 
 
Cardano co-founder Charles Hoskinson recently blasted Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse for backing the much-awaited Digital Asset Market Clarity Act (simply referred to as the CLARITY Act), describing the legislation as a dangerous compromise rather than actual regulatory clarity.
Hoskinson Calls Out Garlinghouse For Backing CLARITY Act
Speaking during a recent livestream, Charles Hoskinson argued that the most recent version of the CLARITY crypto market structure bill, which aims to create a comprehensive regulatory framework clarifying how cryptocurrencies and exchanges should be regulated while boosting innovation, would give U.S. regulators too much power and undermine crypto’s core tenets.
According to Hoskinson, the bill essentially hands “the entire keys to the cryptocurrency kingdom” to the SEC, mandating crypto projects to apply for exemptions instead of operating freely.
“You have to go beg and plead for them to make it not a security. All new projects are securities by default. How is that any better than what scary Gary gave us under Biden?” the Cardano creator opined.
Hoskinson criticized Garlinghouse’s stance on the CLARITY Act.
 
“You still got people like Brad saying, well, it’s not perfect, but we just got to get something,” he observed. “Hand it to the same people who sued us. That’s better?”
Notably, Ripple’s Brad Garlinghouse praised the bill on X, calling it “a massive step forward in providing workable frameworks for crypto, while continuing to protect consumers. Ripple (and I) know firsthand that clarity beats chaos, and this bill’s success is crypto’s success.”
Hoskinson went ahead to ask whether passing the current flawed version of the bill could ever be corrected, pointing to the Securities Exchange Act of 1933.
“93 years later, have we been able to change it? No. You pass it, you own it forever,” he noted. “Sorry, Brad. It’s not better than chaos.”
Hoskinson stated astutely that he “signed up for freedom” and “a revolution,” not a scenario where “everything is a custodial wallet” and “every transaction is KYC.” The IOG CEO accused industry executives of accepting compromised legislation in exchange for power, wealth, and elite status, abandoning the true, foundational ideals of crypto.
“They’ve taken their silver so they can be part of a new oligarchy,” he quipped, stressing that crypto execs wrongly believe they will be treated better than regular users.
US Crypto Policy Stalls
Hoskinson is not the only industry alarmed by the Senate Banking Committee’s crypto market structure bill. On the night before the U.S. Senate Banking Committee hearing on the crypto market structure bill, Coinbase, one of the largest crypto exchanges that has been deeply involved in the legislation’s negotiations and has splurged millions lobbying for it, suddenly pulled its support.
As ZyCrypto previously reported, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong claimed that the draft bill in its current form would do more harm than good. “We’d rather have no bill than a bad bill. Hopefully, we can all get to a better draft,” he stated, citing several concerns, including a ban on tokenized equities, broad restrictions on decentralized finance (DeFi), stablecoin yield provisions, and increased government access to financial records that he suggested could undermine user privacy.
Just hours after the high-profile withdrawal of Coinbase, the U.S. Senate Banking Committee postponed its markup, with lawmakers subsequently relaunching talks with representatives of the crypto industry.