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

Input Output, the company responsible for building and maintaining the Cardano blockchain, is seeking approximately half the funding it requested in the previous year from the project's community treasury. The company has submitted nine proposals totaling $46.8 million for 2026, down from $97.5 million in 2025, with several focusing on scaling Cardano to increase its transaction capacity and expanding into Bitcoin DeFi. Cardano, like other major blockchains, has a shared pool of funds allocated by network fees, which community representatives vote to allocate toward development work. Input Output has historically been the largest recipient of these funds due to its significant role in building the underlying software. However, the company now aims to reduce its annual funding requests until it can sustain itself on its own revenue, allowing community funds to support a broader range of smaller engineering groups. By the end of 2026, Input Output expects smaller teams to take on most of its current in-house work, including firms like VacuumLabs and Midgard Labs that specialize in specific layers of the Cardano software. The nine proposals are grouped into two main themes: scaling and Bitcoin DeFi. The larger funds will go toward a consensus upgrade called Leios, which Input Output claims will increase Cardano's transaction processing capacity by 10 to 65 times, targeting over 1,000 transactions per second. This would make Cardano competitive with Solana and the fastest Ethereum layer-2 networks in terms of throughput. Leios is scheduled for a test release in June and full deployment by the end of the year. The second flagship proposal funds a system called Pogun, which aims to bring Bitcoin-based decentralized finance to Cardano, allowing bitcoin holders to borrow and earn yield on their holdings without relying on a centralized intermediary. Pogun's lending component is targeted for public release in the second quarter. Smaller proposals cover performance improvements to Cardano's smart contract engine, security testing infrastructure, developer tools, and expanded API services. Each proposal names specific delivery leads and ties funding to delivery milestones rather than releasing money upfront. Voting opens on Tuesday and runs through May 24, with decisions made by roughly 1,000 elected delegates known as DReps, who represent ADA holders. The vote will test whether Cardano's governance treats Input Output like any other grant applicant or continues to approve its requests largely on a basis of deference. Last year's $97.5 million proposal passed, but changes in the project's grant-funding arm and governance organization may lead to a different outcome this year. Meanwhile, Input Output has cited progress in the ecosystem, including the launch of a new Cardano stablecoin, USDCx, which has reached 14.6 million tokens in circulation, and an increase in total assets deposited on Cardano from $137.5 million to $142.7 million.