Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson became the latest industry leader to criticize Senate Democrats’ leaked proposal to regulate decentralized finance.
In a livestream on YouTube, Charles Hoskinson discussed the articles of the proposed regulation. He took this opportunity to launch a broader, highly critical political critique, mainly aimed at the Democratic Party.
Hoskinson attacks the Treasury’s power to blacklist DeFi protocols
Adding significant weight to the industry’s opposition, Hoskinson detailed his issues with the Democratic decentralized finance (DeFi) proposal in a livestream posted today.
Cardano’s founder criticized several articles in the leaked document. He argued that the proposal, if passed, would give the U.S. Treasury the power to establish a limited list of DeFi protocols “without a judge, jury, or appeals process.”
Cardano founder and Ethereum co-founder Charles Hoskinson is dismantling Democrats for their anti-cryptocurrency stance and general hypocrisy on key issues within the United States.
He asks, “What do you stand for?” pic.twitter.com/OVvb5Aeku3
— Planet Of Memes (@PlanetOfMemes) October 10, 2025
Hoskinson drew attention to the overwhelming discretion of the Treasury and regulators under this proposal. They would have the power to decide whether a protocol is truly decentralized, with no “oversight.”
“Basically they have a kill switch and anything they don’t like is killed instantly,” he said.
Hoskinson also criticized the removal of protections for developers. According to the document, anyone who designs, implements or operates a front-end service for a DeFi protocol can be classified as a regulated intermediary. He stated that this definition would essentially make any person building DeFi applications a “criminal.”
Leaving “The Little Man”
In addition to his criticism of the DeFi proposal, Hoskinson issued scathing criticism of the Democratic Party.
“It has everything to do with ‘let’s maximize power, centralize an entire industry and give an indifferent and irresponsible government absolute power over everything,’ he said, adding: ‘I don’t know why people vote for the Democrats… They are the most morally bankrupt people. The Democrats stand for nothing. They stand for big institutions, that’s all.”
Hoskinson continued with a discussion of what he perceived as a sense of hypocrisy within the Democratic Party regarding their past support of the “little guy.”
“The little guy is the DeFi user. The little guy is the person who downloads a browser wallet or a mobile wallet and buys an NFT or participates in a meme coin. The little guy is who built crypto — it’s not Chase, it’s not Goldman Sachs, it’s not Google, it’s not Pfizer,” he said.
The Cardano founder went on to argue that if the US criminalizes and drives out the crypto industry – which he predicts will grow from a $4 trillion industry to a $10 trillion industry – this significant economic advantage will be transferred to its global competitors.
Hoskinson ended his livestream with a heated call to action. He urged listeners to write to their senators and express their opposition.
“Let’s get this market structure bill the way it’s written now. It’s a good draft; it was bipartisan in the House, we can make it bipartisan in the Senate. Don’t let a small cabal of Democratic senators destroy the entire process. Make your voices heard, let them know this impacts 2026… We can’t lose this fight.”
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