Cardano’s 2026 Comeback: Is It Real?

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Oh, Cardano. Honestly. Charles Hoskinson, bless his optimistic heart, has had a bit of a moment – a very long live AMA, to be precise – responding to some, shall we say, robust community feedback. Apparently, people are suggesting Cardano isn’t exactly setting the world alight? Imagine! 🙄

He’s basically done a point-by-point rejection of claims that it’s suffering from a lack of, well, everything – adoption, liquidity (or the lack thereof), interoperability, and a somewhat sluggish marketing team. It’s like when you try to explain to your mother why your life choices are perfectly valid. It just…doesn’t land sometimes. The whole thing is anchored by this “Midnight” partner chain, which sounds very mysterious and possibly involves ninjas. 🤷‍♀️

He was all, “It’s not fair!” which is always a strong argument. Apparently, people are ignoring the ‘pipeline developments’ – which, naturally, are very exciting but haven’t actually materialized yet. The distinction between actual usage and, like, just thinking about using Cardano is apparently crucial. Who knew? 🤔

And the stablecoin debate… sigh. Everyone wants Tether or Circle to magically fix everything, apparently. Hoskinson pointed out they already have USDM and USDA, which, apparently, are just fine. He’s even minted them himself! (Which sounds…involved.)

As for the whole TVL thing (Total Value Locked, for the uninitiated – it’s complicated, don’t ask), it’s not low, we’re just not counting all the important stuff. 1.3 million people are participating in governance and staking. Apparently that doesn’t count towards TVL, because reasons. 🤷‍♀️ It’s all rather…creative accounting, isn’t it?

The real problem isn’t a lack of users, you see. It’s that actual Cardano users aren’t actually using Cardano DeFi. A tragic situation, really. If they did, things would be, oh, $5 to $10 billion better. Seriously.

Midnight: The Savior?

So, the big hope? Midnight, the privacy-preserving partner chain. It’s going to fix everything. Apparently. Hoskinson has spent six years building it, which is a long time to spend building anything, frankly. It’ll have Tier 1 exchange listings and “over 100 partnerships” and connect to…basically everything. It sounds impressively ambitious. And potentially slightly delusional. 🤪

The idea is that people will create yield with Midnight tokens and then use Cardano DeFi. It’s a circle of life, really. The Midnight drop is going to be the largest in the history of everything (bigger than Arbitrum!), with millions of addresses already participating. Kraken and Gate are on board. It’s going to be huge. Probably.

And the stablecoin situation? Resolved in 2026, thanks to Midnight’s negotiation skills and some kind of recursive snark bridge. Honestly, it sounds like something out of a sci-fi film. 🚀

Scaling Concerns? Not a Problem (Apparently)

“Severe network congestion?” What congestion? Hoskinson insists the blocks are only about a third full. Hydra, a scaling solution, is “working on mainnet,” although you probably haven’t noticed because it’s very subtle.

And Leios, a data availability thingy, is also happening! It’s being released next year. There’s a website coming. It’s scaling “with values,” which means…slowly and deliberately? 🤫

Marketing and Accountability (Finally)

Hoskinson admits the marketing has been a bit…underwhelming. He’s going to fix it personally, with four major events per year. Apparently, they “took over” Token2049 (the Wi-Fi, apparently). He wants a sustained campaign around Cardano’s “USPs” – Unique Selling Points, for the uninitiated. Because everyone knows USPs are always effective.

But the biggest problem? Nobody’s accountable for anything! It’s a classic situation – everyone’s problem is no one’s problem. Which is deeply irritating. He wants a framework with KPIs. He also threw some shade at the Cardano Foundation for not tweeting enough about Midnight. Drama! ☕

The Future is… Africa, Bitcoin DeFi, and Partnerships

There are plans for Cardano-native DeFi apps in 2026 and the Africa microfinance project is still going, apparently. It’s just that nobody remembers it happening. 😉 Bitcoin DeFi is also on the horizon, lending and converting into stablecoins. Billions of dollars of TVL are predicted, naturally.

They’re talking to Near and Tezos and Algorand, and even trying to get Chainlink on board (but that’s proving expensive). And they’ll keep improving the developer experience with Plutus v4 and StarStream. It’s a lot. A lot.

Hoskinson closed by promising more partner chains and relentless advocacy. We can either complain or solve the problem. And together, they will succeed. Hopefully. 🙏

At press time, ADA traded at $0.577.

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2025-11-04 07:16