The Unprecedented Memecoin Burn by Cardano’s Charles Hoskinson
Charles Hoskinson, the visionary founder of Cardano and the CEO of Input Output Global (IOG), recently executed an extraordinary public act by burning a vast quantity of a memecoin that bore his name. This memecoin, known simply as CHARLES, found its way into Hoskinson’s wallet during a live demonstration of the Lace wallet platform. During this session, he created a new Cardano wallet, securely backing it up with his PGP key and momentarily revealing the paper wallet on camera. This demonstration was intended to highlight Cardano’s robust security features, rather than to invite the random distribution of unsolicited tokens.
Memecoin Burn Worth $80 Million by Cardano’s Visionary
In a candid video, Hoskinson expressed his surprise at having to address such a scenario, remarking, “I never thought in my life y’all would make a video forcing me to make a video like this, but you did.” While initially joking about potential threats from exposing a new address, he emphasized that in the ever-evolving crypto environment, especially by 2025, the real threat lies in receiving arbitrary tokens via airdrops.
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The CHARLES token appeared unexpectedly, generating significant trading activity within the community. Hoskinson noted that the token’s fully diluted market value reached approximately $71 million, with a 24-hour trading volume exceeding $5 million, all in just one day. This led to a speculative frenzy characterized by a “million percent up” surge in interest.
Memecoin Mania and a Public Act of Token Destruction
Addressing the fervor surrounding the memecoin, Hoskinson commented, “Boy did you trade it… literally in a day, a million percent up, everybody’s playing with it.” Despite holding what many would see as a potential multimillion-dollar valuation, Hoskinson opted not to exploit or sell the tokens for personal profit. Instead, he chose to obliterate them through a public burning event.
He detailed the process, explaining how he devised a quick script, which was reviewed and improved by his team member Lucas, enabling the transfer of tokens to a script address without the possibility of fund retrieval—a “black hole” contract. Hoskinson meticulously demonstrated the token burn process, confirming the address, designating the total of around 900 billion CHARLES tokens (comprising 90% of the supply), and adding a personal note saying “thanks for all the fish” before entering his password to complete the transaction.
Executing the Token Burn: A Detailed Walkthrough
Upon sending the tokens, Hoskinson shared the outgoing transaction on screen, noting that extinguishing such a highly-valued token cost him merely 1.42 ADA in network fees. Reflecting on the token’s market-tracked value, which briefly exceeded $80 million, he remarked, “I think this is the first time in my life I’ve ever burnt $60 million, $70 million, $80 million of value.” He acknowledged the irony, stating, “A lesser man would have found a way to slow drip that out, got a few million dollars here and there. I don’t do that. Homie don’t play that way.”
During the demonstration, Hoskinson also showcased test burns with other tokens like HOSKY and AGENT SNEK before conducting the final CHARLES token burn. Once the transaction appeared on the blockchain explorer, he verified that the tokens were indeed irretrievable, observing that “there’s no way to pull funds out of it” once they reach the burner script’s address. Concluding the broadcast, he urged the community to refrain from similar actions in the future, though he admitted the spectacle had an oddly entertaining quality.
Current Market Position of Cardano
At the time of reporting, Cardano was trading at $0.95. The cryptocurrency faces resistance at the 0.382 Fibonacci level as per the 1-day chart analysis.
