Did Cardano Founder Really Sell 1.5 Billion ADA During the 2021 Bull Market?

TLDR

• Masato Alexander reviewed claims that 1.5B ADA was sold in 2021.
• The claims first surfaced in May 2025 from crypto user Slimelife.
• On-chain data showed nine transfers of about 20.2M ADA each.
• Alexander also identified about 925M ADA moved in early 2021.
• Blockchain records show wallet transfers but do not prove ADA sales.

NFT artist Masato Alexander has published findings from an on-chain review into claims that Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson sold 1.5 billion ADA during the 2021 bull market.

The claims originally surfaced in May 2025, when crypto community member Slimelife alleged that he sold about 1.5 billion ADA on Hoskinson’s behalf while ADA traded between $1 and $3. Slimelife also claimed that Hoskinson owed Ethereum co-founder Gavin Wood 20 million ADA per month for 10 months and had instructed him to sell ADA and make cash payments instead.

Alexander’s review found that several blockchain transactions matched parts of the claim, including repeated transfers of about 20 million ADA during 2021. However, he said the blockchain data does not prove whether the tokens were sold or who controlled the wallets involved.

On-Chain Review Finds Monthly ADA Transfers

Alexander focused on the most measurable part of the allegation: the claimed monthly payments of 20 million ADA. According to his review, Cardano blockchain records show nine transfers of roughly 20.2 million ADA each between April 2 and November 22, 2021.

The transfers occurred about once every 28 days and were sent to the same receiving address, which Alexander identified as ending in “px4u.” The combined value of those nine transactions was about 185 million ADA.

Alexander then traced the largest input linked to each transaction. He said the payment chains eventually led back, after about 40 transaction hops, to a Byron genesis output containing 2,463,071,701 ADA.

He said that amount matches Input Output Global’s published genesis allocation involving the Lovelace distribution. Input Output Global is the company behind Cardano’s early development and remains closely associated with the ecosystem.

The review also found that the transfers did not come from one wallet. Alexander said four separate wallets appeared to take turns sending the monthly payments. The receiving address did not keep the funds, instead forwarding them to a single consolidation address.

Additional 925 Million ADA Movement Identified

Alexander found that the consolidation address received about 1.21 billion ADA from 37 separate depositors. Because that amount was far larger than the 185 million ADA tied to monthly transfers, he traced other funding flows.

His review identified another large movement before the monthly transfer pattern began. Between February and March 2021, about 925 million ADA moved through 33 transactions over six weeks. The individual transfers ranged from 10 million ADA to 50 million ADA.

Alexander said those funds also traced back to Input Output Global’s genesis UTxO. He later noted that the roughly 925 million ADA burst and the nine monthly payments had a closer common source than the original genesis allocation.

That reduced the tracing distance from about 40 hops to between one and seven transactions. He also said the funds were connected to around 21 of the 64 million ADA pledges tied to IOG private stake pools.

The timing, amount, frequency, and origin of the transfers matched several elements of the original allegation, according to Alexander. Still, he stated that the data only confirms wallet movements, not sales.

Blockchain Data Does Not Prove ADA Sales

Alexander said blockchain records cannot confirm whether any ADA was sold. On-chain data can show transfers between wallets, but it cannot prove off-chain sales, cash payments, private agreements, or the identities behind pseudonymous addresses.

He also cautioned that dominant-input tracing is only an indicator of fund origin and not definitive proof of ownership or intent. No blockchain record cited in the review directly identifies Hoskinson as the controller of the wallets.

The findings arrived shortly after Hoskinson returned to X following a short public break. In a June 8 livestream, he described Cardano as a network built to reduce the global cost of trust and support verifiable systems across finance, identity, governance, and settlement.

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