Agenda

Executive Summary

Past growth rate

Fees

Addresses

Staking ROI

Community engagement

Developers’ activity

Sharpe ratio

Decentralization

Appendix

Confidential & Proprietary

3
 Overall, Cardano seems to have stronger fundamentals than
Polkadot based on the metrics analyzed

Executive summary
Overview
Cardano vs.
Description
Polkadot
• Cardano’s price fluctuations seem to have been more volatile than Polkadot’s. Even though 12 months ago DOT and ADA’s market
Past growth
caps were almost identical, ADA’s current market cap is significantly higher than DOT’s; Having invested $100 in ADA 12 months
rate ago, would have yielded more than having invested in DOT (~+48 p.p. vs. Polkadot).

• Average daily fees collected on Cardano are ~1.78x more than the average daily fees collected on Polkadot ($54.1k vs. $30.3k),
Fees however average fee per transaction on Polkadot is ~63% higher than on Cardano suggesting that Cardano is cheaper (average
fee per transaction on Polkadot is ~$0.68 vs. ~$0.42 on Cardano).

New and • Cardano has more daily new addresses (~9.3x) and more daily active addresses (~11.7x) than Polkadot. However, Cardano’s
active market capitalization is less than proportionally higher (~+50 p.p.) than Polkadot’s, suggesting that Cardano might be undervalued
addresses ratio vs. Polkadot or that Polkadot might be overvalued vs. Cardano, based on number of new and active addresses on a daily basis.

• Gross staking rewards are higher for Polkadot than for Cardano (~13.8% vs ~5.7%). When inflation given by emission of new coins
Staking net
is considered, Polkadot net staking rewards are still higher than Cardano’s (~5.5% vs ~1.4%). This suggests that Polkadot is a
ROI better investment for a holder investor that aims at getting returns via staking.

• Cardano has a broader community (measured by Reddit users) than Polkadot (~660k vs ~66k). Moreover, Cardano seems to be
Community
more engaged given higher average number of comments per day. This might suggest that the Cardano’ user base is more active
engagement and more committed to the project.

Developers • Average number of weekly commits on GitHub by developers appears to be higher for Cardano, which might suggest that Cardano
activity development team is more active.

• Both projects’ Sharpe Ratio has been closely correlated for the past 12 months; Currently, the ratio for DOT is higher than that for
Sharpe
ADA, suggesting that its risk-adjusted upside potential is higher and hence that Polkadot might currently be a better investment
ratio than Cardano when potential rewards are weighted with the asset’s risk (volatility).

• Based on distribution of wealth across wallets on the two chains, the degree of decentralization of Polkadot and Cardano is
Decentralization comparable, suggesting that the two projects are similarly decentralized.

Source: Max Maher Show Research & Analysis

Confidential & Proprietary

 Overall, Cardano seems to have stronger fundamentals than
Polkadot based on the metrics analyzed

Comparison summary
Overview

New and
Past growth Staking net Community Developers Sharpe
Fees active Decentralization
rate ROI engagement activity ratio
addresses ratio

Source: Max Maher Show Research & Analysis

Confidential & Proprietary

Agenda

Executive Summary

Past growth rate

Fees

Addresses

Staking ROI

Community engagement

Developers’ activity

Sharpe ratio

Decentralization

Appendix

Confidential & Proprietary

6
 ADA’s market cap is significantly higher than DOT’s; Having invested
$100 in ADA 12 months ago, would have yielded 48% more than
having invested in DOT
Market Cap Growth rate
$b, last 12 months, as of November 23rd, 2021 Indexed at 100, last 12 months, as of November 23rd, 2021
Cardano Polkadot Cardano Polkadot
100 2,000

90

80
1,500
70

60

50 1,000
+53% +48%
40

30
500
20
Indexed
10 at $100

0 0
10/1/2020 1/1/2021 4/1/2021 7/1/2021 10/1/2021 10/1/2020 1/1/2021 4/1/2021 7/1/2021 10/1/2021

Source: Coinmarketcap, Max Maher Show Research & Analysis

Confidential & Proprietary

Agenda

Executive Summary

Past growth rate

Fees

Addresses

Staking ROI

Community engagement

Developers’ activity

Sharpe ratio

Decentralization

Appendix

Confidential & Proprietary

8
 Even though Cardano collects ~78% more fees than Polkadot on
average, average fee per transaction on Polkadot is ~63% higher
than on Cardano suggesting that Cardano is cheaper
Daily fees Fee per transaction
$k, last 4 weeks $, last 4 weeks
Cardano Polkadot Cardano Polkadot
Average daily fees collected on Cardano are Average fee per transaction on 0.99
~1.78x more than the average daily fees Polkadot is ~1.63x higher than
collected on Polkadot ($54.1k vs. $30.3k) on Cardano (~$0.68 vs. ~$0.42)
0.91
164.3

$HOSKY 0.82
faucet
reopens 0.76
Projects can start staking DOT to bid on
parachains, whose auctions officially
started on November 11th
96.0
86.2 84.2
75.6
70.8 70.1 0.54

55.7 0.48 0.49 0.49

0.45
41.7 0.42 0.43
37.7 0.40 0.40
32.6 48.7
40.5
16.2 0.33
29.2 27.5
9.2 7.7

28 October 5 November 12 November 19 November 28 October 5 November 12 November 19 November

Source: Polkadot.subscan.io, explorer.bitquery.io/cardano, Max Maher Show Research & Analysis

Confidential & Proprietary

Agenda

Executive Summary

Past growth rate

Fees

Addresses

Staking ROI

Community engagement

Developers’ activity

Sharpe ratio

Decentralization

Appendix

Confidential & Proprietary

10
 Cardano seems to have a ~9.3x higher uptake on new daily
accounts than Polkadot and ~11.7x more active daily accounts on
average
New accounts daily Active accounts daily
#k, last 12 months #k, last 12 months
Cardano Polkadot Cardano Polkadot

320 500
300
450
280
260 $HOSKY 400 $HOSKY
faucet faucet
240 reopens reopens
220 350
200
300
180 Polkadot’s new active Polkadot’s daily active accounts
accounts in the past 12 in the past 12 months have
160 months have averaged ~5.2k, 250 averaged ~7.7k, vs. ~89.3k for
vs. ~47.9k for Cardano1 Cardano1
140
200
120
100 150
80
60 100
40
50
20
0 0
Nov-20 May-21 Nov-21 Nov-20 May-21 Nov-21
Projects can start staking DOT to bid on
parachains, whose auctions officially
started on November 11th
1) Excludes recent spike in Cardano (22nd and 23rd of November) to exclude $HOSKY effect;
Source: Polkadot.subscan.io, intotheblock, Max Maher Show Research & Analysis

Confidential & Proprietary

 When comparing Polkadot’ and Cardano’s market caps and their
ratio of new and active accounts daily, Cardano seems to be
undervalued vs. Polkadot (or Polkadot overvalued vs. Cardano)
New accounts daily ratio1 Active accounts daily ratio1
last 12 months, Cardano vs. Polkadot, as of 23/11/21 last 12 months, Cardano vs. Polkadot, as of 23/11/21
Cardano Polkadot Cardano Polkadot

+827% +1,069%

9.3
11.7

When compared with market cap, When compared with market cap, there is
there is a high discrepancy between an even higher discrepancy between value
value and number of new addresses and number of active addresses daily,
daily, suggesting that Cardano might suggesting that Cardano might be
be undervalued vs. Polkadot (or undervalued vs. Polkadot (or Polkadot
Polkadot overvalued vs. Cardano) overvalued vs. Cardano)

+52%
+52%
1.5
1.0 1.0 1.5
1.0 1.0

Market cap New accounts Market cap Active accounts

1) Excludes recent spike in Cardano (22nd and 23rd of November) to exclude $HOSKY effect;
Source: Polkadot.subscan.io, intotheblock, Coinmarketcap, , Max Maher Show Research & Analysis

Confidential & Proprietary

Agenda

Executive Summary

Past growth rate

Fees

Addresses

Staking ROI

Community engagement

Developers’ activity

Sharpe ratio

Decentralization

Appendix

Confidential & Proprietary

13
 Polkadot’s staking rewards are higher than Cardano’s both before
and after accounting for inflation given by the emission of new coins

ROI – Staking ADA ROI – Staking DOT

%, as of 23/11/21 %, as of 23/11/21

13.8%

8.3%
Annualised reward rate
adjusted by the inflation
of the network supply
Annualised reward rate
5.7% adjusted by the inflation 5.5%
of the network supply

4.4%

1.4%

Cardano Staking Cardano inflation Staking net ROI Polkadot Staking Polkadot inflation Staking net ROI

Source: Company website, Stakingrewards.com, Coinmarketcap, Max Maher Show Research & Analysis

Confidential & Proprietary

Agenda

Executive Summary

Past growth rate

Fees

Addresses

Staking ROI

Community engagement

Developers’ activity

Sharpe ratio

Decentralization

Appendix

Confidential & Proprietary

15
 Polkadot’s reddit user base is smaller than Cardano’s and appears
to also be less engaged based on average number of comments per
day
Reddit subscribers Reddit comments per day
#k, as of 23/11/21 #, as of 23/11/21
Cardano Polkadot Cardano Polkadot

700 4,500
650
4,000
600
550 3,500
500
3,000
450
400 2,500
-90%
350
300 2,000

250
1,500
200
150 1,000
100
500
50 Ø 375

0 0 Ø 52
1/1/2017 1/1/2018 1/1/2019 1/1/2020 1/1/2021 1/1/2022 1/1/2018 1/1/2019 1/1/2020 1/1/2021 1/1/2022

Source: Reddit, Max Maher Show Research & Analysis

Confidential & Proprietary

Agenda

Executive Summary

Past growth rate

Fees

Addresses

Staking ROI

Community engagement

Developers’ activity

Sharpe ratio

Decentralization

Appendix

Confidential & Proprietary

17
 Average number of weekly commits on GitHub by developers
appears to be higher for Cardano, which might suggest that Cardano
development team is more active
GitHub weekly commits
Last 12 months

110 Cardano Polkadot

Includes commits for two
repositories; Cardano node
100 and Plutus

90
• A commit, or "revision", is an individual
80 change to a file (or set of files)
70 • It's like when you save a file, except with Git,
every time you save it creates a unique ID
60 (a.k.a. the "SHA" or "hash") that allows you to
keep record of what changes were made
50 when and by who

40
• Commits usually contain a commit message
which is a brief description of what changes
were made
30

20

10

0
Nov-20 May-21 Nov-21

Source: Stackoverflow, Github, Max Maher Show Research & Analysis

Confidential & Proprietary

Agenda

Executive Summary

Past growth rate

Fees

Addresses

Staking ROI

Community engagement

Developers’ activity

Sharpe ratio

Decentralization

Appendix

Confidential & Proprietary

19
 Both projects’ Sharpe Ratio has been closely correlated for the past
12 months; Currently, the ratio for DOT is higher than that for ADA,
suggesting that its risk-adjusted upside potential is higher
Sharpe ratio
Last 12 months
Cardano Polkadot

14

12
• The Sharpe ratio is a financial metric used
10 to assess the return of an investment
compared to its risks
8
• The Sharpe ratio adjusts a portfolio’s past
6 performance—or expected future
performance—for the excess risk that was
4 taken by the investor
2 • A high Sharpe ratio is good when compared
to similar portfolios or funds with lower
0 returns
-2

-4

-6

-8
Nov-20 May-21 Nov-21

Source: Coinmarketcap, Max Maher Show Research & Analysis

Confidential & Proprietary

Agenda

Executive Summary

Past growth rate

Fees

Addresses

Staking ROI

Community engagement

Developers’ activity

Sharpe ratio

Decentralization

Appendix

Confidential & Proprietary

21
 Degree of decentralization, measured by assessing distribution of
wealth among wallets is comparable for the two projects

Cardano Polkadot
Cardano, %, as of 23/11/21 Polkadot, %, as of 23/11/21

0.0% 0.0%
0.1% 0.1% 9.0%
0.7% 0.4%
3.8% 13.9% 2.3%

52.3%
31.2%
56.8%

29.2%

Addresses with Balance > $10M Addresses with Balance > $100K Addresses with Balance > $1K Addresses with Balance > $1
Addresses with Balance > $1M Addresses with Balance > $10K Addresses with Balance > $100

Source: Messari.io, Max Maher Show Research & Analysis

Confidential & Proprietary

Agenda

Executive Summary

Past growth rate

Fees

Addresses

Staking ROI

Community engagement

Developers’ activity

Sharpe ratio

Decentralization

Appendix

Confidential & Proprietary

23
 Polkadot founding team is worldwide renowned thanks to
Gavin Wood, one of the Ethereum co-founders

Polkadot founding team

Overview

Robert Habermeier is a Thiel Fellow Gavin Wood began originating Peter Czaban is the Technology
and co-founder of Polkadot. He has a blockchain technology as co-founder Director of the Web3 Foundation,
research and development and CTO of Ethereum. He invented where he works on supporting the
background in blockchains, distributed fundamental components of the development of the next generation of
systems, and cryptography. A blockchain industry, including Solidity, distributed technologies. He obtained
longtime member of the Rust Proof-of-Authority consensus, and his Masters of Engineering degree at
community, he has focused on Whisper. At Parity, Gavin currently the University of Oxford, reading
leveraging the language’s features to leads innovation on Substrate and Engineering Science where he focused
build highly parallel and performant Polkadot. He coined the term Web 3.0 on Bayesian Machine Learning. He
solutions. in 2014 and serves as President of has worked across defense, finance
Web3 Foundation. and data analytics industries, working
on mesh networks, distributed
knowledge bases, quantitative pricing
models, machine learning and
business development.

Source: Max Maher Show Research & Analysis

Confidential & Proprietary

 World-renowned and Cardano’s public face Charles Hoskinson
founded IOHK, the tech and engineering company contracted to
design, build, and maintain the Cardano platform, with Jeremy Wood
Cardano (IOHK) founding team
Overview
Charles Hoskinson is a Colorado-based technology
entrepreneur and mathematician. He attended Metropolitan
State University of Denver and University of Colorado Boulder
to study analytic number theory before moving into
cryptography through industry exposure.
His professional experience includes founding three
cryptocurrency-related start-ups – Invictus Innovations,
Ethereum and IOHK – and he has held a variety of posts in
both the public and private sectors. He was the founding
chairman of the Bitcoin Foundation’s education committee and
established the Cryptocurrency Research Group in 2013.
His current projects focus on educating people about
cryptocurrency, being an evangelist for decentralization and
making cryptographic tools easier to use for the mainstream.
This includes leading the research, design and development of
Cardano, a third-generation cryptocurrency that launched in
September 2017.
Source: IOHK, Max Maher Show Research & Analysis
Confidential & Proprietary
Immediately upon finishing his studies at Indiana University-
Purdue University Indianapolis, Jeremy Wood packed a
suitcase and bought a one-way ticket to Asia. He lived in
Osaka, Japan from 2008, and was bitten by the crypto-bug in
2013, becoming a founding member of the Kansai Bitcoin
Meet-up. He soon became entranced by the potential of next
generation blockchains and joined Ethereum at the end of
2013, managing operations. After leaving Ethereum, Jeremy
consulted on cryptocurrencies before starting Input Output
with Charles Hoskinson in 2015. He moved back to the US
three years later and stepped down from his role as chief
strategy officer in 2020. Jeremy believes that the future of
fintech will progress only through experimentation and
research, and by promoting collaboration between diverse
groups and organizations.
 Number of ADA hodlers has been decreasing in the past 12 months
and has plateaued at ~9%; High share of hodlers and cruisers
wallets indicates that many investors invested for the long-term
ADA addresses
By holding time, as of 23/11/21
Hodlers (1Y+) Cruisers (1-12M) Traders (<1M)

568,177 611,716 727,631 1,030,493 1,250,725 1,472,015 1,772,393 1,956,520 2,105,405 2,344,336 2,700,799 3,055,010 3,607,874

9% 9% 10% 10% 9% 8% 7%
13% 11%
16%
24%
34% 31%

34%
46% 52% 52%
67% 68%
68% 68%
45% 72% 76%

50%
49%

50%
41% 38%
37%
31%
24% 22% 23% 24%
18% 20% 19% 16%

11/30/2020 12/31/2020 1/31/2021 2/28/2021 3/31/2021 4/30/2021 5/31/2021 6/30/2021 7/31/2021 8/31/2021 9/30/2021 10/31/2021 11/22/2021

Source: Intotheblock, Max Maher Show Research & Analysis

Confidential & Proprietary