In brief
- Cardano’s founder, Charles Hoskinson, today said in an interview that crypto will help Afghanistan’s citizens.
- Hoskinson, who also co-founded Ethereum, didn’t explain how but noted that crypto was already “in Afghanistan.”
Ethereum co-founder Charles Hoskinson today said that cryptocurrencies will come to the rescue in Afghanistan.
Hoskinson, who is also the founder of Cardano, the third-largest digital asset by market cap, told CNBC in an interview yesterday that crypto could be used as a tool to fight against the Taliban.
He didn’t explain exactly how crypto would do this—but hinted that privacy could be something that is useful for the country’s citizens.
“It is my belief that cryptocurrencies are going to play a larger role in Afghanistan this time around, in the war for and against the Taliban forces,” he said. “There is going to continue to be civil war and conflict and they are going to need resources,” he added, noting that crypto was already in Afghanistan.
Cardano Hits New All-Time High as Charles Hoskinson Fights Off Critics
The price of ADA has skyrocketed by 17.4% over the last day, reaching a new all-time high of $2.54 in the early hours on Friday. Last week, Cardano’s token swept past Tether (USDT) and Binance Coin (BNB) to become the third-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. With its current market value of nearly $80 billion, the asset has only bolstered its position since then. By press time, the token has slightly backtracked from its record high, changing hands at $2.48, per CoinGecko. ADA’s pr...
Cryptocurrency use—especially Bitcoin use—has spiked in Afghanistan since the U.S. and its allies chaotically exited the country after a 20-year. Afghanistan has one of the fastest rates of cryptocurrency adoption, according to blockchainblockchain analytics firm Chainalysis.
The Taliban has taken advantage of the U.S. exit to reassert control, leading to many deaths, including a suicide bombing last week killed 13 American service members and 169 Afghans.
A number of high-profile Bitcoin advocates used the situation in Afghanistan last week to make crude jokes, while others made wide-eyed suggestions about the way cryptocurrencies could be used to escape the economic control of repressive regimes.
Likewise for Hoskinson, cryptocurrency is an opportunity for the war-torn country. He said that it would be “interesting” to see how cryptocurrency “gets integrated into statecraft” and how it could be used as “resistance against a regime” that “doesn't care for the rights” of its people.
Hoskinson was one of the co-founders of Ethereum, the second biggest crypto by market cap. He then founded Cardano, which is just one step below Ethereum in terms of market cap size.
The cryptocurrency surged to this spot recently—with its price rallying and touching all-time highs—after Hoskinson announced the network would soon include smart contractssmart contracts: computer code that performs prescribed instructions. The idea, Hoskinson and his team hope, is that Cardano will compete with EthereumEthereum as the go-to network to run DeFiDeFi apps, which aim to replace banks and brokers by automating lending and borrowing.
