Acala is the DeFi and liquidity hub of the Polkadot ecosystem, operating as a parachain that provides stablecoin infrastructure, a DEX, and cross-chain asset composability for the broader Substrate/Polkadot stack. It was one of the first parachains to win a Polkadot auction slot in late 2021.
| Stat | Value |
|---|---|
| Ticker | ACA |
| Price | $0.00 |
| Market Cap | $806,313 |
| 24h Change | -1.5% |
| Circulating Supply | 1.17B ACA |
| Max Supply | 1.60B ACA |
| All-Time High | $2.79 |
Core Products
aUSD (Acala Dollar)
- Minted by locking DOT, LDOT, or other Polkadot ecosystem assets
- Soft-pegged to USD through collateral ratios and stability mechanisms
- Note: aUSD suffered a near-zero depegging incident in August 2022 due to a mint exploit that injected ~$1.2B in unbacked aUSD; the protocol recovered after governance intervention and freezing
Acala Swap
LDOT — Liquid DOT
- Deposit DOT → receive LDOT
- LDOT earns staking yield while remaining DeFi-composable
EVM+ Compatibility
Acala EVM+ allows Solidity contracts to interact natively with Substrate pallets — enabling developers to build Ethereum-compatible dApps on Polkadot with access to native cross-chain features unavailable on standard EVMs.
ACA Token
ACA is used for:
- Gas fees on the Acala parachain
- Governance voting
- Stability mechanism for aUSD (fee burning)
History
- 2019–2020 — Acala founded by Ruitao Su, Bryan Chen, and Bette Chen as a Polkadot DeFi hub project.
- 2021 — Polkadot parachain auction won. Acala wins one of the first Polkadot parachain slots via crowdloan (DOT locked by contributors to secure the slot).
- January 2022 — Acala mainnet launches as a Polkadot parachain. ACA token activates, aUSD stablecoin goes live, Acala Swap launches.
- August 2022 — aUSD exploit. A misconfiguration in a liquidity pool allows an attacker to mint ~1.2 billion unbacked aUSD. Governance freezes the exploit accounts and burns the illegitimate supply. aUSD de-pegs significantly and never fully recovers.
- 2023 — Protocol refocuses. Following the aUSD incident, Acala reduces aUSD’s role and expands LDOT and EVM+ offerings. ACA token price remains deeply depressed.
- 2024–2025 — Polkadot ecosystem repositioning. Acala continues operating as Polkadot’s primary DeFi hub, though cross-chain activity and TVL remain modest compared to Ethereum L2s.
Common Misconceptions
“aUSD is a safe, stable stablecoin like DAI.”
aUSD suffered a catastrophic de-peg in August 2022 due to an exploit that minted ~$1.2B in unbacked supply. While governance intervention recovered the protocol, aUSD is no longer treated as a reliable stablecoin outside the Polkadot ecosystem.
“Acala is an Ethereum competitor.”
Acala is a Polkadot parachain serving the Substrate/Polkadot stack. Its EVM+ compatibility allows Solidity developers to build on it, but it is not competing with Ethereum directly — it targets the Polkadot cross-chain ecosystem.
Social Media Sentiment
- r/dot / r/Polkadot: Acala is treated as an important but struggling Polkadot ecosystem project. The aUSD exploit is frequently cited as a setback. TVL and activity metrics are watched closely.
- X/Twitter: Sentiment is muted post-exploit. Acala team communicates regularly but LDOT and EVM+ features struggle for attention against Ethereum L2 alternatives.
- Discord (Acala community): Dedicated Polkadot community. Focus on LDOT yield, EVM+ developer tooling, and parachain governance.
Last updated: 2026-04
Related Terms
See Also
Sources
- Acala Wiki — official protocol documentation and EVM+ developer reference
- DeFiLlama — Acala — TVL and on-chain activity
- CoinGecko — ACA — ACA price and market data