Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson has criticized traditional banks for trying to copy established blockchain technology. In a post on X, he argued that XRP and Cardano’s Midnight sidechain are far ahead of these legacy finance efforts, and he quoted a remark praising Canton for attempting to replicate what XRP and Midnight are already doing at a scale 100x beyond bankers’ ambitions.
Hoskinson warned that banks are building permissioned systems that mimic XRP and Midnight but lack the openness, decentralization, and flexibility of public blockchains. He described it as ironic that traditional institutions promote blockchain without embracing Web3’s core principles. He said legacy finance still doesn’t fully understand why public blockchains are far ahead.
Earlier this month, the DTCC teamed up with Digital Asset and the Canton Network to tokenize U.S. Treasury securities held by DTC, with a test version expected in the first half of 2026 after an SEC no-action letter. The project aims to give regulated, private, interoperable access to these digital treasuries, with DTCC and Euroclear assisting in governance. Canton has also seen stablecoin activity, including World Liberty Financial’s USD1 stablecoin, which can be used as collateral, for lending, and for international settlements. These steps demonstrate growing institutional interest, but Hoskinson believes they are limited copies of what XRP and Midnight can accomplish on a larger scale.
Hoskinson highlights XRP and Midnight as examples of networks solving problems traditional finance is only beginning to address. XRP focuses on cross-border payments and liquidity efficiency, while decentralized Web3-native networks can pursue larger technical and economic goals than institution-led blockchains. Midnight is being developed at a rapid pace; Hoskinson has been producing up to 100 pages of technical documentation daily ahead of January workshops, describing it as a “Manhattan Project” for privacy, chain abstraction, and smart compliance. He warns the market may not be fully prepared for its impact in 2026. The XRP Ledger was selected for the NIGHT token distribution, with over a billion tokens allocated, and Hoskinson has hinted at future collaborations, including a possible DeFi layer for XRP to increase yield and on-chain utility in 2026. As 2026 approaches, XRP’s role in global blockchain infrastructure may become increasingly difficult for institutions and markets to ignore.
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