Cardano
Last changed 2026-10-27 · Fact-check review — Fact-check review (verdict: revise): the reviewer checked the page's claims against its sources; the trust score did not change. Version history →
Why this score
| Every page starts at | 65 |
| Incidents it suffered (e.g. hacks) | -3.2 |
| Problems around it, caused by others | -4 |
| Well known and widely used | +15 |
| Long-running | +10 |
| Sum | 83 |
Score: 83/100 (kept between 0 and 100)
How scoring works →Page reliability: Fact-checked 2026-10-27 · 6 of 9 claims confirmed · 3 need better sources
anchored·2SocEX…RJ9USummary
Cardano (ADA) is a proof-of-stake blockchain launched in 2017 by Charles Hoskinson and Jeremy Wood, developed through Input Output Global with EMURGO and the Cardano Foundation. A 2025 independent forensic audit found no basis for misappropriation allegations against Hoskinson, and the SEC/CFTC classified ADA as a digital commodity in March 2026. The network has had protocol-level and ecosystem incidents (a November 2025 chain partition, the June 2026 SecondFi wallet exploit) and ADA holders are a recurring target of impersonation, phishing and account-hijack scams.
Connected Entities
10 entities · 60 linked investigations- Ethereum→mentioned with→Bitcoin(60%)
- wallet drainers→mentioned with→Ethereum(70%)
- Litecoin→mentioned with→Bitcoin(70%)
- ZachXBT→mentioned with→Ethereum(70%)
- Litecoin→mentioned with→ZachXBT(70%)
- ZachXBT→mentioned with→Bitcoin(65%)
- Cardano→mentioned with→wallet drainers(80%)
- Cardano→mentioned with→Harmony Horizon Bridge(80%)
- Dogecoin→mentioned with→Bitcoin(65%)
- Solana→mentioned with→Ethereum(60%)
- + 7 more
Connected Through
9 shared actors · 607 investigationsDistinct actors this investigation shares with others — holders, traders, and named parties. Shared infrastructure (exchanges, pools) is excluded.
- □Ethereumorganization
- □ZachXBTorganization
- ♦Bitcointoken
- □Solanaorganization
Timeline(18 events)
2015
Cardano project conceived by Charles Hoskinson and Jeremy Wood following their departure from Ethereum.
The companies behind Cardano — CardanoCubeSeptember 2017
Cardano mainnet launched and ADA began trading.
Wikipedia — Cardano (blockchain platform)July 2020
Cardano issued its first public warning about fake ADA giveaway scams on YouTube as hacked channels hosted fraudulent Hoskinson livestreams.
cointelegraph.comJuly 2021
YouTube channel of influencer Ashkar Techy (650,000 followers) hacked and renamed to promote a fake Cardano ADA giveaway livestream.
cryptocoin.newsSeptember 2021
Cardano reiterated (September 20) it will 'never give away ADA' after a new wave of YouTube giveaway scam attacks.
en.cryptonomist.chJune 2023
Atomic Wallet suffered a $35M+ hack on June 3, attributed by Elliptic to the Lazarus Group; ADA was among the stolen assets.
bleepingcomputer.comJune 2023
On June 9 the SEC named ADA as an unregistered security in suits against Binance and Coinbase, which IOG rejected; Robinhood delisted ADA on June 27.
Cardano Developer Rejects SEC Claim Its ADA Token Is a Security — CoinDeskDecember 2023
Cardano community warned (December 14) of the fake Berry Pool NFT rewards scam draining over 200,000 ADA; on December 15 an AI-generated deepfake of Hoskinson endorsing a fake giveaway surfaced as a YouTube ad.
cryptopotato.comApril 2024
Lace wallet team issued an alert about fake Lace apps on the Apple App Store and Google Play.
u.todayOctober 2024
Fraudulent email campaign (reported October 3) targeted ADA holders with fake Chang hard fork token migration instructions.
cryptotimes.ioDecember 2024
December 8: Cardano Foundation's X account was compromised, promoting the fake 'ADAsol' token and a false SEC claim; December 12: the Foundation regained control and confirmed no other systems were affected.
cryptobriefing.com2025
Fake 'Eternl Desktop' phishing campaign distributed a malware-laden installer (Eternl.msi) embedding a LogMeIn remote access tool.
cybersecuritynews.comMay 2025
May 7: X user Masato Alexander alleged Hoskinson misappropriated 318 million ADA (~$619 million) via genesis keys; Hoskinson denied it and announced an independent audit.
Cardano's Charles Hoskinson denies misusing $600M in ADA, promises full audit — CryptopolitanSeptember 2025
The Chang hard fork reportedly activated and Cardano entered the Voltaire governance era (per one page's timeline, dated September 1).
Cardano Officially Begins Voltaire Era with Governance Upgrade — Bitget NewsSeptember 2025
September 2: an independent forensic audit by McDermott Will & Emery and BDO concluded in a 150-page report that the fraud allegations against Hoskinson and IOG 'do not have any basis.'
Investigators find no fraud in Cardano's decade-old voucher initiative in forensic report — CryptoSlateNovember 2025
November 21: Cardano mainnet partitioned for about 14.5 hours after a malformed transaction exploited a deserialization bug; no user funds were compromised.
Incident report: network partition analysis and resolution strategy — Intersect MBOMarch 2026
March 17: SEC and CFTC jointly classified ADA as a 'digital commodity,' reversing the 2023 security classification. March 24: the Lace team flagged the fraudulent site lacedesktop.io and fake 'Lace Desktop 2.0' emails.
Cardano Classified as Digital Commodity — Cardano Foundation on XJune 2026
SecondFi (formerly Yoroi) disclosed on June 23 a key-generation flaw; attackers drained 16.1 million ADA (~$2.4 million) from 374 wallets between June 21 and 23, with up to 129 million ADA reported at risk.
SecondFi loses $2.4 million in Cardano wallet exploit, up to $20 million at risk — CoinDeskDecision Log
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This investigation is cryptographically anchored to the Solana blockchain (11 decisions). 35 of 38 cited source URLs have an Internet Archive snapshot.
model: claude-code-merge-writer
generated: 5/4/2026, 4:05:01 PM
last updated: 10/27/2026, 6:51:03 AM
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