Cardano’s Hoskinson Says ‘Best Days Are Ahead’: ADA Price Down 95% From Top

Charles Hoskinson says Cardano’s “best days are ahead,” even as its native token, ADA, trades 95% below its all-time high.

The Cardano founder made the remark during a recent X AMA. He was responding to ADA’s prolonged slump and the criticism that has followed it.

Why Cardano is Feeling the Pressure

ADA trades near $0.16 today. The token hit its all-time high of $3.09 in September 2021 and has fallen 53% so far this year alone.

Governance disputes, builder shutdowns, and Cardano’s canceled 2026 summit have deepened the pressure. Hoskinson has also faced mounting criticism from the community over the slide. He stepped back from social media at one point, then returned to address the backlash directly.

“I still do believe our best days are ahead of us, and I still do believe that we can succeed despite the demons we’ve let in. We just have to change the approach, and we just have to change the strategy.”

— Charles Hoskinson, on X

Hoskinson Has a Plan

The comment echoes Hoskinson’s recent push for a funding overhaul. He wants to clear a backlog of more than 600 million ADA in treasury requests. He argues that the network’s security and utility drive ADA’s price, not short-term speculation.

The bottleneck comes down to a hard cap. Cardano’s treasury allows only 350 million ADA in net funding changes at a time, well short of what builders are requesting. Hoskinson has proposed spreading development across more independent companies instead of leaning on Input Output Global, the firm he leads, to carry the load alone.

Whether a strategy shift can turn Cardano’s price trend around remains an open question. ADA still trades far below its 2021 peak, leaving Hoskinson’s optimism as the main counter to a bearish market narrative.