Hoskinson to audit Cardano Foundation after accusations of misappropriating ADA worth $600 million

The Cardano Foundation is preparing to publish an audit report on the status of its treasury following accusations of misappropriating ADA worth $600 million.

NFT artist Masato Alexander stated that the founder of the Cardano blockchain platform, Charles Hoskinson, used the genesis key to alter the registry and transfer 318 million ADA during the Allegra hard fork in 2021.

In 2021, Charles Hoskinson unilaterally used his genesis keys to REWRITE the Cardano ledger and take control of ₳318m ($619m)

By comparison, when the DAO hack happened in 2016, the Ethereum community forked over $60m.

One of the largest ledger reorgs in blockchain history: 🧵

— masato_alexander (@masatoalexander) May 7, 2025

As evidence, the expert cited the transaction that initiated the protocol update and the commit on Github.

Transfer of 318 million ADA. Data: Cardanoscan. The coins yielded 25 million ADA in staking rewards, added Alexander. Hoskinson commented on the accusations.

Because you cannot read. The vast majority of that 350 million ada was redeemed by the original buyers. It took seven years.

— Charles Hoskinson (@IOHK_Charles) May 6, 2025

“[…] The overwhelming majority of these 350 million ADA was redeemed by the initial buyers. It took seven years,” he noted.

Alexander noted that the genesis block of the Cardano network was created in October 2017.

genesis block was october 2017.

how did you manage to get the “vast majority” of this 350m to its buyers after years of not being able to for years?

given that Attain (original seller) no longer existed, how did you come to decide how to use the remaining funds?

— masato_alexander (@masatoalexander) May 6, 2025

“[…] How did you manage to bring the ‘overwhelming majority’ of these 350 million to buyers after you couldn’t do it for many years?” he asked.

Hoskinson reported on the preparation of an audit report related to the hard fork. He emphasized that he is “deeply hurt” by the community’s distrust.

The one advantage in a crisis or an event that tests people is that you rapidly get to see who your friends truly are and who’s fairweather. I’d like to thank all the support and kind words both privately and publicly.

The downside is that I believe there will be a cold…

— Charles Hoskinson (@IOHK_Charles) May 18, 2025

“If I am not given the presumption of innocence without compelling evidence to the contrary, then I do not have that connection with certain people that I was counting on. […] After the release of the audit report, I will most likely transfer my account to the X media team and change the format of the AMA and X Spaces,” he wrote.

Recall that in May, Hoskinson announced a private stablecoin based on Cardano.