The CLARITY Act Controversy
Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson lashed out at the XRP community, calling its members “evil” and accusing them of lacking critical thinking skills. While he expressed support for Ripple in its battle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Hoskinson stressed that Cardano did not provide financial backing because Ripple was already well-resourced.
His remarks came in a video posted on X, responding to claims that he failed to support Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and his team during the company’s legal fight. The primary catalyst for this spat is a deep philosophical disagreement over Brad Garlinghouse’s lobbying efforts. Hoskinson alleges that Ripple’s CEO is championing a version of the CLARITY Act, a piece of legislation he claims would treat new crypto projects as securities by default unless proven otherwise.
According to Hoskison, this legislation would effectively “clear the competition” for established players like Ripple and advance its bottom line rather than the industry’s collective cause. However, XRP supporters have hit back, accusing Hoskinson of jealousy and of abandoning Ripple as it spent $200 million fighting the SEC.
Meanwhile, in his video, Hoskinson revived long-standing criticisms of Ripple’s massive pre-mine, claiming the founders gave themselves tens of billions of dollars and did not need outside help.
“The Ripple Organization gave themselves a mammoth pre-mine. That’s a fact. Its like tens of billions of dollars that they have access to. They didn’t need any money,” Hoskinson claimed.
He contrasted this with Cardano’s launch, saying he did not allocate himself 70% of ADA’s supply. Hoskinson also repeated his argument that Ripple is not fighting for the broader cryptocurrency industry and suggested that years of exposure to social media and “yellow journalism” have left the XRP community unable to separate arguments from the people making them.
FAQ ❓
What did Hoskinson say about XRP? He called the XRP community “evil” and accused it of poor critical thinking. Why didn’t Cardano support Ripple financially? Hoskinson argued Ripple had billions from its pre‑mine and didn’t need help. What sparked the clash with Garlinghouse? Hoskinson criticized Ripple’s push for the CLARITY Act, saying it hurts other projects. How did XRP supporters respond? They accused Hoskinson of jealousy and of abandoning Ripple during its SEC fight.
