Cardano founder threatens: 'Then I'll retire'

A fierce battle has been raging in the Cardano community for weeks.

A fierce battle has been raging in the Cardano community for weeks. The trigger: founder Charles Hoskinson is under fire over alleged misuse of 318 million ADA, currently worth about $193 million. The accusations come from within and Hoskinson is done with it.

The founder, controversial since crypto’s early days, calls it a "smear campaign" and takes a frontal attack: "I'm not going to coddle anyone anymore; I'm going to tell you, like adults, what needs to happen."

Central to the controversy is his latest plan: turning Cardano's 1.7 billion ADA "treasury" (about $1.1 billion) into an actively managed fund with multiple asset classes. A crypto-sovereign investment fund, per se. But that idea has met strong resistance within his own base.

Hoskinson doesn't sugarcoat it: "If ADA collapses, you will lose a lot of purchasing power." He notes that the treasury was briefly worth nearly $5 billion during the previous bull market — momentum he says should be rekindled.

His message is clear: "Our job is to push through a governance measure. You decide." But if the community rejects his proposal, he’ll pull the plug: "Then I won't contribute to this ecosystem anymore and I’ll retire."

At the same time, he warns that Cardano is lagging: "We may be technically superior, but right now we lack full governance and the investment dynamism to become number one."

Notably, Hoskinson said less than a year ago that ADA would surpass both Bitcoin and Ethereum within ten to twenty years. BTC maximalists he called then "ridiculously dumb."

Tension is mounting. Will Hoskinson's threat become reality? Or will the community chart a controversial course? One thing is certain: the next weeks at Cardano will be all about power, money and trust.