Is XRP Coming To Cardano? Founder Sparks Speculation After Midnight Airdrop

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson has teased about a potential XRP integration. This follows the launch of the Midnight airdrop, which also involved the XRP ecosystem and six other networks besides Cardano. 

Cardano Founder Comments On XRP Integration

During an AMA session, the Cardano founder said that his network’s native wallet, Lace, will add support for XRP before the end of the year. This move is expected to expand XRP’s adoption as it would make it easier for Cardano natives to own the altcoin. However, Hoskinson didn’t say anything about natively integrating XRP onto the network for DeFi purposes, similar to how it has become a DeFi layer for Bitcoin. 

Furthermore, the Cardano founder revealed that he had a great conversation with Ripple’s CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, hinting at the possibility of other collaborations besides the Lace wallet support for XRP. Hoskinson had even remarked that it would be fun to do something with the XRP ecosystem. 

In line with this, the Cardano founder raised the possibility of organizing an event with stakeholders in the XRP community, including John Deaton. Hoskinson suggested that this event could happen before the end of the year. However, he didn’t provide further details of what the event could look like. 

Meanwhile, Deaton has already indicated that he is open to the idea of this event, which the Cardano founder talked about. In an X post, he said that it would be an honor and a pleasure to be present, working with Hoskinson and other leaders within the crypto ecosystem. Hoskinson also responded to Deaton’s comment, indicating that they could work towards setting up the event.

It is worth mentioning that this isn’t the first time the Cardano founder has hinted at an XRP integration and collaboration. In June, he said that there is a “whole XRP package with the glacier drop, lace wallet support, XRP DeFi, and the RealUSD talks.” Based on this, the XRP DeFi and RLUSD stablecoin plans may still be in the works. 

Hoskinson Highlights Midnight Drop Success

The Cardano founder also discussed the success of the Midnight airdrop so far. He claimed that over 1.6 billion NIGHT tokens have been redeemed so far. Hoskinson also declared that the airdrop is one of the largest ever in crypto history, if not the largest. 

The airdrop went live earlier this month, with XRP, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, BNB, AVAX, and BAT holders also being eligible for the airdrop alongside ADA holders. The Cardano founder indicated how this move has helped to boost his network’s relationship with other ecosystems. He also touched on the possibility of getting stakeholders in these ecosystems to promote the Midnight project further.

At the time of writing, the Cardano price is trading at around $0.9063, down over 1% in the last 24 hours, according to data from CoinMarketCap.