Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson has attributed the recent market downturn to aggressive institutional speculation, arguing that large firms manipulated prices and left retail traders exposed.
Notably, crypto assets endured sharp losses throughout November. Cardano slid from $0.6092 to a multi-month low of $0.3911, while Bitcoin tumbled from $126,000 to $80,600 before its partial rebound.
Cardano Founder Accuses Institutions of Driving Volatility for Profit
Hoskinson outlined in a November 24 livestream what he believes occurred behind the scenes. According to him, major institutions engineered a coordinated pump-and-dump cycle. He mentioned that large players like Citadel pushed valuations higher, exited their positions, and then profited again by shorting the sharp decline.
He said these firms extracted “tens of billions of dollars” from the market, squeezing market makers and leaving retail investors with significant losses. Moreover, he suggested that widespread leverage made the market fragile. When prices reversed, he said the structure collapsed under the weight of concentrated institutional activity.
Hoskinson described the outcome as a predictable consequence of a market in which a small group of large actors wields sweeping influence. He argued that retail participants continue to underestimate institutional strategies and their capacity to steer market behavior.
Echoes of 2021 and Lingering Lessons
Hoskinson also said the current downturn reveals how few lessons were learned from the 2021 cycle. During that period, valuations surged far beyond underlying utility. NFTs sold for eye-catching sums, speculative activity surged, and several high-profile failures, including FTX and LUNA, crushed confidence.
He noted that the earlier boom created conditions for excessive risk-taking. That environment, he argued, set the stage for another painful correction. He added that retail investors remain vulnerable to narratives shaped by sophisticated actors seeking short-term gains.
Even so, markets have shown signs of stabilization. Cardano trades around $0.41, and Bitcoin has recovered to $86,924, an 8% rise from its recent bottom. However, ADA is down roughly 86% from its September 2021 high of $3.10
Meanwhile, Cardano has faced intensified scrutiny over network usage. Nansen’s CEO recently forecast that Cardano could fall out of the top 20 cryptocurrencies due to low activity. The network’s total value locked sits at $186 million, down 36% over the past month.
Evans Kelvin
The CoinRemark Team
