Latest news with #Hoskinson
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
3 Reasons Cardano's New Bitcoin Treasury Plan May Backfire
Cardano might swap some of its native token for Bitcoin. That has a few bearish implications about what the chain's management thinks. It's also questionable whether it would accomplish the goals management described. 10 stocks we like better than Cardano › Cardano (CRYPTO: ADA) founder Charles Hoskinson wants to convert roughly $100 million of the cryptocurrency, or about 5% to 10% of the chain's treasury of 1.7 billion tokens, into Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC), plus a basket of Cardano-native stablecoins. The objective would be to shore up the chain's liquidity for its decentralized finance (DeFi) applications, and prove that Cardano can compete with its faster-growing rivals. The proposal sounds bold, but so far investors seem to be judging the move as bearish; the coin slid 6% on the news, capping off its fall of 35% this year so far. Here's why the market's skepticism is warranted, and why the plan could end up hurting the chain rather than helping it. Crypto treasuries exist to fund future development and buffer shocks. It's normal for chains to retain some coins that are issued by their competitors, and it's also normal for chains to retain some Bitcoin. In fact, it's necessary for DeFi projects to be able to access on-chain liquidity denominated in external tokens. The issue is that this late in the game, swapping a large cache of native tokens for an external asset is a message about management's confidence, or the lack of it, in Cardano's long-run value. Liquidity wasn't a major constraint for DeFi on the chain leading up to this discussion. So there's an implication by management that the chain's total value might actually grow faster if it holds less of its native token. Hoskinson argues the trade would be gradual and conducted over the counter to avoid slamming the price of Cardano. But the idea of diversifying suggests leadership fears continued dilution or sluggish demand for its own coin. That signal already rattled holders. If management won't keep its war chest in Cardano, why should outside investors keep it in their portfolios? Cardano's DeFi footprint is relatively small today. Its total value locked (TVL) was about $260 million as of June 17, with only $31 million of on-chain stablecoins. With the swap, Hoskinson hopes to lift the stablecoin-to-TVL ratio from roughly 10% to between 33% and 40%. That calculation doesn't really amount to much, though. Even if every dollar of the $100 million allocation landed inside Cardano applications, the chain's TVL would climb to about $260 million. That's still less than 1.5% of its nemesis Solana, which hosts $8.3 billion in TVL and $10.8 billion in stablecoins. The size of the gap would hardly budge, yet a large volume of Cardano would need to be sold to fund the experiment. And that sale pressure could easily eclipse the incremental liquidity benefit. The point of deeper liquidity is to attract borrowers, investors, and developers to the chain. Cardano's main obstacle is that few of those players are waiting on the sidelines right now. Its flagship decentralized exchange (DEX), Minswap, handles about $2.4 million in daily volume. The chain's biggest dollar-backed stablecoin has volume of a mere $50,000 a day. Without a reason for users to stick around, or compelling yields to offer to those who park their capital on the chain, new Bitcoin collateral risks becoming even more idle capital. And that would make the swap have a poor return for the chain, to say the least. Meanwhile, competitors keep raising the bar. Solana's DeFi user base is expanding, and Ethereum keeps slashing its gas (user) fees. Investors weighing where to deploy fresh capital will compare those ecosystems to Cardano's, and the comparison is not a favorable one for Cardano's holders. Cardano's community prides itself on deliberate engineering, but capital markets reward traction more than talk. A treasury diversification that scratches the surface of liquidity while advertising doubt about the coin's upside could end up a self-inflicted wound. Investors should monitor the situation, and perhaps consider selling the asset before it loses more value. Before you buy stock in Cardano, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Cardano wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $659,171!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $891,722!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 995% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 172% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of June 9, 2025 Alex Carchidi has positions in Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. 3 Reasons Cardano's New Bitcoin Treasury Plan May Backfire was originally published by The Motley Fool
Business Insider
6 days ago
- Business
- Business Insider
Charles Hoskinson Wants to Swap $100M in ADA for Bitcoin & More
Here we go again. Hot on the heels of Polkadot's proposal to diversify into Bitcoin, Cardano (ADA-USD) co-founder Charles Hoskinson just floated his own $100 million crypto chess move. The idea? Convert a chunk of ADA treasury into Bitcoin and stablecoin, and inject real liquidity into Cardano's DeFi ecosystem, where stablecoin adoption and user activity still lag far behind rivals like Solana (SOL-USD). Confident Investing Starts Here: Hoskinson pitched the plan on a livestream, suggesting that $100 million worth of ADA be swapped into a mix of Bitcoin, USDM, and USDA. The goal is bold: supercharge Cardano's DeFi scene by pumping up stablecoin activity and kickstarting Bitcoin DeFi on the network. While it echoes Polkadot's recent strategic reserve idea, the Cardano twist adds fuel to an already simmering internal debate. Because not everyone's on board. Hoskinson Defends the Sale, Blasts Critics Critics immediately flagged the risk of market impact. But Hoskinson wasn't having it. He dismissed the concern as noise from 'inexperienced' voices. Liquidity, he claimed, isn't a problem. 'This wouldn't cause any problems at all,' Hoskinson said, adding that ADA's depth and trading volume can absorb the move. That may be true in theory. But a $100 million offload, even via a slow DCA strategy, still raises questions in a market where sentiment can turn on a dime. Stablecoins Are 'Killing Cardano,' Says Hoskinson In a post on X, Hoskinson got blunt: Cardano's lagging DeFi and stablecoin footprint is 'killing' the network. Currently, only about 10% of Cardano's $356 million total value locked (TVL) is in stablecoins. Compare that to Solana's $9.8 billion TVL and $11 billion in stablecoins, and the contrast stings. Hoskinson wants to push that ratio to 30%–40%. He believes the proposed swap would unlock 'non-inflationary revenue' and establish Cardano as a serious DeFi player, not just a speculative token. Internal Split Deepens as Gregaard Stays Cautious But not everyone at Cardano agrees on the path forward. Frederik Gregaard, CEO of the Cardano Foundation, previously downplayed the importance of TVL as a metric for adoption. He's taken a more cautious, infrastructure-first view of Cardano's future, one that doesn't rely on flashy capital moves. Hoskinson's proposal seems to throw that playbook out the window. It's not just a bet on assets, but a bet on an entirely new pace for Cardano growth. What's Happening with ADA? While prices haven't cratered on the news, the market isn't exactly cheering either. Traders seem to be waiting to see whether the proposal actually makes it to a governance vote—and how it's structured. The method, if adopted, would likely involve dollar-cost averaging over a long period to avoid price shock. But as with Polkadot, the broader impact may be psychological: is this the moment when altcoin projects quietly admit that Bitcoin is the safer bet? This Could Be a Turning Point for Cardano If the $100 million swap goes through, it would mark the biggest capital shift in Cardano's history. It signals urgency, a recognition that without a thriving DeFi and stablecoin ecosystem, ADA risks getting left behind. More than a treasury move, it's a philosophical change. Less narrative, more numbers. Less ideology, more interoperability. Whether the community embraces that reality or fights it, the next chapter for Cardano is already being written—in Bitcoin. At the time of writing, ADA is sitting at $0.64.
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Cardano's Charles Hoskinson Suggests Swapping $100M of ADA for Bitcoin, Stablecoins
Cardano co-founder Charles Hoskinson has floated the idea of converting $100 million worth of ADA tokens into bitcoin BTC and stablecoins. "We could take $100 million of ADA in the treasury, convert it to a blend of stablecoins incumbent in Cardano so USDM and USDA and convert some of it in bitcoin to prime bitcoin DeFi," Hoskinson said on a YouTube live stream. He then hit back at critics that claimed a $100 million sale would impact the price of ADA, calling them "inexperienced" before adding that the sale "would not cause any problems at all." The goal of the sale would be getting the ratio of stablecoin issuance and TVL to around 30% to 40% versus the current roughly 10%. Total value locked on Cardano stands at $356 million with just $31 million worth of stablecoins minted on-chain, DefiLlama data shows. Solana meanwhile has $9.8 billion in TVL and $11 billion worth of stablecoins minted on-chain. In a tweet Hoskinson said that the stablecoin situation is "killing Cardano" and that the proposal would generate "non-inflationary revenue" and help build the Cardano DeFi economy. Hoskinson's comments are at odds with those of Cardano Foundation CEO Frederik Gregaard, who told CoinDesk in March that TVL is not a metric he used for adoption. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
WIRED
04-06-2025
- Entertainment
- WIRED
Days-Long ‘Dark Retreats' Are the Newest Spiritual Conquest for Tech Elites
Jun 4, 2025 7:00 AM A crypto founder and celebrities like Aaron Rodgers and Tiffany Haddish have tried the pitch-black retreats, described as 'meditation on steroids.' Some see terrifying hallucinations. Courtesy of Sky Cave Retreats Just 12 hours after entering a pitch-black, 400-square-foot cabin dug into the hillside in southern Oregon, crypto founder Charles Hoskinson fled in terror. Hoskinson, 37, who created Cardano, the 10th biggest crypto coin—with a market cap of around $24 billion, set out to spend five days in complete darkness at the Sky Cave center 'to gain a deeper understanding of myself and the world,' he told his million followers on X in early January, a couple of days before going in. But he cut his journey inward short after suffering from 'terrifying shadows gnawing at my soul, sleep paralysis demons, and [an] inability to breathe,' he posted, equating the grueling overnight experience with a cult horror movie. 'Much wisdom gained, but I need a few days off at the ranch since starring in The Ring wasn't on my 2025 bucket list.' Hoskinson declined to speak to WIRED for this article, but Sky Cave founder Scott Berman confirmed his attendance. Hoskinson is not the only tech elite seeking spiritual enlightenment in the dark. Darkness retreats remain niche, but they have become the latest extreme spiritual practice for founders, athletes, influencers, psychonauts, and yogis to attempt traversing and later flex about. Typically, a darkness retreat consists of several days alone in a room in complete darkness and silence. Participants are delivered three meals through a hatch that maintains the darkness in their dwellings, which also each contain a bed, bath, and flushing toilet. They can leave simply by opening the door, and they can also break their silence to chat with the facilitators at two intervals throughout the day when they come to the door to check on them and bring the food. Electronic items like phones or tablets are not allowed inside dark rooms, making it perhaps the ultimate dopamine fast. Imagine a meditation retreat, but alone, in the dark. 'It's meditation on steroids,' says Andrew Holecek, an author and lucid dreaming teacher. This might partially explain why short-on-time celebrities are embracing it. Four-time NFL MVP Aaron Rodgers has spent four days in the dark, as has comedian Tiffany Haddish, while NBA star Rudy Gobert and decorated former baller Dwight Howard did three days each. 'It was the best thing I ever did,' Howard wrote afterward. 'Life just feels simple again.' But the possible benefits are in direct proportion to the risks, Holecek warns. 'You can go to incredible depths really quickly. This is where the promise and the peril lies.' Courtesy of Sky Cave Retreats While retreats offering people voluntary isolation in the dark are relatively few, the practice has ancient roots. The Buddha is said to have meditated in a dark cave for long periods before gaining enlightenment. The prophet Muhammad was isolating in a cave when legend says an angel dictated the first verses of the Quran to him. When Abraham, the founder of Judaism, followed a calf into a cave, it was there that he is believed to have found the entrance to the Garden of Eden. Even today, infants identified as future shamans in Colombia's Indigenous Kogi community are sent into the relative dark for extended periods to access altered states of consciousness. 'In the practice of darkness, people have to learn to spend time on themselves,' says Taoist master and dark retreat facilitator Mantak Chia, who published a 2002 manual titled Darkness Technology . 'There is nobody to talk to, nothing to see. They have to turn inwardly into their body. I guide them into the calm and let the body's healing energy activate.' Chia ran darkness retreats in the US in the 1980s, making him one of the modern pioneers in spreading the practice. The darkness, according to Chia, who facilitates group darkness retreats in Thailand, is the ultimate setting 'to let go, and forgive and forget.' People are typically drawn to darkness retreats because they wish either to go into a state of deep inquiry, simply unplug, deepen their meditation practice, or explore altered states, according to Berman. Others, it seems, want to conquer a gargantuan challenge—facing off with humanity's most primal fear, harking back to a primordial prefire age when predators circled vulnerable early humans during the night. Facilitators say that the first day or two, flush with all the darkness-induced overproduction of melatonin, is often of deep rest—if one can remain blissfully asleep without any sleep paralysis demons disturbing them. The initial sensations of the darkness could feel akin to taking a sedative drug. Then, comes the introspection, interspersed with periods of discomfort, angst, or serene enjoyment. And, around day three, hints of psychedelic visuals, even with the eyes open, and a feeling not dissimilar from the final stages of a DMT trip. Some studies report that sensory deprivation environments can induce troubling hallucinations and paranoia, as with other altered states. But Chia says the hallucinations are a hallmark of the beginning of 'enlightenment, because you see the light.' Courtesy of Sky Cave Retreats There are around five darkness retreat centers in the US, Berman says, with approximately 100 worldwide. Sky Cave has three dark rooms; four-night retreats cost $1,770, with an extra night to settle in and another to decompress afterward. The potential effects of prolonged darkness have not been studied well, but there are early indications to suggest that the practice may have a host of mental health benefits; a Czech center claims it can ease 'long-term fatigue and stress' through spurring the processing of inner experiences. When people come out of one of Sky Cave's three 'caves,' video footage shows some crying with emotion. But the process of subjecting oneself to solitary confinement in complete darkness also carries little-understood risks. 'To my knowledge there has as yet not been studies reporting on the negative outcomes of dark rooms for extended periods in naturalistic environments, although there are numerous isolated anecdotes of psychotic-like symptoms and prolonged dissociation,' says David Luke, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Greenwich who has conducted research on dark experiences and the similarities with psychedelic trips. Some people at Berman's center have spent as long as 40 days in one of his light-deprived dwellings. Others lasted just half an hour. 'We don't let people come any longer than four nights anymore,' says Berman. 'We don't actually think this is beneficial, as we tend to find that most people use some kind of coping strategy to stay in the dark for long periods of time.' Such strategies, Berman explains, are difficult to define, but they essentially pertain to people 'doing' things in the dark, even meditation or spiritual practices—rather than simply relaxing, doing nothing, and surrendering a sense of control. This ultimately insulates them to some degree from the mysterious and deeply self-reflective process the darkness is said to instigate, he says. 'This is a very dangerous practice if it isn't done right,' adds Holecek, who expressed particular concern for people who go in with 'a machismo, white-knuckle' mentality. 'I know people who have gone in who come out worse,' he says, explaining that a 49-day retreat was once an advanced Tibetan Buddhist rite of passage outside of a few traditions in which it is still used. 'It fell out of favor because ill-prepared, unsupported people went in for 49 days and then, instead of attaining enlightenment, they would literally go crazy.' Jason Halbert, former vice president of people and global security at Snap, did a darkness retreat at Sky Cave in February 2024. Speaking to The Profile podcast shortly after, Halbert, a behavioral scientist, explained that it took him about a day to get used to not absentmindedly checking his phone. 'When you're truly deprived of any inbound visual stimulation, be it your phone, light, TV—eventually you're left with dreams, thoughts, and blackness,' he said. 'We don't realize the enormous amount of triggers that anchor our identity.' Describing himself as someone who 'thinks all the time,' Halbert likened his four-night spell in the dark to 'cleaning up my office' and said it helped him ponder how to be a 'better human, professional, dad, coach, and husband.' (Halbert left Snap in 2019; in 2017, The Information reported that current and former employees alleged he told 'odd' and 'inappropriate' stories at work. Halbert told WIRED the allegations are 'false.') According to Luke, some people are more prone to hallucinations than others. And not everyone embraces them. 'It's distracting to them,' says Berman. 'The lights and stuff kind of feel a bit overwhelming and draw them back out of the subtleties.' But wellness entrepreneur and author Aubrey Marcus took it in his stride. 'These stalactite mites were dripping in gold, almost like Nickelodeon gak,' he says of his six-night experience at a center in Germany's Black Forest in 2020, which he documented, helping to introduce the practice to his spiritually inclined Joe Rogan podcast listener fans. Marcus also had visions of flashing strobe lights, fractal geometry, and aliens, who he claims to have communicated with. 'I would say it would be like the twilight of a really heavy, highly visual DMT experience,' he says. Marcus said he slept for 12 hours on the first night, according to data captured by his wearable, but by the end of his sojourn he was sleeping for less than two hours, 'because the visions were just so strong.' Some darkness practitioners and facilitators claim the hallucinations people experience are due to the possibility of prolonged darkness elevating levels of endogenous DMT, a potent psychedelic found not only in small amounts in the body but also in many plants. This is an 'as yet unproven and controversial hypothesis,' Luke wrote in a 2019 anthology, Psychedelicacies . 'Theoretically, the longer you spend in there, the more of a trip it becomes,' he says. Holecek, the lucid dreaming teacher, has his own dark room within his home and has clocked hundreds of days in darkness. 'You're entering the death space,' he says of the practice, referencing the Tibetan Buddhist state of 'bardo,' in between death and rebirth. 'People, I've discovered, are simultaneously magnetized and repulsed by darkness.' So where next for the practice? Berman says Sky Cave has a two-year waiting list, and a 'big tech founder' is set to visit in the coming months. He and Hocelek are working with Berman and the Institute of Advanced Consciousness Studies on a scientific study to measure any psycho-spiritual shifts brought about by the practice. 'I'd say we're hardly at the tip of the iceberg of where this will be in five or 10 years,' Berman says. While he's coy on being too evangelical about the potential benefits of the dark, 'there are incredible transformations that happen for people here,' he says. 'We can begin to see ourselves as we actually are.'
Yomiuri Shimbun
27-05-2025
- Business
- Yomiuri Shimbun
‘Magnificent 7' Could Adopt Stablecoins in Next 3 Years, Says Crypto Platform Founder
Japan News file photo Charles Hoskinson during his visit to Tokyo in September 2024 Cardano blockchain founder Charles Hoskinson expects IT giants will enter the cryptocurrency space within three years, spurred by U.S. President Donald Trump's vow to make America the crypto capital of the world. 'Now institutional investors like the BlackRocks, the Goldman Sachses and large companies like the 'Magnificent 7,' like Microsoft and Google and Apple, are much more likely to enter the cryptocurrency space,' Hoskinson told The Japan News in an online interview in May. Using crypto 'saves them money,' he added. When firms sell products abroad, they normally have to conduct transactions through middlemen, such as local payment systems and banks that charge commissions. On top of which, there are fees for changing currency. However, if a firm has a cryptocurrency on its own network, it can save money through direct transactions, said Hoskinson, who also cofounded Ethereum blockchain platform. 'Facebook tried about five, six years ago with a project called Libra, which later became Diem, and unfortunately it fell apart because the regulation just wasn't there for issuing a stablecoin,' he said. But because of Trump's support, 'it's very likely within the next 12 to 36 months that these large companies will enter in, including Japanese companies.' He added that if companies like Toyota Motor Corp. adopt this technology, their dealerships could pay them with tokenized yen to save on transaction fees. Businesses did not use crypto previously because of 'the compliance issues and the legal issues. But now that the United States is entering the space, it's opening up the laws.' Planning for the long term In January, Trump signed an executive order to establish a strategic reserve for bitcoin, mirroring existing reserves for petroleum and gold. He followed that up with an order to promote legitimate dollar-backed stablecoins and hosted a first-of-its-kind crypto summit in March. The sudden and successive announcements have even surprised Hoskinson. In March, he learned from a post by Trump on his app Truth Social that the strategic crypto stockpile would include Ethereum, XRP, Solana and Hoskinson's own Cardano. 'When the Federal Reserve discusses interest rates, they say it over 30, 40 pages of dense prose and very careful language. They typically don't tweet,' said Hoskinson, adding, 'That is just the nature of this president.' Hoskinson's concern now is whether the slew of new policies will hold long-term. The White House under U.S. President Joe Biden had taken a tough stance on cryptocurrency, but now the Trump administration is targeting this asset for its reserve. The drastic shift in policy is 'creating some heartburn for us in the industry,' said Hoskinson. To ensure that crypto policies last, he noted the industry is working very closely with the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs as well as the House Committee on Financial Services, 'trying to pass laws for many administrations.' 'Trump will no longer be president in January of 2029, but whatever laws we pass will likely still be in effect at that time period,' he said. 'So that's why we're very focused in those directions.' 'Above my pay grade' Trump has also become personally involved in crypto ventures. In January, he launched the $TRUMP memecoin, and the coin's top 220 buyers recently won access to an exclusive gala dinner with the president. In March, World Liberty Financial, Inc., a crypto project affiliated with the Trump family, announced that it would issue a stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar at a 1:1 ratio. Although these coins are not controlled by the government, the move has drawn allegations that Trump is using his position to enrich himself. Hoskinson said he doesn't take a negative or positive view of Trump's actions, as judging the president is 'above my pay grade.' 'We don't really try to pick winners or losers,' he added. 'We just say, 'Are there good laws and also are the markets growing and are we achieving our commercial ends?''
