In a wide-ranging two-hour livestream on December 26, Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson addressed ongoing discussions around partnering with Ripple, advancing a Chainlink integration, and bridging Bitcoin into the Cardano ecosystem. Speaking from Gillette, Wyoming, Hoskinson provided new details and timelines for these initiatives, emphasizing security requirements and technical collaboration across multiple blockchains.
Update On The Potential Cardano And Ripple Partnership
Hoskinson described the relationship with Ripple as “early days,” highlighting a desire to incorporate Ripple’s infrastructure into Cardano’s upcoming privacy-focused sidechain, Midnight. “We’d like to include Ripple in the Midnight ecosystem,” he stated, underscoring that his team and Ripple CTO David Schwartz have pursued technical conversations about how both platforms could benefit from each other.
“There are ongoing talks between the Midnight people and the Ripple people and a lot of technological talks as well. And we’ve been trying to learn more about how their stack works,” Hoskinson confirmed
He also referenced Cardano’s smart contract language, Marlowe, suggesting it could be of particular interest to Ripple developers. “There’s some tech we invented, in particular Marlowe, that would be tremendously useful with the Ripple ecosystem, and it would be a lot of fun to see what we can do there and also just some things in Ripple like Flare, for example, are pretty cool, pretty interesting” he explained.
Nonetheless, Hoskinson noted that partnership agreements require time to “ferment,” adding, “First step was just technical conversations and that’s what we did with David [Schwartz] who’s been tremendously helpful and a great asset. Then at some point once you’ve got beyond that, then there’s actual integration work and other things to get done, but overall they’ve been easy to work with.”
Chainlink Integration
Addressing Chainlink’s absence on the Cardano blockchain to date, Hoskinson recalled initial discussions from 2021 in which the two teams had reached an agreement to integrate oracle services. Despite the early enthusiasm, the project never fully materialized.
“We talked about integration. They agreed to do it and, for a long time, I thought they had integrated on the chain,” Hoskinson said, describing how the initiative became stalled. “Where I don’t think there’s a commercial issue or an integration or technical issue, something got cross-wired […] we’ll circle back and I’ll find out what happened there.”

He reiterated Cardano’s interest in oracles—crucial infrastructure that feeds real-world data onto the blockchain—mentioning alternatives such as Charlie3 and Flare. At the same time, Hoskinson reaffirmed that no bad blood exists between the parties.
“I know Sergey [Nazarov], the Chainlink ecosystem has always been very friendly to us,” he continued, reiterating plans to reopen discussions.
Bridging Bitcoin To Cardano
In one of the AMA’s more in-depth technical segments, Hoskinson outlined plans to integrate Bitcoin into Cardano’s ecosystem—discussions that involve multiple teams exploring trustless bridging solutions.
“Anytime assets move from one blockchain to another blockchain, that is a point of attack,” he said, pointing to the string of exploits that have plagued cross-chain protocols in recent years. “We’ve witnessed literally billions of dollars in hacks.”
Hoskinson stressed the importance of formal methods and security proofs in building a robust BTC–ADA bridge, warning that “the single most important bridging project” cannot be rushed to match shorter market cycles. Instead, the goal is to unveil a reliable, cryptographically rigorous design by Bitcoin 2025, the industry conference slated for May 2025.
“We can’t put our fingerprints on it until we know the cryptography works,” he said, “because if we build something and a year down the road there’s a billion dollars worth of Bitcoin in it and it gets hacked, that’s a catastrophe.”
Alongside the core IO (Input Output) developers, several community-driven teams have been experimenting with bridging approaches under monikers like Bitcoin OS. Hoskinson noted such parallel efforts are welcome in an open ecosystem, though he emphasized that his own organization’s effort focuses on “belt-and-suspenders” security. “We’re really good at understanding what’s real and what’s not real, and building things that stand the test of time,” he concluded.
At press time, ADA traded at $0.90.

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Ripple and Elon Musk Highlight SEC’s Legal Missteps Under Gensler
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), under outgoing Chair Gary Gensler, has faced backlash across various sectors; the latest as and when, the agency demanded a monetary settlement from Tesla CEO Elon Musk to avoid legal action.
Vivek Ramaswamy, one of  the earlier Presidential candidates, criticized the SEC on X (formerly Twitter), accusing the agency of undermining the rule of law.
He argued that the SEC often “contorts its rules in unconstitutional ways,” leading to multiple legal defeats and eroding public trust.
Ripple and Other Critics Take Aim at the SEC
Canadian-American venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya emphasized that partisan regulators misuse their authority to target individuals they oppose.
According to him, these tactics disproportionately affect those without the resources of figures like Musk.
Holding the SEC Accountable
Ripple’s chief legal officer Stuart Alderoty reiterated these sentiments, calling Gensler’s SEC “rogue.” In Ripple’s lawsuit, a U.S. court observed that the SEC appeared to prioritize its goals over adherence to the law.
Alderoty urged the public to hold the agency accountable and proposed a discussion with Ramaswamy to address these concerns.
The chief legal officer at American fintech firm Ripple, Stuart Alderoty, said in an X post that Ripple was the first to highlight the SEC’s tactics against crypto and other sectors.
In a lawsuit against Ripple, the court stated that the SEC “is adopting its litigation positions to further its desired goal, not out of a faithful allegiance to the law.”
Alderoty called the SEC under Gensler “rogue” while adding that it is very important to hold the regulator accountable.
In order to do so, Alderoty proposed a discussion with Ramaswamy, who has yet to confirm the same. Also, much to the crypto sector’s relief, president-elect Donald Trump announced the new SEC Chair, Paul Atkins who will replace Gensler.
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