As Cardano has been struggling with a governance crisis for several months, the network is now facing a new high-profile accusation against its co-founder, Charles Hoskinson.
Researcher Masato Alexander published an analysis claiming that Hoskinson sold approximately 1.5 billion ADA in 2021 — during the very period when the token was repeatedly setting new all-time highs and when the co-founder was publicly promoting the asset to investors.
At the time of publication, ADA is trading at around $0.16, down roughly 40% over the past month.
The Researcher’s Position
Alexander examined two groups of transactions carried out during the height of the 2021 rally: one large transfer of 925 million ADA and another nine transfers of 20 million ADA each.
He concluded that the origin of these funds is connected to the infrastructure of Input Output Global, the company led by Hoskinson, and that the connection appears to be significantly closer than previously assumed.
However, the analysis does not answer several key questions — who actually controlled the wallets involved, whether the tokens were ultimately sent to exchanges, and what restrictions may have applied to the early ADA allocations.
While the on-chain data may point to a common source of funds, confirming that the transfers were actual sales is impossible without information beyond what is visible on the blockchain.
Alexander’s criticism of Hoskinson has been building for months. In one of his earlier reports, he alleged that during the Allegra hard fork in 2021, Hoskinson redirected approximately 318 million ADA into the network’s reserves. Hoskinson rejected the accusation at the time.
Cardano’s official report, meanwhile, stated that the overwhelming majority of vouchers had been redeemed and that the disputed 318 million ADA was moved into the reserve only after the relevant phase had concluded, while access remained available for the remaining holders.
Why This Is Surfacing Now
The accusation comes at a particularly difficult time for the network.
In early June, Hoskinson warned that the ecosystem could experience a series of disruptions following the shutdown of TapTools, the network’s most popular analytics platform.
Earlier, the Cardano Foundation canceled Cardano Summit 2026 after a treasury proposal requesting 7.8 million ADA failed to secure the required majority. At the same time, Input Output Global’s research budget proposal for 32.9 million ADA faced opposition from nearly 87% of participating voters.
Over the past few days, Hoskinson has also changed his position several times.
On June 3, he announced that he was taking a break, but just one day later he stated that he was not leaving.
Later, the Cardano founder suggested an even more drastic option — splitting the blockchain and launching a successor network based on a proof-of-burn model if the governance deadlock cannot be resolved.
Cardano’s total value locked currently stands at around $93 M, which is not enough to place the network among the top 25 blockchains.
The network reached its peak during the same 2021 period, when ADA traded at $3.09 — the same period at the center of the new allegations.