Charles Hoskinson expects the Ouroboros Leios upgrade to multiply Cardano’s capacity by 60 times, a leap that would put the network on par with the XRP Ledger in terms of speed.
The founder also defended Midnight City against critics and outlined the upgrade’s next steps.
Leios: Cardano’s Bet to Catch the XRP Ledger
Ouroboros Leios is an upgrade to Cardano’s protocol designed to multiply transaction capacity without sacrificing decentralization or security. Charles Hoskinson explained its scope during an interview with David Gokhshtein on “The Breakdown podcast”.
According to the founder, the technology will increase the network’s internal throughput by up to 60x. That jump, he said, would leave Cardano with performance comparable to the XRP Ledger, a network known for its efficiency.
“Leios will be a 60x in terms of throughput inside the system, so we’re good, we’re as performant as XRP, and we still kept our principles,” Hoskinson said.
— David Gokhshtein (@davidgokhshtein) July 2, 2026
The comparison carries weight. The XRPL built its reputation on settlements between three and five seconds and a maximum capacity of 1,500 transactions per second. In March 2026, that network surpassed 120 TPS during a peak with roughly 650 operations.
Hoskinson stressed that these improvements do not mean giving up the project’s founding principles. The industry knows this dilemma as the blockchain trilemma, where scaling often demands trade-offs between decentralization and security. Cardano wants to prove that exchange is not inevitable.
The path is already underway. The public Leios testnet, named Musashi Dojo, debuted on June 23, 2026. It marks the protocol’s first operation in a live network environment. Mainnet deployment is expected before the end of this year.
Hoskinson Defends Midnight City After Big Pey’s Criticism
Hoskinson also responded firmly to questions about Midnight City. Content creator Big Pey labeled the initiative an example of wasteful spending within the ecosystem.
According to the critic, the team invested millions of dollars in a project that was unable to attract new users. He described that strategy as the “Cardano Way,” referring to investments that yield no immediate commercial returns.
The reply came at once. Hoskinson said he had lost all respect for Big Pey as an entrepreneur and criticized him for failing to understand how consumer products evolve. He even challenged the critic to save the post and return in a year to apologize.
I’ve just lost all respect for you as an entrepreneur. You clearly have no clue how adoption or consumer experiences work. Save this tweet and come back in a year to apologize. Midnight City is one of the most important applications on Midnight and will be one of the keys to…
Midnight City works as an interactive showcase for Midnight Network, the privacy-focused chain tied to Cardano. The platform translates complex blockchain mechanics into a retro-futuristic 2D city inhabited by AI agents.
Those agents generate transactions and economic behavior similar to everyday use by consumers and businesses.
Institutional interest supports that vision. Midnight already added Monument Bank, Google, and AlphaTON Capital, and is holding talks with investment banks in the United States and Europe.
For Hoskinson, 2026 will be a beta year meant to strengthen the infrastructure before mainstream adoption.
The Cardano network has seen a sharp increase in both network activity and online discussions, even as ADA has fallen to levels not seen since December 2020.
According to the latest findings by Santiment, daily active addresses and social dominance have surged for the second time this month, making Cardano one of the most discussed assets in the crypto market.
Cardano Network Activity
Data revealed that the number of active addresses on the network climbed to 29,025, as Cardano accounted for 0.33% of all cryptocurrency-related discussions. Santiment found that the rise in activity comes as ADA faces heavy price pressure and increased volatility. The increase in bearish sentiment has been linked to recent comments from Charles Hoskinson, who warned that more Cardano projects could fail.
His decision to reduce his public involvement and ongoing disagreements within the community over treasury funding have also added to concerns. Although sentiment remains weak, Santiment said that spikes in network activity combined with growing market concerns have historically preceded mild ADA rebounds.
The first occurred in late March to early April, when active addresses climbed to around 22,000, and social dominance rose above 0.40%. Another instance appeared in early June, with active addresses reaching roughly 32,500 and social dominance peaking near 0.38%. In both cases, the spikes in network activity and discussion levels were followed by a modest recovery in ADA’s price, according to the analysis.
Bull Trap For ADA?
At the time of writing, ADA is trading at $0.14 after suffering a decline of more than 3% over the past 24 hours. The crypto asset’s daily chart recently generated a TD Sequential buy signal, which may indicate a short-term price rebound. However, crypto analyst Ali Martinez warned that traders should remain cautious despite the bullish signal.
The warning comes after a security breach involving a Cardano-based wallet protocol that led to the theft of nearly 129 million ADA, worth around $20 million.
Martinez said any near-term recovery could turn into a bull trap, attracting buyers before the price resumes its decline. As such, any relief rally is likely to face resistance between $0.160 and $0.176. If ADA fails to break above this range, the price could move lower and establish new lows.
Charles Hoskinson is making a stronger case for artificial intelligence as work on Midnight City progresses. The Cardano founder now treats agents as the backbone of how the network communicates and scales.
Below is a breakdown of his recent remarks, plus a closer look at what Midnight City is actually trying to prove.
How Hoskinson Frames AI’s Role in Cardano’s Next Phase
AI agents act autonomously, trading, posting, and coordinating without a human behind the keyboard. Hoskinson is leaning into that definition after fielding pushback over recent experiments tied to Cardano’s official channels.
The complaints centered on a synthetic influencer that surfaced on the Input Output account. Followers were not impressed.
However, Hoskinson defended the move as a transparent trial-and-error, arguing that the team is showing what these tools can do rather than hiding behind polished output.
He also pointed to OpenClaw, an open-source agent project he sees gaining traction at a remarkable speed. For Hoskinson, that growth is a signal. The future of crypto communication will not be carried by a handful of community managers tweeting in real time.
“We’re going to need agents and AI to be able to organize and sort all that out and broadcast on a regular basis what’s going on in Midnight City,” Hoskinson said. As a result, AI is now treated as core infrastructure for the entire Cardano ecosystem.
His reasoning is structural. A blockchain community that grows from thousands to millions cannot be supported by linear hiring. As a result, automation has to take over the routine layer of reporting, moderation, and outreach across every channel that matters.
Hoskinson sketched out what comes next in stronger terms. He talked about AI chief marketing officers, broadcasting tools that feel lifelike, and a long bet on integrating every emerging standard. The shift, in his view, will redefine how protocols introduce themselves to new users.
Why Midnight City Is Becoming the Showcase for That Vision
Midnight City is a live demonstration of what Hoskinson describes. Running on the Midnight Network, it is a digital environment populated by autonomous characters that transact, talk, and behave according to the memory and personality assigned to each.
Visitors can switch the lens they look through. The default view shows only what is committed openly to the chain. An auditor’s view, by contrast, reveals selective information to anyone with the right cryptographic clearance, mirroring how compliance might work in practice.
“It’s why it’s one of our most important projects and we’re leaning into it and integrating every single AI standard,” Hoskinson said. The Cardano founder added that the team will keep experimenting with how the technology evolves across the coming quarters.
The gates to Midnight City are open. 🌆🕛
A living city populated by autonomous AI agents — generating real transactions, real activity, and real proof generation on Midnight.
The infrastructure underneath is built for volume. Shielded transactions are first wrapped in zero-knowledge proofs. Furthermore, batches are run in Trusted Execution Environments before being anchored back to the base layer via cryptographic checks.
Hoskinson sees real growth potential beyond the demo. Agentic trading and affiliate-style relationships, he argues, could pull millions of fresh users into Midnight as the simulation evolves. That is why he describes the project as one of the most important on Cardano’s plate.
The wider context also explains the urgency. Crypto is moving on two fronts at once: privacy-preserving computation and the rise of on-chain agents that coordinate economic activity.
Charles Hoskinson said that a disputed stash of 1,096 BTC from Cardano’s early crowdfunding days was used to pay for an audit in 2016/2017.
The Cardano founder made the revelation during a recent livestream AMA, in which he talked about governance, Discord, and community management.
Hoskinson Clarifies Questions in AMA
Cardano’s crowdsale, which ran from October 2015 to January 2017, raised around 108,844 BTC, with 1,096 of this allocated to an Isle of Man Foundation entity that did some early legal and operational work for the project.
The organization has since been dissolved, but Thomas Braziel, founder of 117 Partners, recently questioned the value of the transaction and demanded a full account of where the BTC went and why they received it.
Hoskinson said during the weekend AMA that the funds date back to a March 2026 email from Michael Parsons, the project’s Chairman at the time, in which he asked to be compensated for auditing the crowdsale. He also clarified the value of the BTC, claiming that the bill was much smaller than what critics imply.
“The closing price of Bitcoin March, 13 2016, was $414. That’s about $400,000 for three auditors,” said Hoskinson.
According to him, the money was used to pay three independent reviewers, namely Michael Parsons, John McGuire, and Bruce Milligan.
Meanwhile, Hoskinson argued that the repeated calls for transparency are being made to start controversy as opposed to actually resolving anything, saying that any response leads to another round of accusations and ends up draining resources that could be used to grow the ecosystem.
Braziel Still Has Doubts
However, Braziel wasn’t satisfied with his response, arguing that the session created more questions than it resolved. He asked on social media how IOHK came to control roughly 95% of the BTC raised and got billions of ADA, while the Foundation received only a fraction of the total.
“If that’s the explanation, then the next step is simple: publish the invoices, agreements, and approvals, and payment records.”
The investor also believes the figure is inaccurate, saying that if an audit did happen, it likely took place later, when the OG cryptocurrency was already worth much more than it was during the early fundraising years. In his view, “the numbers just don’t seem to add up.”
The development comes as Cardano is in the midst of a raging debate about its treasury, governance, and engagement, with the co-founder revealing that the project is working on a plan to move its ADA community to Discord.
At the same time, the Cardano Foundation’s budget has come under public scrutiny, with only a third of the proposals approved under the new process. Organizers have also canceled their planned 2026 Singapore Summit after a $7.8 million ADA treasury request linked to the event was rejected.
Cardano’s price is expected to surpass $1.33 in 2026.
By 2029, ADAUSD could reach $4.72.
By 2032, Cardano might reach a maximum price of $4.46.
Cardano is a third-generation blockchain platform launched in 2017 by Ethereum co-founder Charles Hoskinson. Designed for decentralized applications and smart contracts, it uses Ouroboros—a unique, energy-efficient Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism.
Cardano’s two-layer architecture separates transactions from smart contracts, enhancing scalability and flexibility. Its native cryptocurrency, ADA, is used for transaction fees, staking, and governance, allowing holders to influence the platform’s future. Emphasizing a research-driven, peer-reviewed development approach, Cardano aims to address challenges in blockchain, such as scalability and sustainability, making it a strong alternative to platforms like Ethereum.
Perhaps you’re wondering: with its innovative technology, can Cardano’s ADA reach new all-time highs soon?
Let’s uncover what the future holds for Cardano.
Overview
Cryptocurrency
Cardano
Token
ADA
Price
$0.1671
Market Cap
$6.08B
Trading Volume (24-hour)
$289.31B
Circulating Supply
44.99B ADA
All-time High
$3.10 on Sept 02, 2021
All-time Low
$0.01735 on Oct 01, 2017
24-hour High
$0.1737
24-hour Low
$0.1659
Cardano price prediction: Technical analysis
Metric
Value
Volatility (30-day Variation)
16.86% (Very High)
50-day SMA
$ 0.2337
14-Day RSI
30.44 (Neutral)
Market Sentiment
Bearish
Fear & Greed Index
18 (Extreme Fear)
Green Days
9/30 (30%)
200-day SMA
$ 0.2977
Cardano (ADA) price analysis
Cardano is down 2.91% at $0.167, hitting fresh 2026 lows with sellers firmly in control across all timeframes.
Price briefly touched $0.145 before a weak bounce, now consolidating between $0.165 and $0.175 with little buying conviction.
Bulls need a reclaim of $0.180 to signal relief; failure risks a drop toward $0.140.
Cardano price analysis 1-day chart: Cardano slides to $0.167 as bears push ADA to fresh 2026 lows
Cardano is trading at $0.167, down 2.91% on the day, hitting fresh 2026 lows after a devastating June sell-off from the $0.240 range. The 1D structure is deeply bearish, with price breaking below the $0.175 horizontal support — a level that had previously acted as a floor — signaling accelerated selling pressure.
The overall trend shows a prolonged downtrend from January’s $0.440 peak, with no meaningful recovery attempts. Today’s candle confirms sellers remain in complete control. Immediate support is thin, with $0.150 as the next major level to watch. A reclaim of $0.180 is needed before any bullish case can be considered.
ADA price analysis 4-hour chart: Cardano consolidates at $0.167 as the 4-hour chart signals a fragile recovery attempt
ADA’s 4H chart shows price at $0.167, completely flat at 0.00%, consolidating after an aggressive June sell-off that briefly pushed price to $0.145 lows. The 4H structure reveals a steep descending channel throughout May and June, with no meaningful counter-rally until the recent bounce from all-time 2026 lows.
Price is now attempting to stabilize around the $0.165–$0.175 range, but the recovery lacks momentum. The $0.180 horizontal level remains a key resistance barrier from prior support. A 4H close above this level is needed to signal short-term relief. Below $0.155, selling pressure could intensify toward $0.140 — uncharted 2026 territory.
ADA technical indicators: Levels and action
Daily simple moving average (SMA)
Period
Value
Action
SMA 3
$0.2340
BUY
SMA 5
$0.2340
SELL
SMA 10
$0.2380
SELL
SMA 21
$0.2477
SELL
SMA 50
$0.2519
SELL
SMA 100
$ 0.2569
SELL
SMA 200
$0.3143
SELL
Daily exponential moving average (EMA)
Period
Value
Action
EMA 3
$0.2331
BUY
EMA 5
$0.2345
SELL
EMA 10
$
SELL
EMA 21
$ 0.2544
SELL
EMA 50
$ 0.2574
SELL
EMA 100
$ 0.2780
SELL
EMA 200
$ 0.3483
SELL
What to expect from the Cardano price analysis next?
Following the 1D and 4H breakdowns, the next step would be a 1-hour chart analysis, zooming in on the immediate price action and short-term momentum around the critical $0.165–$0.175 consolidation zone. After that, a key levels summary pulls together the most important support and resistance levels across all timeframes for quick reference. The analysis then moves into a price prediction section, weighing the deeply bearish technical structure against any potential fundamental catalysts that could trigger a recovery. Finally, a conclusion summarizes the overall market bias, helping readers assess whether ADA at $0.167 represents a capitulation buying opportunity or a warning of further downside.
Why is Cardano down today?
Cardano is down today due to a mix of poor price action and deep concerns about the ecosystem. On the charts, ADA has been in a relentless downtrend since January’s $0.440 peak, with sellers breaking every support level in sight. TapTools, a long-standing Cardano analytics platform, shut down after citing unsustainable operating conditions, while founder Charles Hoskinson warned of a potential “wave of failures” and criticized the community’s reluctance to deploy treasury funds to support projects. Adding to the pain, the community voted against funding Cardano’s own flagship 2026 Summit, forcing its cancellation — deepening the confidence crisis already reflected in today’s price.
Is Cardano a good investment?
Cardano (ADA) presents a mixed investment opportunity. It is a third-generation blockchain that aims to solve scalability issues and enhance security through its Proof-of-Stake mechanism. While some analysts predict significant price increases by 2030, others caution that it remains a high-risk investment given the volatility of the crypto market.
Investors should consider their risk tolerance and research before investing, as Cardano’s future performance is uncertain and contingent on market conditions and technological advancements.
Will Cardano recover?
Cardano’s recovery potential depends on market sentiment and adoption. Despite past challenges, its projected price increase in 2026, potentially reaching $1, has significantly bolstered confidence in the coin’s future.
Will Cardano reach $5?
Cardano hitting $5 seems quite achievable given past levels. With its ATH around $3.10, $5 would only need to beat that peak by about 60%. A solid bull run and significant adoption could drive the unit price to $5.
Will Cardano reach $10?
Cardano hitting $10 is a long shot. Its all-time high was around $3.10 back in 2021, so $10 would mean more than tripling that peak. At current prices, that’s an over 13x jump. While crypto can be unpredictable, that would need massive adoption and a bull run far beyond what we saw in 2021.
Will Cardano reach $50?
Cardano hitting $50 is extremely likely. With ADA’s current supply of around 35 billion tokens, a $50 price would require a market cap of approximately $1.75 trillion. Even in crypto’s craziest bull runs, that kind of valuation doesn’t happen for altcoins.
What is the Cardano forecast for 2040?
Predicting Cardano’s (ADA) price in 2040 is highly speculative as it depends on multiple factors, including adoption, regulatory developments, technological advancements, and macroeconomic conditions. However, if Cardano continues to develop its smart contracts, decentralized applications (dApps), and blockchain efficiency, it could see widespread adoption, driving its price higher.
Some optimistic projections suggest that ADA could reach double-digit prices, possibly ranging from $10 to $50 or more. However, in a bearish scenario, where regulatory hurdles and competition slow its progress, ADA could struggle to maintain high valuations.
What will be the future price of Cardano in 2050?
Predicting Cardano’s (ADA) price in 2050 is highly speculative, but if blockchain adoption continues to grow and Cardano successfully scales its smart contract ecosystem, its price could appreciate significantly. What that number will be remains to be seen.
Does Cardano have a good long-term future?
Cardano (ADA) has a positive long-term outlook, driven by its technological advancements and growing ecosystem. The platform’s unique features, such as its focus on scalability and partnerships with various institutions, position it well for future adoption. However, its success will depend on overcoming regulatory scrutiny and challenges related to developer engagement.
Recent news/opinion on Cardano
Cardano’s Plutus Cost Model Update Goes Live on Mainnet Ahead of Protocol Version 11 Hard Fork
Cardano’s Plutus Cost Model GA has launched on mainnet, enabling new Plutus V1, V2, and V3 primitives while requiring DRep and Constitutional Committee votes to activate additional features post-hard fork.
Plutus Cost Model update proposal now live on Mainnet!
Having progressed through SanchoNet, Preview and PreProd test networks during March, April and May respectively, the Plutus Cost Model GA is now live on Mainnet.
Cardano’s June 2026 forecast is $0.2193-$0.3169, averaging $0.2617, driven by steady network development, including smart contract enhancements and scaling upgrades. The growing use of Cardano-based DeFi, NFTs, and governance projects supports moderate bullish sentiment. However, cautious market conditions and slow institutional momentum may limit rapid price expansion, maintaining this controlled range.
Cardano Price Prediction
Potential Low
Potential Average
Potential High
Cardano price prediction June 2026
$0.2193
$0.2617
$0.3169
Cardano price prediction 2026
According to the Cardano price prediction, ADA might reach a maximum price of $1.33, with an average trading price of about $1.20 and a minimum price of $1.03
Cardano Price Prediction
Potential Low
Potential Average
Potential High
Cardano price prediction 2026
$1.03
$1.20
$1.33
Cardano price predictions 2027-2032
Year
Minimum Price
Average Price
Maximum Price
2027
$0.4838
$0.5282
$0.5725
2028
$1.19
$1.29
$1.39
2029
$3.71
$4.21
$4.72
2030
$1.73
$1.91
$2.09
2031
$2.33
$2.48
$2.63
2032
$3.81
$4.13
$4.46
Cardano price prediction 2027
Cardano’s price is forecast to reach a low of $0.4838 in 2027. According to analysts, the ADA price is expected to decline and could reach a maximum of $0.5725, with an average forecast of $0.5282.
Cardano price prediction 2028
The Cardano price is forecast to reach a minimum of $1.19 in 2028. According to the findings, the ADA price could reach a maximum of $1.39, with an average forecast price of $1.29. This is expected as network upgrades, DeFi expansion, and institutional integration strengthen ADA’s utility and demand, supporting steady long-term growth.
Cardano price prediction 2029
According to detailed market projections and historical trend analysis, Cardano (ADA) could trade at a minimum of $3.71 in 2029, reaching as high as $4.72, with an average price of $4.21.
Cardano price forecast 2030
Based on a comprehensive technical evaluation and market trends, Cardano (ADA) could bottom around $1.73 in 2030, with highs near $1.91 and an average of $2.09.
Cardano price prediction 2031
The price of 1 Cardano (ADA) is expected to increase slightly from previous years, reaching a minimum of $2.33 in 2031, with a potential peak of $2.63 and an average of $2.48.
Cardano price prediction 2032
According to the forecast and technical analysis, the ADA coin price prediction for 2032 is expected to range from a minimum of $3.81 to a maximum of $4.46, with an average of $4.13. This upward outlook is supported by Cardano’s full ecosystem maturity, large-scale enterprise integration, and increasing global adoption of decentralized applications built on its network, driving long-term demand and value appreciation.
Cardano price prediction 2026-2032
Cardano ADA price prediction: Analysts’ ADA price prediction
Firm Name
2026
2027
DigitalCoinPrice
$0.31
$0.31
Coincodex
$ 0.3915
$ 0.6216
Cryptopolitan’s Cardano price prediction
According to Cryptopolitan’s projections, ADA’s price could reach $0.35 in 2026. By 2027, Cardano’s price could trade at a maximum of $0.51.
ACH launched near $0.02 in 2020, surged to $0.1975 in August 2021, then slid below $0.10 by year’s end.
During 2022 and 2023, it fell to $0.0133, later rebounded toward $0.049, but stayed volatile
In 2024, it dropped to $0.0145, recovered above $0.02, and briefly reached $0.0397 in December.
Early 2025 saw swings between $0.016 and $0.040, before weakening again toward $0.020 by mid-year.
Late 2025 into early 2026 marked heavy losses to $0.0070–$0.0078, followed by stabilization near $0.0082.
In early January 2026, Cardano traded between $0.36 and $0.38 as buyers sought to stabilize the price after the December decline and defend support in the mid $0.30s.
By late January into February 7, the price slipped toward roughly $0.33 to $0.34, showing continued corrective pressure and consolidation near a key support zone.
Cardano traded around $0.40 on Jan 7, 2026, but steadily declined through the month, falling to roughly $0.29 by Feb 1 as selling pressure increased across the broader altcoin market.
The price briefly recovered afterward, rising from about $0.25 on Feb 5 to around $0.27 on Feb 7, showing a short-term rebound after the early February dip.
ADA began March around $0.29, attempting to stabilize after a sharp decline, with small consolidation candles forming near that level and a brief 5.8% surge on March 13 as broader crypto markets rallied — though the recovery lacked strong follow-through, with price still trading below all major moving averages throughout the month.
By late March, Hyperliquid’s HYPE token flipped ADA in market cap on March 18, adding bearish sentiment, and ADA dropped 4.8% on March 25 as part of a worldwide market sell-off — ultimately closing the period around $0.24 by April 3, representing a decline of roughly 17% over the month.
ADA entered April 1 around $0.24, having shed roughly 17% through March, driven by broad market selling and bearish sentiment, with the month’s forecast range sitting between $0.2251 and $0.3252.
By May 2, ADA was virtually flat at approximately $0.25, having spent the entire period consolidating in a narrow range with 50% green days and just 1.96% price volatility, reflecting a market stuck in indecision with no meaningful breakout in either direction.
ADA entered May 2 trading around $0.25, consolidating near multi-month lows after a prolonged downtrend from the January highs near $0.44, with bears firmly in control and the token struggling to hold above the critical $0.24-$0.25 support zone throughout the month.
By June 2, ADA had declined further to around $0.23, down 2.56% on the day, after the Cardano Foundation canceled its 2026 annual summit following a funding vote that failed, adding significant negative sentiment and pushing ADA toward its lowest levels since 2020.
Charles Hoskinson has given his most detailed account yet of Cardano’s disputed 1,096 Bitcoin (BTC), tracing the funds to a 2016 audit of the original ADA crowdsale.
The Cardano (ADA) founder named three auditors and a Bitcoin price from that year, reframing a question that has shadowed the project since its earliest days.
Hoskinson Traces the 1,096 Bitcoin to a 2016 Audit
During a livestream this weekend, Hoskinson said the disputed sum dates to a March 2016 email from Michael Parsons, then chairman of the Cardano Foundation.
Parsons sought payment for auditing the crowdsale that raised about $62 million between 2015 and 2017, almost entirely from Japanese investors.
He pulled the historical price to argue the bill was smaller than critics imply.
“The closing price of Bitcoin March 13, 2016 was $414,” said Hoskinson.
Independent data places Bitcoin near $412 that day, supporting his figure. By that math, he said, the payment covered three named reviewers.
Bitcoin Price Performance Since 2016. Source: TradingView
“So that was about $400,000 for three auditors, Michael Parsons, John Maguire, and Bruce Milligan, to audit a… crowd sale in Japan… to verify there was no waste for abuse.”
The same 1,096 BTC would be worth about $70 million today, the gap that keeps the dispute alive.
The sharper detail is who took the payment. Parsons resigned as Foundation chairman in 2018 after IOHK and EMURGO publicly broke with him over transparency and governance failures.
We can announce that there has been a change in the Cardano Foundation Council. Michael Parsons has resigned with immediate effect, Pascal Schmid takes over as Chairman on an interim basis. https://t.co/hg8bvVykQy
Cardano co-founder Charles Hoskinson has revealed he is working on a plan to move the ADA community from X after months of contending with expletive-laden tweet threads against him.
Hoskinson said he had spoken with EMURGO chief executive Phillip Pon and was working on a strategy to create a Discord-based hub for the betterment of the Cardano ecosystem.
Hoskinson Frustrated With X, Says Real Work is Elsewhere
He made the announcement in a late Thursday post on the social platform he means to abandon, writing:
“Dropping by to let everyone know that I spoke with Phillip Pon, and we are working out a plan to create a discord for a great migration of the Cardano community from X.”
He continued to say the new platform would create “happy, positive, well-moderated channels” and leave behind what he described as “drama, lies, endless rage, and embittered people” on X.
According to Hoskinson’s post, he will continue using X to broadcast livestreams because of his large audience exceeding one million followers.
The disgruntled blockchain developer revealed that he will have future Ask Me Anything sessions in which he will answer queries only from the Cardano and Midnight Discord servers. Midnight is a privacy-oriented blockchain protocol created by IOG.
“I’ve seen some commentary that broadcasting means I’m back on X. For those people, I can’t solve stupid… Enjoy your scandals of the week and FUD,” he surmised.
The proposed migration follows months of complaints from Hoskinson on the alleged toxicity that X had caused within the Cardano ecosystem.
During an April 24 YouTube livestream titled “Remember Kids, X Isn’t Reality,” he said that he had been working on an artificial intelligence project called Project Nyx to help automate some of his online engagement.
X’s rules reportedly made those plans complicated because AI-managed accounts must be labeled as bots, and that would reduce the visibility of his posts.
The Magnitude of the Problem Hoskinson Is Facing
Last week, Cardano community member Christian Taylor ran an analysis on 130 or so responses to an X post asking people to stop the “constant anti-@IOHK_Charles threads,” and the result painted a small picture of what Hoskinson says he is fighting against.
Per Taylor’s assessment, done with the help of Grok, Hoskinson is facing two problems on the social platform. The first is what Grok described as “raw toxicity,” with about one in three replies being either hostile, abusive, or chock-full of profanity.
The AI also identified a pattern of targeting, including identical language patterns, thinly anonymous accounts, and “cross-chain references that point toward organized amplification.”
However, some of the negative comments also carried genuine community frustration, coming from financial losses and worries about delivery, as well as questions about the Cardano leadership and their accountability to the community.
Looking at the market, ADA is up more than 3% on the back of Hoskinson’s announcement and was trading near $0.17 at the time of writing. This is in sharp contrast to last week, when another announcement by the programmer that he was taking a break saw the coin’s value drop by 11%.
Charles Hoskinson raised the possibility of splitting Cardano after the collapse of one of its best-known ecosystem tools exposed a deeper fight over money, governance, and who has the power to keep builders alive on the network.
This week, the Cardano founder floated what he called a “nuclear option,” saying a new Cardano could be launched through proof of burn if the existing ecosystem cannot change how it funds and commercializes projects.
The statement came after TapTools, one of Cardano’s most widely used analytics and infrastructure platforms, said it would begin winding down operations over the next two weeks following leadership departures, mounting costs, and the loss of key technical capacity.
Hoskinson responded with a long, emotional address that turned a project closure into a broader indictment of Cardano’s governance and commercial strategy.
Hoskinson said TapTools’ closure was unlikely to be an isolated failure, saying:
This year is going to be very hard, especially the second half of the year for Cardano. We are probably going to see more dApps in DeFi die and a consolidation happen
The warning landed as Cardano’s DeFi economy remained small by broader crypto standards and under renewed strain.
DeFiLlama data showed about $115 million in total value locked on Cardano, with the network’s DeFi TVL down more than 5% over 24 hours. Cardano’s 24-hour DEX volume stood near $6.3 million, while its stablecoin market was roughly $55 million.
Those figures point to the commercial problem behind Hoskinson’s remarks. Cardano still has a large brand and a committed community, but the financial activity available to sustain infrastructure providers, exchanges, lending apps, and analytics platforms remains limited.
For teams that rely on subscriptions, API revenue, token activity, treasury funding, or outside investment, a thin market can quickly become an operating crisis.
Indeed, TapTools had framed its closure as the result of that pressure rather than a loss of belief in Cardano.
The platform said it had served more than 1 million users, supported hundreds of projects through its API, published hundreds of articles, and generated hundreds of millions of social impressions for Cardano builders.
However, the team said the departure of co-founders, including its chief technology officer and chief operating officer, had created a gap it could not quickly repair. A backend developer had stepped into the CTO role, but that replacement also decided to leave.
The company said it had tried to lower infrastructure costs, improve efficiency, and develop new products. Still, it concluded that it could not responsibly commit to the future without a credible acquisition path or fresh resources.
For Hoskinson, the announcement confirmed a problem he said had been visible for months. He said TapTools had been part of his daily routine and called its closure a loss for the broader ecosystem.
He also pointed to JPEG Store as another sign that older Cardano projects were struggling to survive the current cycle. He added:
I would suspect others are coming very soon. There’s going to be a wave of failures in the ecosystem.
Hoskinson’s central argument was that Cardano’s public market still treats him as the person responsible for the network’s direction, even though the formal powers needed to change that direction now sit elsewhere.
He said he does not control Cardano’s treasury, does not hold governance keys, cannot initiate a hard fork, cannot change protocol parameters, and does not own the Cardano trademark.
He said the resources created to grow and govern the ecosystem were assigned to separate entities rather than to him personally.
The comments cut into one of Cardano’s most sensitive political tensions. The network has spent years moving toward community governance, with delegated representatives, treasury rules, and other bodies taking on greater responsibility for funding and protocol decisions.
That structure limits founder control by design. It also means there is no single executive authority able to rescue struggling businesses, redirect treasury funds, or impose a commercial strategy when market conditions worsen.
Hoskinson said he had proposed multiple ways to prepare for that pressure, including a sovereign wealth fund, stablecoin reserves, an ecosystem index, and acquisitions of struggling infrastructure projects.
He argued those efforts were either rejected, delayed, or criticized by voters and community members who opposed spending treasury funds or feared centralization.
He noted:
There is a deranged psychopathy that has infected Cardano. You can see it at the bottom of each of my tweets. There are people whose only purpose now is to attack me. Every video I make, every tweet, every output, it is a growing chorus.
His frustration was aimed at that contradiction. When he tries to acquire or commercialize projects, he said critics accuse him of consolidating power. When he does not intervene, those same critics blame him for allowing builders to fail.
He stated:
You do not want commercialization, but then you punish everybody when commercialization does not occur. You say Cardano is not a ghost chain, but the things needed to prevent that, you do not care about.
The speech landed at a difficult moment for Cardano as the blockchain network’s ADA token fell below $0.20 for the first time in more than five years.
This extends a yearlong decline that has erased much of the token’s value and deepened pressure on builders whose businesses depend on user activity, treasury funding, or investor confidence.
Meanwhile, the decline has also sharpened the debate over whether Cardano’s governance system can fund growth quickly enough to keep pace with rival blockchain ecosystems.
According to Hoskinson:
Every person who has tried to use the treasury for commercialization gets attacked. Every program has to be pushed through with enormous effort to reach two-thirds voting, and most people do not have the political power, will or grit to get through that process.
For context, Cardano’s flagship 2026 Summit in Singapore was canceled after a treasury funding proposal failed to meet the two-thirds approval threshold required under the network’s governance rules.
Hoskinson argued that Cardano’s technology has continued to advance, citing expected work such as Leios. But he said technology alone would not be enough if the ecosystem could not fund businesses, support builders, and create incentives for commercial use.
His remarks were unusually blunt. He accused parts of the community of creating a hostile environment for builders and said some critics appeared more interested in proving Cardano had failed than helping the network recover.
According to him:
We as a community have to have a schism. We can no longer admit people whose only purpose is to burn the entire ecosystem down. It is the builders versus the non-builders, the doers versus the pessimists and cynics.
He said teams seeking treasury money or commercial support are often attacked before and after funding votes, making the system unattractive for serious operators.
A break raises the stakes
Hoskinson did not announce a formal exit from Cardano. His later post saying he was taking a break appeared to reflect exhaustion with the public fight rather than a resignation from the ecosystem.
Still, the timing amplified the message. A founder who remains Cardano’s most recognizable public advocate had just told the community that more projects may collapse, that he lacks the authority to stop it, and that the network must choose leadership, strategy, and funding mechanisms or risk managing decline.
Meanwhile, he pointed out that his “nuclear option” could be a way to separate builders from hostile critics and reset tokenomics and institutional funding.
He stated:
There are options. We could launch a new Cardano and have a proof of burn. That would be the most extreme option because those people would not migrate. They would be left behind in the environment they created, with no market, no volume and no commercialization. That is the nuclear option.
That suggestion reflected how far the conflict has moved from routine governance debate. Hoskinson’s complaint is no longer simply that voters rejected a proposal or that ADA’s price has fallen.
He argues that Cardano lacks an executive function capable of turning treasury resources, technical progress, and community support into a coordinated growth plan.
The consequences are now visible through business closures. TapTools said it remained open to acquisition or sustainable funding, but its shutdown notice gave Cardano a concrete example of what can happen when useful infrastructure cannot cover costs or retain key staff.
Considering this, Hoskinson told delegators to examine whether their DReps are helping the ecosystem grow or blocking the decisions needed to support builders.
He urged the community to take a week, study the failures, and decide whether it wants constitutional changes, treasury changes, executive changes, or even a more radical protocol path.
Cardano’s development began just over a decade ago, but it took a couple of years for the actual launch. Arguably, the even more important release of smart contracts, though, came in 2021 after the highly debated Alonzo upgrade.
Its native token has become a fan favorite among many crypto investors, but there are also a substantial number of doubters and critics.
Most Overvalued Network?
Satoshi Flipper, one of the most recognizable names on Crypto X with over 240,000 followers, shared another analyst’s viewpoint on the Charles Hoskinson-founded network with the caption, “Is Cardano the most overvalued blockchain on the planet?”
The underlying analysis questions the performance of the blockchain. It cited a DeFi total value locked (TVL) number of just $128 million, which is exactly what DeFiLlama shows as of press time, as well as 24-hour DEX trading volume of just $1.3 million, $26 million worth of stablecoins on top of it, and approximately 17k active addresses.
Eye Zen Hour described this as an “incredibly small on-chain economy relative to valuation.” The valuation itself is a $9 billion market cap for Cardano’s native token, which, despite its massive decline since its peak (to be discussed later), is still a top 15 altcoin by that metric.
Consequently, Zen Hour concluded that the market will eventually have to make an important decision on Cardano and ADA, whether it’s valuing an ecosystem or “just a memory from prior cycles.”
Cardano has a $9B market cap
I’m not joking when I say I don’t know a single real person active on Cardano. I don’t know many holding $ADA
The chain’s numbers are a bit scary:
> TVL: $128M
> 24H DEX vol: $1.3M
> Stablecoins: $26M
> ~17K active addresses
The aforementioned Alonzo update coincided with ADA’s most impressive price surge in Q3, 2021. At the time, the token was riding high alongside the rest of the market and charted a new all-time high of just over $3. However, it turned out to be a classic sell-the-news event, and ADA has been unable to recapture its former glory.
In fact, it hasn’t even come close. During the 2025 market-wide rally, bitcoin, as well as many altcoins, managed to post new peaks. However, ADA’s high was far from its 2021 record as it couldn’t break past $1.3. It currently struggles below $0.25, which represents a mind-blowing decline of over 92% since its 2021 ATH.
Although almost all crypto assets have slumped since last October, ADA’s crash has been more than just a correction, and being 92% away from its record doesn’t sound too promising for its vast community.
Cardano could lose a core group of scientists if Input Output fails to secure treasury funding for a slate of research and infrastructure proposals that are still awaiting approval.
Last month, Input Output, the development firm behind the Cardano network, revealed that it was seeking $46.8 million to finance its operations for the 2026 development cycle.
However, the funding request has encountered significant resistance as the May 24 voting deadline approaches. A look at the major proposals shows that they face weak support, heavy abstentions, and large blocs of votes left uncast, leaving the network’s technical future hanging in the balance.
The escalating tension prompted a stark warning from Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson, who cautioned that failing to approve the treasury withdrawal could trigger an exodus of top talent and potentially shutter the network’s flagship research laboratory.
Trailing the threshold
The $46.8 million request is fractured across several specialized workstreams, each requiring a 67% ratification threshold from the network’s DReps. As the voting window narrows, almost none are on track for approval.
The largest line item is the Cardano Maintenance Initiative, an ask of more than 62.1 million ADA designed to cover continuous core maintenance from the third quarter of 2026 through the first quarter of 2027.
The proposal covers nine functional areas, including bug fixing, disaster recovery, mainnet monitoring, and incident response.
Despite its critical nature, described by developers as the protective foundation that ensures network uptime and security, the proposal currently holds just 46.58% affirmative votes. A massive 9.25 billion ADA is logged as abstaining, while 45.61% of voting power has yet to weigh in.
Other critical infrastructure proposals are faring even worse. A 10.4 million ADA request to fund Layer 2 scalability solutions, including a data availability solution and the launch of Midgard, the network’s first permissionless optimistic rollup, sits at just 16.08% approval.
Layer 2 architecture is widely considered the only viable path to achieving the 10,000-plus transactions per second and sub-cent fees necessary to attract high-frequency decentralized finance and artificial intelligence micropayments in the current cycle.
A $2.95 million pitch to build “Pogun,” an end-to-end Bitcoin liquidity and credit engine meant to capture a share of the $1.5 trillion Bitcoin asset class, is polling at 19.04% in favor, weighed down by 24.15% active rejections and overwhelming abstentions.
Cardano’s development and tooling on the brink
The hesitation among DReps extends to proposals that target developer experience and smart contract capabilities, areas where Cardano has historically struggled to gain ground against rivals like Ethereum and Solana.
A 13 million ADA proposal to bring automated formal verification to decentralized applications has performed the best thus far, but still trails the needed supermajority at 57.79%.
The initiative aims to extend the Blaster verification tool across multiple smart contract languages, lowering the barrier for developers to mathematically prove their code’s correctness.
A separate 3.6 million ADA pitch explicitly designed to boost developer growth by 30% over the next year, by streamlining onboarding and documentation, sits below 30%.
Also struggling is Project Cayley, a 7.92 million ADA initiative aimed at decentralizing data indexing. Currently, indexing the entire Cardano blockchain dataset requires massive computational resources, a burden that will only grow as the network scales.
Project Cayley introduces decentralized slice indexing, allowing node operators to index only specific portions of the chain. This lowers the barrier to entry and prevents data-serving infrastructure from centralizing around a few well-funded providers.
Yet, the proposal is languishing at 13.83% approval, with nearly 30% of active voters rejecting it outright.
Finally, a 13.1 million ADA proposal that would introduce Babel Fees, allowing users to pay transaction costs in any native asset, such as stablecoins, rather than holding ADA, has garnered nearly 60% support but remains shy of the 67% hurdle.
The upgrade is widely viewed as essential for removing onboarding friction for new users.
A clash over the “science coin”
For years, Cardano has staked its reputation on rigorous, peer-reviewed academic research and formal methods. This methodical approach has occasionally drawn criticism for moving too slowly, but it has cultivated a fiercely loyal community.
However, the stakes of the treasury vote also appear to be impacting a research-focused proposal called “Cardano Vision 2026: Human Centered, Scalable, Post Quantum Secure – IO Research.”
This proposal seeks nearly 33 million ADA tokens, approximately $8 million, to “preserve Cardano’s evidence-based approach” and “ensure that research outputs translate more reliably into measurable ecosystem growth.”
However, YUTA, a Cardano Drep, stated that the “proposal is a mix of a waste of funds and a potentially excellent proposal for Leios and quantum resistance research.”
“We are deeply saddened that some Japanese dReps voted against our research proposal…If this proposal does not pass, we want the entire Japanese community to fully recognize that Cardano will lose its scientists, and our lab will be forced to close.”
Hoskinson emphasized that building the organization’s research apparatus took more than a decade and hundreds of millions of dollars.
He warned against dismantling the world’s strongest cryptocurrency research group over “piecemeal funding support,” asserting that the organization’s scientists would simply leave for ecosystems offering greater certainty and professional respect.
He added:
“This doesn’t have anything to do with me. This has to do with destroying the entire core of our ecosystem. Cardano is the science coin. That’s our brand. We spent hundreds of millions of dollars and a decade to earn the right to say that. You don’t throw it away.”
As of press time, the proposal has secured only a 13% support, and its voting is expected to close on June 8.
The funding friction is particularly notable given that Input Output explicitly scaled back its financial demands for this cycle.
The 2026 treasury request represents a nearly 50% reduction from the previous year’s budget, signaling an intent to transition the ecosystem toward long-term self-sufficiency.
Yet, even this tightened fiscal belt has failed to win immediate favor from the newly empowered governance body.
The gridlock illustrates the double-edged sword of Cardano’s decentralized governance era. By placing the keys to the treasury directly in the hands of token holders and elected DReps, the ecosystem has achieved a level of financial decentralization rarely seen in major blockchain networks.
However, the current voting impasse highlights the vulnerability of that model. With large swaths of voting power either abstaining or remaining dormant, funding for vital infrastructure is essentially frozen.
For Input Output, the proposals represent a bare-minimum operational baseline to keep the network secure and competitive. For the DReps, the vote is an exercise in budget discipline and accountability, requiring the software laboratory to justify every dollar.
If the proposals fail to cross the 67% threshold by the May 24 deadline, Cardano faces an unprecedented scenario. Without the requested treasury disbursements, key upgrades could be delayed, and essential maintenance operations may be forced to scale back.
More critically, as Hoskinson warned, the talent pipeline that built Cardano’s sophisticated, academically rigorous architecture could begin to fracture, fundamentally altering the ecosystem’s trajectory.
(@eyezenhour) 