Cardano Developer Seeks Reduced Funding of $46.8 Million for Expansion and DeFi Integration

Input Output, the company responsible for building and maintaining the Cardano blockchain, is seeking a substantial reduction in funding from the project's community treasury. The company has submitted nine proposals totaling $46.8 million for 2026, marking a decrease from the $97.5 million requested in 2025. Several proposals focus on enhancing Cardano's transaction processing capacity and exploring Bitcoin DeFi opportunities. Cardano's community treasury, funded by network fees, is allocated through a voting process. Historically, Input Output has been the largest recipient due to its significant role in developing the underlying software. However, the company now aims to reduce its dependency on community funds by gradually decreasing its annual requests until it can sustain itself through its own revenue. By the end of 2026, Input Output expects smaller teams to take over most of its in-house work, including firms like VacuumLabs and Midgard Labs. The nine proposals are grouped into two main themes: scaling and Bitcoin DeFi. The largest proposal funds the Leios consensus upgrade, which is expected to increase Cardano's transaction processing capacity by 10 to 65 times. The second flagship proposal supports the development of Pogun, a system designed to bring Bitcoin-based decentralized finance to Cardano. Smaller proposals cover performance improvements, security testing, and expanded API services. Each proposal is tied to specific delivery milestones, and funding will be released in stages. Voting on the proposals is set to begin and will be decided by roughly 1,000 elected delegates. The outcome of the vote will test whether Cardano's governance treats Input Output like any other grant applicant or continues to approve its requests based on deference. Meanwhile, Input Output has cited progress in the ecosystem, including the launch of a new Cardano stablecoin, USDCx, and an increase in total assets deposited on the network.