Hoskinson Claims Cardano as Decentralized as Bitcoin, As There Was “No ADA ICO”

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson has defended the project’s decentralization status, comparing it to Bitcoin and noting there was no ICO for ADA coins.

Many blockchain projects have come under the radar of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for selling alleged securities. Cardano is one of those projects, with its native coin ADA named in multiple lawsuits brought against crypto companies by the U.S. securities regulator.

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson has publicly denied these allegations, arguing in a recent livestream that the Bitcoin network is no more decentralized than Cardano is. Hoskinson shared a more detailed insight into his thoughts on the subject following a response by Blockstream CEO Adam Back.

Adam Back sought to convince Charles Hoskinson that BTC fundamentally differs from ADA because Bitcoin does not have a CEO, does not organize an ICO, and does not have a foundation backed by tokens issued during an ICO.

In view of the foregoing, Adam Back noted that both ADA and Ether (ETH) qualify as securities under U.S. laws. At the same time, BTC is a commodity and deserves the different treatment it receives.

@IOHK_Charles it’s very simple: Bitcoin did not do an ICO, most people thought it had no value, it was mined from zero, it is decentralised, there is no CEO, ICO warchested “foundation”, incorporation etc. so cardano, eth etc clearly pas howey, Bitcoin is a commodity and does not

— Adam Back (@adam3us) November 27, 2023

Cardano Had No ICO, Charles Hoskinson Claims

Charles Hoskinson vehemently disagreed with claims that ADA is a security, adding that there was “no Cardano ICO.” He clarified that there was an airdrop to a broad audience who subsequently began trading ADA and integrating it into their projects without knowing each other.

However, the Cardano founder admitted that a voucher sale for ADA coins was organized in Japan early in the project’s development (between 2015 and 2017).

Yet, he labeled the vouchers as “another asset,” priced in Yen, sold in BTC, and exclusively in Japan to Japanese investors. The unique demography of the sale and its exclusion of U.S. investors means it cannot be considered an “ICO of ada,” Charles Hoskinson tweeted.

There was no Cardano ICO. There was an airdrop onto a distribution and then thousands of people who never met each other traded Ada on exchanges and used Cardano for their projects.

A voucher sale of a different asset outside of the United States, priced in Yen, settled in…

— Charles Hoskinson (@IOHK_Charles) November 27, 2023

Information on Cardano’s official website shows that the project raised 108,844.5 BTC from the sale, with a portion of the proceeds donated to the Cardano Foundation.

Other funding went towards the project’s development, with the Cardano team also receiving ADA coins as “compensation to spend years building Cardano,” according to the founder.

The latest exchange on X between Adam Back and Charles Hoskinson has evidently brought to light information about Cardano that may not be known to newer investors.