ADA vs ZIL
Cardano and Zilliqa scored on the same 25 variables, ranked against the same 251 tokens, with every gap between them shown.
Scoring pass 18 Sept 2026. Market snapshot 7 Oct 2026.
What separates them
ADA scores 113 of 250 and ranks 88th of 251. ZIL scores 63 and ranks 242nd. ADA leads by 50 points, which is a wide enough margin that the framework is not ambivalent. ADA takes 22 of the 25 variables, ZIL takes 0, and 3 are level.
The framework rates ADA WATCH and ZIL PASS. Two tokens close enough to compare do not have to land in the same band, and where they do not, the divergence table below is where the split comes from.
5 variables separate them by 3 points or more. ADA is clear on Social Mindshare (6 against 1), Smart Money Flows (4 against 1) and Holder Concentration (6 against 3).
Both score 3 or below on Protocol Revenue, Revenue Trend, P/S Multiple, Buyback and Burn, TVL Trend, Network Growth and 3 more. A weakness both sides share is not a reason to prefer either. It is a reason to check whether the category itself carries the problem.
ADA is valued at $9.57B against $64.9M for ZIL, a 147.5x difference. The larger of the two also scores higher, so the market and the framework agree on the ordering here.
All 25 variables, head to head
Both tokens were scored by the same framework in the same pass, so the numbers are directly comparable. What a comparison adds over two separate pages is the gap: a 6 against a 6 is a non-event, a 9 against a 3 is the reason to hold one and not the other.
Cash flow
| Protocol Revenue | 3 | 1 | ADA +2 | |
| Revenue Trend | 3 | 1 | ADA +2 | |
| P/S Multiple | 2 | 2 | level | |
| Real Staking Yield | 6 | 4 | ADA +2 |
Supply
| Supply Inflation | 6 | 5 | ADA +1 | |
| Vesting Schedule | 7 | 6 | ADA +1 | |
| Circulating / FDV Ratio | 7 | 6 | ADA +1 | |
| Buyback and Burn | 1 | 1 | level |
Ownership
| Smart Money Flows | 4 | 1 | ADA +3 | |
| Insider Selling | 6 | 4 | ADA +2 | |
| Holder Concentration | 6 | 3 | ADA +3 |
Traction
| TVL Trend | 3 | 1 | ADA +2 | |
| Active Users | 4 | 1 | ADA +3 | |
| Developer Activity | 5 | 2 | ADA +3 | |
| Network Growth | 3 | 1 | ADA +2 |
Position
| Market Share | 3 | 1 | ADA +2 | |
| Competitive Moat | 3 | 1 | ADA +2 | |
| Institutional Adoption | 4 | 1 | ADA +3 | |
| Exchange Depth | 7 | 5 | ADA +2 | |
| Social Mindshare | 6 | 1 | ADA +5 |
Risk
| Regulatory Safety | 7 | 7 | level | |
| Catalyst Calendar | 4 | 2 | ADA +2 | |
| BTC Alpha Potential | 3 | 1 | ADA +2 | |
| Team Execution | 4 | 2 | ADA +2 | |
| Treasury Runway | 6 | 3 | ADA +3 |
Bars read outward from the centre: ADA to the left, ZIL to the right. The side that leads a variable is filled. Each score is 1 to 10 against the same definition applied to all 251 rated tokens.
Market and supply
| ADA | ZIL | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $0.2547 | $0.003325 |
| Market cap | $9.57B | $64.9M |
| Circulating | 83.4% | 92.9% |
| Dilution to full supply | 1.2x | 1.08x |
| Off all-time high | -91.7% | -98.7% |
| To recover the high | 12x | 76.9x |
| Total value locked | $380.0M | $1.2M |
| Network | Cardano | Zilliqa |
Price, market cap and all-time high from the CoinGecko snapshot fetched 7 Oct 2026. Supply shares are derived from circulating and eventual supply counts, which do not move with price. The 25 scores come from the research pass dated 18 Sept 2026.
Catalyst and risk on each side
ADA · WATCH
Midnight privacy sidechain traction, federated mainnet live since 31 March 2026; Hydra scaling reaching mainnet
Perpetual under-delivery on roadmap; DeFi network far behind competitors; declining developer mindshare
ZIL · PASS
Zilliqa 2.0 EVM upgrade could attract some EVM developers
Irrelevant tech, ghost network, near-zero TVL, no institutional interest
Common questions
- Is ADA or ZIL the better investment?
- On this framework ADA scores higher: 113 against 63 of 250, and it is rated WATCH against PASS. That is a ranking of fundamentals as recorded at the last scoring pass, not a price forecast, and ADA still wins 22 of the 25 individual variables against ZIL.
- What is the biggest difference between ADA and ZIL?
- Social Mindshare. ADA scores 6 of 10 there and ZIL scores 1, a gap of 5 points on a single variable.
- Which is bigger, ADA or ZIL?
- ADA is valued at $9.57B and ZIL at $64.9M on the latest market snapshot.
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Research and analysis, not investment advice. A higher score is one framework applied consistently to 251 tokens, not a prediction that one asset will outperform the other.