Charles Hoskinson mentioned Cardano is monitoring towards a tough fork “subsequent month,” whereas the long-discussed Leios scalability work stays on schedule for “this yr,” in a Feb. 19 livestream recorded after a visit by Japan and a cease at Consensus in Hong Kong.
Hoskinson framed the following few weeks as a convergence level for 2 parallel roadmaps: Cardano’s protocol and developer-stack upgrades on one aspect, and the Midnight community launch he expects “coming subsequent month” on the opposite, an effort he described as unusually tough to execute even for groups with prior expertise delivery main chains.
Cardano Momentum: Midnight, LayerZero And USDCx
Within the livestream, Hoskinson spent his opening stretch recapping what he characterised as a productive Consensus week, pointing to “quite a lot of nice bulletins” and relationships across the Midnight ecosystem, together with infrastructure and distribution names he mentioned had been concerned with the community. He argued that the flexibility to launch a big, exchange-listed undertaking like Midnight is itself a sign about Cardano’s maturity as a platform for “tier one” efforts.
On the Cardano aspect, he highlighted a newly introduced LayerZero integration that he mentioned connects Cardano “to greater than 80 blockchains,” positioning it as a step away from the notion that the community operates in isolation. In the identical phase, Hoskinson pointed to USDCx as a stablecoin-like asset he mentioned is designed for “these non-EVM methods,” and emphasised the user-experience work round trade flows—“autoconvert,” as he described it, so customers can transfer worth “straight to the trade, straight again from the trade.”
He additionally drew a distinction between USDCx and “principally USDC,” saying the tradeoff for Cardano customers is an asset that, in his telling, preserves “privateness” and “can’t be frozen.” Hoskinson positioned that as “one of the best compromise” accessible for a “tier one stablecoin of that nature” within the Cardano ecosystem, whereas arguing that the LayerZero integration may open the door to “eight main stablecoins” over time, relying on integration sequencing.
Exhausting Fork ‘Subsequent Month,’ Leios ‘This Yr’
Probably the most concrete near-term timing sign got here when Hoskinson addressed the protocol schedule straight, saying: “Cardano exhausting fork is going on I consider subsequent month. However you recognize the group is form of working its approach by that and getting this stuff executed.”
In the identical breath, he reiterated that Leios, Cardano’s scalability initiative, stays on observe, noting current journey and discussions with product supervisor Michael Smolenski about progress. “All issues thought-about we’re fairly proud of the speed of progress of Cardano,” Hoskinson mentioned, whereas additionally pointing to a brand new Plutus model, continued improvement of Aiken, and “node variety coming this yr,” alongside Leios.
Hoskinson additionally flagged developer exercise he expects in March, referencing a “Dev Builder Fest down in Argentina” and describing the “integration of Pyth” into the ecosystem, which he offered because the arrival of a “tier one Oracle” for Cardano.
Past delivery timelines, Hoskinson used the livestream to argue that the trade’s central struggle is shifting from enforcement actions to tradition and narrative, significantly round non-custodial wallets and permissionless settlement. He warned about what he referred to as “factions” that need crypto transactions routed by “permission federated networks owned and operated by massive monetary establishments,” and singled out US coverage debates as a part of that backdrop.
“What’s not okay is to construct a community that’s without end owned and operated by 5 or 10 or 20 banks they usually principally lord and leverage that energy and place over the customers,” he mentioned. “And as soon as they’ve absolute management, they only merely flip a swap and also you’re at their mercy they usually personal all of your cash. And sadly, the system is shifting in that course proper now.”
At press time, ADA traded at $0.2748.

Featured picture from YouTube, chart from TradingView.com
Editorial Course of for bitcoinist is centered on delivering totally researched, correct, and unbiased content material. We uphold strict sourcing requirements, and every web page undergoes diligent overview by our staff of prime expertise specialists and seasoned editors. This course of ensures the integrity, relevance, and worth of our content material for our readers.








