Cardano (ADA) founder Charles Hoskinson (찰스 호스킨슨) pushed back against criticism over a lack of liquidity and real-world usage in the ADA ecosystem, highlighting recent launches and infrastructure integrations.

On Oct. 5, blockchain outlet Decrypt reported that Hoskinson said Cardano has been working this year on RealFi, Midnight, Forge and Pentad-based integrations, adding, "What more am I supposed to do?"

The dispute began after a community participant claimed that launching Midnight as a separate network hurt ADA holders. Hoskinson denied it. He cited that the NIGHT token was issued on Cardano and directly criticised the view that projects emerging from the Cardano ecosystem are harmful to Cardano. "Are you saying launching a project on Cardano is bad for Cardano?" he said, questioning the basis of NIGHT's issuance as well as its listing and wallet support structure.

The criticism did not stop there. Another participant criticised Hoskinson, pointing to Cardano's low liquidity, insufficient stablecoins and decentralised exchange trading volume. The participant also said he shifts responsibility to ADA holders while not holding developers accountable.

Hoskinson responded by citing work carried out this year. "We just launched RealFi, Forge is in progress, and Midnight has launched," he said. He also stressed that work is under way to connect LayerZero, Fireblocks, ICE and Circle to Cardano through Pentad. He also mentioned Draper and AlphaGrowth.

Some timelines were also set out. RealFi went live on the Cardano mainnet on Oct. 1 after months of public testing. The Midnight network began operating in March, and NIGHT was first launched in December 2025 as a Cardano native asset. An artificial intelligence-focused application linked to the Midnight ecosystem, "midnight.city", is currently running in open beta.

Forge, a Bitcoin-focused DeFi project, was also mentioned. Forge was introduced as a structure dealing with credit, yield and bridges, but a treasury proposal seeking 12.29 million ADA failed in September after it did not win enough support. Still, Hoskinson said the project is continuing.

On infrastructure, Pentad-related progress was presented as central. USDCx and ICE have already begun operating, and LayerZero is being rolled out in stages. Fireblocks has announced plans for full support for Cardano native tokens.

The debate is also spilling into on-chain figures. Cardano's DeFi total value locked is about $68.3 million, and the stablecoin supply is $67.2 million. Decentralised exchange volume was tallied at about $4.05 million over 24 hours and $41.0 million over seven days. Weekly volume rose 133 percent. Over the same period, active addresses were about 18,964 and transaction count was 34,905.

These figures are far from claims that there is no activity on Cardano, but they also serve as a yardstick for the performance of recently launched services. With RealFi only just live on the mainnet, future assessments are more likely to hinge on actual deposits and usage than on development-stage promises. As Hoskinson has argued that RealFi could be a key driver lifting Cardano's total value locked, market attention is expected to focus on changes in actual on-chain indicators.

The stupidity is strong here. Apparently, launching a project on Cardano is bad for Cardano. Tell me where is night the issued. What was the first CNA to be listed on Binance? What wallets do people use to manage their night? If this is how Cardano treats the people building on Cardano, then who will build on Cardano?