Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson has spoken out against the destruction of the blockchain network's more than 1.5 billion ADA tokens worth around $500 million. Hoskinson noted in a post from social media last night that these assets are not pre-minted tokens, but are generated through block production and trading. He argued that destroying these assets amounts to theft from equity pool operators (SPOs) and ADA holders. On September 1st, Cardano completed the first phase of the Chang hard fork, with some community members supporting the destruction of tokens to boost the price of ADA, while others warned of potential harm. Jaromír Tesać, one of Cardano's decentralized representatives, believes that destroying assets would be a "terrible mistake", suggesting that the funds could be better used to support Cardano's development.