Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson told a YouTube audience over the weekend that the network's development plan is finished and that every commitment he made about building it has been delivered. The token, though, is trading roughly 94% below its 2021 record, and the session turned contentious as holders pressed him on what he still owes them.
ADA changed hands near $0.17 at the time of the livestream, against an all-time high of about $3.09 in September 2021, according to Decrypt data. The token is also down about 86% from its 2024 peak of $1.21.
Asked when his obligation to investors ends, Hoskinson replied: "The roadmap is complete. Everything I said is going to be built has been built." He added that the network "is self-determining and self-governing, with its ability to pick and choose its own leaders without my consent."
A five-era buildout, now closed
Cardano's plan was organized into five phases, the last of which wrapped up with governance changes.
Note: The Plomin upgrade gave ADA holders voting power over the chain's future, completing the transition to full decentralized governance.
Hoskinson tied the end of his original mandate to the expiration of a 2015 contract with Input Output Global, the company he leads as chief executive. Development will continue under new funding arrangements, he said, including additional applications and work on Leios, an upgrade intended to raise transaction throughput. That work falls outside the original agreement.
He also pointed to the RealFi mainnet, which went live on Oct. 1, 2026, among recent network improvements.
The Bitcoin comparison and the price fight
A viewer challenged Hoskinson over an earlier claim that Cardano would surpass Bitcoin. He rejected the characterization, saying he had framed it as an aspiration rather than a promise.
"I never promised that. I said I'd love for it to happen, and I believe that Cardano is a better store of value than Bitcoin is for a variety of reasons," he said. "I don't promise price appreciation, or people overturning things. I say it's absolutely possible."
When the same viewer later produced a clip in which Hoskinson said he thought Cardano was "probably" going to become the largest cryptocurrency, he drew attention to the word "think" and said he had "taken it as far as I can."
Hoskinson argued the frustration is fundamentally financial. "You want me to pump your bags. That's what you're really saying. The job's not done till it's pumped," he said, adding that no price level would satisfy every buyer because later entrants always expect more. "If you retire at five, you've defrauded the person at five."
He also said he had never committed to supporting the token's market value. "Would you sign up for that deal? Would any human being sign up for that?" he asked.
What it means for holders
Hoskinson's remarks draw a line under the founder-led phase of Cardano's development and shift the question of accountability to the network's on-chain governance, where ADA holders now choose leadership. For investors, that removes the expectation of a central figure steering the roadmap, but it also leaves price performance tied to adoption rather than to promised milestones.
Critics have pointed to thin usage of Cardano's decentralized finance services and to Hoskinson's attention to other ventures, including Midnight, as reasons for concern. The network's technical progress has so far not translated into a recovery in ADA, which remains far below the levels reached during the 2021 cycle and the rally at the end of 2024.
