Charles Hoskinson, the founder of Cardano and CEO of Input Output (IO), sparked a public debate after criticizing the hype surrounding the Canton Network on X.
Hoskinson said the network, backed by traditional financial institutions, is trying to catch up on what XRP and Midnight have already built, and argued that Canton doesn’t fully understand what makes Web3 special.
Yuval Rooz, founder and CEO of Digital Asset and the Canton Foundation, responded by challenging Hoskinson’s claims. He questioned what Cardano has actually achieved and asked for clear data, especially around DeFi and decentralized exchange activities, to support Hoskinson’s arguments.
I’m excited to see legacy finance come together with Canton and try to build on what XRP and Midnight are already doing, at a scale 100x greater than their ambitions.
These guys never learn or understand what makes Web3 unique and meaningful.
— Charles Hoskinson (@IOHK_Charles) December 26, 2025
Hoskinson retreated by listing Cardano’s key achievements. He said Cardano introduced secure, non-custodial staking and was the first blockchain to use the EUTXO smart contracts model. He also highlighted Cardano’s strong academic support, noting that its security model has been widely cited in research papers.
Hoskinson defends Cardano’s strengths
In addition, he pointed to Cardano’s large on-chain governance system and said the network has avoided major smart contract hacks. While admitting that Cardano’s DeFi activity is still weaker than some rivals, Hoskinson said this should improve next year as new integrations are launched and more Bitcoin and XRP assets enter the ecosystem via the Midnight chain.
The discussion continued, with Hoskinson criticizing Canton’s ties to legacy finance and referencing past financial crises. Hoskinson said some members of the Canton consortium were involved in the 2008 financial crisis. According to Hoskinson, the same group is now promoting digital asset treasury companies that sell an “infinite money problem” idea.
However, Rooz denied this, saying his companies were not defrauding private investors, and tried to end the discussion. The broader crypto community responded with mixed opinions, with some supporting both sides and others urging cooperation rather than public disputes.
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