Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson has publicly responded to criticism from the XRP community regarding his stance during Ripple's legal battle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Hoskinson stated he publicly opposed the SEC's lawsuit against Ripple from the beginning, but firmly rejected claims that he or other crypto leaders should have provided financial support to the company.
Hoskinson argued that Ripple possessed ample resources to fund its own defense, pointing to the company's massive pre-mine of XRP tokens, worth billions of dollars. He further cited Ripple's $1.2 billion acquisition of Hidden Road as clear evidence of its strong financial position, asserting that expecting competitors to finance the legal case "lacked logic."
The debate intensified as XRP community members countered that public statements were insufficient and that industry figures should have offered direct financial aid. Critics also challenged Hoskinson's focus on token distribution, questioning why he rarely discusses Ethereum's ICO allocations in similar terms.
Hoskinson expanded his criticism to Ripple's support for the proposed Clarity Act, delivering a sharp rebuke during a weekly livestream. He argued that the bill, as currently drafted, contains structural flaws that could classify new tokens as securities by default while potentially granting exemptions to established players like Ripple. "He's trying to pass a bill that makes everything by default a security until proven otherwise," Hoskinson said of Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, calling the framework a "non-starter" for the broader market.
He warned the legislation could recreate the regulatory pressure inflicted by former SEC Chair Gary Gensler, but this time through industry-supported law. Hoskinson also raised alarms that the bill removes protections for DeFi and open-source software developers, potentially exposing them to "transitive unlimited liability" for downstream use of their code. He analogized this to holding an author liable if a reader committed murder after being inspired by a book character.
Hoskinson denied that his criticism stems from rivalry with XRP or Cardano (ADA), maintaining he targets policy, not competition. He reiterated that Ripple had sufficient capital throughout the SEC proceedings and questioned the company's broader industry advocacy. Ripple and CEO Brad Garlinghouse continue to endorse the Clarity Act, with Garlinghouse stating "clarity is better than chaos" and projecting the bill could pass in the second quarter.
