Charles Hoskinson Tries to Close Cardano’s $70 Million Bitcoin Mystery

Charles Hoskinson has given his most detailed account yet of Cardano’s disputed 1,096 Bitcoin (BTC), tracing the funds to a 2016 audit of the original ADA crowdsale.

The Cardano (ADA) founder named three auditors and a Bitcoin price from that year, reframing a question that has shadowed the project since its earliest days.

Hoskinson Traces the 1,096 Bitcoin to a 2016 Audit

During a livestream this weekend, Hoskinson said the disputed sum dates to a March 2016 email from Michael Parsons, then chairman of the Cardano Foundation.

Parsons sought payment for auditing the crowdsale that raised about $62 million between 2015 and 2017, almost entirely from Japanese investors.

He pulled the historical price to argue the bill was smaller than critics imply.

“The closing price of Bitcoin March 13, 2016 was $414,” said Hoskinson.

Independent data places Bitcoin near $412 that day, supporting his figure. By that math, he said, the payment covered three named reviewers.

“So that was about $400,000 for three auditors, Michael Parsons, John Maguire, and Bruce Milligan, to audit a… crowd sale in Japan… to verify there was no waste for abuse.”

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The same 1,096 BTC would be worth about $70 million today, the gap that keeps the dispute alive.

The sharper detail is who took the payment. Parsons resigned as Foundation chairman in 2018 after IOHK and EMURGO publicly broke with him over transparency and governance failures.

We can announce that there has been a change in the Cardano Foundation Council. Michael Parsons has resigned with immediate effect, Pascal Schmid takes over as Chairman on an interim basis. https://t.co/hg8bvVykQy

— Cardano Foundation (@Cardano_CF) November 13, 2018

Hoskinson Calls the Questions Bad Faith

Hoskinson argued the recurring demands for transparency aim to inflame rather than resolve.

“The purpose of the allegation isn’t the allegation. It’s the rage.”

He said each answer only triggers the next allegation, draining money that could otherwise grow the ecosystem.

The framing arrives as he has openly criticized the Foundation and stepped back from daily ADA promotion.

Braziel Wants the Receipts

Investor Thomas Braziel said the AMA answered one question but created several more. He called for invoices, approvals, and payment records.

“The question was never whether audits cost money. The question was where 1,096 BTC went, who received it, and why.”

Braziel also questioned how IOHK ended up controlling roughly 95% of the BTC raised while the Foundation kept a fraction.

The pressure builds as the Foundation’s reserves shrink, ADA trades near $0.1669, down about 3% on the day, and the token sits 17th by market value.