Hoskinson Defends Cardano Amid Criticism of ADA Performance

Cardano (ADA) founder Charles Hoskinson defended the ADA ecosystem against recent criticism, highlighting several ongoing projects. On Oct. 5, Hoskinson responded to claims about low liquidity and limited real-world usage by citing recent launches like RealFi, Midnight, Forge, and Pentad-based integrations. He questioned critics who suggested that projects emerging from Cardano harm ADA holders, particularly in regard to the NIGHT token, which was issued on the Cardano network.

The debate intensified when a community member criticized Hoskinson for shifting responsibility to ADA holders rather than holding developers accountable. Hoskinson countered by detailing progress made this year, including the launch of RealFi on the Cardano mainnet on Oct. 1, the operation of the Midnight network since March, and the ongoing development of Forge. He also mentioned infrastructure advancements with LayerZero, Fireblocks, ICE, and Circle through Pentad.

On-chain metrics provided a mixed picture of Cardano's activity. The total value locked in Cardano's DeFi was about $68.3 million, with a stablecoin supply of $67.2 million. Decentralized exchange volume stood at about $4.05 million over 24 hours and $41.0 million over seven days, with a 133 percent increase in weekly volume. Active addresses and transaction counts were reported at 18,964 and 34,905, respectively.

Hoskinson argued that RealFi could significantly boost Cardano's total value locked, shifting market focus to actual on-chain usage. The discussion also touched on the treatment of developers building on Cardano, with Hoskinson questioning the ecosystem's approach to supporting new projects.