Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson said Cardano's technological capabilities have improved significantly from 2024, but the market's assessment and its standing in the industry fall short.

On July 31 local time, blockchain outlet The Crypto Basic reported that Hoskinson, in a recent livestream, compared Cardano's current situation with 2024 and directly mentioned the gap between technological progress and market assessment.

Hoskinson cited the Ouroboros Leios upgrade as the basis for Cardano's technological competitiveness. The upgrade, currently being tested, aims to significantly increase transaction throughput and scalability. He viewed the development progress as showing again that Cardano is among the most research-focused blockchains in the industry.

He acknowledged that technical achievements have not translated into market performance. He said the level of assessment Cardano receives for its brand, its market position and within the crypto industry is below where it should be. He stressed that important strategic decisions are needed to regain competitiveness.

The remarks came as Cardano tries to recover after a prolonged downturn. ADA once rose to $1.31 after the 2024 U.S. presidential election, maintaining its status as a top-10 digital asset, but later plunged. It now trades around $0.18, down about 87 percent from its December 2024 peak. Its market capitalisation ranking also slipped to 13th.

Beyond price weakness, internal ecosystem issues continued. Some projects ended, and Cardano infrastructure developer EMURGO pulled out of Pentad. Disputes over governance also continued, weighing on community sentiment. In this situation, Hoskinson made clear he would keep pushing the ecosystem forward even if not everyone agrees with his approach. He said he already knows the direction he wants to take, and participants who share the same vision should help with execution rather than wait for a general consensus.

Hoskinson also asked the community to focus on "getting ADA back on track" and restoring "Cardano's culture of winning". On the long-term outlook, he described Cardano as a blue-chip blockchain and said it has already established itself as one of the industry's foundational networks. He also said changes in market cycles and intensifying competition will not undermine its long-term relevance.

Hoskinson also said he plans to establish a political party and create delegated representatives, or DReps, that directly participate in on-chain governance as part of a plan for a Cardano rebound. He said the idea could help respond to growing cynicism and pessimism within the ecosystem and encourage more constructive participation in governance.

Ultimately, the tasks Hoskinson laid out are closer to restoring market trust and reorganising leadership than to technology development itself. Whether Cardano can turn scalability improvements and governance restructuring into a real driver of a rebound has become a point to watch going forward.

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