Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson has boldly stated that ADA has the potential to surge 1,000x from its current level, making it a far more lucrative investment compared to bitcoin (BTC).
His comments come as BTC trades near its all-time high, while Cardano (ADA) remains significantly below its previous peak.
Hoskinson’s statement was made during a recent interview where he addressed criticism surrounding his treasury proposal, which suggests converting up to $100 million from the ADA community fund into BTC and stablecoins.
The goal, according to Hoskinson, is to enhance liquidity for Cardano’s stablecoin ecosystem. However, the idea has sparked controversy. While some Bitcoin supporters have urged a full shift to BTC, ADA holders fear that offloading treasury funds would apply downward pressure on ADA’s price.
Responding to the debate, Hoskinson remarked sarcastically, “Why don’t you just convert all your ADA to Bitcoin? Okay, so we can make less money as an ecosystem?”
The remark highlights his belief that ADA offers far greater growth potential. “ADA can do 100x or 1,000x from here; Bitcoin can’t” he said, pointing to the vast difference in current market caps.
At a current price of $0.75, ADA holds a market cap of $27.5 billion. A 1,000x surge would place ADA near $800 per coin, raising its market capitalization to $27.5 trillion and eclipsing bitcoin’s best-case scenario.
Interestingly, market analysts have identified striking similarities between the current ADA market structure in 2025 and its setup in 2020, which preceded a 3,375% surge during the previous bull cycle. Accordingly, ADA has been projected to reclaim its all-time high (ATH) of $3.09 before year-end.
In contrast, Hoskinson suggested that bitcoin’s top growth potential is a 10x from current levels, potentially reaching $1 million per BTC, which would put its market cap at around $24 trillion.
While acknowledging bitcoin’s dominance, he emphasized that its growth ceiling is much closer than ADA’s, calling it “nearly exhausted.”
Notably, Binance founder Changpeng Zhao had earlier hinted that BTC could hit $1M this bull market cycle. Likewise, top asset management firm ARK Invest has raised its BTC bull-case target to $2.4 million per coin.
Cardano as a yield layer for Bitcoin
Hoskinson also discussed the potential integration of Cardano into the Bitcoin ecosystem, positioning ADA as a DeFi-enabling layer. “Cardano does substantially more,” he explained, arguing that its smart contract capabilities and network scalability make it an ideal engine for real-world crypto applications.
This vision aligns with broader industry narratives that Layer-1 networks like Cardano, Ethereum, and Solana could power the next wave of decentralized finance, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and enterprise use cases.
Hoskinson’s latest comments further spotlight the ongoing ideological divide between Bitcoin maximalists and smart contract platform advocates. While BTC remains a leading store of value, Cardano’s founder believes the future lies in platforms that can deliver utility, programmability, and growth.
Notably, BTC is trading at $118,000 at the time of writing, representing a 3.9% decrease from its ATH of $122,838. Meanwhile, ADA is changing hands at $0.75 at press time, down 75% from its ATH of $3.09.
