Charles Hoskinson says the Cardano "roadmap is complete" and everything he said would be built has finished. He made these claims during a YouTube livestream on Saturday while sparring with a disgruntled investor named shevilkid1738. The disagreement occurred as ADA sits 94% down from its 2021 high and 86% down from its 2024 high.
Investor disputes and price drops
The viewer shevilkid1738 claimed Hoskinson promised Cardano would overtake Bitcoin, but Hoskinson denied this. "I never promised that. I said I’d love for it to happen, and I believe that Cardano is a better store of value than Bitcoin is for a variety of reasons," Hoskinson said. He added, "I don’t promise price appreciation, or people overturning things. I say it’s absolutely possible." When the viewer cited a comment where Hoskinson said he "thinks" Cardano is "probably" going to become the biggest cryptocurrency in the world, Hoskinson pointed to his use of the word think.
Hoskinson stated he has "taken it as far as I can" because the network is now decentralized and does not rely on him. He told the viewer, "The roadmap is complete. Everything I said is going to be built has been built. It reached four times the value of Honda. There’s millions of people that have used it, and millions of people continue to use it. It is self-determining and self-governing, with its ability to pick and choose its own leaders without my consent."
Technical milestones and financial tension
The Cardano roadmap included five eras: Byron, Shelley, Goguen, Basho, and Voltaire. The final piece arrived in January 2025 when the Plomin hard fork gave ADA holders "real voting power" over the blockchain’s future. This marked the transition to "full decentralized governance" and the end of the final era.
| Milestone | Date |
|---|---|
| Byron launch | September 2017 |
| Shelley staking | July 2020 |
| Goguen smart contracts | September 2021 |
| Basho scaling | September 2022 |
| Voltaire governance | September 2024 |
| Plomin hard fork | January 2025 |
Hoskinson argued that investors simply want him to "pump your bags." He said, "Apparently, I have to go pump your bags, and if I don’t, I’m a scammer. Would you sign up for that deal? Would any human being sign up for that? I thought slavery was made illegal." ADA hit $3.09 in 2021, rose to $1.21 by the end of 2024, and fell to $0.17 recently.
