Cardano’s cryptocurrency ADA has a market capitalisation of $27bn. After a 2021 upgrade called the Alonzo Fork, Cardano now competes head-to-head with the mighty Ethereum as a host for smart contracts, DApps and NFTs. If you want to know how to buy Cardano in Canada, read on!
Below we review four top exchanges where you can get your hands on Cardano (ADA) for low fees. We show you precisely how to buy Cardano. What’s more, we dive into how Cardano works and why its crypto ADA could make a great crypto investment.
How to Buy Cardano in Canada – Quick Steps
- ✅Step 1: Open an account with Crypto.com – Sign up for the powerful smartphone app where you can buy Cardano with CAD from your bank account or with your Canadian credit card.
- 👌Step 2: Verify – Have paperwork handy to verify your ID. Get ready to take a selfie!
- 💳 Step 3: Deposit – You can deposit CAD from your bank account using e-transfer.
- 🛒 Step 4: Buy – Use CAD to buy ADA and Crypto.com will hold it till you want to sell. No hassle.
Crypto assets are a highly volatile unregulated investment product.
Where to Buy Cardano in Canada
We’ve cast a rule over the best crypto exchanges Canada. Below we present our top four platforms for Canadian investors to buy ADA:
1. Crypto.com – Best Place to Buy Cardano in Canada and Earn Interest
Crypto.com is a US-based crypto exchange which offers ADA as one of an impressive range of 250+ crypto for trading.
On the Crypto.com exchange, you can access low trading fees of just 0.2% if you buy stablecoins using CAD and then trade the stablecoins for ADA.
But a far simpler way to buy ADA in Canada is to use the top-rated Crypto.com app. With this you can either buy ADA with your Canadian credit card or deposit Canadian dollars from your bank account and buy ADA direct.
So now you have bought your Cardano, what do you do with it? Wait for the price to rise, sure. But also, a key advantage of using Crypto.com is the range of crypto staking options on offer.
You can lend out your ADA for up to 3 months and earn a maximum of 5% APY (Annual Percentage Yield). You will need 250 ADA to get started. 40+ other crypto are available for staking with Crypto.com. We recommend also buying some in-house crypto CRO, as this will increase the rewards you can get.
When it comes to crypto financing in general, Crypto.com is a great choice. US customers can access a Crypto.com Visa credit card, for example. This allows you to spend your crypto in the real world as if it were fiat currency, as well as earn back up to 8% on purchases. And, using existing crypto as collateral, anybody can get an instant crypto loan without credit checks.
Crypto.com is registered with FINTRAC of Canada, which is a massive bonus. The exchange stores all client crypto in cold storage provided by top security name Ledger. Further reassurance for crypto investors is provided by a $750m insurance fund.
Pros
Cons
Cryptoassets are a highly volatile unregulated investment product.
2. Bitbuy – Dedicated Canadian Exchange with Low Fees
Bitbuy will come as a breath of fresh air to Canadian crypto enthusiasts. If you want to figure out how to buy Cardano in Canada, this niche Canadian exchange is specifically set up to provide you with an answer.
Using Bitbuy’s online Express Trade desk, you can buy ADA and pay just 0.2% commission. You can also buy Bitcoin Canada as well as 15 other key cryptocurrencies. Bitbuy will hold your crypto and buy it back from you when you decide to sell.
Because Bitbuy is a Canadian exchange, there is no problem depositing CAD. You can deposit using Canada’s own Interac e-Transfer with a deposit fee of just 1.5%. Or, if you have $20,000 CAD or more to invest, you can use bank wire for a fee of just 0.5%.
When it comes to regulation, Bitbuy is in a class of its own for Canadians. That is because Bitbuy was the first crypto exchange in Canada to gain approval and oversight from the Ontario Securities Commission. It is also registered with Canada’s FINTRAC. Mandatory two-factor-authentication and SSL technology is in place to keep your account safe, and most client crypto is held in cold storage. Insurance is provided by Bitgo.
For trading on the move, Bitbuy provides a handy smartphone app.
Pros
Cons
Cryptoassets are a highly volatile unregulated investment product.
3. Coinbase – Big Exchange to Buy ADA in Canada
Compared to Bitbuy, Coinbase is a giant exchange. With almost $3bn in crypto business turned over every day, Coinbase is the second-biggest crypto exchange in the world. 89m customers have been served in over 100 countries, including Canada. Based in San Francisco, Coinbase has a high profile because it was the first exchange to go public on the stock markets with a NASDAQ IPO in 2021.
Canadian investors can use a debit card to buy ADA with Coinbase (but watch out for the fees). You can use PayPal to sell crypto. Credit cards are no longer accepted by Coinbase. A potential drawback for Canadians here is that you can neither sell crypto to a card nor fund an account with CAD. So, to cash in your crypto, you will probably need to get the top-rated Coinbase crypto wallet and move your crypto to another exchange.
Coinbase is well-suited to beginners. It has excellent educational resources as well as a scheme whereby you can earn crypto for completing learning modules. There are 174+ crypto to trade (including ADA). To get new trading ideas, newbies and advanced traders alike might enjoy browsing through Coinbase’s encyclopaedic overview of over 10,000 crypto assets.
Pros
Cons
Crypto assets are a highly volatile unregulated investment product.
3. Binance – Best Place to Buy Cardano with Powerful Trading Options
Binance is the biggest crypto exchange on the planet. Handling $20bn of crypto trades a day, Binance hosts 21m user visits a week. There are 600+ crypto on offer as well as the most sophisticated trading and financing options of any crypto exchange.
When considering how to buy Cardano in Canada, Binance currently presents the same issue as Coinbase: thanks to regulatory wrangles with the Ontario Securities Commission, you cannot deposit CAD directly. You can, however, use a Canadian credit card to buy ADA. And a further work-around to take advantage of Binance’s massive marketplace and powerful tools is to buy crypto from another exchange, transfer it in and use that crypto to trade for ADA.
Like Crypto.com, Binance is particularly good for crypto financing. With a minimum of 0.001 ADA (which works out as a tenth of a Canadian cent), you can lock in some Cardano for 90 days and earn an APY of 11.23%. That is very competitive.
Pros
Cons
Cryptoassets are a highly volatile unregulated investment product.
What is Cardano?
Founded just 5 years ago in 2017, Cardano is a proof-of-stake blockchain. Its cryptocurrency is ADA. Roughly $1bn of ADA is traded every day.
Cardano was designed by one of the co-founders of the Ethereum network, Charles Hoskinson. He named the new blockchain after 16th century mathematician Gerolamo Cardano. Cardano’s crypto ADA was named after the 19th century mathematician Ada Lovelace. (No prizes for guessing that Cardano’s founder is a mathematician himself!)
This is a Proof-of-Stake blockchain using the Ouroboros protocol. Ouroboros has been proven to be secure as well as offering a fraction of the environmental cost of Proof-of-Work protocols.
Cardano is ahead of the curve compared to Ethereum, which is only now upgrading from Proof-of-Work to Proof-of-Stake. And, after Hoskinson’s Alonzo Fork of September 2021, Cardano now offers the smart contract functionality of Ethereum too.
| Market Capitalisation | $38bn |
|---|---|
| Daily Trading Volume: | $1bn approx. |
| Cryptocurrency: | ADA |
| Max Supply of ADA: | 45bn |
| Circulating Supply of ADA: | 33.75bn |
Is Cardano a Good Investment?
If you are figuring out how to buy Cardano in Canada, you need to be sure that Cardano is worth buying!
Fortunately, if you use the best crypto exchanges Canada, you can buy small amounts of Cardano. The minimum spend with top exchange Crypto.com, for example, is just $1. So many investor can afford to spread their risk by buying many crypto coins at the same time. It doesn’t then matter so much whether one crypto in particular is a brilliant investment.
Given that ETH is a direct competitor to ADA, you could for example choose to buy Ethereum Canada as well as get your hands on some Cardano. If one crypto falls in value, you will not therefore lose your money if the other one rises.
In the meantime, be assured that Cardano’s crypto ADA is a solid investment, particularly if you are prepared to HODL (Hold on for Dear Life over the long term).
Buy the Dip
ADA is currently priced at $0.82 USD. It was last this cheap in March, 2022, after which it bounced to peak at $1.18. Prior to that, ADA has not been this inexpensive since the second week of February, 2021. After that point, too, it rose steadily.
If you buy ADA now, you will likely not be buying at a price peak. You may well rather be buying in at the bottom.
ADA – Good Tokenomics
The supply of ADA is limited to 45bn coins. Compared to Bitcoin’s maximum supply of 21m coins, that sounds like a lot. But in both cases, this capped supply is a good sign for investors. It means that, thanks to the basic economic mechanics of supply vs. demand, the price of ADA cannot be undermined by there being an endless supply of coins.
This deflationary issue besets many fiat currencies, including the US dollar. Successive governments have printed more money to get out of the economic troubles of their time, and the currency has progressively devalued as a result. This can never be a problem with ADA.
Cardano vs. Ethereum
Cardano’s performance vs. the second-biggest blockchain, Ethereum, is a key consideration for long-term investors. That is because both Cardano and Ethereum have the same aim. That aim is to provide a blockchain which supports smart contracts and therefore DApps (Decentralised Applications).
- Cardano already uses the eco-friendly Proof-of-Stake (PoS) model, whereas Ethereum is implementing PoS progressively.
- When it comes to smart contracts, Ethereum’s system is less tolerant than Cardano. But, because Cardano only started offering smart contract programmability in 2021, Ethereum currently has far more smart contracts registered.
- When it comes to transaction speeds, Cardano currently wins hands-down. The Cardano blockchain can handle 257 Transactions Per Second vs. Ethereum’s 12-15 TPS. Ethereum’s current upgrade, however, promises a TPS capability of around 100,000; but only time will tell whether this hyper-performance materialises.
Key Partners
Cardano is well-organised. Its operation is split between three partner organisations:
The Cardano Foundation
This independent standards body is based in Switzerland and sets standards for governance and ethics for the development of the Cardano blockchain.
IOHK
Founded by Ethereum co-founder Charles Hoskinson, this engineering company handles the design and operation of the Cardano blockchain. This company places a high emphasis on evidence-based product development; plenty of peer-approved science in other words! This accounts for Cardano’s use of the Ouroboros blockchain protocol.
Emurgo
EMURGO is the enterprise body behind ensuring that the Cardano blockchain gets plenty of business in the real-world.
Firm Plans for the Future
It is easy to get the impression with some crypto that the coin has been issued on a whim and then ignored by its own developers. Cardano, on the other hand, is more than a crypto coin: it is a unique blockchain, with its own crypto coin ADA. It also displays the systematic organisation and planning of committed scientists at work.
Since its launch in 2017, the Cardano roadmap has laid out 5 eras for the development of the blockchain:
- The Byron Era (2017-2020): Foundation
Building Cardano on Proof-of-Stake protocol Ouroboros. - The Shelley Era (2020-2021): Decentralization
Integrating ADA holders into the blockchain through 1,000 staking pools. - The Goguen Era (2021-2022): Smart Contracts
Introducing smart contracts. - The Basho Era (?-?): Scaling
Scaling the Cardano blockchain with sidechains. - The Voltaire Era (?-?): Governance
Taking the final steps towards true decentralisation.
Real-World Applications
The Cardano blockchain is already in use in the real world as the ledger for a variety of agricultural and educational projects.
Cardano Price
The Cardano price is today $0.82 USD.
- Cardano’s coin ADA launched on crypto exchanges in late 2017 at a price of just $0.026.
- Just four years later, the price of ADA had risen by over 11,800%. It reached an all-time high of $3.101 on September 2nd 2021 in anticipation of the Alonzo Fork later in the month. Forged by Cardano Founder Hoskinson, this fork brought smart contracts to Cardano and the ability to run DApps and mint NFTs.
- Since then, the ADA price fell steadily to hit a 12-month low of $0.79 on December 11th 2021.
- The price then rose by 50% in under 4 months to hit a 2022 high of $1.212 on April 4th 2022. Since then the ADA price has fallen — along with the rest of the crypto sector.
Cardano Price Prediction
After recent corrections, the Cardano price is potentially looking very undervalued. So, if right now you are looking at how to buy Cardano in Canada, your timing is possibly very astute.
The ADA price appears to be finding support around $0.79, with it bouncing off this level in the second week of March, 2022 and again right now.
Two fundamental factors will affect the future price of Cardano: the current Ukraine crisis, and the effect of the 2021 Alonzo Fork.
In the short-term, if the Ukraine crisis is brought to an end, it is likely that the entire crypto sector will bounce. Under these circumstances, a realistic 2022 target price for ADA would be $1.50.
In the long-term, if developers continue to exploit the newfound power of Cardano unleashed by the Alonzo Fork, the price of ADA is likely to find ongoing support. A realistic 2025 target price for ADA under these circumstances would be it challenging its previous all-time-high of $3.10. This is particularly the case if fellow smart contract provider Ethereum runs into difficulties with its ongoing upgrade.
Ways of Buying Cardano in Canada
Buy Cardano with credit or debit card
You can buy Cardano (ADA) with credit card using Crypto.com as well as Binance. With Coinbase, you can use a Canadian debit card to buy ADA.
Buy Cardano with e-wallet
To buy Cardano with an e-wallet provider like PayPal, Skrill or Neteller, you will need to shop around. Binance’s P2P trading facility offers a number of e-wallet payment options.
Best Cardano Wallet Canada
With a crypto wallet, you can send and receive crypto over the internet. If you have an account with one of the best crypto exchanges Canada, you may have a wallet facility as part of your account. Binance, for example, offers this service. But for advanced functionality, you might want to check out a standalone crypto wallet.
A ‘cold’ wallet, which only connects with the internet when absolutely necessary, is best for security. Many investors use a cold wallet in conjunction with a ‘hot’ wallet which is connected to the internet all the time for ease of use.
As a hot wallet, the Crypto.com DeFi wallet is one of the best crypto wallets in Canada. Why?
Firstly, because it is free.
Secondly, because it is highly versatile. You can import an existing wallet. You can receive crypto, as well as send crypto out and set what gas fees you are happy with. You can stake crypto direct from the wallet as well as even get involved with DeFi liquidity farming.
What’s more — as a non-custodial wallet — the Crypto.com DeFi wallet gives you complete control of your private keys, which means you can manage your crypto on your own terms.
How to Buy Cardano in Canada – Tutorial
If you are want to buy cryptocurrency Canada with any exchange, the system for getting going is usually the same:
- ✅Sign up
- 👌Verify your ID
- 💳 Deposit funds
- 🛒 Buy crypto
Below we take you through this process using top crypto provider Crypto.com as an example.
With Crypto.com, you can sign up with the desktop exchange as well as sign up for the smartphone app. How to buy Cardano in Canada is therefore a question which has two options with Crypto.com; we recommend going for the app first. The smartphone app offers the advantage of allowing you to trade crypto on the move, as well as offering instant buy credit card purchases.
1: Sign up with the Crypto.com App
First, download the Crypto.com app from Google Play or the App Store. Then launch it. Press the ‘Sign up’ button.
2: Verify your ID
You will be asked to verify your full name and telephone number.
You will then be asked to take a photo of some ID to prove who you are. You can choose which type of ID to use.
You will also be asked to take a selfie; this is to guard against fraudsters stealing your ID and using your details.
Having supplied all you need to for the moment, the app will tell you that it may take up to 7 days to verify your ID. We found that, for us at least, it took less than ten minutes.
Once verified, the software prompts you to set up a 6 figure passcode. This is to allow you to log onto the app securely and swiftly in future.
Now you can log onto the Crypto.com app.
3: Deposit Funds
To deposit CAD with Crypto.com, you first have to prime your fiat wallet to accept CAD.
- Head to ‘Fiat Wallet’ on the main menu
- Press on ‘Set Up New Currency’
- Set up CAD
- Enter some personal details
You can then deposit CAD by pressing the ‘Deposit CAD’ button. Follow the instructions (some illustrated below).
You will need to access your online banking and set up a deposit to Crypto.com. All details are provided, centering on your unique identification number which you must include in the reference line of your online bank transfer.
A minimum deposit of $100 CAD applies, and you can deposit a maximum of $10,000 CAD in one day.
4: Buy
Buying crypto is the easy bit! Simply review the crypto on offer.
Press on a particular crypto’s entry. You can then choose to buy via credit card, with the CAD in your fiat wallet, or with other crypto. Enter how much you want to buy and execute the trade. Your crypto will show up in your Crypto.com portfolio.
Cryptoassets are a highly volatile unregulated investment product.
How to Sell Cardano in Canada
Having figured out where to buy Cardano in Canada, you now need to figure out where to sell it. Or do you?
The reality is that, whether you have bought ADA or decided to buy Dogecoin Canada for example, your crypto exchange will buy any of your crypto back from you when you decide to sell. Crypto newbies will be pleased to hear that you do not need to go trawling the internet looking for a buyer!
Conclusion
Cardano is a solid blockchain with a leadership determined to improve its performance; the Alonzo Fork of 2021 brought Cardano and its crypto ADA to the forefront of potential Ethereum-killers that might, one day, boast a greater market capitalisation than ETH. As the ninth-biggest crypto by market capitalisation, ADA is a popular choice for crypto investors.
Above, we have looked at where to buy Cardano in Canada with our reviews of four top crypto providers.
No-frills Canadian specialist Bitbuy and top exchanges Coinbase and Binance offer good solutions to how to buy Cardano Canada.
But our key recommendation is to use top US exchange Crypto.com. This ADA vendor boasts a great app that is well set-up to welcome CAD deposits, which is critical for Canadian investors. There is also a good range of crypto on offer, as well as very competitive crypto staking options.
Cryptoassets are a highly volatile unregulated investment product.