Crypto Market Lacks ‘Mojo’: Cardano Founder Reveals Why BTC, ETH, XRP, and ADA Are Falling

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson has responded to growing questions about why ADA’s price is not rising, even as excitement builds around Midnight ($NIGHT), a new Cardano-linked project that recently surged in popularity.

This week, $NIGHT topped CoinGecko’s list of most trending cryptocurrencies, briefly outperforming major names like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana in online interest. Reacting to the milestone, Hoskinson said the project is “just getting started” and called Midnight the first Cardano-native asset to trend above Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Hoskinson says Midnight could play a big role across the crypto ecosystem. He said adding Midnight to XRP-based DeFi could challenge traditional banks, while connecting it to Bitcoin could help unlock the vision Satoshi Nakamoto originally imagined. For Cardano itself, he said Midnight could supercharge DeFi, potentially increasing users, transactions, and total value locked by ten times through large-scale private DeFi.

He described this phase as the arrival of a “fourth generation” of blockchain technology.

Why Isn’t ADA Price Rising?

Despite the positive news, ADA’s price remains weak. One community member directly asked Hoskinson why Cardano’s price is not moving, even with strong developments and growing attention.

Hoskinson gave a blunt answer. He said the wider crypto market has lost momentum after years of scams, hacks, bad actors, manipulation, and negative headlines. According to him, markets are currently “broken, brittle, and angry,” and need time to cool down before real value can return.

He added that it could take several months for confidence to rebuild.

Where ADA Stands Now

At the time of writing, ADA is trading below $0.40, though it has gained around 3% in the last 24 hours. Still, the token has been hit hard compared to earlier cycles.

ADA remains in a clear downtrend, with no strong signs of a major reversal yet. A meaningful recovery would require Cardano to break above resistance levels and show sustained strength, which has not happened so far.

While ADA’s price action remains disappointing for many holders, Hoskinson’s comments could mean that Cardano’s long-term strategy is focused on infrastructure, privacy, and real utility, not short-term price moves.