Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson criticized the Trump administration’s approach to cryptocurrency in an interview aired Sunday, taking direct aim at White House cryptocurrency czar David Sacks.
Speaking on The Wolf of All Streets Podcast, Hoskinson questioned whether a long-awaited cryptocurrency market structure bill — dubbed the US Digital Asset Market Clarity Act — would pass in the first quarter.
Hoskinson said:
“If it doesn’t pass this quarter, I think David Sacks should resign. He’s utterly failed us as an industry. If you’re the czar and you’re in charge of this whole thing, I’ve got to judge you by your track record.”
Hoskinson also criticized the launch of the Official Trump (TRUMP) memecoin, faulting Sacks for failing to curb Trump-linked ventures that he said have complicated efforts to pass crypto legislation.
He called the TRUMP memecoin “catastrophic” for the industry and warned that Democrats could seize on the episode to campaign in the midterms on an explicitly anti-crypto platform.
“And the problem is Trump’s name’s on it. So it’s really hard to run away from it and say he had nothing to do with it,” Hoskinson said.
Sacks, a prominent venture capitalist, was appointed White House AI and Crypto Czar by Trump in December 2024. Last year, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) raised concerns that Sacks may have exceeded his term limits as a special government employee to influence crypto policy.
Once a vocal Trump supporter ahead of the 2024 election — after accusing former President Joe Biden of undermining the crypto industry — Hoskinson has since grown more skeptical.
Notably, Trump later cited ADA, Cardano’s native token, as a potential component of a U.S. cryptocurrency reserve.
But Hoskinson noted that most cryptocurrencies have plummeted since Trump took office for his second term.
Cardano, for example, is down nearly 60% over the past year. See below.
To make matters worse, Hoskinson claims he lost over $2.5 billion over the course of four years, blaming government involvement for turning the market from bullish to bearish.
And he’s not alone. It’s safe to say that crypto’s honeymoon with Trump 2.0 appears to be over — and the industry us checking the receipt.
Yes, there were pro-crypto executive orders and some regulatory rollbacks, but the good vibes were drowned out by chaos. Trump’s trade war instincts detonated a software tariff that helped vaporize nearly $1 trillion in crypto value, while Bitcoin took a five-figure nosedive and traders got liquidated.
And those Trump-branded crypto ventures (projects like World Liberty Financial and the $TRUMP memecoin) have lawmakers crying foul, effectively freezing bipartisan stablecoin legislation. Even
Trump’s much-hyped Strategic Bitcoin Reserve landed with a thud after it emerged the government would fund it with seized assets — not fresh buys.
The administration may still boast crypto-friendly names like SEC Chair Paul Atkins, but insiders describe the first year of Trump’s second term as a white-knuckle ride: volatile, politically messy, and increasingly unpopular with the very industry that once cheered it on.
