Cardano has been left out of a new U.S. government initiative aimed at bringing official economic data on-chain, a move that founder Charles Hoskinson says boils down to money.
In his latest YouTube AMA, Hoskinson explained that Chainlink—the oracle service tapped to handle the integrations—quoted what he described as an “unreasonable price” to onboard Cardano.
“They gave us an absurd number for integration. We’ll handle it, we’ll figure it out,” he noted. Despite the setback, Hoskinson praised Chainlink co-founder Sergey Nazarov, calling him “a very smart man who knows the value of what he has.”
The federal program, recently announced, includes Ethereum, Solana, Avalanche, and Optimism as participating networks. Notably absent were both Cardano and XRP, a decision that has stirred debate among crypto users.
The Chainlink partnership with the Department of Commerce is being hailed as a major win for blockchain adoption, as it enables official U.S. macroeconomic data to be made available directly on-chain.
News of the collaboration also boosted LINK’s token price by more than 5% in the hours after the announcement.
For Cardano, however, the exclusion is seen as a missed opportunity. Supporters highlighted the blockchain’s track record of five years without downtime—an achievement that few rivals can match.
Yet critics argued that Cardano’s slower development pace, its late entry into DeFi, and the lack of Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatibility all contribute to higher integration costs and fewer partnerships.
Hoskinson, meanwhile, stressed that discussions are ongoing. He revealed that Cardano is exploring collaborations with DeFi heavyweight Aave and the USD1 stablecoin project.
“I’d like USD1, I’d like Aave, I’d like Chainlink. There’s a bundle there, and we’re working through what that means and how to do it,” he said. If successful, these moves could strengthen Cardano’s DeFi footprint and help make up for the missed U.S. government listing.
