DAO Vote Or Just Whale Theft? Cardano’s Midnight Airdrop Drama

Liquid Finance told ADA suppliers they would receive 100 percent of the Midnight airdrop tokens, then turned around and pushed the decision into a DAO vote where the top five LQ staking addresses controlled more than 44 percent of all voting power. The result? Most of the Midnight tokens ended up going to Liquid Finance instead, which angered people so badly that Charles Hoskinson had to jump onto X and basically say they screwed it up. Liquid Finance’s defense is that a DAO vote is a DAO vote, but this one looks a lot less like decentralized governance and a lot more like the biggest holders voting themselves a raise using other people’s money.

@Jonathan_Morgan · author

Published Mar 16, 2026, 1:08 PM ETD

ADA.X
Definitely not shady.