Cardano Founder Hoskinson Warns of ‘Cargo Cult’ Projects In Crypto

In his latest livestream titled “Cargo Cults and the Reality of Crypto,” Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson delivered an extensive monologue on what he perceives as the current state of digital assets, community behavior, and ongoing legal battles in the sector. The discussion delved into industry history, the fate of long-forgotten projects, and the sometimes-troubling culture that can arise around certain tokens.

Cardano Founder Speaks Out On HEX

Broadcasting from Colorado, Hoskinson began by explaining his recent move back to his farm and expressing excitement about nearing completion of construction. He quickly shifted focus to a broader assessment of the crypto landscape, noting that tens of thousands of cryptocurrency projects exist and that new ones frequently emerge, while older ones fade or even reawaken.

“As many of you know, there are probably more than 30,000 cryptocurrency projects floating around,” Hoskinson said. “We pay attention to maybe 50 to 100 at any given time that are interesting in novel.” He categorized most projects into three buckets: Failed or fading projects (e.g., Peercoin, NXT, Feathercoin), projects that were outright scams (e.g., BitConnect, Celsius, and Luna) and the third bucket, projects that are “curiosities,” with unusual communities and nontraditional approaches to tokenomics, marketing, or culture.

From this framework, the Cardano founder homed in on how certain projects—what he labeled as the “third bucket”—tend to behave. He singled out Hex and PulseChain as an example, stressing that those communities have repeatedly demanded his input in Ask Me Anything (AMA) sessions. “Every single AMA I have done for the last probably five years […] there’s been at least one person saying, ‘What do you think of Richard Heart? What do you think of PulseChain? What do you think of Hex?’”

He stated that, technically speaking, he remains largely uninterested: “Don’t know much about it […] outside of the fact that I know Richard Hart is an incredibly ostentatious and unusual person who buys lots of luxury goods […] and seems to have a popular YouTube channel.”

While not assigning guilt or innocence, Hoskinson highlighted that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) brought forward a personal case against Hart for alleged fraud and misappropriation of $12.1 million. He contrasted that situation with ongoing SEC cases against companies such as Coinbase, Binance, and Kraken, which focus on whether certain assets are securities:

“Cases like the one against Richard are different and those will persist,” he argued, further noting that the SEC complaint includes claims of personal misconduct and misuse of funds, rather than solely token classification questions.

Hoskinson also mentioned reports of an Interpol Red Notice tied to Hart, along with allegations related to tax evasion in Finland and an assault case. He cited this as evidence that the situation extends beyond civil disputes and may invite coordination from the IRS and US Department of Justice in criminal matters.

“There is an Interpol red notice […] that’s an undebatable, undeniable thing,” the Cardano founder asserted, though he acknowledged that some within these communities believe the charges to be fabricated.

After referencing these details, Hoskinson revealed that he has been bombarded with accusatory comments and tweets from certain PulseChain and Hex supporters. He said their aggressive approach ultimately discourages any possibility of collaboration: “You will achieve absolutely nothing by further harassment […] all you’ve achieved is whatever little interest I may have had of actually looking into your ecosystem is now over.”

He then drew parallels to other crypto founders or personalities who, in his view, foster contentious communities—specifically comparing the situation with Craig Wright and his Bitcoin SV (BSV) backers: “This is what happened in the BSV community with Craig. We all watched it [… ] and honestly, ask yourself, how many people are waking up today and saying, ‘Boy, I can’t wait to build my next project on BSV’?”

Hoskinson concluded with what he deemed “unsolicited advice,” urging these communities to evaluate the kind of ecosystems they want to become—independent of their founders—and whether the current approach will foster partnership or repel potential collaborators. “If you’re truly a cryptocurrency and you’re truly decentralized, you should be self-governing and you should be different from your founder,” he said. “If that’s the case, you have to ask yourself again what type of ecosystem do you want to be?”

Despite the harsh tone, Hoskinson wished the communities luck, emphasizing that Cardano itself intends to remain neutral and uninvolved: “I have nothing against anyone in the PulseChain community, the Hex community […] I don’t care about your ecosystem,” he stated, adding that he will not be engaging further on the issue.

At press time, Cardano traded at $0.95.