Charles Hoskinson Proposes Converting $100M in ADA to Bitcoin and Stablecoins to Boost Cardano DeFi

Charles Hoskinson, co-founder of Cardano, has proposed converting $100 million worth of ADA from the project’s treasury into a mix of stablecoins and Bitcoin to enhance liquidity and accelerate the growth of Cardano’s decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem.

In a recent YouTube livestream, Hoskinson highlighted the network’s current imbalance between stablecoin supply and total value locked (TVL), noting that stablecoins account for less than 10% of Cardano’s $330 million TVL—approximately $33 million. In comparison, Ethereum and Solana show significantly higher ratios, with stablecoin-to-TVL levels of 190% and 110%, respectively.

Proposed Allocation Strategy

Hoskinson suggested allocating around $100 million of ADA into assets like USDM, USDA, and IUSD—Cardano-native or ADA-backed stablecoins—as well as Bitcoin, to support Bitcoin-based DeFi protocols on the platform. The goal is to bring Cardano’s stablecoin-to-TVL ratio closer to 33–40%, aligning it with healthier DeFi ecosystems.

Treasury Reallocation Details

Cardano’s treasury currently holds an estimated $1.2 billion (1.7 billion ADA). Hoskinson believes that reallocating 5–10% of these funds can be done responsibly and with minimal market disruption. He noted that ADA’s daily trading volume is sufficient to absorb the sale over 30 to 90 days, using strategies such as time-weighted average price (TWAP) executions and over-the-counter (OTC) transactions.

Governance and Implementation Plans

The proposal also includes the introduction of yield-generating instruments and the creation of a governance structure—potentially through an elected board—to oversee the treasury’s new sovereign wealth fund strategy.

Hoskinson stated that formal discussions could begin during the upcoming Rare Evo event, with implementation possible before the end of the year, following the approval of the 39 pending budget withdrawal requests.