Cardano Founder Accuses Ripple of Surrendering to the SEC

Cardano’s Charles Hoskinson tore at the US Clarity Act and the Trump administration, including those in support of the bill, like Ripple’s Brad Garlinghouse.
While Hoskinson attacked Brad, several others, including Kraken CEO and White House AI and crypto advisor David Sacks have also supported the bill.

Charles Hoskinson has never been one to hold back his thoughts, and is always quick to call out other projects, crypto leaders, users and regulators. This time, the Cardano founder has set his sight on the proposed US Clarity Act, taking the opportunity to call out Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse as siding with the enemy.

In a Sunday livestream, Hoskinson talked about Cardano’s progress with Midnight, DeFi and overall privacy; criticized crypto users for losing their purpose to an obsession over price changes; and cautioned leading projects like Bitcoin and Ethereum that monopolies aren’t permanent.

However, it was his attack on the Trump administration, upcoming laws and their supporters within the crypto circles that sparked heated online debates.

Happy Sunday https://t.co/OqL64m7JEz

— Charles Hoskinson (@IOHK_Charles) January 18, 2026

As we’ve covered previously, the Digital Asset Market CLARITY Act of 2025 is designed to offer regulatory guidelines for the entire sector. Unlike others like the GENIUS Act that are sector-specific, the CLARITY Act addresses everything, including token classification, DeFi, stablecoins and which regulators should oversee what.

Most of crypto had previously supported the bill, with Ripple’s Brad Garlinghouse among its vocal backers. Even Hoskinson himself previously backed the bill, as we reported, after he was involved in a roundtable to discuss the bill last year.

However, some influential crypto parties are now pulling out. Coinbase is the most prominent, with CEO Brian Armstrong pulling support for the bill last week and claiming it has anti-crypto provisions, such as a de-facto ban on tokenized equities.

“Sorry Brad” – Cardano Founder Turns Against Ripple CEO

Hoskinson is now chiefly in the anti-CLARITY Act camp, and he’s calling out every leader in crypto still supporting the bill. Ripple’s Garlinghouse was the first industry leader to draw his ire, with Hoskinson stating:

You still got people like Brad [Garlinghouse] saying, “Well, it’s not perfect but we just got to get something. It’s better than no clarity. Hand [authority] back to the same people who sued us, put us in jail, put us out of business, subpoenaed us.”

The Cardano founder was referring to provisions in the CLARITY Act that hand much more authority to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), with a majority of crypto coins being branded as security tokens. Ripple was involved in a longstanding legal battle with the SEC, which we chronicled over the years. The Cardano founder believes that Garlinghouse’s support for the new bill shows surrender to the oppressor.

“Sorry Brad, it’s not better than chaos. Take the chaos and fight for what’s right. Fight for integrity. I didn’t sign up to hand the revolution to 15 banks,” Hoskinson added.

He further implied that Garlinghouse and other leaders were so quick to cave because all they want is “that god-damn money, the private jets and the lifestyle.” These leaders no longer care about the core purpose of crypto and its people and “have handed the revolution off.”

It’s not what I signed up for. It’s not what this revolution was built on. It’s not the doctrine of Satoshism. It’s a lie.

While Garlinghouse was the only one who was targeted, several other leaders and crypto institutions have supported the proposed bill. Kraken CEO Arjun Sethi expressed support for the bill on the same day Coinbase backed away, saying that walking away “would lock in uncertainty and leave American companies operating under ambiguity while the rest of the world moves forward.”