Acala (ACA) is the native token and governance asset of the Acala Network, a decentralized finance hub and stablecoin platform built as a Polkadot parachain, designed to bring scalable, low-fee
DeFi applications to the Polkadot ecosystem. Founded in 2019 by Bette Chen and the Acala team, it features aUSD (now aUSD+) as a decentralized stablecoin backed by collateral and algorithmic mechanisms, cross-chain asset transfers via XCM, decentralized exchange capabilities, liquid staking derivatives (LDOT for DOT staking), and lending markets. The ACA token powers
staking for network security and rewards, governance voting in the Acala
DAO, fee payments, and incentives for liquidity providers in a high-performance,
interoperable DeFi hub secured by Polkadot's shared security model.
When Did Acala Launch?
Acala was founded in 2019 and successfully secured a Polkadot parachain slot in December 2021 through a crowdloan campaign, launching its mainnet and ACA token in January 2022. The project achieved rapid adoption with aUSD stablecoin issuance,
decentralized exchange launch, and liquid staking in 2022, followed by 2023 recovery and upgrades after market challenges, and 2025 expansions including enhanced cross-chain support, new DeFi products, and institutional integrations, maintaining active TVL and ecosystem growth by December 2025.
What Are the Key Features of Acala?
Acala features a decentralized stablecoin (aUSD+) backed by multi-collateral and algorithmic mechanisms, cross-chain asset transfers and interoperability via Polkadot's XCM, decentralized exchange and liquidity pools, liquid staking derivatives (LDOT) for DOT holders, lending and borrowing markets, staking for network security and rewards, governance through the ACA DAO, audited security with Polkadot shared security, and tools for developers to build scalable DeFi applications in a high-performance parachain environment.
What Is ACA Used For?
ACA is used for staking
validators for rewards and network security, paying transaction fees on Acala, voting in Acala DAO governance on upgrades and treasury allocation, providing liquidity for yields in DeFi pools, and accessing ecosystem incentives including airdrops and developer grants.
What Is the ACA Token Utility?
ACA secures staking for reward distribution and network validation, powers governance voting on protocol parameters and treasury spending, covers fees with potential burns for deflationary pressure, incentivizes liquidity provision and validator participation, captures value from DeFi activity and stablecoin usage, and funds ecosystem growth through treasury allocations for development, integrations, and partnerships in the Polkadot DeFi hub.
What Blockchain Does Acala Operate On?
Acala operates as a Polkadot parachain
Layer-1 with EVM compatibility and XCM for cross-chain interoperability across the Polkadot ecosystem.
What Are ACA Tokenomics?
ACA has inflationary rewards for staking with approximately 1.1 billion tokens in circulation as of December 2025. Allocation prioritizes staking incentives, ecosystem development, team vesting, liquidity, treasury; balanced by burns and controlled inflation.