One of cryptocurrency’s most outspoken founders has launched an attack on Ripple and its CEO Brad Garlinghouse, accusing the company of shaping the CLARITY Act in ways that benefit Ripple while placing devastating burdens on every other blockchain project in the industry.
Charles Hoskinson, the founder of Cardano, did not hesitate.
The basic accusation
Hoskinson’s central argument is that the current version of the CLARITY Act, as shaped by Ripple’s influence, would make every new blockchain project a virtual security while giving a major exemption to Ripple and XRP. From his point of view, this is no coincidence. It’s a calculated move by a well-financed company to maintain its own position while dragging the ladder behind it.
“They are trying to pass a bill that harms the entire ecosystem while getting protection,” he said.
He also raised serious concerns about the liability of open source developers, arguing that the current language in the bill could expose independent developers to unlimited legal liability simply for building on blockchain. For a space that largely runs on open source code, this would likely be an industry-ending clause.
Bremen argument
Hoskinson went further, pointing to Ripple’s token distribution as evidence that the company never needed the industry’s help or solidarity. He noted that Ripple had given itself what he described as a massive seed mine worth tens of billions of dollars at current valuations, and therefore had more than enough resources to fight the SEC on its own without seeking community support.
“I did not give myself 70% of the ADA supply,” he said pointedly, directly contradicting his own approach to distributing Cardano tokens.
His argument was that Ripple fought the SEC for its own business interests, not for the broader good of the cryptocurrency industry, and that the XRP community’s belief that Hoskinson should have supported them financially misunderstands the situation and who actually needs the help.
The law of clarity and what is at stake
Hoskinson’s frustration with the CLARITY Act extends beyond Ripple specifically. Once such legislation is enshrined in law, it becomes nearly impossible to change, he said, pointing to the Securities Exchange Act of 1933 as a 93-year-old example of how financial regulation tends to calcify.
He said he proposed a solution: creating a new definition of digital security that would include blockchain-based detection, 24/7 liquidity, and the ability to trade on exchanges, which would have addressed the stablecoin yield controversy and brought all parties including banks to the table. He says this suggestion was ignored.
His warning is stark. Pass a flawed bill now, and it will be weaponized in two or three years by whoever has political power at that point.
Community reaction
As expected, the XRP community strongly resisted. Supporters have accused Hoskinson of attacking Ripple out of competitive jealousy, arguing that he is only raising these concerns because Cardano will lose ground if XRP and Ripple gain more regulatory legitimacy.
Hoskinson addresses this directly, saying that the inability to separate an argument from the person making it is itself part of the problem. He pointed to years of social media consumption and what he called poor cognitive hygiene as reasons why nuanced conversations about politics are nearly impossible in the cryptocurrency space.
The question the industry now must answer before May is simple: Who exactly is the Clarity Act being written for?
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