Key Points

• Cardano now trades at a steep 94% discount to its all-time high from five years ago.

• Cardano has never become a major player in the world of decentralized finance (DeFi), limiting its future upside potential.

• Investors looking for beaten-down Layer-1 blockchains are better off investing in Ethereum or Solana.

• 10 stocks we like better than Cardano ›

Five years ago, Cardano (CRYPTO: ADA) was a rising superstar in the crypto world. In September 2021, Cardano hit an all-time high near $3 and ranked among the top three cryptocurrencies in the world by market cap.

However, since then, Cardano has fallen off a cliff. It’s trading for just $0.20 in 2026, a steep 94% decline from five years ago. So is Cardano too cheap to ignore, or too risky to add to your portfolio right now?

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The case against Cardano

The problem, quite simply, is that Cardano has never delivered on its promise of becoming “the next Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH).” In every possible niche of the blockchain world where Cardano might have eclipsed Ethereum, it has failed to do so.

The failings are most glaring when it comes to decentralized finance (DeFi). In many ways, DeFi is the most important area of the crypto world, and a failure to be a big player here is one reason many investors have given up on Cardano.

Image source: Getty Images.

Case in point: Cardano still ranks a paltry 36th when it comes to total value locked (TVL), a key metric used to determine overall DeFi strength. And it has thus far failed to make a big splash in two key areas that could drive future DeFi growth: stablecoins and real-world asset (RWA) tokenization.

Competitors such as Solana (CRYPTO: SOL) are now running rings around Cardano. This is showing up in terms of overall performance. In 2026, for example, Ethereum is down 17% for the year, while Solana is down 18%. Cardano? It’s down a whopping 41%.

Adding insult to injury, there are still no spot Cardano ETFs. This dramatically limits the appeal of Cardano for both retail and institutional investors. It also limits the chances for a massive rebound in price powered by strong ETF inflows.

By way of comparison, Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC), Ethereum, Solana, and XRP (CRYPTO: XRP) now have spot ETFs for investors. Even Dogecoin (CRYPTO: DOGE) and Zcash (CRYPTO: ZEC) now have them. This tells me that there is very little demand for anything Cardano-related.

Is there any reason to buy Cardano?

At the end of the day, Cardano just doesn’t have enough upside potential to interest me, and I just haven’t seen any evidence of real progress being made in becoming a more influential DeFi player. I’d much rather buy Ethereum or Solana.

Cardano likely will not go to zero. But it’s getting dangerously close. Even the founder of Cardano, Charles Hoskinson, has admitted as much. In June, he warned about “a wave of failures” coming to the Cardano blockchain ecosystem. Cardano may be cheap right now, but it’s cheap for a reason.

Should you buy stock in Cardano right now?

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Dominic Basulto has positions in Bitcoin, Cardano, Ethereum, Solana, and XRP. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and XRP. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.