An independent investigation commissioned by Input Output found no evidence to support accusations of fraud or misconduct in Cardano’s decade-old ADA Voucher Program, according to a forensic report released on.

The review, conducted jointly by law firm McDermott Will & Emery and accounting firm BDO, examined public claims that insiders misused ADA, manipulated blockchain upgrades to block redemptions, or improperly diverted unredeemed tokens.

The 150-page report, dated Sept. 2, 2025, concluded the allegations “do not have any basis.”

Redemption efforts and findings

Investigators reviewed tens of thousands of documents, carried out blockchain and forensic analyses, and interviewed 18 people ranging from former employees to voucher holders.

Their findings showed that 14,282 vouchers, representing 99.7% of all ADA sold in the program, were successfully redeemed through a mix of on-chain redemptions and a follow-up recovery initiative.

Contrary to claims that elderly investors were disproportionately targeted, only 6.1% of vouchers were sold to people over 65. Of those, just 14 vouchers remain unredeemed.

The report said the program included safeguards to prevent misrepresentation, and distributors who broke rules were suspended. When Cardano’s Byron-era redemption process ended in 2017, 390 vouchers, worth 318 million ADA, remained unclaimed.

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Input Output launched a “Post-Sweep Redemption Project” that deployed consultants and private investigators to track down voucher holders. That effort raised the overall redemption rate to near totality.

Use of unredeemed funds

The report also addressed concerns about unredeemed ADA. In 2023, 68.25 million tokens judged unlikely to be redeemed were transferred to Cardano Development Holdings, a Cayman-based foundation overseen by the nonprofit Intersect.

Those funds supported ecosystem growth through continuity contracts, grants, and community projects. Intersect was formed in July 2023 by Input Output and EMURGO, which each pledged $500,000 annually to the group’s operating budget.

The report said much of the transferred ADA went toward contracts with Input Output Infrastructure, which in turn paid subcontractors under strict monitoring procedures.

The findings mark the strongest rebuttal to long-running social media accusations that Cardano insiders enriched themselves at the expense of early investors. Input Output said it released the full report to “ensure transparency” and encouraged community members to review it.

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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.