Cardano vs Ethereum

Cardano leads on 2 of 3 shared benchmarks, Ethereum on 1. Cardano wins on Chainlink vs Pyth vs Binance vs Coinbase, live oracle deviation (0.084% vs 0.094%), Highest staking yield, live validator net APR across 7 PoS chains (4.95% vs 2.53%). Ethereum wins on Cheapest blockchain transaction fee, live across 15 L1 and L2 chains ($0.00805 vs $0.0334).

Read methodology Last measured Fri, 18 Sep 2026 02:44:48 UTCWindow: rolling 24h3 shared benchmarks

Cardano

Ouroboros Praos PoS with 20-second slots and 1 block per 20 seconds on average. Probabilistic finality after about 2,160 blocks (k parameter).

Ethereum

PoS chain using Gasper (Casper FFG plus LMD-GHOST). 12-second slots with deterministic finality every two epochs, roughly 12.8 minutes.

Side by side measurements

Chainlink vs Pyth vs Binance vs Coinbase, live oracle deviation

Trading

Cardano

Leads

0.084 %

p99: 0.17%
rank: #1
samples: 8,640

Ethereum

Trails

0.094 %

p99: 0.12%
rank: #9
samples: 11,520

Three caveats. (1) Lower is better, but a non-zero floor (~5-20 bps) is normal, ticker last-traded prices have micro-jitter and Chainlink updates only on deviation/heartbeat. (2) XRP, ADA, DOGE measured on 3 sources because Chainlink deprecated those USD feeds on Ethereum mainnet, tag flags it. (3) POL/USD is the post-migration symbol for MATIC; we point at POLUSDT (not the frozen legacy MATICUSDT).

Highest staking yield, live validator net APR across 7 PoS chains

Blockchains

Cardano

Leads

4.95 %

rank: #4
samples: 50provisional

Ethereum

Trails

2.53 %

rank: #5
samples: 1provisional

Honest scope. (1) `net_yield = gross_apr × uptime`. NOT "yield net of MEV", Stakewiz `total_apy` already folds Jito MEV into gross, MEV is INCLUDED. `mev_share_bps` exists for transparency, not subtraction. (2) Solana median is dragged by ~42 vals at 0% APY (commission 100% or zero leader slots). (3) Hyperliquid: centralised sequencer, no separate MEV layer, ~30 vals only. (4) Ethereum: one network-average consensus-layer APR from the beacon spec formula, execution tips and MEV excluded.

Cheapest blockchain transaction fee, live across 15 L1 and L2 chains

Blockchains

Cardano

Trails

$0.0334

p99: $0.0352
rank: #11
samples: 20,160

Ethereum

Leads

$0.00805

p99: $0.2394
rank: #9
samples: 20,160

Frequently asked questions

Cardano vs Ethereum: which one is better?

Cardano and Ethereum are compared on 3 shared OpenChainBench benchmarks. Cardano leads on Chainlink vs Pyth vs Binance vs Coinbase, live oracle deviation. Ethereum leads on Cheapest blockchain transaction fee, live across 15 L1 and L2 chains. See the live table on this page for every metric.

Which is cheaper, Cardano or Ethereum?

On the Chainlink vs Pyth vs Binance vs Coinbase, live oracle deviation benchmark, Cardano leads at 0.084% versus Ethereum at 0.094%. Live measurement is updated continuously by the OpenChainBench harness.

Which is cheaper, Cardano or Ethereum?

On the Cheapest blockchain transaction fee, live across 15 L1 and L2 chains benchmark, Ethereum leads at $0.00805 versus Cardano at $0.0334. Live measurement is updated continuously by the OpenChainBench harness.

How is the Cardano vs Ethereum comparison measured?

Every benchmark on this page uses the same open methodology, published at https://openchainbench.com/methodology. Data is CC-BY-4.0. Measurement harnesses are MIT-licensed.

Related comparisons

Ethereum vs Solana

How this pair was selected

Auto-generated pairs require: both providers in the same benchmark for seven consecutive days, at least 1000 samples per provider, observable third-party search demand, and a public /products/[slug] page on OCB. Editorially curated pairs (like this one) may publish early when search demand is high and data is accruing — panels with fewer than 100 samples are shown as provisional. The full pair ledger is versioned in the public repo.