Charles Hoskinson, creator of Cardano and CEO of Input Output (IOG), has publicly incinerated a significant cache of a memecoin named after him. The token, simply referred to as CHARLES, found its way into Hoskinson’s wallet after he demonstrated the Lace wallet platform in a live presentation. This presentation involved establishing a new Cardano wallet, securing it with his PGP key, and briefly displaying the paper wallet on camera—an action he meant as a showcase of Cardano’s security features, not an invitation to distribute unsolicited tokens.
Cardano Founder Incinerates $80 Million
Hoskinson voiced astonishment that he would ever need to create such a video, stating, “I never imagined in my life that y’all would compel me to make a video like this, but you did.” Although he initially joked about the risk of malicious individuals exploiting a newly exposed address, he emphasized that in the present crypto environment, particularly in 2025, the more probable “threat vector” is having arbitrary tokens airdropped into a wallet.
In this case, the CHARLES token materialized unexpectedly and, much to the community’s astonishment, rapidly garnered significant trading activity. According to Hoskinson, the token accumulated a fully diluted market capitalization of approximately $71 million and a 24-hour trading volume exceeding $5 million, all within a single day, resulting in what he characterized as a “million percent up” wave of speculation.
Commenting on the frenzy around this memecoin, he remarked, “Wow, you really traded it… literally in a day, a million percent up, everybody’s engaging with it.” Despite holding what many might perceive as a paper valuation worth tens of millions, Hoskinson displayed minimal interest in utilizing or liquidating those tokens for personal benefit. Instead, he opted to eliminate them through a public burning act.
He clarified that he created a quick script, which his team member Lucas validated and improved, to send the tokens to a script address with no option to recover funds—a “black hole” contract. Hoskinson walked through the process step by step, confirming the address, setting the total quantity of around 900 billion CHARLES tokens (90% of the supply), and adding a note that read “thanks for all the fish” before entering his password to complete the transaction.
Once the tokens were dispatched, he shared the outgoing transaction on screen and noted that incinerating such a significant number of nominally valued tokens cost him merely 1.42 ADA in network fees. “I think this is the first time in my life I’ve ever burnt $60 million, $70 million, $80 million of value,” he said, highlighting how swiftly the token’s market-tracked valuation had altered, at one point exceeding $80 million in perceived value. He recognized the irony: “A lesser individual would have discovered a method to slowly release that, earning a few million dollars here and there. I don’t operate that way. Homie don’t play that way.”
During the demonstration, Hoskinson also revealed that he had tested the burning script with other tokens like HOSKY and AGENT SNEK before executing the final incineration of the CHARLES tokens. As soon as the transaction appeared on the blockchain explorer, he confirmed the tokens were indeed eliminated, observing that “there’s no method to extract funds from it” once they reach the burner script’s address. At the conclusion of the broadcast, he urged the community not to engage in such antics in the future, although he acknowledged that the spectacle had been oddly entertaining.
At the time of reporting, Cardano was valued at $0.95.
Featured image generated with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com
