Charles Hoskinson, the founder of Cardano, has publicly defended his influence on the blockchain network’s development following growing criticism.

In an Aug. 3 post on X (formerly Twitter), Hoskinson addressed the negative claims suggesting that his leadership was detrimental to Cardano’s progress.

Hoskinson pointed to the success of his other project, Midnight, highlighting its significant expansion with over 100 partnerships across eight ecosystems. He also emphasized the project’s liquidity influx for Cardano Native Assets (CNAs) and its leadership in Bitcoin’s DeFi space.

According to Hoskinson, these efforts have brought billions in Total Value Locked (TVL) and millions of transactions into the Cardano network.

Hoskinson further explained his strategic focus last year on deploying key technologies like Peras, Leios, and Hydra, while referencing major initiatives such as Doom and the Glacier Drop.

Moreover, he noted that his push for rapid development and significant marketing efforts, including appearances on popular shows like Shawn Ryan’s, has expanded Cardano’s reach to new audiences, including 19 million potential users.

In response to criticisms from online trolls and what he called “Charles Drangement Syndrome,” Hoskinson argued that the broader Cardano community remains unaffected and is thriving.

Considering this, Hoskinson emphasized to the critics that:

“You lost. I’m here to stay in Cardano. Deal with it.”

Input output secues $71 million funding

Meanwhile, Input Output Global, a company founded by Hoskinson, has received approval to access 96 million ADA, worth around $71 million, from the Cardano treasury.

On Aug. 2, the firm revealed that its funding proposal passed with 74% of community support.

The firm stated that the fund would support upcoming Cardano upgrades, including improvements to scalability through Hydra and Ouroboros Leios, enhanced security with Mithril, and streamlined user interactions via Nested Transactions and Project Acropolis.

Tim Harrison, EVP Community & Ecosystem, said:

“For the first time, core protocol development is being funded directly by the community. This vote of confidence empowers us to move forward with full transparency, shared responsibility, and a renewed commitment to building an open, resilient ecosystem.”

Meanwhile, Intersect, a Cardano community group, will oversee fund distribution.

Input Output has also committed to providing regular updates, including monthly development reports and quarterly financial summaries, to keep the community informed on the project’s progress.

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Tim Alper

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Tim Alper

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Tim Alper is a British journalist and features writer who has worked at Cryptonews.com since 2018. He has written for media outlets such as the BBC, the Guardian, and Chosun Ilbo. He has also worked…

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June 1, 2025

Russian investigators confiscated crypto worth around 649 million rubles ($8.2 million) from the wallets of Dmitry Pavlov, the 35-year-old self-confessed server mastermind behind the Hydra darknet portal.

The Russian newspaper Izvestia reported that documents unveiled in court this month confirmed law enforcement officers have frozen and seized coins from Pavlov’s crypto wallets.

Hydra Darknet Server Operator ‘Was Paid in Crypto’

Pavlov testified that he received the cryptoassets in the form of “a salary and bonuses” in return for maintaining Hydra servers.

A criminal ring paid Pavlov “about 15 million rubles ($189,277) a year” in crypto for his services, prosecution officials explained.

The accused said that he did not sell his coins for cash. Instead, he held on to the crypto, hoping that its price would continue to grow.

Hydra operators also paid Pavlov cash to cover maintenance costs, prosecution officials added. A branch of the Moscow District Court jailed 16 people for orchestrating Hydra in December last year.

The operation’s mastermind Stanislav Moiseev was jailed for life after the court heard that the portal facilitated over $5 billion in crypto transactions.

Prosecutors said that Russian experts agreed with Chainalysis estimates about the size of the firm’s crypto turnover.

‘Couriers Brought Pavlov Bags of Cash’

Moiseev and others handed Pavlov money to rent and maintain servers at the German company Hetzner, prosecutors explained.

These costs alone amounted to 1.5-2 million rubles ($18,928-$25,239) per month. Hydra managers “periodically” sent Pavlov couriers with bagfuls of cash, prosecutors added.

Hydra’s annual turnover at the time of closure was $1.7 billion, a Rosfinmonitoring employee testified at Pavlov’s trial. The staffer estimated that the platform took cuts of 2% to 5% from crypto transactions made on Hydra.

Rosfinmonitoring (officially the Russian Federal Financial Monitoring Service) is the nation’s top anti-money laundering agency.

Another expert testified that that the “net profit of Hydra’s co-founders alone,” taking into account-related services, amounted to “about 100 billion rubles ($1.3 billion) a year.”

Last month, Chainalysis reported that while there was a 15% decline in global crypto sales across darknet markets in 2024, Russian sites bucked the trend. The latter saw a 68% rise in crypto sales, the firm said.