- Charles Hoskinson reignited speculation of a brewing Cardano and XRP collab in a recent post.
- Wild rumors about a cross-chain link-up between them have been floating around this year.
An update from Charles Hoskinson, founder of Cardano (ADA) and CEO of Input Output (IO), hints at a potential shakeup in the cryptocurrency ecosystem in the foreseeable future. He revealed on social media that his group is considering hosting an XRP DeFi (Decentralized Finance) summit at the University of Edinburgh.
The short post reignited speculation about a brewing cross-chain collaboration between XRP and Cardano, or companies associated with them, such as Ripple and IO.
Hoskinson’s Latest XRP-Related Post
“If we hosted an XRP DeFi summit at the University of Edinburgh, who are the top 15 projects to invite from the XRP community?” asked Hoskinson on X over a week ago.
A top figure in Cardano showing interest in XRP has naturally got both chains’ dedicated communities buzzing. Many saw it as a signal of a major convergence and cooperation between two chains whose crypto assets rank among the top 10 by market cap. It could, in turn, spell an explosive growth in their ecosystems.
On the other hand, some took it with skepticism. Critics doubted whether Hoskinson was really on it or just trolling the XRP and ADA faithful to farm engagement.
Previous Hints of a Cardano and XRP Collab
Rumors of a possible brewing connection between Cardano and XRP gained significant traction earlier this year after Ripple released an ad focused on tokenization. What got people really talking about the video was its intro. For a full three seconds, it zoomed in on a token bearing the Cardano logo and lettering, while hyping how tokenization could reshape global markets.
Ripple remained mum on the nature of Cardano’s appearance in the ad. However, Hoskinson and Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple, have both hinted at discussions of a potential partnership.
Meanwhile, some offered a more plausible explanation for Ripple’s previous reference to Cardano, noting that the blockchain solutions provider may be mulling over launching Ripple USD (RLUSD) on ADA’s chain. After all, the stablecoin is not exclusive to the XRP Ledger (XRPL), as it also utilizes Ethereum (ETH) to broaden its market reach.
Recently, Ripple began testing the rollout of RLUSD in Layer 2 (L2) chains, including Optimism, Base, Ink, and Unichain.
Midnight Partnering with XRP
Beyond simple curiosity, Hoskinson’s outreach may also be tied to a larger strategic rollout for Cardano’s privacy-focused Midnight sidechain. Before its launch, he had frequently characterized Midnight as a “partner chain” for ecosystems that natively lack programmable privacy and advanced smart contracts, implying XRPL in his rhetoric.
