A recent forensic audit and investigative report has exonerated Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson of all allegations tied to the project’s ADA voucher program. Cardano’s development arm, Input Output Global (IOG), released the 128-page investigative report and forensic audit. The investigation, carried out by accounting firm BDO and law firm McDermott, Will & Schulte, examined Cardano’s voucher program, its blockchain upgrades, voucher redemptions, and how the ADA linked to unredeemed vouchers was utilized. Controversy Surrounding ADA Initial Sale Unlike most crypto projects, the team behind Cardano used a voucher system for its initial fundraising and ADA distribution. Instead of allowing investors to purchase ADA directly, the team sold vouchers to early investors in different phases. Following the mainnet launch of the Cardano network, users can redeem these vouchers for ADA tokens. Several years after the redemption, rumors began circulating that Hoskinson and IOG had misappropriated $600 million worth of ADA linked to the program. Critics alleged that the Cardano founder embedded hidden code in the 2021 Allegra hard fork to manipulate the blockchain. Despite denying the claims, Hoskinson emphasized the need for an audit to dismiss the allegations. Consequently, the IOG employed the services of BDO and McDermott to investigate the voucher program in May. Investigation Scope Their investigation focused mainly on five allegations, including misleading sales practices employed in the voucher program, insiders’ misuse or theft of ADA belonging to voucher holders, and blockchain upgrades blocking ADA redemption. The investigation also focused on claims that the blockchain upgrade deleted voucher holders’ private keys and that unredeemed ADA was improperly redirected to Cardano Development Holdings (CDH). Findings After reviewing thousands of documents, conducting forensic analysis of on-chain and off-chain data, and interviewing 18 current employees, BDO and McDermott concluded that the claims are baseless. They shared data showing that users successfully redeemed 14,282 vouchers, which represents 25,850,401,508 (roughly 25.9 billion) ADA tokens. This accounts for 99.2% of the total ADA tokens sold in the voucher program. According to the report, users redeemed 97% of these vouchers by the end of Cardano’s first development phase — the Byron era. Notably, as of August 15, 2025, that figure spiked to 99.2%. Furthermore, the report indicated that the IOG legally transferred the remaining unclaimed ADA to CDH. The funds were subsequently earmarked for Intersect-powered community projects and ecosystem development. In conclusion, the report found that the IOG acted diligently in handling the Cardano voucher program. https://twitter.com/wingriderscom/status/1963354848545656862Cardano Founder Hoskinson Seeks Apology Reacting, Hoskinson suggested that he expects critics who publicly accused him to apologize, especially now that the audit has debunked the allegations leveled against him. https://twitter.com/IOHK_Charles/status/1963288888711000286
