Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson shares his vision to foster mutually beneficial synergies with the Bitcoin and XRP Ledger ecosystems.
During a recent conversation with Sam North, a market analyst at eToro, the Cardano founder revealed how he intends to solve some ‘big problems’ in the XRP Ledger (XRPL) and Bitcoin (BTC) ecosystems.
He noted that while Ripple has a large ecosystem with sufficient funds, the XRP Ledger, which powers most of the company’s technological solutions, still has some limitations revolving around smart contract functionality.
The Cardano founder noted that these limitations have hindered developers from doing much on XRPL. However, he suggested that a computation layer could be grafted onto the XRP Ledger. This could allow real-world assets (RWAs) and banking relationships to enter the XRPL ecosystem.
Once this is done, the Cardano founder expects XRPL to have a smart contract layer.
XRP and Bitcoin to Quadruple Cardano TVL Beyond Solana and Ethereum Combined
Hoskinson speculated that Cardano’s growth over the next five years would come from XRP and Bitcoin. He noted that this outlook is achievable when the team behind Cardano does things for Bitcoin and XRP, like integrating both assets into Cardano’s privacy blockchain, Midnight.
In his view, the assistance rendered to the Bitcoin and XRPL projects would also benefit Cardano. In particular, he asserted that this support could significantly boost the total value locked on Cardano, potentially quadrupling the combined TVL of Solana and Ethereum.
JUST IN: #Cardano $ADA Founder Charles Hoskinson says “in the next 5 years our big area of growth is likely to come from $XRP and $BTC. We can do things for them, that’s a win-win. When you add that together, that TVL is going to be 4x larger than Ethereum and Solana combined.” pic.twitter.com/UAzrFNxODy
— Angry Crypto Show (@angrycryptoshow) May 10, 2025
For context, while Ethereum and Solana have a combined TVL of around $72 billion, Cardano’s TVL is currently at $393 million, according to data from DeFiLlama.
In parallel, for Cardano’s TVL to be four times larger than Ethereum and Solana combined, its current TVL must increase by 73,182% to $288 billion.
Despite the monumental surge required for Cardano to quadruple Ethereum and Solana’s combined TVL, Hoskinson remains confident that it is achievable through win-win synergies with the XRP and Bitcoin ecosystems.
Hoskinson’s Support for XRP
Since Hoskinson ended his multi-year dispute with the XRP community, he has hinted at new partnerships between the Cardano and Ripple teams. While he has had discussions with Ripple execs like David Schwartz and Brad Garlinghouse, there has been no official partnership announcement yet.
Nonetheless, Hoskinson has continued to support XRP. This includes adding XRP support to Cardano’s native Lace wallet. Moreover, he disclosed that XRP holders will participate in the upcoming airdrop for Midnight tokens–NIGHT and DUST.
In the meantime, Hoskinson has expressed interest in having Ripple expand the support of its RLUSD stablecoin to Cardano.
