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 to reduce its financial reliance on the project's community treasury. The company has submitted nine proposals totaling $46.8 million for 2026, marking a substantial decrease from the $97.5 million requested in 2025. Several proposals focus on enhancing Cardano's scalability and exploring Bitcoin DeFi opportunities. The Cardano network, like other major blockchains, has a community-funded treasury that allocates resources for development work through a voting process. Historically, Input Output has been the primary recipient of these funds due to its significant role in building the underlying software. However, the company now aims to gradually reduce its reliance on community funding, with plans to become self-sustaining through its own revenue. By the end of 2026, Input Output expects smaller, specialized teams to take on a significant portion of its current in-house work, including collaborations with firms like VacuumLabs and Midgard Labs. The submitted proposals are grouped into two main themes: scaling and Bitcoin DeFi integration. A key proposal, Leios, aims to increase Cardano's transaction processing capacity by 10 to 65 times, targeting over 1,000 transactions per second. This would position Cardano as a competitive player in the blockchain space, comparable to Solana and the fastest Ethereum layer-2 networks in terms of throughput. Leios is scheduled for a test release in June, with full deployment expected by the end of the year. Another significant proposal, Pogun, focuses on introducing Bitcoin-based decentralized finance to the Cardano ecosystem. This system would enable bitcoin holders to borrow and earn yield on their holdings without relying on centralized intermediaries. Pogun's lending component is targeted for public release in the second quarter. Additional proposals cover performance enhancements to Cardano's smart contract engine, security testing infrastructure, developer tools, and expanded API services. Each proposal outlines specific delivery leads and ties funding to delivery milestones, ensuring a staged release of funds based on project progress. The voting process, which opens on Tuesday and runs through May 24, will be overseen by approximately 1,000 elected delegates, known as DReps, who represent ADA holders. The outcome of the vote will indicate whether Cardano's governance treats Input Output as any other grant applicant or continues to approve its requests based on historical deference. The Cardano Foundation has taken over the project's grant-funding arm, and Intersect, the governance organization, has assumed stewardship of core Cardano software, providing alternatives to Input Output. Input Output also highlighted ecosystem progress, including the launch of a new Cardano stablecoin, USDCx, which reached 14.6 million tokens in circulation within weeks. Total assets deposited on Cardano increased from $137.5 million to $142.7 million over the same period. The outcome of the vote will signal the Cardano community's shift in thinking, now that alternatives to Input Output exist, and will determine the future direction of the project's development and funding.