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

Input Output, the company responsible for developing the Cardano blockchain, is requesting approximately half the funding it sought last year from the project's community treasury. The company has submitted nine proposals totaling $46.8 million for 2026, focusing on scaling Cardano and expanding into Bitcoin DeFi. This reduced funding request marks the first step in a plan to decrease dependency on community funds, with the goal of sustaining itself on its own revenue. The proposals include a consensus upgrade called Leios, which aims to increase Cardano's transaction processing capacity, and a system called Pogun, which seeks to bring Bitcoin-based decentralized finance to Cardano. The voting process, which is open to roughly 1,000 elected delegates, will determine whether the proposals are approved and will test the governance of the Cardano community.