Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson is facing a new round of allegations after NFT creator Masato Alexander published additional on-chain tracing work tied to large ADA movements during the 2021 market rally. The claims add another layer to an already contentious debate over Cardano’s early allocation history, governance structure, and voucher redemption process.
Large Cardano Flows To IOG-Linked Pool Pledges
Alexander, who previously became a central figure in the Cardano ADA voucher controversy, said on X that IOG’s on-chain footprint extended beyond its original Genesis UTxO and included several stake pools operated over the years. According to him, those pools required owners and pledged ADA, creating additional paths for tracing funds through Cardano’s UTxO model.
“However, IOG had a larger onchain footprint than just their Genesis UTxO, they operated a number of stake pools over the years,” Alexander wrote. “Each pool requires an owner and pledge ADA to be put up.”
The latest allegation is framed around large ADA transactions that critics claim were linked to Hoskinson and occurred during the 2021 rally. Alexander said his updated tracing work shows that both a 925 million ADA transaction and nine 20 million ADA payments had a closer common ancestor than IOG’s original genesis ADA. In his telling, that reduces the number of intermediary hops between IOG and the transactions from roughly 40 to between one and seven transactions.
“Turns out both the 925m AND the x9 20m payments have a closer common ancestor than IOG’s genesis ADA, which cuts the # of intermediary hops between IOG and these Txs from ~40 to ~1 to 7 Txs,” Alexander wrote. “They gather up ~21 of the 64m ADA pledge’s from IOG’s private pools.”
Alexander also published a dedicated transaction graph and a broader report containing what he described as a hop-by-hop trace, an interactive flow graph, and raw identifiers linked to Cardanoscan. He presented the work cautiously, saying it was not a final adjudication of intent or legal responsibility.
“This is best effort attempt at looking into what transpired on chain, draw your own conclusions,” he wrote. “If you find any errors in the data or methodology, please feel free to reach out and i’ll update it.”
The distinction matters. The material cited by Alexander focuses on tracing transaction ancestry and common funding paths. It does not, on its own, prove who controlled every wallet, whether funds were sold on exchanges, or what contractual obligations may have applied. It does, however, revive questions about Cardano’s early distribution and the transparency of large ADA movements during one of the asset’s most significant bull-market periods.
Isle Of Man Filings Add Another Governance Question
Alexander’s renewed claims follow his earlier allegation that Hoskinson used Cardano “genesis keys” during the 2021 Allegra hard fork to alter or sweep old ICO and voucher-related UTxOs, moving roughly 318 million ADA into Cardano reserves or treasury rather than leaving them directly claimable by original voucher holders.
Hoskinson denied that allegation, saying IOG did not give itself hundreds of millions of unclaimed ADA and that most vouchers were eventually redeemed.
A later Cardano redemption transparency report said the allegations had “no basis.” According to the report, 99.2% of vouchers representing 99.7% of ADA sold through the voucher program were redeemed. It also stated that after Byron-era on-chain redemption ended, 390 vouchers representing 318 million ADA remained unredeemed and were swept into the reserve while a post-sweep redemption process continued.
The scrutiny is not limited to Alexander’s on-chain work. Thomas Braziel of 117 Partners separately said he had collected original Isle of Man filings related to Cardano’s earliest foundation structure. Braziel said the documents appeared to show an early foundation involving Hoskinson, Jeremy Wood, Ken Kodama, and a corporate services provider, while later filings showed Hoskinson serving as the foundation’s “Enforcer.”
Under Isle of Man foundation law, Braziel argued, an Enforcer is not simply a passive observer but a key oversight role meant to ensure that the council follows the foundation’s purposes and governing documents. He linked that question to the timing of Cardano’s ICO, which began in September 2015, before the Swiss Cardano Foundation was established in September 2016.
“The question is not whether development companies should be compensated,” Braziel wrote. “The question is: who negotiated those arrangements on behalf of ICO participants and the Isle of Man Foundation?”
Braziel said he was “not alleging wrongdoing” but asking for documentation on who controlled the Isle of Man Foundation, what happened to roughly 1,090 BTC historical materials indicate were allocated to it, how development agreements were negotiated, and what governance protections existed for ADA purchasers.
At press time, ADA traded at $0.16.
