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Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson believes Bitcoin’s next phase of growth could come through Cardano, allowing BTC holders to access decentralized finance without compromising Bitcoin’s security or core principles.
Speaking in an interview on Friday, Hoskinson said Cardano’s architecture gives it an edge over rival blockchain networks competing to attract Bitcoin liquidity.
According to him, Cardano can support Bitcoin through a non-custodial, trustless mechanism while maintaining tax neutrality, an approach he said is difficult to achieve on account-based blockchains.
The executive also highlighted Midnight, Cardano’s privacy-focused sidechain, saying it could enable private Bitcoin lending and other decentralized finance applications without exposing users’ holdings or transaction history.
“You can mirror Bitcoin on Cardano in a non-custodial trustless way, in a tax neutral way,” Hoskinson said. “Private Bitcoin lending and Private Bitcoin DeFi could become significant advantages for the ecosystem.”
 
Meanwhile, he argued that these capabilities could attract long-term Bitcoin holders seeking to earn yield while preserving privacy. Beyond Bitcoin integration, Hoskinson pointed to Cardano’s upcoming Leios upgrade as a major step forward for the network.
According to Hoskinson, the upgrade is expected to increase transaction throughput by roughly 60 times while enhancing scalability and interoperability, strengthening Cardano’s foundation for defi and institutional adoption.
Additionally, the boss emphasized Cardano’s on-chain governance system, which enables the community to approve protocol upgrades through voting. He said this flexibility could become increasingly important as blockchain technology evolves and new challenges emerge.
“Cardano is, in many ways, a spiritual successor (to Bitcoin). It reflects correcting a lot of things that I think that Satoshi couldn’t get around to because of expertise or time but was directionally moving there,” he stated.
Notably, he noted that Cardano’s governance framework could help the network respond to emerging technologies such as quantum computing.
“With Cardano, we’re going to have to make some decisions about what to do with quantum-vulnerable infrastructure. And if there needs to be a migration, we can have a vote, and then there could be an on-chain function to do that,” he noted.
Furthermore, Hoskinson argued that the cryptocurrency industry must move beyond speculative trading and build practical products for everyday users.
He said broader adoption will depend on combining blockchain with digital identity, privacy, artificial intelligence, insurance, and intuitive user experiences that make defi easier to use. He also sees tokenized real-world assets and stronger integration between Web2 and Web3 services as major drivers of the next growth cycle.
That said, Hoskinson believes Bitcoin DeFi, tokenized assets, and privacy-focused applications will drive the industry’s next growth phase, with Cardano positioned to expand Bitcoin’s utility while preserving decentralization and self-custody.