Arthur Hayes, the co-founder and former CEO of BitMEX has made a controversial comment about the Cardano blockchain. Hayes shared an image via social media highlighting the fee generation of various decentralized applications (dApps) and protocols across the crypto ecosystem, questioning the presence and performance of ADA-based applications within this landscape.

Hayes Blasts Cardano As “Dog Shit”

Hayes remarked, “For all you ADA believers, what dAPP on this list originally launched on Cardano, or has a Cardano offering that is heavily used? From my very limited knowledge, it looks like none of them do. That’s why ADA is dog shit. Charles Hoskinson, pls educate me. Yachtzee.”

The image shared by Hayes is from Token Terminal, a platform that tracks financial performance metrics across different blockchain projects. It displays a bar chart of various crypto projects, ranked by the fees they have accumulated. The projects listed include Kwenta, Gains Network, Aura Finance, Curve, and others, leading up to the highest fee-generating projects like Aave, MakerDao, Uniswap and Lido Finance.

According to the data, Cardano is not represented among the top fee-generating projects in this list. This absence is the basis for Hayes’ criticism, suggesting that the lack of a heavily used dApp originating from or available on Cardano is indicative of the platform’s underperformance in the broader crypto market.

ADA Founder And Community Reacts

In response, Charles Hoskinson, the founder of ADA, has not provided an extensive rebuttal as of this reporting. Hoskinson, known for his typically vociferous defense of Cardano, has instead taken a more subdued approach, which can be characterized as meek.

He replied, “Arthur, why are you throwing shade at Cardano? I like you man,” to which Hayes retorted, “Cause ur coin is a piece of shit man. I like u too man, regardless of the price of ADA. Just buy some ETH and chill.” This exchange highlights a seemingly friendly yet pointed critique of ADA’s performance and utility in the current crypto landscape.

The Cardano community and associated projects have not remained silent in the face of Hayes’ comments. Liqwid Labs, a project built on the blockchain, pointed out their development of Aave v3 liquidity pools and Lido liquid staking on the platform, indicating the existence of innovative DeFi products within the ADA ecosystem.

Similarly, Dan Gambardello, founder of Crypto Capital Venture, emphasized ADA’s unique features, such as its native liquid staking system, which he argues showcases the platform’s innovation and security. “It’s not about “believing” in Cardano. […] That’s called innovation. And it’s secure. Long term value investors find security attractive. You can very simply hop into the newly developing Cardano ecosystem of dapps to answer your other questions,” he remarked.

Moreover, the stake pool “Stake with Pride” referenced the “State of Cardano Q4 report” by Messari, which documented significant ecosystem growth, including a 166% increase in Total Value Locked (TVL) and a 37% increase in stablecoin value. These metrics suggest a thriving ecosystem, contrary to Hayes’ critique.

At press time, ADA traded at $0.598.

Featured image from Chartwell Speakers / Medium, chart from TradingView.com