Charles Hoskinson used the video update of January 9, 2026 to reveal the aggressive push of 2026 aimed at transforming Cardano’s DeFi stack into a cross-ecosystem product, clearly targeting the integration of Bitcoin and XRP DeFi alongside Midnight, new bridges, extended oracle coverage, stablecoinnce work for faster ecosystem delivery.
2026 Is a Defining Year for Cardano
Broadcasting from Colorado, Hoskinson framed the year as a cycle of murder, with the effort to integrate the “Pentad” of Cardano positioned as a priority for liquidity, users, and what he described as “commercially critical” infrastructure. He said contract signings have slowed over the holidays, but stressed that deals are still in the works and will go into near-term announcements about “more bridges and oracles and stablecoins and math,” and “a whole lot more.”
The main assumption of Hoskinson’s review was that Cardano cannot win the marginal arms race against other smart contract platforms, and instead needs different features and distribution through interoperability. According to him, the structure of the Pentad is designed to ensure that Cardano is “no longer an island,” allowing money and users to “flow freely,” and plan what he calls “the next phase after the first phase of the pentad.”
That next phase, Hoskinson said, should focus on developing Cardano’s most important applications to reach beyond the chain’s current boundaries. “I’m going to suggest we take the top 15 top 20 dabs we have to get listed on Cardano and find the sons of ***** who have advanced to Bitcoin DeFi, XRP DeFi and Midnight and get them a tier one listing, bring them in, get them in, accelerate them so we can 10x their users and their TVL volume.
He pitched this as both an internal ecosystem support plan and a growth strategy built around delivering Cardano-native applications where large pools of money and users already sit.
Hoskinson repeatedly returned to privacy, stating that as a “new experience” Cardano can be sent rather than competing in the growing development. He asserted that Cardano DeFi will not be competitive by being “a little better, a little faster, a little cheaper than Ethereum or Solana,” and said that copycat strategies fail.
“You’re beating those guys by doing something that nobody’s ever seen,” he said, before putting the brand’s concept into unusual, straightforward terms. “And if you add privacy and get private stablecoins, that’s going to be very attractive. Show private speculation markets, private DEXs, you bring something new to the conversation. You bring something new to the table, something people haven’t seen before.”
In Hoskinson’s framing, the pitch is not just privacy in Cardano, but the portability of those capabilities to all ecosystems if the bridge and stablecoin pipelines are in place, naming Solana, Ethereum, Bitcoin, XRP, BNB, and Avalanche as targets for that deployment.
happy New Year
— Charles Hoskinson (@IOHK_Charles) January 10, 2026
2025 Frustration, 2026 Cadence
Hoskinson also used the update to outline the industry’s expectations and what he called unfulfilled promises from US policy issues in 2025, saying the industry needs to refocus on adoption and delivery rather than waiting for confirmation. He described 2026 as “our year,” and pointed to a schedule of events close to the community: workshops, a trip to Japan, and Consensus Hong Kong where he said Cardano will show “amazing announcements and special surprises.”
He also previewed the output rhythm with more registered. “And then, throughout the year, every two months, a bag of goodies arrives. That’s the sad part,” said Hoskinson, describing it as the “death voyage” of sailing.
At press time, ADA traded at $0.3953.
The featured image was created with DALL.E, a chart from TradingView.com
Planning process because bitcoinist focuses on delivering well-researched, accurate, and unbiased content. We maintain strict sourcing standards, and each page is diligently reviewed by our team of senior technical experts and experienced editors. This process ensures the integrity, relevance, and value of our content to our readers.
