NFT artist Masato Alexander has shared the findings of an on-chain investigation into allegations that the Cardano founder sold 1.5 billion ADA during the 2021 bull market.
According to Alexander, blockchain records show that transactions matching major parts of the claim did occur during that period. However, the available data does not prove whether those tokens were actually sold.
Origin of the Allegations
The allegations first surfaced in May 2025 when crypto community member Slimelife claimed he sold about 1.5 billion ADA on Hoskinson’s behalf during 2021 while the token traded between $1 and $3.
Slimelife also alleged that Hoskinson owed Ethereum co-founder Gavin Wood 20 million ADA per month for 10 months. He claimed to have been instructed to sell ADA and pay the amount in cash instead of making those payments directly in ADA.
On-Chain Data Shows Series of Large Cardano Transfers
More than a year after the claims emerged, Alexander decided to review the blockchain activity himself. The NFT artist noted that he focused on tracking verifiable transactions on-chain instead of relying on the allegations alone.
Alexander started with the reported monthly 20 million ADA payments, which, to him, represented one of the most measurable parts of the claim.
According to him, blockchain records reveal nine payments of roughly 20.2 million ADA each. These transfers took place once a month between April 2 and Nov. 22, 2021. Every payment went to the same receiving address, which appeared only during that year.
Together, the transfers amounted to approximately 185 million ADA and followed a schedule of about 28 days between payments. Alexander identified the receiving wallet as an address ending in “px4u.”
He then followed the largest input linked to each transaction to trace the source of the funds. His analysis showed that all nine payment chains eventually led back, after roughly 40 transaction hops, to a single Byron genesis output containing 2,463,071,701 ADA.
Alexander said this amount matches Input Output Global’s published genesis allocation involving the Lovelace distribution.
He also noted that the transfers did not come from a single wallet, as four different wallets took turns making the payments. Interestingly, the receiving address did not keep the funds but forwarded everything to a single consolidation address.
Additional Billion-ADA Movements
Alexander found that the consolidation address received around 1.21 billion ADA from 37 separate depositors. He decided to look further into where the additional funds originated since that figure was larger than the roughly 184 million ADA involved in the monthly transfers.
His investigation revealed another major movement of ADA that occurred shortly before the monthly payment pattern began. Specifically, between February and March 2021, about 925 million ADA moved through 33 separate transactions ranging from 10 million to 50 million ADA each over a six-week period.
According to Alexander, these funds also traced back to Input Output Global’s genesis UTxO. He further noted that the transfers began during the same week that rumors involving “birds” started circulating and that the monthly payments continued throughout the rest of 2021.
Alexander concluded that the transaction pattern matched several details of the claim. The data showed similar amounts, timing, frequency, and origins, including the reported monthly transfers of about 20 million ADA throughout 2021 from Input Output Global’s genesis allocation.
Blockchain Data Cannot Confirm Sales
Despite those findings, the NFT artist admitted that blockchain records cannot show whether any of the transferred Cardano was actually sold. While the blockchain can reveal movements between wallets, it cannot directly prove what happened off-chain.
He also pointed out the limits of his research. Alexander called dominant-input tracing a useful indicator of where funds originated, but not definitive proof. He added that wallet addresses remain pseudonymous, as the blockchain data does not identify any specific individual behind the transactions.
Alexander further noted that Input Output Global maintained a larger on-chain presence besides its genesis UTxO through a number of stake pools.
His findings showed that both the roughly 925 million ADA transfer burst and the nine monthly payments of around 20 million ADA shared a closer common source than the original genesis allocation.
As a result, the number of transaction hops linking IOG to those transfers dropped from roughly 40 to between one and seven transactions. He also found that the funds were connected to about 21 of the 64 million ADA pledges associated with IOG’s private stake pools.
Alexander’s latest comments arrived only days after Hoskinson announcedthat he would step away temporarily amid ongoing challenges within the Cardano ecosystem and continued price weakness. However, he returned just a few days later and reiterated his conviction that Cardano is the only blockchain capable of running the world.
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