Hoskinson promises audit, is ‘deeply hurt’ by $600M Cardano treasury claims

Update May 20, 2025, 6:25 am UTC: This article has been updated to clarify that the audit report is prepared by IOG, not the Cardano Foundation.

Input Output Global (IOG) is preparing to release an audit report on its treasury holdings after fresh allegations surfaced claiming misappropriation of roughly $600 million worth of ADA tokens.

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson is facing renewed scrutiny from community members, including non-fungible token artist Masato Alexander, who alleged that Hoskinson manipulated the Cardano ledger using a “genesis key to rewrite it and take control” of $619 million worth of Cardano (ADA) during the network’s 2021 Allegra hard fork.

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A secondary, “Move Instantneous Rewards” transaction dated Oct. 24, 2021, shows a transfer of over 318 million ADA tokens, which enabled the funds to flow from reserve pools into staking or treasury allocations.

However, ADA redemptions stayed open for another three years after the transaction, responded Hoskinson, adding that the “vast majority of that 350 million ADA was redeemed by the original buyers,” a process that took a total of seven years.

“IOG never gave itself 350 million unclaimed ADA. This is a lie. The vast majority was claimed, and the remaining that was forfeited after seven years of waiting was donated to Intersect,” Hoskinson wrote in a May 6 X post.

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Hoskinson confirmed that an audit report related to the hard fork is in progress, but added that he is “deeply hurt” by the community’s mistrust after the allegations.

“To not be given the benefit of the doubt here without strong evidence to the contrary means I don’t have the connection I thought with some people,” Hoskinson wrote in a May 18 X post, adding:

Hoskinson, who was also one of the co-founders of Ethereum, is among the leading figures in blockchain development.

Speaking at Paris Blockchain Week 2025, Hoskinson emphasized the need for collaborative economics in the crypto industry to counter growing competition from traditional tech firms entering the blockchain space due to growing regulatory clarity.

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