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Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson says the network’s defining achievements in 2025 involved the successful rollout of large-scale on-chain governance and other notable milestones.
In his view, that achievement is now shaping how Cardano plans to move faster, scale responsibly, and compete more effectively in 2026.
Key Takeaways:
- Governance, not hype, was Cardano’s biggest win in 2025, with a functioning on-chain system that enables community-led upgrades and budgeting.
- Cardano has already exercised governance at scale, passing a $150 million community budget and launching a formal constitution.
- Hoskinson also highlighted other notable achievements last year, including the launches of Hydra, Midnight, and the upcoming rollout of Leios.
- Privacy will not dominate crypto narratives alone in 2026, but will become embedded in intent-based, abstracted user experiences.
- Midnight is set to be an infrastructure for executing private intent, routing transactions across multiple blockchains without exposing user strategies.
Governance as Cardano’s Defining Achievement
Reflecting on the past year in a recent interview, Hoskinson criticized what he described as superficial claims of decentralization across the crypto industry.
According to him, many projects claim to have a functioning governance structure, yet in reality, a small group of insiders or large token holders still control key decisions.
He stressed that true governance goes far beyond voting mechanics. It requires systems that can consistently build consensus across a large and diverse community. Hoskinson stressed that governance directly determines how well a blockchain can evolve.
As networks grow more complex, disagreements tend to multiply, slowing upgrades and making them more contentious. To illustrate this point, he cited Ethereum’s multi-year path to rolling out staking and Bitcoin’s infrequent upgrades as clear examples of how limited governance can slow innovation.
Conversely, Cardano’s governance model aims to help the network converge on decisions more efficiently as it scales to millions of users.
Notably, Hoskinson emphasized that this approach is already delivering results. Cardano has launched one of the largest on-chain governance systems in the industry, adopted a formal constitution, and conducted multiple governance events.
Moreover, in 2025 alone, the community approved a roughly $150 million budget and actively debated constitutional amendments and governance changes.
According to him, the most significant shift is that strategic decisions, including roadmaps, KPIs, and funding priorities, are no longer dictated by him or the Cardano Foundation. Instead, the broader community now drives those outcomes.
Difficult but Transformative Process
Notably, Hoskinson underscored that achieving this level of governance was neither quick nor easy. The process took nearly two years of preparation and culminated in a global constitutional convention that brought together participants from more than 50 countries.
Despite the challenges, he described the effort as a “wake-up moment” for the ecosystem. Ultimately, it demonstrated that Cardano could coordinate at scale without compromising decentralization.
Other Notable Achievements of 2025
Moreover, Hoskinson disclosed that Cardano reached several major infrastructure milestones in 2025. These included foundational work on Ouroboros Leios, progress toward Bitcoin DeFi integrations, and the establishment of governance frameworks to support commercial bridges and stablecoins.
Additionally, the network announced new integrations, such as Pyth, with Hoskinson signaling that more announcements are on the way.
From a scalability perspective, Cardano also launched Hydra last year and is now preparing to roll out Ouroboros Leios in 2026. Hoskinson further highlighted Midnight, Cardano’s partner chain focused on privacy and compliance, which he believes could rank among the top blockchain networks.
Rethinking Privacy’s Role in 2026
When asked about the future of privacy in crypto, Hoskinson took a contrarian view, arguing that privacy will not remain a standalone headline trend. Instead, it must become part of industry shifts that address real user needs.
He identified two major forces shaping the next phase of crypto adoption. First is the expansion of real-world assets. Second, and more fundamentally, is the transition toward “intents”—a model in which users specify desired outcomes while underlying systems handle execution across chains and applications.
In this framework, users no longer need to understand how wallets, blockchains, or decentralized exchanges operate behind the scenes.
Looking Ahead
Hoskinson expects chain abstraction and intent-based transactions to dominate the ecosystem, potentially accounting for the majority of value transfers and DEX activity. However, he warned that this model introduces new risks. If user intentions remain visible, sophisticated actors could exploit that information to trade against them.
He explained that this is where Midnight plays a critical role. Midnight seeks to introduce programmable privacy into intent-based systems, allowing users to conceal their intentions while ensuring accurate execution.
As a result, the network could support billions of transactions, onboard millions of users, and facilitate trillions of dollars in value flows while mitigating vulnerabilities such as extractive value attacks.