- Charles Hoskinson plans to integrate Bitcoin and XRP into Cardano’s DeFi to dramatically increase its total value locked.
- The strategy also involves real-world asset tokenization to complement the cross-chain liquidity from Bitcoin and XRP.
Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson has presented a plan to significantly grow the network’s total value locked. He detailed this strategy at the Token2049 event in Singapore. The core of the proposal involves connecting Bitcoin and XRP to Cardano’s decentralized finance infrastructure.
Hoskinson observed that while Cardano’s DeFi activity has progressed slower than other chains, a substantial opportunity exists. He pointed to the vast liquidity within the Bitcoin network, which holds a market value exceeding $2 trillion. Most of these assets currently remain inactive within decentralized finance applications. Channeling a portion of this capital to Cardano could bring billions in value and expand its user base.
A technical feature called the extended UTXO model provides a foundation for this integration. Hoskinson mentioned this model has structural commonalities with Bitcoin’s transaction framework. These shared characteristics could enable smart contracts to function across both blockchains. The result would be a smoother transfer of assets between the networks.
The strategy also includes attracting XRP liquidity
Hoskinson highlighted that over $100 billion worth of XRP is held without generating yield for its owners. Creating pathways for these holders to earn passive income on Cardano could draw a meaningful portion of these funds.
Tokenizing real-world assets like property forms another component of the broader plan. Uniting these initiatives with the Bitcoin and XRP integrations could collectively push Cardano’s TVL toward a range of $10 to $15 billion. Reaching the upper end of this forecast would place its total value locked above Solana’s current $12.8 billion.
Cardano (ADA) is trading at $0.8287, reflecting a daily decline of 4.92% following a rejection from the short-term resistance zone between $0.88 and $0.92. Despite the pullback, ADA has posted a weekly gain of 2.80% and remains up 131.86% year-over-year, signaling ongoing strength in its macro structure.
On the technical side, ADA continues to trade within a rising channel, and current price action suggests a corrective retracement within the broader bullish trend. The $0.80–$0.82 range acts as a key demand zone, with additional support at $0.77, which previously served as a consolidation base. Momentum indicators show cooling sentiment, but the structure remains intact as long as price holds above $0.77.
On the fundamental and development front, Charles Hoskinson, has unveiled a multi-chain DeFi initiative involving Bitcoin and XRP, aiming to expand Cardano’s total value locked (TVL) to $15 billion by integrating wrapped assets and synthetic liquidity pools.
This is part of Cardano’s larger strategy to position itself as an interoperable DeFi hub, competing directly with Ethereum Layer 2s. The initiative will roll out in phases and is being backed by native protocols like Indigo, Minswap, and Liqwid, which have already begun deploying test integrations with synthetic Bitcoin (cBTC) and wrapped XRP (wXRP).
In parallel, Hoskinson also expressed public support for Elon Musk’s Grokipedia, a decentralized knowledge base that aims to counter traditional information gatekeepers like Wikipedia. This alignment has been interpreted as a reputational move to improve Cardano’s mainstream image, especially following ongoing bias accusations by critics in centralized media outlets.
A recent public apology by one of Cardano’s major critics also contributed to a temporary price surge, suggesting that even sentiment-based events are capable of moving ADA in the short term.
From an on-chain perspective, Cardano’s active wallet count and transaction throughput remain consistent, aided by recent upgrades to its Ouroboros consensus protocol.
The upcoming Plutus V3 smart contract update, expected later this quarter, will reduce execution costs and introduce native support for dynamic NFTs and on-chain oracles, essential for complex DeFi dApps and RWA tokenization.
Given the current structural retrace and strong fundamental catalysts, the 7-day price forecast for ADA is $0.9050, with breakout potential toward $0.975 if the $0.88–$0.90 resistance zone is breached with volume confirmation. Downside invalidation sits at $0.765, where a breakdown would signal a deeper correction toward $0.70.
