Following the controversial accusations, the results of the third-party forensic review of the Cardano (ADA) voucher redemption program have been made public. Cardano\u2019s founder, Charles Hoskinson, says he\u2019s now \u201cwaiting for the apologies to come rolling in.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, the Cardano community celebrated after the third-party forensic review of the ADA voucher redemption program was published. The investigative report, conducted by law firm McDermott Will & Schulte and the audit firm BDO, determined<\/a> that the allegations against Input Output Global (IOG) don\u2019t have any foundation.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter review of tens of thousands of documents, a forensic on-chain and traditional forensic analysis, and eighteen formal interviews of current employees, former employees, Voucher Holders, service providers, community members, and other third parties, the Investigation determined that each of the allegations related to the Topics of Investigation do not have any basis,\u201d the report reads.<\/p>\n Public accusations included five main allegations, including that insiders stole or misused ADA that should have been allocated to voucher holders and that there were improper sale tactics related to the voucher program.<\/p>\n The claims also accused Cardano blockchain upgrades<\/a> of being designed to make voucher redemption difficult, and deleted voucher holders\u2019 \u201cprivate keys\u201d or assets. Lastly, the allegation that Cardano insiders had no legal right to send unredeemed ADA to CDH and decide how to spend it.<\/p>\n The controversy emerged in May, when Non-Fungible Token (NFT) artist Masato Alexander alleged<\/a> that Charles Hoskinson had \u201cunilaterally used his genesis keys to REWRITE the Cardano ledger\u201d during the Allegra hard fork in 2021 to take control of 318-350 million ADA, about 0.2 percent of the Initial Coin Offering (ICO) allocation that remained unclaimed years after launch.<\/p>\n Hoskinson denied Alexander\u2019s claims, arguing that 99.8% of the vouchers sold were redeemed by their original buyers, while the remaining 0.2% were \u201creturned to the TGE and donated to Intersect through the same process that funded the Cardano Foundation.\u201d<\/p>\n Based on the Investigation, McDermott Will & Schulte and BDO found that the sources of the public allegations against IOG and Charles Hoskinson didn\u2019t originate from unredeemed voucher holders, and they \u201cdid not identify evidence indicating that Input Output or Sawyers turned away any potential Voucher Holder who possessed a valid Voucher.\u201d<\/p>\n Additionally, they concluded that reasonable guardrails were implemented to prevent deceptive marketing<\/a> and sales tactics, noting that the program was not designed to exploit the elderly.<\/p>\n The audit also revealed that 97.3% of all the vouchers, or 98.8% of the ADA allocated, were redeemed on-chain during the Byron era, and \u201csubstantial efforts were undertaken to cause Voucher Holders to redeem on-chain\u201d at the time.<\/p>\n As of August 15, 2025, 99.2% of Vouchers consisting of 99.7% of all ada sold pursuant to the Voucher Program have been redeemed through the on-chain redemptions and Post-Sweep Redemption Project.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the review highlighted that the voucher certificates contained redemption codes instead of \u201cprivate keys,\u201d refuting the accusation that these keys were later deleted. It also concluded that Cardano insiders<\/a> did not misappropriate the staking rewards from the unredeemed ADA.<\/p>\n Time To Move On, Says Hoskinson<\/p>\n Hoskinson went on X Space to share<\/a> the audit result, reading the announcement of IOG\u2019s Chief Legal Officer & Chief Policy Officer, Joel Telpner, and the executive summary of the 128-page document.<\/p>\n Cardano\u2019s founder said that it\u2019s been a \u201cdeeply frustrating\u201d process, noting that \u201cIt\u2019s one thing to attack my intelligence, my physical appearance, my business acumen, my integrity. It\u2019s another thing to accuse me of a crime.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis is over. And for the people who stirred this pot: do the right thing, and just apologize. Have some common fucking decency as a human being. Apologize. Let\u2019s just all move on, say you were wrong. Have enough integrity to do that,\u201d he asked<\/a>.<\/p>\nThe Review Findings<\/h2>\n