Cardano Surges as Founder Hoskinson Says He Will Be “Working With Lawmakers in Washington, D.C.”
Cardano's native token ADA surged to its highest level since April 2024 with the news that its founder Charles Hoskinson would be helping shape cryptocurrency policy in the United States. The digital asset soared 33% to $0.64 before falling back to $0.59 at the time of writing.
Hoskinson is renowned for his contribution to the development of Ethereum before he started building Cardano. He has now announced his intention to be a strong policy adviser on cryptocurrencies when Donald Trump takes office in 2025. "A large part of my time in 2025 will also be devoted to the political process," he said in a video.
He has yet to be appointed to an official role, but Trump’s campaign has shown a willingness to listen to industry leaders regarding the development of regulatory policies for crypto.
Hoskinson recently unveiled a strategic pivot for Cardano, branding it as a Bitcoin layer-2. The system supposedly uses the known security and liquidity of Bitcoin while allowing the faster processing of transactions. The site is making significant technological strides with the creation of a new partner chain called "Midnight," which should be launched in the next year according to Input Output Global's CTO Romain Pellerin during his Bangkok Staking Summit presentation.
The Midnight blockchain will offer advanced features of privacy and selective disclosure, with Cardano's stake pool operators hardening those very features. Much like how stake pool operators—who are central to Cardano's proof-of-stake consensus mechanism—get rewarded in $Night tokens, the governance structure is anchored in the Cardano network.
