Charles Hoskinson, CEO of Input Output Global (IOG) and founder of Cardano, used a Dec. 15 livestream titled “Some End of Year Thoughts” to deliver a blunt assessment of crypto’s 2025 — and to call for a course correction in 2026. A market stuck in 2021 Speaking from Colorado, Hoskinson described 2025 as “a really messed‑up year” — “a donkey of a year,” even “an old donkey with a gas problem.” His diagnosis was structural as much as rhetorical: institutional capital did arrive, he said, but much of it got “locked into the Bitcoin layer” and didn’t rotate into altcoins the way it did in 2017 and 2021. The result, he argued, was the loss of the trickle‑down retail engine that once amplified market cycles. Politics as a sideshow Hoskinson criticised crypto’s political theatre this year, saying headline-grabbing token launches — he referenced the TRUMP and MELANIA coins that appeared around the inauguration — became “cash grab situations” that damaged industry reputation while distracting from regulators and reform. That erratic signaling, he said, undercut hopes for a more constructive U.S. regulatory environment. Retail — the missing piece The heart of Hoskinson’s gripe was retail. He argued the sector never rebuilt trust after the 2022 drawdown and that 2025 didn’t offer ordinary participants a reason to return beyond speculative churn. “Retail showed up in 2021… and then they got screwed again and again and again,” he said. “And now you want them to come back so you can do it again. Will they? No.” A 2026 pivot to first principles His prescription for 2026 is a reset: build from first principles rather than chasing celebrity catalysts, government rescues, or reliance on big investors. “No government is coming to save us. No large company is coming to save us. No large investor is coming to save us,” Hoskinson said. “We are on the island.” He framed that reset in broader societal terms, warning that AI and robotics could push society toward a “dystopian hellscape” unless crypto projects deliver credible systems for agency, ownership and verification — i.e., real utility instead of “number‑go‑up” narratives. Accountability and roadmap Hoskinson acknowledged his own missed calls — including a prior expectation that Bitcoin could hit $250,000 in 2025 — and admitted he was wrong to expect a December 2024 rebound tied to political change. Still, he said he sees a path in 2026 for Bitcoin and for the industry to reconnect with retail. He pointed to specific product roadmaps, saying “Leios will ship. We know how to do it. We wrote all the code down. We got it done.” Retail-first examples and a return to work To illustrate the approach he wants to see, Hoskinson highlighted Midnight’s launch mechanics as an example of retail-first distribution and noted heavy trading activity around the token. “The bullshit’s over… in 2026 it’s a return to first principles,” he said. Market snapshot At press time, Cardano (ADA) traded at $0.3843. Hoskinson closed the livestream with a call for the industry to stop replaying the same 2021 tropes and to focus on tangible builds that benefit real users — a thesis he hopes will define crypto’s next cycle. Read more AI-generated news on: undefined/news

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