Key Points

  • Cardano is down more than 90% from its all-time high in 2021.
  • The cryptocurrency is still a top Layer-1 blockchain network and a legitimate rival to Ethereum.
  • If Cardano is able to ramp up its DeFi presence, it could make a run at the $1 price level.

Down 46% this year, Cardano (ADA -8.03%) hardly stands out as a high-upside investment play. Once a top five cryptocurrency by market cap, Cardano is now at risk of falling out of the top 20.

But don't sleep on Cardano. There's still a chance that it could reclaim the $1 price level in 2027. Here's how it might happen.

Calling all crypto value investors

Cardano currently trades for less than $0.20. That's a stunning 94% discount to its all-time high of $3.10 from 2021.

There are two ways to think about this price. Either Cardano is too cheap to ignore, or it's too risky to touch, even with a 10-foot pole.

Image source: Getty Images.

I'll choose the former: Cardano is too cheap to ignore. After all, Cardano is not some buzzy meme coin that has fallen out of favor. It's an established Layer-1 blockchain network that has a loyal global developer base. At one time, Cardano was the primary rival to Ethereum, and it's capable of doing everything its larger rival can.

The problem is that Cardano has been late to the party, over and over again. For example, Ethereum introduced smart contracts on its blockchain in 2015. It took Cardano until 2021 to launch them. As a result, Cardano has been a perpetual laggard in areas that deploy these smart contracts, such as decentralized finance (DeFi).

A path to $1 for Cardano

If -- and it's a big if -- Cardano can ever right the ship in DeFi, it might win back users and developers. Transaction activity would soar, new user accounts would explode in number, and everyone would be talking about Cardano's "comeback".

ADA - Cardano

CRYPTO · As of 1:15 PM ET 11/05/26

Key data points

Sound like pie-in-the-sky thinking? Perhaps. But at the beginning of this year, the Cardano developer community approved a new Cardano 2030 Strategic Framework that purported to do just that. It set ambitious goals for DeFi transaction activity and growth in the overall Cardano ecosystem. And it promised to turn things around by the year 2030.

When it comes to DeFi, there are still plenty of areas where Cardano could take the lead, ranging from stablecoins to real-world asset (RWA) tokenization. Both are high-growth market opportunities currently dominated by Ethereum. So Cardano would need to take market share from its biggest rival to realize its ambitions.

How likely is a Cardano turnaround?

Admittedly, this scenario is not very likely. Even Charles Hoskinson, co-founder of Cardano, has admitted that the blockchain ecosystem is in a tough spot right now. And Cardano still ranks a paltry 32nd among all blockchains by total value locked, a key metric for evaluating overall DeFi health.

So Cardano has a tall task ahead of it. But just remember: As recently as August 2025, Cardano traded for $1. So a return to that price level sometime soon is not out of the question. If you're looking for a beaten-down crypto that might be ready to soar in value next year, Cardano could be worth a closer look.

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