We’ve been spending a bit of time reviewing the competitive landscape in cryptocurrencies lately with the help of Grok, and thought it might be interesting to reflect on the where Cardano sits against it’s competitors.
Question: Can you give a breakdown of the top 10 cryptocurrencies in a tabular format showing: adoption, decentralisation, security, speed, devex, developer commits (or proxy if not open source), governance, open source status?
The table generated was as follows:
- Below is a breakdown of the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization as of August 11, 2025, compiled from multiple sources including recent market analyses and reports. The list is: Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Tether (USDT), BNB (BNB), Solana (SOL), XRP (XRP), USDC (USDC), Cardano (ADA), Dogecoin (DOGE), and TRON (TRX). Metrics are based on aggregated data from developer reports, transaction analyses, and industry comparisons. Qualitative ratings (e.g., High/Moderate/Low) are used where data is subjective or varies by source; quantitative figures are provided where available.
| Cryptocurrency | Adoption | Decentralization | Security | Speed (TPS) | Developer Experience | Commits | Governance | Open Source Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bitcoin (BTC) | High: 77% ownership among crypto users; dominant store of value with institutional adoption. | High: ~15,000 nodes, PoW consensus with no central control. | Very High: Highest hashrate, no major hacks in core protocol. | Low: ~7 TPS. | Moderate: C++-based, solid docs but complex for beginners. | High activity: Proxy ~1,200 commits in last 12 months (CryptoMiso/Electric Capital). | Decentralized: Community via BIPs, miners/nodes influence upgrades. | Fully open-source (MIT license). |
| Ethereum (ETH) | Very High: 65% ownership; leads DeFi/NFTs with billions in TVL. | High: Thousands of nodes, PoS with diverse validators. | High: Audited smart contracts, but vulnerabilities in dApps. | Moderate: ~15-30 TPS base; Layer 2s reach 1,000+. | High: Solidity tools (Remix, Hardhat), vast ecosystem. | Highest: ~5,000+ developers, millions of commits analyzed. | Decentralized: EIPs and community/foundation-led. | Fully open-source (LGPL/GPL). |
| Tether (USDT) | Very High: ~$196B supply; dominant stablecoin in trading/DeFi. | Low: Centralized issuance by Tether Ltd. | Moderate: Relies on reserves/audits; past transparency issues. | Varies: Host chain-dependent (e.g., TRON ~2,000 TPS). | Low: Limited tools, not developer-focused. | Low proxy: Proprietary; minimal public activity. | Centralized: Tether Ltd. controls minting/reserves. | Not open-source: Proprietary. |
| BNB (BNB) | High: Binance ecosystem fees, DeFi on BNB Chain. | Moderate: ~100 validators, Binance-influenced. | High: PoSA consensus, regular audits. | High: ~100 TPS. | High: EVM-compatible, Ethereum-like tools. | Moderate: ~100+ commits proxy (GitHub/Electric Capital). | Centralized: Binance selects validators/upgrades. | Partially open-source: Chain code public (LGPL/GPL). |
| Solana (SOL) | High: 11% ownership; leads DEX/NFT volume. | Moderate: ~1,700 validators, hardware barriers. | High: PoH/PoS, improved post-2022 outages. | Very High: ~65,000 TPS theoretical; ~1,365 real. | High: Rust-based, Anchor framework; steep curve. | High: 3,000+ developers, 83% YoY growth. | Decentralized: Validators/community, Foundation influence. | Fully open-source. |
| XRP (XRP) | High: Cross-border payments via Ripple partners. | Low: Ripple holds ~50% supply, ~150 validators. | High: Consensus protocol, low attack risk. | High: ~1,500 TPS. | Moderate: Enterprise SDKs, less dApp focus. | Moderate: ~100 commits proxy (GitHub). | Centralized: Ripple Labs drives decisions. | Partially open-source: Ledger public (ISC license). |
| USDC (USDC) | High: Stablecoin for DeFi/trading, regulated reserves. | Low: Centralized by Circle. | High: Transparent audits, regulated backing. | Varies: Host chain-dependent. | Moderate: Contracts/tools for integration. | Low proxy: Some contracts public, limited activity. | Centralized: Circle controls issuance. | Partially open-source: Smart contracts public. |
| Cardano (ADA) | High: 4.8M+ wallets; growing DeFi/NFT ecosystems with 1,300+ projects. | High: ~3,200 stake pools, Ouroboros PoS; no single pool >1.4% stake. | High: Peer-reviewed protocols, formal verification; regular audits enhance security. | Moderate: ~50-250 TPS base; Hydra reaches ~1M TPS (theoretical/demo). | High: Haskell/Plutus-based; strong academic focus with tools like Remix-like IDEs and 2M+ Plutus downloads. | High: Ranks #2 in GitHub commits (~150,000 YTD, ~8,000 monthly); ~12,000 developers. | Decentralized: Community via CIPs, on-chain voting, DReps/SPOs/CC; Voltaire era fully active in 2025. | Fully open-source. |
| Dogecoin (DOGE) | Moderate: Meme appeal, tipping/merchants. | High: PoW, ~10,000 nodes like BTC. | High: Simple code, inherits BTC security. | Low: ~33 TPS. | Low: Basic scripting, not dApp-oriented. | Low: ~100 commits proxy. | Decentralized: Informal community. | Fully open-source (MIT license). |
| TRON (TRX) | High: Content/DeFi, high transaction volume. | Low: DPoS with 27 representatives. | Moderate: DPoS, needs audits. | Very High: ~2,000 TPS. | Moderate: Java/EVM, docs available. | Moderate: ~100 commits proxy. | Centralized: Foundation/super reps. | Fully open-source (LGPL). |
On this basis Cardano continues to measure up well against peers, with some significant developments due in the next 6-12 months.
We will add more to this post in the coming days to explore where Cardano may be able to build a competitive moat which will be hard for peers to cross.
04-Sep-2025
Some thoughts on the “Competitive Moat”…
Firstly we should ask is Groks analysis accurate? We would argue that is misjudges some elements because some of the blockchains involved have made significant efforts to game the way that they are presented in social media, real versus fake transactions, and total value on chain. This is both a strength and weakness for Cardano. In the short term Cardano appears weaker because the chain is presented “vanilla” and does not attempt to embellish the facts. In the longer term this is a strength as the industry matures and adopts practices and standards applied in the wider financial sector.
Next we consider how important decentralisation (validation, governance, tokens) and open source code/smart contracts is for long term adoption. Again in the short term this is marginal as it does not counter the wider narrative for any chain. In the longer these elements are critical as we can be certain that organisations will not entrust critical processes to chains where significant control lies with one or two parties. After all why cede control and not just run the processes themselves and rely on the network effects they already have? This is a version of Internet versus Intranet that played out in the late 90’s and early 00’s. Walled gardens need very specific network effects to resist migration to an open ecosystem. Again Cardano is in a very strong position here.
The last critical element is the underlying technology and architectural choices made when developing the system. For layer one systems these need to be highly resilient and available and not require trust assumptions on validators beyond self interest. Here Bitcoin and Cardano represent the highest level of decentralisation and security available, both have the lowest downtimes since inception, and both use Unspent Transaction Outputs (UTxO) as the atomic primitive for transactions (as do Litecoin which was forked from Bitcoin with a few parameter changes and an ASIC resistant hashing algorithm, and Doge which was forked from LTC with a few more parameters tweaked to make it inflationary). All other major chains copied the Ethereum account based model.
However Cardano is unquestionably unique in the extension of the UTxO model to support a Turing complete smart contract language which is expressed via Lamda calculus (Plutus) and therefore allows transactions and contracts to be checked for validity prior to submission on chain. This carries significant benefits as it means Cardano unlike the EVM smart contract world is fully deterministic. If you can submit a transaction you can have confidence it will execute. Unlike the account based model the EUTxO model does not require global state, which drastically improves the security properties of contracts and reduces the overall attack surface for users. This approach made initial adoption slower as developers took time to understand the model and build tooling, but languages such as Aiken are removing these barriers.
The combination of these factors can deliver a moat for Cardano in the coming years, especially if overall adoption continues to grow for the industry and Cardano can capture a reasonable portion of the liquidity that flows in. We see significant similarities with the growth and adoption of Linux in the early days of the internet. The scrappy underdog had a lot of rough edges but amazing stability for the kernel and the ability to morph and change. Within 20 years it had gone from a minor threat to Microsoft to being the most common operating system that they run in Azure. It runs the majority of internet workloads and is the most common user operating system in the form of Android.
We see a similar trajectory for Cardano through to mass adoption by 2040.