In the wake of President Donald Trump’s announcement on Truth Social of the Strategic Crypto Reserve that includes Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Solana (SOL), XRP, and ADA, the founder of Cardano, Charles Hoskinson, has stepped forward to address recent skepticism about ADA’s inclusion.
On Monday, David Nage, a portfolio manager at digital asset-focused Arca, aired his perspectives on ADA via X, questioning whether the fundamentals justify its presence in a potential national reserve. “There is a lot of subjective takes on Cardano/ADA being discussed for the reserve,” he wrote. “I’ve been in crypto for 8 years, also running a venture fund and honestly I haven’t seen much from the ecosystem, so I dug into numbers for an objective look.”
He backed his assertions with multiple data points comparing Cardano to Ethereum, as well as an overview of the decentralized finance (DeFi) and stablecoin activity. Citing Electric Capital’s developer research, Nage claimed that Ethereum has roughly 1,889 monthly active developers, whereas Hoskinson’s project has 189, which he considers a significant gap.
According to Nage, Cardano’s impact on the broader DeFi space appears limited, with a reported 0.4% share of a total DeFi total value locked (TVL) at around $102 billion. “Projects in Cardano’s ecosystem,” he wrote, “span stablecoins, identity solutions, cross-chain connectivity, developer tooling, and real-world integration in healthcare, property, IoT, and infrastructure.” However, he emphasized that Cardano’s overall share of TVL, stablecoins, and developer activity lags well behind Ethereum.
He also drew attention to the ecosystem’s regulatory environment, especially with respect to stablecoins. “With the Stable Act 2025 + Genius the US is moving to solidify regulatory clarity in stablecoins. […] Cardano represents $22.3M of $223B or 0.0103139013% of the total stablecoin marketcap,” he wrote. While acknowledging the community strength, Nage argued that the numbers “do not support” Cardano’s portrayal as “an asset that is highly coveted” in the context of a strategic reserve.
In a direct query to Hoskinson, Nage specifically challenged three metrics: “1) Total DeFi TVL today stands at ~$102B; Cardano at ~$450M represents 0.4% of all TVL. 2) Cardano represents $22.3M of $223B or 0.0103139013% of the total stablecoin market cap. 3) Developers: ETH has ~1889; Cardano has 189. Why?”
Cardano Founder Reacts
Charles Hoskinson responded promptly, refuting Nage’s reference to Electric Capital’s developer metrics and arguing that the figures fail to capture ADA’s true breadth: “David the ECC report on developers is totally wrong and I have no idea where they got that number from. There are thousands in the ecosystem and I’d refer you to TapTools.io to see some of the many projects.”
Hoskinson also justified the low TVL numbers with the project’s relatively young age. “We are relatively young in the DeFi space with smart contracts shipping in late 2021 and got badly hampered by the bear market and also a dev model that took some time for people to learn and build tooling for. I’d encourage you to see the Messari reports how all metrics continue to grow year after year dramatically from 2023 on.”
Hoskinson further highlighted the platform’s unique features, such as the extended UTXO (eUTXO) model for transactions, its decentralized governance structure, and its own approach to scalability. He also underscored the magnitude of the developer community within his own organizations, stating: “To give you a sense of how wrong the ECC numbers are on devs, I have over 250 working for me on Cardano related stuff and I’m one of 15 companies working on core tech.”
At press time, ADA traded at $0.818.
