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

Input Output, the company responsible for developing 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 of over 50% from the $97.5 million requested in 2025. These proposals focus on enhancing Cardano's scalability and expanding its presence in the Bitcoin DeFi space. The reduced funding request is part of a broader plan to reduce Input Output's reliance on community funds, with the goal of becoming self-sustaining through its own revenue streams. By the end of 2026, Input Output expects smaller, specialized teams to take over a significant portion of its current workload, including firms such as VacuumLabs and Midgard Labs. The proposals are divided into two main themes: scaling and Bitcoin DeFi. The first theme includes a consensus upgrade called Leios, which aims to increase Cardano's transaction processing capacity by 10 to 65 times, targeting over 1,000 transactions per second. The second theme involves a system called Pogun, which seeks to bring Bitcoin-based decentralized finance to Cardano, allowing bitcoin holders to borrow and earn yield on their holdings without relying on centralized intermediaries. Smaller proposals cover performance improvements, security testing, developer tools, and expanded API services. Each proposal outlines specific delivery leads and ties funding to delivery milestones, ensuring a staged release of funds rather than a single upfront payment. Voting on these proposals will commence on Tuesday and run through May 24, with roughly 1,000 elected delegates, known as DReps, making the decisions. This vote will test the Cardano governance system, which has undergone significant expansion over the past two years, and determine whether Input Output will be treated as any other grant applicant or continue to receive preferential treatment. The outcome of the vote will signal a shift in the Cardano community's approach to funding development, with alternatives to Input Output now available. Input Output also highlighted progress in the ecosystem, including the launch of a new Cardano stablecoin, USDCx, which has reached 14.6 million tokens in circulation, and a rise in total assets deposited on Cardano from $137.5 million to $142.7 million.