Cardano Developer Seeks Reduced Funding for Expansion and DeFi Integration

Input Output, the company responsible for building and maintaining the Cardano blockchain, has requested approximately half the funding it received last year from the project's community treasury. The company submitted nine proposals totaling $46.8 million for 2026, with several focusing on increasing Cardano's transaction processing capacity and expanding into Bitcoin DeFi. This reduced funding request is part of a plan to decrease the company's reliance on community funds and eventually become self-sustaining. By the end of 2026, Input Output expects smaller teams to take on most of the work it currently handles in-house. The proposals are divided into two main themes: scaling and Bitcoin DeFi. The Leios consensus upgrade aims to increase Cardano's transaction processing capacity by 10 to 65 times, while the Pogun system seeks to bring Bitcoin-based decentralized finance to Cardano. Smaller proposals cover performance improvements, security testing, and developer tools. Voting on the proposals opens on Tuesday and runs through May 24, with the decisions made by roughly 1,000 elected delegates. The outcome will test whether Cardano's governance treats Input Output like any other grant applicant or continues to approve its requests based on deference. Input Output has cited progress in the ecosystem, including the launch of a new Cardano stablecoin and an increase in total assets deposited on the network.