Charles Hoskinson Calls Senate Democrats’ DeFi Proposal a “Kill Switch”

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson became the latest industry leader to criticize Senate Democrats’ leaked proposal to regulate decentralized finance. 

In a YouTube livestream, Charles Hoskinson reviewed the proposed regulation’s articles. He used this opportunity to launch a broader, highly critical political critique, primarily aimed at the Democratic Party.

Hoskinson Attacks Treasury’s Power to Blacklist DeFi Protocols

Adding significant weight to the industry’s opposition, Hoskinson detailed his issues with the Democratic proposal for decentralized finance (DeFi) in a livestream posted today. 

The Cardano founder criticized several articles in the leaked document. He argued that if passed, the proposal would grant the US Treasury the power to create a restricted list of DeFi protocols with “no judge, jury, or appeals process.”

Hoskinson called attention to the Treasury and regulatory agencies’ overpowering discretion under this proposal. They would have the power to decide if a protocol is genuinely decentralized, with “no oversight.”

“Basically, they have kill switch and anything they don’t like instantly dead,” he said.

Hoskinson also criticized the removal of developer protections. According to the document, anyone designing, deploying, or operating a front-end service for a DeFi protocol may be classified as a regulated intermediary. He stated that this definition would effectively make every person building DeFi applications a “criminal.”

Abandoning “The Little Guy”

Beyond his criticisms of the DeFi proposal, Hoskinson delivered a scathing criticism of the Democratic Party.

“It has everything to do with, ‘let’s maximize power, centralize an entire industry, and give an uncaring and unaccountable government absolute power over everything, he said, adding, “I don’t know why people vote for Democrats… They’re the most morally bankrupt people. The Democrats stand for nothing. They stand for big institutions, that’s it.”

Hoskinson followed up by discussing what he considered to be a sense of hypocrisy within the Democratic Party regarding their past support for the “little guy.”

“The little guy is the DeFi user. The little guy is the person who downloads a browser wallet or a mobile wallet and buy an NFT or participates in a meme coin. The little guy is who built crypto– it’s not Chase, it’s not Goldman Sachs, it’s not Google, it’s not Pfizer,” he said. 

The Cardano founder continued by arguing that if the US criminalizes and drives out the crypto industry—which he projects to grow from a $4 trillion industry to a $10 trillion industry—it will hand this significant economic advantage to its global competitors.

Hoskinson concluded his livestream with a heated call to action. He urged listeners to write their senators and express their opposition. 

“Let’s get this market structure bill as written now. It’s a good draft; it was bipartisan in the House, we can make it bipartisan in the Senate. Don’t allow a small cabal of Democrat senators destroy the entire process. Let your voices be heard, let them know there’s consequences to this come 2026… We can’t lose this fight.”