Cardano Slashes 2026 Funding Request to $46.8M, Advances Leios Scaling and Bitcoin DeFi Protocol

Gate News message, April 23 — Cardano's core development company Input Output submitted nine funding proposals totaling $46.8 million to the community treasury for the 2026 fiscal year, representing a significant 52% reduction from last year's $97.5 million request. The move marks a step toward reducing the project's reliance on community funding.

The proposals focus on two key initiatives: the Leios consensus upgrade, which aims to increase Cardano's transaction throughput by 10 to 65 times and target 1,000 transactions per second with testing planned for June and full deployment by year-end; and Pogun, a Bitcoin DeFi system enabling BTC holders to conduct lending and yield operations through Cardano without custodial intermediaries, with lending functionality scheduled for public release in Q2.

The vote involves approximately 1,000 elected delegates (DReps), with a deadline of May 24. Meanwhile, Cardano's new stablecoin USDCx has reached a circulating supply of 14.6 million tokens within weeks of launch, while the network's total locked assets increased from $137.5 million to $142.7 million.