Hoskinson Defends Cardano Progress as ADA Lags Despite Milestones

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson has pushed back against critics as the blockchain network delivers a year of significant milestones, yet its native token ADA continues to underperform. In a fiery response, Hoskinson asked, “What the hell else can I do?” as he defended Cardano’s progress amid growing frustration from the community over adoption and liquidity concerns.

The criticism intensified after a community member suggested that Midnight, a privacy-focused blockchain project within the Cardano ecosystem, could harm ADA holders by operating as a separate network. Hoskinson dismissed the idea, emphasizing that Midnight’s NIGHT token was issued through Cardano and questioned why a project built on the ecosystem should be seen as a threat to ADA.

Another critic accused Hoskinson of deflecting blame onto ADA holders rather than developers, highlighting issues like weak liquidity and sluggish decentralized exchange (DEX) volume. Hoskinson countered by listing Cardano’s recent achievements, including the launch of RealFi on the mainnet in October 2026, the introduction of Midnight in March 2026, and ongoing integrations like USDCx, Pyth, and LayerZero.

Despite the progress, on-chain data from DeFiLlama reveals that Cardano’s DeFi ecosystem has around $70.78 million in total value locked and $67.2 million in stablecoin liquidity. While DEX volumes have surged 139% in the past week, ADA remains 91.1% below its all-time high of $3.09, trading near $0.273 with a $10.2 billion market cap. The challenge now is whether these developments can translate into sustained growth and demand for ADA.