Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson becomes the latest industry leader to criticize Senate Democrats' leaked proposal to regulate decentralized finance.
In a YouTube livestream, Charles Hoskinson XEM the provisions of the proposed rule, and he used the opportunity to deliver a broader political critique, aimed primarily at Democrats.
Hoskinson Criticizes Treasury's Power to Blacklist DeFi Protocols
Adding significant weight to the industry’s opposition, Hoskinson detailed his issues with the Democrats’ proposal for decentralized finance (DeFi) in a livestream posted today.
The Cardano founder criticized some of the provisions in the leaked document, arguing that if passed, the proposal would give the US Treasury the power to create a restricted list of DeFi protocols “without judge, jury, or appeals process.”
Hoskinson drew attention to the excessive discretion of the Treasury and regulators under this proposal, which would have the power to decide whether a protocol is truly decentralized or not, “without oversight.”
“They basically have a kill switch and anything they don't like dies instantly,” he said.
Hoskinson also criticized the removal of developer protections. According to the document, anyone who designs, deploys, or operates an interface service for a DeFi protocol could be classified as a regulated intermediary. He argued that this definition would make anyone building DeFi applications “criminals.”
Abandoning the “small investor”
Going beyond his criticism of the DeFi proposal, Hoskinson issued a harsh criticism of the Democratic Party .
“It's about, 'let's maximize power, centralize all industry, and give an uncaring and unaccountable government absolute power over everything,'” he said, adding, “I don't know why people vote for Democrats… They're the most unethical people. Democrats don't stand for anything. They stand for big organizations, that's all.”
Hoskinson went on to discuss what he sees as hypocrisy within the Democratic Party regarding their past support for “the little guy.”
“The little guy is the DeFi user . The little guy is the person who downloads a browser wallet or mobile wallet and buys an Non-Fungible Token or participates in a meme coin . The little guy is the person who built crypto — not Chase, not Goldman Sachs, not Google, not Pfizer,” he said.
The Cardano founder went on to argue that if the US criminalizes and marginalizes the crypto industry – which he predicts will grow from a $4 trillion industry to a $10 trillion one – it would hand this significant economic advantage to its global competitors.
Hoskinson ended his livestream with a strong call to action, urging listeners to write to their senators and express their opposition.
“Let’s leave this market structure bill as it is. This is a good bill; it was bipartisan in the House, we can make it bipartisan in the Senate. Don’t let a small group of Democratic senators sabotage the whole process. Let your voices be heard, let them know there are consequences for this in 2026… We can’t lose this fight.”
