Charles Hoskinson Says Cointelegraph Refuses Retraction — Forensic Audit Clears IOG of $600M Theft Claim

According to Charles Hoskinon, Cointelegraph has written an article where IGO has been accused of stealing 600 million dollars in ADA. After the audit, he says that Cointelegraph was not willing to publish a retraction. The story is defamatory according to Hoskinson. He claims that he was not contacted by IOG prior to publication. He encouraged industrial action against the outlet.

It's come to my attention that apparently @Cointelegraph's editor in chief refuses to publish a retraction about the story they ran on the alleged ada voucher theft.

Apparently, they will run a story that we are "pressuring them". Telling people to tell the truth about what…

— Charles Hoskinson (@IOHK_Charles) September 28, 2025

Forensic Audit

IOG contracted an independent forensic investigation. The report spans 150 pages. It records the movement and redemption of the vouchers. It finds 14282 vouchers had been redeemed. That is a redemption rate of 99.7 per cent of all vouchers sold. Following Post-Sweep Redemption Project, only 14 vouchers have not been redeemed, which is indicated by the audit. No insider fraud and misappropriation were detected by the audit.

On one occasion, when it had been at its highest point, 390 vouchers were not taken. Such value was also equivalent to ADA unclaimed of about 318 million in the headline valuation. At the all-time highs of ADA, that volume may be pegged at close to 600M on paper. The audit and post-sweep made that number 14 vouchers. The figures reveal that the allegation of 600M was based on pre-redemption old-fashioned valuations.

2023 transfer of tokens: 68.25M ADA

A transfer of 68.25 million ADA was noted in the report. Those were transferred to Cardano Development Holdings, a foundation based in the Caymans under Intersect. Those coins were in fact believed by the forensic team not to be redeemable vouchers. The transfer is not theft according to the results of the audit.

The metrics of the ecosystem used by Cardano are presented in an audit commentary. In 2025, the total value locked (TVL) of Cardano was approximately around $300 and $400 million. The overall market value of Cardano ranged around 14 billion in 2025. These numbers reflect the economic magnitude of the project and the relative proportion of the size of the voucher pool to the entire ecosystem.

On August 26, 2025, Cointelegraph rehired Jon Rice as editor-in-chief. Hoskinson compares that change in leadership to the position of the outlet with regard to the voucher story. He tells how the outlet provided the initiative of the retraction request of IOG as pressure instead of an evidence-based remedy.

What independent Reports Said (names and findings)

The forensic report was reviewed by CryptoSlate and FXDailyReport. They claimed the 99.7 percent redemption rate and that auditors did not discover any fraud. The stores challenged the accusation of 600M in a very straightforward way.