Critical Hours for Cardano: Surprising Statement From Hoskinson as ADA Price Plunges

According to Hoskinson, Cardano has achieved most of its original fundamental objectives through the Ouroboros consensus mechanism, Plutus smart contracts, and decentralized governance infrastructure. However, the Leios scaling protocol remains one of the final major infrastructure projects Input Output must complete. Hoskinson said his next priorities would include Midnight, Midnight City, and Bitcoin-based decentralized finance (DeFi) applications.

Another important aspect of his statements concerned the distribution of responsibilities within the Cardano ecosystem. Hoskinson argued that efforts to increase network adoption fall within the responsibilities of the Cardano Foundation and EMURGO. He also reiterated that he had never guaranteed an increase in ADA's price. His comments sparked debate among investors, particularly because ADA has lost more than 94% of its value since reaching its 2021 peak.

Leios and Dijkstra Development Efforts Reach New Milestones

Cardano's weekly development report, published on November 13, highlighted tangible technical progress on the Leios scaling protocol. Developers implemented the rules required to validate and apply transaction-carrying blocks, known as endorser blocks, to the ledger state. An interface for validating Leios certificates was also introduced. Additionally, the requirement for an extra owner signature was removed for updates in which stake pool operators change only their BLS keys. However, these developments do not mean that a Leios upgrade has already been activated on the mainnet.

Preparations for the Dijkstra upgrade also advanced. Plutus V4 scripts can now be evaluated directly through the V4 interface, while modifications were made to the transaction pool's data structure. Meanwhile, development work on Hydra, another component of Cardano's scaling strategy, included a merged change designed to increase the output capacity supported by a Hydra Head from 4,095 to 32,767. The increase represents an approximately eightfold expansion in capacity. However, Cardano's report explicitly stated that the improvement had not yet been released as part of a new Hydra version.

The Cardano Foundation also reviewed developments related to the network's institutional adoption in its October activity report, published on November 13. The report highlighted the mainnet deployment of the CIP-0113 programmable token standard in October, the transformation of the Veridian digital identity initiative into an independent company, and Petrobras' use of Cardano for sustainable aviation fuel certificates. The organization also reported that Fireblocks was expected to introduce custody support for Cardano native tokens. These developments were not newly announced partnerships on November 13 but rather an updated assessment of activities conducted throughout October.

Governance Uncertainty Grows as ADA Price Declines

According to a SIPO analysis published on November 14, three separate proposals seeking funding from the Cardano treasury are facing increasingly difficult paths to approval. The proposals request 22 million ADA for Copper, 940,000 ADA for AURORA, and 9.6 million ADA for the PFMS police evidence management system. Based on SIPO's calculations of the voting distribution on the morning of November 14, even if all representatives who had not yet voted supported the proposals, the maximum possible approval levels would reach only 26.1%, 52.5%, and 62.5%, respectively. The required approval threshold stands at 67%. Nevertheless, the votes have not been finalized, and changes in representatives' votes or delegation distribution could affect these calculations.

On the exchange side, a decision announced on November 12 remains relevant. Coinbase plans to discontinue trading in 12 trading pairs, including ADA/ETH, on November 25, 2026, at approximately 12:00 p.m. U.S. Eastern Time. The ADA/ETH pair has already been moved to limit-only trading mode. The decision does not mean ADA will be completely delisted from Coinbase. Users in eligible regions will still be able to trade through U.S. dollar-denominated markets.

Price data shows that ADA has lost more than 4% of its value over the past 24 hours, while its weekly decline has exceeded 11%. The price approaching its intraday low of approximately $0.1623 indicates that short-term selling pressure remains in place. Meanwhile, the absence of a confirmed date for Leios mainnet activation and ongoing disagreements surrounding the governance process remain among the key developments being monitored within the Cardano ecosystem. However, the available data is insufficient to directly attribute ADA's price decline to any of these individual developments.