms. Therefore, you can not only use Cardano for making payments but also for developing a range of blockchain applications at a low cost. This drastically increases Cardano’s potential use cases compared to Bitcoin. If you wish to learn more about Bitcoin, read our 'What is Bitcoin and How Does it Work?' guide here.
2. How does Cardano work
Cardano’s goal is to enable a range of transactions and functionalities. Cardano’s consensus mechanism called Ouroboros is based on the proof-of-stake (PoS) system. Unlike proof-of-work (PoW), PoS does not involve energy-intensive mining (this also means you can not mine Cardano).
Rather, in PoS validators stake their cryptos to get a chance to validate blockchain transactions and earn cryptocurrencies as rewards. So, Cardano allows you to stake its native cryptocurrency and earn rewards. If you want to dig deeper into how consensus mechanisms work in blockchains, here is our detailed PoW vs. PoS guide.
PoS makes Cardano one of the most energy-efficient blockchains today. Along with energy efficiency, Cardano is flexible, scalable, secure, and decentralized. It overcomes many of the drawbacks of Bitcoin, the most prominent of which are scalability and sustainability (Bitcoin’s PoW system is a power guzzler).
To improve scalability, Cardano blockchain is divided into two separate layers - the Cardano Settlement Layer (CSL) and the Cardano Computing Layer (CCL). The CSL layer contains the distributed ledger where transactions are validated by its PoS-based Ouroboros consensus mechanism. Smart contract operations and all computations are conducted on the CCL layer. In addition to scalability, security and privacy are two important features of the Cardano network.
3. What is the ADA cryptocurrency
ADA (named after the 19th-century mathematician Ada Lovelace, who is often referred to as the ‘world’s first computer programmer’) is Cardano’s native cryptocurrency. You can send and receive ADA across the globe using the Cardano network without the need for any bank or other intermediaries. ADA can be used to make payments to merchants, pay for transactions (like building apps) on the Cardano blockchain, stake it with Cardano, and trade on crypto exchanges.
ADA is a deflationary cryptocurrency. It has a maximum supply cap of 45 billion ADA out of which around 36.4 billion ADA is already in circulation. The limited supply improves ADA’s potential as a store of value. You can store ADA on different types of crypto wallets like hardware wallets, browser-based wallets, and desktop wallets. Now, let’s analyze if you should buy ADA in 2025.
4. Is Cardano a good investment
The investment worthiness of crypto assets depends mainly on factors like underlying technology, reputation, use cases, and the overall crypto market dynamics. ADA is one of the most popular cryptos, which is reflected in its market valuation. Moreover, Cardano is a third-generation blockchain platform that addresses many of the limitations of its predecessors.
Cardano’s efficient, fast, and scalable smart contract functionalities make it suitable for a wide range of use cases like dApps, Decentralized Finance (DeFi), NFT, and Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs). Currently, the global crypto market is showing great strength after a severe bear market in 2022 and a consolidation throughout 2023. If we consider all these factors, ADA is one of the top cryptos to invest in 2025. Now, if you are thinking of investing in ADA let’s answer some of your potential questions like ‘’How to buy ADA?’ and ‘Where can I buy Cardano?’
5. Where to buy Cardano (ADA)
ADA’s high potential makes it one of the most demanded cryptocurrencies. You can buy ADA from almost all leading centralized and decentralized crypto exchanges. You need to register with one of the crypto exchanges of your choice, fulfill KYC requirements, and add a payment method to buy Cardano.
You can buy ADA using a range of payment methods like bank transfer, debit cards, and third-party payment platforms (Google Pay, Apple Pay, and PayPal). Also, many top crypto exchanges allow you to purchase ADA with credit cards.
While many reputed crypto exchanges offer ADA, you need to consider factors like trading costs, security, liquidity, and efficiency of the mobile apps before registering with any of these platforms. After all, you can maximize your crypto trading returns when your trading costs are low, trade execution is fast and the exchange provides high liquidity. Considering all these factors, we have created a list of the best 5 crypto exchanges to buy ADA in 2025:
KuCoin
Tapbit
BTSE
Bybit
Binance
Once you have purchased ADA from any crypto exchange, you need a secure crypto wallet to store your private keys. Make sure that you never lose your private keys or reveal them to someone else. When you want to sell your Cardano coins, you can retrieve the same from your wallet and sell the coins through the exchange. Finally, remember to head to our homepage for more of the latest cryptocurrency guides, exchange reviews, and crypto bonus codes.
6. How to Buy Cardano (ADA) – FAQs
6.1 🪙How to purchase ADA instantly?
You can instantly purchase ADA by registering with a top crypto exchange like KuCoin, Tapbit, and BTSE. These exchanges support a range of payment methods for purchasing ADA instantly.
6.2 🔗Is Cardano safe and secure?
Cardano is a third-generation blockchain platform that resolves many of the security issues of earlier blockchains like Bitcoin. Cardano promises a high level of safety and security with the help of its PoS-based consensus mechanism Ouroboros.
6.3 🤔How can I trade Cardano?
You can trade Cardano by registering with a top crypto exchange like KuCoin, Tapbit, and BTSE. This post ’How to buy Cardano (ADA)’ explains everything you need to know about Cardano to make an informed investment decision.
How to Buy Cardano (ADA)
This post ‘How to Buy Cardano (ADA) discusses everything you need to know before investing in this innovative cryptocurrency. Cardano is currently the 8th most valued crypto with a market capitalization of around $23 billion (as of 28th Dec 2023). Cardano is one of the key rivals of Ethereum through its promise of a faster, more scalable, and cheaper blockchain platform. Therefore, Cardano is also called an ’Ethereum killer’.
Cardano was founded in 2015 by Charles Hoskinson, who was also a co-founder of the Ethereum blockchain. The Cardano network was officially launched in 2017. Today, Cardano is one of the most prominent cryptocurrencies that can explode in 2025.
In this guide for buying Cardano, we are going to discuss the ins and outs of Cardano. After reading this beginner’s guide on buying Cardano, you will know why this new-age crypto platform is uniquely positioned in the broader crypto market.
Contents
1. What is Cardano
Cardano is a highly scalable and energy-efficient blockchain platform supporting smart contracts. Cardano is considered a third-generation blockchain platform that improves on Bitcoin’s (first-generation blockchain) and Ethereum’s (second-generation blockchain) technologies. One of the key features of Cardano is that it has advanced smart contract functionalities. Smart contracts help parties enter into blockchain-based contracts without the need for intermediaries.
Even though Ethereum was the first prominent blockchain to support smart contracts, Cardano promises to build a more sustainable, scalable, and flexible smart contract platform. Note that smart contracts are essential to developing blockchain-based applications (also called decentralized applications or dApps) like gaming or trading platforms. Therefore, you can not only use Cardano for making payments but also for developing a range of blockchain applications at a low cost. This drastically increases Cardano’s potential use cases compared to Bitcoin. If you wish to learn more about Bitcoin, read our 'What is Bitcoin and How Does it Work?' guide here.
2. How does Cardano work
Cardano’s goal is to enable a range of transactions and functionalities. Cardano’s consensus mechanism called Ouroboros is based on the proof-of-stake (PoS) system. Unlike proof-of-work (PoW), PoS does not involve energy-intensive mining (this also means you can not mine Cardano).
Rather, in PoS validators stake their cryptos to get a chance to validate blockchain transactions and earn cryptocurrencies as rewards. So, Cardano allows you to stake its native cryptocurrency and earn rewards. If you want to dig deeper into how consensus mechanisms work in blockchains, here is our detailed PoW vs. PoS guide.
PoS makes Cardano one of the most energy-efficient blockchains today. Along with energy efficiency, Cardano is flexible, scalable, secure, and decentralized. It overcomes many of the drawbacks of Bitcoin, the most prominent of which are scalability and sustainability (Bitcoin’s PoW system is a power guzzler).
To improve scalability, Cardano blockchain is divided into two separate layers - the Cardano Settlement Layer (CSL) and the Cardano Computing Layer (CCL). The CSL layer contains the distributed ledger where transactions are validated by its PoS-based Ouroboros consensus mechanism. Smart contract operations and all computations are conducted on the CCL layer. In addition to scalability, security and privacy are two important features of the Cardano network.
3. What is the ADA cryptocurrency
ADA (named after the 19th-century mathematician Ada Lovelace, who is often referred to as the ‘world’s first computer programmer’) is Cardano’s native cryptocurrency. You can send and receive ADA across the globe using the Cardano network without the need for any bank or other intermediaries. ADA can be used to make payments to merchants, pay for transactions (like building apps) on the Cardano blockchain, stake it with Cardano, and trade on crypto exchanges.
ADA is a deflationary cryptocurrency. It has a maximum supply cap of 45 billion ADA out of which around 36.4 billion ADA is already in circulation. The limited supply improves ADA’s potential as a store of value. You can store ADA on different types of crypto wallets like hardware wallets, browser-based wallets, and desktop wallets. Now, let’s analyze if you should buy ADA in 2025.
4. Is Cardano a good investment
The investment worthiness of crypto assets depends mainly on factors like underlying technology, reputation, use cases, and the overall crypto market dynamics. ADA is one of the most popular cryptos, which is reflected in its market valuation. Moreover, Cardano is a third-generation blockchain platform that addresses many of the limitations of its predecessors.
Cardano’s efficient, fast, and scalable smart contract functionalities make it suitable for a wide range of use cases like dApps, Decentralized Finance (DeFi), NFT, and Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs). Currently, the global crypto market is showing great strength after a severe bear market in 2022 and a consolidation throughout 2023. If we consider all these factors, ADA is one of the top cryptos to invest in 2025. Now, if you are thinking of investing in ADA let’s answer some of your potential questions like ‘’How to buy ADA?’ and ‘Where can I buy Cardano?’
5. Where to buy Cardano (ADA)
ADA’s high potential makes it one of the most demanded cryptocurrencies. You can buy ADA from almost all leading centralized and decentralized crypto exchanges. You need to register with one of the crypto exchanges of your choice, fulfill KYC requirements, and add a payment method to buy Cardano.
You can buy ADA using a range of payment methods like bank transfer, debit cards, and third-party payment platforms (Google Pay, Apple Pay, and PayPal). Also, many top crypto exchanges allow you to purchase ADA with credit cards.
Best Crypto Exchanges to Buy Cardano (ADA)
While many reputed crypto exchanges offer ADA, you need to consider factors like trading costs, security, liquidity, and efficiency of the mobile apps before registering with any of these platforms. After all, you can maximize your crypto trading returns when your trading costs are low, trade execution is fast and the exchange provides high liquidity. Considering all these factors, we have created a list of the best 5 crypto exchanges to buy ADA in 2025:
Once you have purchased ADA from any crypto exchange, you need a secure crypto wallet to store your private keys. Make sure that you never lose your private keys or reveal them to someone else. When you want to sell your Cardano coins, you can retrieve the same from your wallet and sell the coins through the exchange. Finally, remember to head to our homepage for more of the latest cryptocurrency guides, exchange reviews, and crypto bonus codes.
6. How to Buy Cardano (ADA) – FAQs
6.1 🪙How to purchase ADA instantly?
You can instantly purchase ADA by registering with a top crypto exchange like KuCoin, Tapbit, and BTSE. These exchanges support a range of payment methods for purchasing ADA instantly.
6.2 🔗Is Cardano safe and secure?
Cardano is a third-generation blockchain platform that resolves many of the security issues of earlier blockchains like Bitcoin. Cardano promises a high level of safety and security with the help of its PoS-based consensus mechanism Ouroboros.
6.3 🤔How can I trade Cardano?
You can trade Cardano by registering with a top crypto exchange like KuCoin, Tapbit, and BTSE. This post ’How to buy Cardano (ADA)’ explains everything you need to know about Cardano to make an informed investment decision.