Hugo Philion (휴고 필리온), co-founder of blockchain company Flare, publicly backed Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson (찰스 호스킨슨) resuming activity on X, formerly Twitter.

On June 10, blockchain outlet The Crypto Basic reported that Philion said of Hoskinson's return to X: "The crypto industry would be worse off without Hoskinson, Cardano and Midnight."

The comments came right after the two figures recently traded public barbs over XRP and bitcoin interoperability and a bitcoin-based decentralised finance (DeFi) strategy. Philion has criticised Cardano for doing unnecessary work on XRP and bitcoin interoperability. He has argued the functions can already be implemented by using FXRP and Flare Bitcoin (FBTC) through LayerZero.

Philion also drew a line separating his technical differences from the need for Hoskinson's presence in the industry. He effectively acknowledged Cardano's contribution within the industry even after their recent clash.

The dispute intensified in early last month when Hoskinson presented a plan to make bitcoin an asset that can be used for smart contracts through Cardano. Cardano set out a goal of enabling bitcoin holders to access DeFi applications, earn yields and use various financial services.

Philion countered that Flare already provides the right solution. He noted that Cardano launched in 2017 and was about 6 years ahead of Flare, which started in 2023, but that total value locked (TVL) at the time, based on DeFiLlama, was about $159 million for Flare and about $132 million for Cardano.

Philion argued that Cardano has been following a similar strategy for years, including oracles and FAssets such as FXRP and FBTC, and an integrated DeFi layer that supports XRP, bitcoin, Stellar (XLM), real-world assets (RWA) and stablecoins. Hoskinson responded: "This criticism is just an old-fashioned way to get attention," and said Philion's remarks were aimed at gaining promotional effect.

After the exchange, Hoskinson said he would cut back on external activities for a while. On June 3, he posted a short message on X saying he would return after taking a break. During this period, the broader crypto market weakened and ADA also plunged, falling below $0.20 for the first time in about 5 years. As the market weakness continued, it also slipped below $0.15.

Hoskinson soon moved to quell what he called excessive market interpretation. In a June 4 livestream, he said he was not leaving Cardano. He explained that he would step back from frequent activity in videos, interviews and X to take time to collect his thoughts.

He later returned to X on June 8 and broadcast focused on his view that "Cardano is still the only ecosystem capable of running the world." Philion's message of support came immediately after the return. The recent confrontation over technical strategy continued, but it was again confirmed that it is difficult to deny Cardano's presence in the market and ecosystem competition.

It’s nice to see @IOHK_Charles back in the saddle. I have disagreed with him in the past regarding duplication of work on XRP & BTC interoperability - my position is that networks can just use FXRP & FBTC via @LayerZero_Core . More importantly this space would be worse off…