Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson talked about the potential to work together with XRP on DeFi growth.

The future of DeFi is in collaboration, not competition, recent comments by Cardano’s (ADA) Charles Hoskinson suggest. On Tuesday, September 3, Hoskinson published an “ask me anything” styled video in which he discussed the opportunities for collaborating with other major networks, and XRP (XRP) in particular.

“We work with a lot of people, including other ecosystems, who have contributed to some of this. Look at the Midnight airdrop, which was offered to Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Avalanche, and XRP, especially XRP. Look at the history there. And now we’re friends,” Charles Hoskinson, Cardano.

Hoskinson referenced the airdrop of Midnight’s DUST token, which serves as Cardano’s privacy-focused partner chain. The airdrop was an attempt to build goodwill with other communities and leaders. So far, this has worked particularly well with XRP, Hoskinson revealed.

Why Hoskinson wants Cardano to be closer to XRP

In his comments, Hoskinson singled out XRP as a major potential partner several times. In particular, he highlighted a conversation with Brad Garlinghouse, the CEO of Ripple Labs, and confirmed that he was talking to him.

“I was just with Brad Garlinghouse at a round table with the Federal Reserve at the Salt Conference in Jackson. And somehow, someway, we got along really well and said, ‘Hey, we need to talk more.’ That’s maturity,” Charles Hoskinson, Cardano.

The reason for this openness to collaboration seems strategic for Cardano. Hoskinson shared a vision of Cardano as a DeFi infrastructure layer for external ecosystems. This would include networks like Bitcoin (BTC) but also XRP, which lacks native smart contract capabilities.

“For us to service all the needs of Bitcoin DeFi and XRP DeFi, we must work together,” Charles Hoskinson, Cardano.