Cardano Founder Calls XRP ‘Unfakeable’, Says It’s Built for a $10 Trillion Market

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson has reignited debate around blockchain infrastructure after commenting on recent moves by traditional finance firms into tokenization. Responding to news around the Canton Network, Hoskinson said legacy finance is trying to recreate systems that XRP and Cardano-linked projects are already building, but at a much smaller scale.

Hoskinson argued that platforms like XRP and Midnight are designed from the ground up for Web3, while traditional institutions are only beginning to experiment. When asked what scale he was referring to, he pointed directly to the real-world asset market, saying the goal is a $10 trillion opportunity. 

According to Hoskinson, success in this space requires full end-to-end systems, strong partnerships, and active communities. “You can’t fake Cardano or the XRP community,” he added.

Why the timing matters

Hoskinson’s comments came just as Canton Coin jumped roughly 20% over the past week, clearly outperforming a mostly flat or weaker crypto market. Canton Coin’s rally stood out because it was driven by institutional infrastructure news rather than broad market momentum.

The move followed a December 17 announcement from the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation, or DTCC, which revealed plans to explore tokenizing a portion of U.S. Treasury securities on the Canton Network. DTCC plays a central role in global finance, processing trillions of dollars in securities transactions every year. 

Why DTCC’s move is important

DTCC said the initial focus would be U.S. Treasury securities held through its Depository Trust Company unit. Rather than replacing existing systems, the goal is to see how tokenization can work within current market structures. DTCC’s leadership described the effort as a long-term roadmap that could eventually expand to many other regulated assets.

The total value of tokenized RWAs has grown sharply over the past 12 months, with U.S. Treasurys account for a large share of that expansion.

On one side are legacy financial players adapting blockchain to existing systems. On the other are networks like XRP and Cardano, which he argues were built from the start to handle global-scale tokenization. As institutions push deeper into real-world assets, the race may come down not just to products, but to who controls the infrastructure behind them.