Charles Hoskinson has fired back at another wave of criticism surrounding Cardano and Midnight, arguing that some commentators have created an impossible standard for the ecosystem.
The latest exchange started after crypto commentator Bill, known as Late Night Onchain, reacted to Cardano by asking whether it was “the biggest grift in the history of crypto.”
Hoskinson responded aggressively, pointing to a contradiction he believes has followed Cardano for years.
Critics, he argued, repeatedly complained that Cardano had weak adoption, poor on-chain metrics and too few applications. Now that he is backing a project designed to attract significantly more users and assets, some of those same voices accuse him of abandoning or exploiting Cardano.
“You people are both stupid and scum,” Hoskinson wrote, adding that this behavior makes it harder for the crypto industry to be taken seriously.
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Midnight Is at the Center of the Latest Cardano Debate
The project behind much of this tension is Midnight.
Midnight is not simply another Cardano dApp. It is a separate privacy-focused partner chain with its own ledger, consensus system and NIGHT/DUST token model, but it is deliberately connected to the Cardano ecosystem. Cardano stake pool operators can participate in Midnight, and the networks are being designed for direct interoperability.
Hoskinson has invested approximately $200 million of his own money into Midnight and has presented the network as his attempt to solve one of crypto’s biggest adoption problems: businesses and institutions often cannot use completely transparent public blockchains for sensitive financial and personal data.Fires Back at Critics Calling Cardano and Midnight a ‘Grift’
That project has already attracted substantial attention.
Midnight’s token distribution involved more than 8 million participating addresses, while its earlier eligibility campaign targeted tens of millions of wallets across multiple ecosystems. NIGHT currently carries a market capitalization around $750-$770 million.
Midnight mainnet has also now processed more than 2 million transactions.
Idiot Commentators: "Cardano has no adoption, bad on-chain metrics, no one uses it. It’s just useless technology. Charles: "Ok, I’ll build something on Cardano that people will use, and that will have millions of users and billions in assets." Idiot commentators: "CHARLES SCAMMED YOU, HE RUGGED. DERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR" You people are both stupid and scum. I can’t fix stupid, and scum seems to be in style. Grow up, and maybe people will take this industry seriously. Or don’t, and be a joke. It’s not my fucking problem anymore.
— Charles Hoskinson (@IOHK_Charles) November 15, 2026
So there is clearly real activity behind the project, although Hoskinson’s references to “millions of users and billions in assets” should not be interpreted as proof that billions of dollars are already locked or actively transacting on Midnight.
Why Some ADA Holders Are Angry
The criticism does not come from nowhere.
ADA is trading near multi-year lows and remains roughly 95% below its 2021 all-time high. That has left many longtime holders frustrated as Hoskinson increasingly discusses Midnight and other projects built around Cardano rather than ADA price performance itself.
Hoskinson has also recently said Cardano’s original roadmap is effectively complete.
During a recent livestream, he argued that the protocol he committed to building has been delivered and that his role is now shifting from “building Cardano” toward “building on Cardano,” with Midnight as a central example.
That wording has fueled fears among some investors that Hoskinson is moving on from ADA.
His position is almost the opposite.
Hoskinson argues that Cardano cannot become valuable simply by existing as infrastructure. Developers actually have to build products on and around it that attract users, capital and economic activity.
He has made that argument before, saying Cardano needs applications capable of bringing real customers and businesses into the ecosystem.
Read also: 57.6% of Cardano’s Circulating ADA Is Now Staked
Midnight Success Does Not Automatically Mean ADA Success
This is where the debate becomes more complicated.
Hoskinson is right that criticizing Cardano for lacking adoption and then attacking every attempt to build adoption creates an obvious contradiction.
But Midnight becoming successful would not automatically guarantee higher ADA prices.
Midnight has its own native economic system. NIGHT provides governance and utility, while holding NIGHT generates DUST, which powers transactions. Midnight transactions also occur on Midnight itself rather than being settled as Cardano transactions.
The bullish argument for ADA therefore depends on indirect benefits: shared infrastructure, Cardano stake pool participation, interoperability, liquidity and developers or users moving between the ecosystems.
Those links are real, but their economic value to ADA still has to be demonstrated.
That distinction is important because both sides of the argument can contain some truth.
Cardano does need applications that people actually use, and Midnight is one of the most ambitious attempts yet to provide that.
ADA holders are also justified in asking how success elsewhere in the wider Cardano ecosystem ultimately creates demand for ADA itself.
Calling the entire effort a “grift” skips that more interesting question.
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