Key Highlights
- Cardano contributor Chicken left the ecosystem after filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy due to business debt and long-term unemployment.
- He criticized Cardano’s governance and funding system, saying it limits builders and gives too much control to funding groups.
- His exit comes as ADA continues to drop in market ranking and price.
A long-time Cardano contributor known as Chicken (@navir333) on X announced today that he is leaving the Cardano ecosystem after filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
In a detailed X post on Saturday, he said the decision was not something he wanted, but something he had to do because of financial pressure. He explained that he has been struggling with business debt for a long time, and he has also been out of a stable job for around 14 months.
He added that his unemployment benefits ended about five months ago, which made his situation even harder. He also said he tried different ways to survive financially, including selling assets and looking for work in the Web2 job market, but it was not enough to solve his debt problem.
He wrote, “It is with a heavy heart that I must say I will be leaving Cardano. Not because I want to. But because I have to.” He also said he is “down, but not out,” and explained that he will now go back to “square 1” and rebuild his life. “I have a deep hole to climb out of. I’m not after handouts, only the chance to do what I love,” he wrote.
Chicken is a long-time contributor who worked as an advisor and helped build different projects inside Cardano, including Xerberus, Metera Protocol, and SyncAI Network. Because of his long involvement in the ecosystem, his departure has drawn attention across the community. Many users view him as someone who spent years helping support the growth of Cardano-based projects.
Chicken criticizes Cardano’s ecosystem
Alongside his departure, Chicken shared criticism about how Cardano works. In his post, he said one of the biggest problems is how money and power are handled in the system. According to him, groups that manage funding have too much control over decisions, while regular ADA holders do not have enough power to influence what happens. He said this makes the system unfair for smaller builders who depend on support from the ecosystem.
He talked about how money is used for research projects inside Cardano. He claimed that a lot of money goes into research work, but there is no clear system showing how that money comes back into the ecosystem as value. Because of this, he believes there may be too much money leaving the system without enough economic return coming in. He said this can create pressure on the ecosystem and affect many projects that depend on it.
Chicken also mentioned the shutdown of TapTools, a Cardano analytics platform. He said this was a major reason that pushed him to make his decision. He described it as a sign that there is a gap between leaders and builders in the ecosystem. He also reacted to comments from Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson, saying they made him feel that there is no clear plan for long-term income growth in the ecosystem.
He added that “ideas don’t pay rent,” meaning that building and thinking alone are not enough if there is no real money coming in.
Community reaction
Community reactions have been mixed, though many users expressed support for Chicken and described his departure as a loss for the ecosystem. His exit comes at a time when ADA, Cardano’s native token, has fallen to 15th place by market capitalization, with a market value of approximately $5.66 billion.
ADA is currently trading at around $0.15, down 1.46% over the past 24 hours and roughly 33% over the past week.
Despite criticism, Chicken ended his message on a reflective note, thanking people he worked with and saying he valued the relationships built during his time in Cardano. He also stated he plans to rebuild and continue working in the industry in the future.
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