Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson has responded to renewed criticism over the network's Total Value Locked and the allegedly slow growth of decentralized finance (DeFi ).
On October 31, Hoskinson acknowledged the gap between Cardano 's DeFi activity and leading blockchains like Ethereum and Solana. However, he said the numbers do not reflect the broader participation and governance strength of the network.
Cardano Bets on Bitcoin Interoperability to Unlock Liquidation of Dollars Worth of DeFi Liquidity
Hoskinson refutes the long-held view that simply introducing stablecoins like USDT or USDC would automatically completely change Cardano 's DeFi ecosystem.
“No one has made a convincing argument or explanation that if just one of these major stablecoins were in place, all of Cardano 's DeFi problems would instantly go away, the price would go up, drastically improving our MAU, TVL and everything else,” he said .
Their emergence alone, he argues, will not solve the network's structural challenges or ensure growth.
According to him, Cardano already has native asset-backed stablecoins like USDM and USDA, which can be issued on demand and rarely lose Peg .
Instead, Hoskinson believes that user behavior is the main reason why Cardano 's DeFi TVL remains small.
To give you an idea, he said the network has about 1.3 million users Stake or participating in governance, holding a total of more than $15 billion in ADA.
However, these numbers are not counted towards the TVL metric, and the majority of ADA holders remain passive participants rather than actively providing liquidation .
“Cardano has a rich ecosystem. There are a lot of people around. A lot of people who hold ADA, have Cardano wallets, have been in our ecosystem — in many cases for more than five years. But not many of them have crossed the chasm to use DeFi on Cardano,” he said.
This difference creates a “chicken-and-egg” loop for the Cardano ecosystem , he added. According to Hoskinson, the low level of network activity makes partners and liquidation flows hesitant, while the lack of external integrations further limits on-chain adoption.
To overcome these limitations, Hoskinson outlines a multi-year roadmap that ties DeFi growth to real-world finance and interoperability with Bitcoin.
He highlighted the Midnight network — a privacy-focused sidechain — and RealFi, a microfinance platform targeting African markets, as key initiatives.
Both will integrate with Bitcoin DeFi , allowing ADA and BTC to be lent, converted to stablecoins, and used in real-world lending products.
Hoskinson expects the combination to create “billions of dollars” of new liquidation and attract massive Bitcoin Capital . He also cited ongoing projects like Leios as evidence that Cardano is still evolving at the protocol level.
Still, he admits that Cardano 's core problem is coordination and accountability, not technology.
“It’s not a technology issue. It’s not a node issue. It’s not a problem of imagination and creativity. It’s not a problem of execution. We can do almost anything. It’s a problem of governance and coordination and ultimately accountability and responsibility,” Hoskinson said.
To address this, he proposed clearly assigning responsibilities for ecosystem expansion. He also called for focused marketing strategies and events to mobilize ADA holders to participate in DeFi.
“The problem is not our ability to run a marketing campaign. The problem is not our ability to release good software. The problem is that there is no one responsible for actually thinking about it, implementing it, and being accountable for its results. That is the problem in a nutshell. So that is the problem we have to solve in the next year as we look towards 2026,” he said.
