Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson has again taken direct aim at Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse over the proposed CLARITY Act.
In a recent interview, Hoskinson suggested that some industry leaders may be backing the bill not for the broader ecosystem, but for their own competitive advantage.
Key Points
- Charles Hoskinson says Ripple CEO supports CLARITY Act for strategic gain, not crypto industry benefit.
- Hoskinson warns the CLARITY Act could classify ETH, $XRP, $ADA as securities if they launched today.
- He says past legal ambiguity helped crypto grow, which strict rules could have prevented.
- He warns that the new law may favor incumbents but risk future SEC enforcement weaponization.
Hoskinson Warns CLARITY Act Could Hurt New Projects
In the interview, Hoskinson argued that the current version of the CLARITY Act could fundamentally reshape how cryptocurrencies are classified, to the detriment of innovation.
He claimed that under the proposed framework, major assets such as Ethereum, $XRP, and Cardano could be treated as securities if they launched today. According to him, this would remove the legal flexibility that early projects benefited from during their growth phases.
Hoskinson pointed out that past legal ambiguity allowed projects to build communities, liquidity, and real-world use cases before facing strict classification. Without that flexibility, he believes newer projects may never reach the same level of adoption. In his words:
“Under the old, ambiguous system, we were winning court cases. $XRP won its court case under those ambiguous laws. Under this law, if Ripple were founded today, $XRP would be a security. They’re not understanding that. Ethereum would be a security, $XRP would be a security, $ADA would be a security.”
“Winners Wouldn’t Be Winners Today”
Expanding on his argument, Hoskinson said lawmakers should evaluate whether existing successful projects would still succeed under new rules. If not, he suggested, the legislation may be flawed.
He compared the situation to early internet policy, arguing that overly restrictive laws in the 1990s could have prevented companies like Amazon or Google from emerging. In his view, the CLARITY Act risks repeating that mistake for the crypto industry.
Jab at Ripple CEO
Hoskinson criticized Garlinghouse’s stance on the bill. Notably, the Ripple CEO has famously said clarity is better than chaos. In other words, the present bill is workable in his view.
Meanwhile, Hoskinson argues that advocates like Ripple are pushing for its passage despite its shortcomings because it could benefit their own positions.
He openly admitted that, in its current form, the legislation could actually favor his own ecosystem by classifying competitors as securities while leaving his projects unaffected.
However, he said supporting such a bill for personal gain would go against the principles of the industry.
Fear of Future “Weaponization”
Another key concern raised by Hoskinson is the long-term risk of regulatory misuse. He warned that once such legislation is passed, it could be difficult to amend, leaving future regulators room to enforce it aggressively.
According to him, a stricter interpretation by agencies like the SEC could result in nearly all new crypto projects being classified as securities, creating significant barriers for developers and startups.
