Cardano Reaches New Decentralization Milestone With Record Nakamoto Coefficient

Cardano has reached a new milestone in its decentralization journey, with its Nakamoto coefficient climbing to an all-time high.

In an X post, Cardano SPO Rick McCraken highlighted this milestone, which was shared by Web3 blockchain fundamentals tracker Chainspect.

According to Chainspect, Cardano has set a new decentralization record, hitting a Nakamoto Coefficient of 16, an all-time high. For users, that means stronger censorship resistance and a network controlled by many, not a few.

The Nakamoto Coefficient refers to a measure of how decentralized a blockchain is, expressed as the smallest number of entities that could collude to compromise it. It is a simple yardstick for measuring how decentralized a blockchain is and is defined as the smallest number of independent entities that would need to collude to disrupt the network. The higher the Nakamoto coefficient, the more parties an attacker would have to coordinate.

For proof-of-stake systems such as Cardano, the coefficient is typically computed across stake pools, validators, or block producers; for proof-of-work, it is computed across mining pools. A single low number signals concentration risk in both cases.

ADA quietly rallies

Cardano rose to a high of $0.199 on August 4 for the first time in a month. ADA last traded above $0.19 on July 4.

Santiment noted that ADA’s rise in the past seven days makes it one of the cleanest standouts in an otherwise disappointing and choppy altcoin market. At the time of writing, ADA was up 16.92% weekly to trade at $0.191.

The rise, however, exposes a surprising holder trend: Cardano has 7,070 fewer non-empty wallets than two months ago, showing that the price recovered as sidelined holders have yet to return.

Rising prices with falling holder counts can mean stronger buyers are absorbing supply, and retail confidence has not fully followed the move yet.

ADA started rising from a low of $0.153, gaining nearly 30% to reach a high of $0.199 yesterday. According to Santiment, Cardano’s rebound has real context, supported by ecosystem activity, including getting active with Leios testnet work, Hydra scaling progress, Mithril upgrades, Pyth integration, and fresh Catalyst funding.