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Cardano Founder Refutes ADA Misuse Claims, Links Allegation to Akua Ethereum Project
Charles Hoskinson, the man behind Cardano, has denied allegations that he used 318 million ADA, worth about $619 million, from the original wallets into the Cardano treasury. Masato Alexander, an NFT artist, complained that the movement happened during the 2021 Allegra hard fork without the community's support. Hoskinson said the claim was designed to boost interest in a new Ethereum-based project.
He posted a photo of a Twitter message where Alexander asked about financing for Akua, a decentralised application designed to predict natural disasters. According to the message, as mentioned by Hoskinson, growing capital and building visibility were given as examples of a publicity drive.
After the post, Alexander posted his response, attacking Hoskinson for making the conversation public. A second dialogue from Phil Harman, who has been a part of the Cardano community for some time, addressed establishing an Akua version on the Cardano blockchain.
Akua Project and Claims of Misleading Intentions
The Akua platform, explained in their white paper from February 2025, uses a prediction market system to help address the risks of natural disasters. Because Akua is compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine, various members of the Cardano community have talked about it, including engineer Lucas, who suggested the drama was a way to bring more attention to Akua in Ethereum. According to Lucas, his goal with the lawsuit was financial, insisting that the accusations only focused on making money.
Hoskinson stood by his statement and called what happened a smear campaign designed to sway Ethereum investors. He said the complaints led him to launch an independent review of account activity related to ADA vouchers in 2021. According to Input Output, over 99.8% of voucher holders cashed in their coins, and the remaining 18 to 24 million ADA were donated to Intersect, Cardano’s governance organisation.
Audit and Clarification of Redemption Process
Hoskinson discussed the motivations for the voucher sweep in his extended post on X. He found that elderly individuals and other Japanese retail investors had difficulties managing the initial redemption process. Cardano modified the redemption system through a hard fork to avoid commercial and moral risk. According to him, the approval of two Genesis key holders was necessary to ensure the community could keep an eye on changes.
He stressed that no ADA assets were diverted, and such stories are misleading. But Alexander says only a sliver of the ADA relocated by Tether has been made fully transparent. He explains that early investors were kept from their investments because of changes that users did not approve of. McDermott Will & Emery and BDO are conducting an audit to clarify the issue.
Also Read: 10 Best Cardano Wallets for April 2025
