[DigitalToday reporter Yoonseo Lee] Charles Hoskinson (찰스 호스킨슨), founder of Cardano (ADA), said the crypto industry’s original purpose is not to expand the profits of large financial institutions but to restore individuals’ financial sovereignty and control over digital identity.

On May 7, blockchain media outlet The Crypto Basic reported that Hoskinson, in a keynote speech at Consensus 2026, presented sovereignty, decentralisation and individual-focused blockchain infrastructure as core tasks for the crypto industry.

Hoskinson said the crypto industry must again clarify what it exists for. He argued the industry should not devote itself to making the existing financial sector richer, which he said he sees as responsible for causing the 2008 global financial crisis. He stressed that the priority is to enable individuals to act as their own bank, control their own wallets and manage their own identities.

He also said crypto exists to change the world, and it should move in a direction where individuals have financial sovereignty and directly own digital identity and infrastructure. He argued the industry’s focus should be on strengthening user rights rather than institutional adoption itself.

Although he leads the Cardano ecosystem, Hoskinson drew a line against an attitude that treats only a specific chain as absolute. He said it does not matter whether such change comes from the XRP Ledger, Solana or the Bitcoin network. He urged the industry to focus more on a "connecting tissue" that links ecosystems rather than increasing competition among blockchains.

Such remarks also align with the interoperability stance he has long emphasised. Hoskinson has previously sought to build cooperative ties with Ripple and Stellar in late 2024. Midnight, Cardano’s partner chain, also distributed some tokens to users of 7 blockchains, including Bitcoin and XRP. It was a move that put more weight on expanding connections between chains than on a strategy centred on a particular camp.

Hoskinson also mentioned that the industry has endured years of regulatory pressure, scepticism and repeated market downturns. "It was a hard time, but the crypto industry is still standing. We're not dead, we're not in jail, and the president likes it too," he said. The remarks highlighted that the crypto industry has survived despite multiple crises.

He also cited changes in the stance of traditional finance. Hoskinson mentioned that JPMorgan had previously closed accounts linked to crypto-related activity. He said it has now shifted toward offering blockchain-related products and providing crypto exposure to wealthy clients. JPMorgan also runs its own private blockchain network and stablecoin.

Hoskinson assessed that such changes show how far the crypto industry has come. Referring to JPMorgan’s shift in stance, he said it was "proof that the industry is doing something right". He viewed the fact that strong resistance outside the industry is gradually turning into mainstream products and services as a sign of progress.

His remarks carry a message that the direction of the crypto industry should be turned back toward individuals, and that interoperability should take precedence over competition among chains. Hoskinson repeatedly stressed that even if mainstream adoption expands, the industry’s goal should not remain limited to incorporation into large financial institutions, but should be to build a structure in which users themselves can control assets and identity.

@IOHK_Charles: "We're not here to go make the people who blew up the world economy in 2008 even bigger and even richer. We're here to change the world." The Cardano founder reminds the room what crypto was for, on the @Anchorage Digital Mainstage at @consensus2026. pic.twitter.com/pCbjSVOGcz