Cardano Founder Rejects Allegations That He Improperly Appropriated Millions of ADA

Charles Hoskinson, co-founder of Cardano and chief executive of engineering company Input Output Global (IOG), has rejected claims that he improperly appropriated hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of ADA from the blockchain's 2015-2017 token-generation event (TGE).

The Cardano founder took to X on Wednesday to respond to a post by X user Masato Alexander, who had questioned a movement of 350 million ADA via a Monetary Incentives Recalculation (MIR) withdrawal.

Last October, Alexander claimed that the operation, which he described as one of the largest ledger reorgs in blockchain history, saw Hoskinson rewrite the Cardano ledger and take control of ₳318 m ($619 m).

The transaction saw 350 million ADA, originally allocated for vouchers, become reduced to $7 m USD that would ultimately fund Intersect, a Cardano-affiliated member organization.

However, in his response, Hoskinson insisted that the numbers had been misread.

"Because you cannot read, the vast majority of that 350 million ada was redeemed by the original buyers. It took seven years," he told Alexander.

In a detailed post, Hoskinson explained that the TGE's smart-contract design required a full seven-year waiting period before unclaimed vouchers could be recalled.

He added that the collapse of Attain, the original third-party voucher vendor, and the Cardano Foundation's decision in 2017 not to assume the voucher redemption work were the primary reasons "many people at IOG have spent years of their lives, thanklessly, on this program."

The Cardano founder said the TGE entity is now "in the last stages of the redemption process since the final buyer is nearly through with his claim."

Once the final claim is processed, Hoskinson wrote, "the final act of the TGE will be to issue an externally audited report on the entire crowdsale and the redemption history to the founding entities and Intersect. It will then begin the process of shutting down."

That report, he added, will form the basis for any legal action IOG may pursue against commentators who continue to allege misconduct.

"Should they continue to assert that IOG stole funds, we will pursue legal action," he stated.

"99.8 percent of all Ada Vouchers sold were redeemed by their original buyers. After seven years, the remaining 0.2 percent were returned to the TGE and donated to Intersect through the same process that funded the Cardano Foundation," Hoskinson elaborated.

He further noted that "no report on this has been published because the redemption process has been ongoing since the protocol launched in 2017."

"As we are now considering litigation against those slandering us, we will make no further statements until the closing report is published. We will then send letters to the relevant parties demanding retractions and apologies," concluded Hoskinson.