Yesterday the 2026 IOG treasury portfolio went live on GovTool with further info on a dedicated website. Nine proposals, a total ask of roughly $46.8M - about half of what was submitted last year - and a clear deadline of 24 May 2026. Every DRep now has five weeks to read, question, and decide.

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TL;DR

1. Nine IOG treasury proposals went live on GovTool on 22 April, totalling ~$46.8M (down from $97.5M in 2025). Voting closes 24 May 2026.

2. Leios is the headline engineering bet. The consensus upgrade targets 10–65x L1 throughput; testnet is expected in June, mainnet by end of 2026.

3. Pogun is structured as a treasury investment, not a grant. 20% of EBITDA returns to the treasury until full repayment, followed by 5% in perpetuity.

4. The delivery model is shifting. Several proposals pair with specialist partners - VacuumLabs on Plutus, Midgard Labs on L2, Ensurable Systems on Cardano Upgrades, Cardano Foundation on developer relations.

5. A dedicated portfolio site is live at momentum.cardano.iog.io, with a page per initiative -owner, timeline, ask, and delivery partners.

6. Voting runs through Intersect’s Treasury Reserve Smart Contract with milestone-gated disbursement and independent third-party assurance on every milestone.

7. The ‘Cardano Summit + Token2049’ and ‘Pebble + Gerolamo - HLabs 2026 Budget’ proposals are live and require your vote.

Governance Roundup: the 2026 IOG treasury portfolio

Nine IOG proposals went live at the start of the voting window on 22 April. Each funds a specific body of work with a named owner, defined timelines, and a direct link to Cardano’s 2030 Vision targets. Here is the full slate at a glance.

1. Consensus (Leios)

Led by Carlos Lopez De Lara and Sebastian Nagel. Delivers sustainable throughput capacity at the consensus layer. Testnet is expected in June, with mainnet targeted by the end of 2026. Delivered in collaboration with long-time Cardano contributors Modus Create and Sundae Labs as a multi-vendor consortium.

2. Cardano Maintenance

Led by Michael Karg. Core platform maintenance - node bugfixing, DevOps, CI/CD, security patches, performance tuning, and round-the-clock incident response. The largest line item in the portfolio, because every other proposal depends on it. Coordinated through Intersect.

3. L2 Scalability

Jointly led by Sharan Koneria (IO) and Midgard Labs. Three pillars: L2-agnostic shared infrastructure, Hydra production hardening, and the Midgard optimistic rollup mainnet launch. A dedicated L2 scaling entity is being established to take on long-term stewardship by the end of 2026.

4. Cardano Upgrades

Led by Michael Smolenski and Alexey Kuleshevich. Three platform-level upgrades: CIP-159 for micro-fee support at the account layer, CPS-23 for a multi-asset treasury, and Babel Fees for paying transaction fees in any native token. Delivered alongside Ensurable Systems, across Q3 2026 to Q2 2027.

5. Pogun

Led by Omer Husain. The end-to-end Bitcoin DeFi solution for Cardano - a non-margin credit market (Q2), a yield layer (Q3), and a BitVM-powered trust-minimised bridge (Q4). Structured as an investment: 20% of EBITDA returns to the treasury until the funding is repaid, then 5% in perpetuity.

6. Plutus

Led by Ziyang Liu. Three workstreams: new capabilities and primitives, formal specification and security, and compiler and tooling improvements. Delivered as a co-venture with Cardano OG developer VacuumLabs, with stewardship of the Plutus stack transitioning to VacuumLabs by end of 2026.

7. Developer Experience

Led by Robertino Martinez. A six-month programme targeting a 30%+ improvement in Cardano’s developer growth rate. Ships cardano-init (setup CLI), ContractsLibrary, and the Developer HUB. Primary stewardship of developer relations transitions to the Cardano Foundation by the end of 2026.

8. Cardano High Assurance

Led by Stefano Leone and Romain Soulat. Automated formal verification and a unified toolkit that moves formal methods from a specialist discipline to everyday developer workflow. Consortium includes Lantr, Harmonic Labs, SAIB, Midgard Labs, No.Witness Labs, and TxPipe.

9. Blockfrost

Delivered by the Blockfrost team. Two components: Project Cayley, a next-generation decentralised indexing architecture, and an operational subsidy that keeps the community free tier running at 99.9% uptime. Blockfrost currently serves roughly 90% of all free-tier API traffic on Cardano.

Deep dive: three themes, one portfolio

IOG has organised the 2026 slate around three compounding themes: performance, security, and capability.

Performance carries the heaviest technical weight. Leios is designed to take Cardano from today’s roughly 800,000 transactions per month toward the 2030 target of 27 million. Hydra production hardening and Midgard mainnet launch extend the throughput story to layer 2 - targeting sub-second finality and sub-cent fees for application categories that layer 1 alone cannot serve. Plutus optimisations contribute a further roughly 25% reduction in script preparation overhead.

Security is paired with every performance gain. Cardano High Assurance extends formal verification from specialist discipline to everyday developer tooling. Plutus adds conformance testing and metatheory formalisation that supports alternative node implementations. Cardano Maintenance funds the QA, release sign-off, and component audits that hold the platform’s uptime record.

Capability is where Cardano gains abilities it does not yet have. Babel Fees lets users pay transaction fees in any native token - no ADA acquisition required, reducing cross-ecosystem friction. CPS-23 begins the design work for a multi-asset treasury. Pogun brings Bitcoin DeFi to Cardano through a credit market, yield layer, and trust-minimised bridge. Developer Experience collapses the path from first contact to a shipped DApp.

What unites the three is a shared delivery logic. IO is stewarding funds, leading, and delivering in 2026 - but several proposals now pair with specialist partners, and stewardship is structured to move to those partners over time. Plutus transitions to VacuumLabs. Developer relations transitions to the Cardano Foundation. A new dedicated entity is being explored for long-term Haskell engineering stewardship, and an L2 scaling entity is being established. The directional shift embedded in the portfolio is less reliance on any single organisation, and more shared accountability.

Deep dive: the shape of the ask

Total portfolio ask: roughly $46.8M, down from $97.5M in 2025. IOG has stated that the downward trajectory is not a one-off. The aim is to ask for significantly less each year as more delivery capacity moves into a broader network of organisations.

Funds across the portfolio are administered through Intersect’s Treasury Reserve Smart Contract framework with milestone-gated disbursement. An independent Oversight Committee - Sundae Labs, Cardano Foundation, Dquadrant, Xerberus, and NMKR - verifies key actions on-chain. Third-party assurance signs off on each milestone before funds release. Any undisbursed funds return to the treasury at the end of each delivery period.

Pogun deserves a separate mention on structure. Rather than a grant, it is framed as a treasury investment: 20% of EBITDA returns to the treasury until the funding is fully repaid, followed by 5% in perpetuity on Cardano-related products. The first revenue-returning model in the Cardano treasury.

Key dates

When What

22 April 2026. Portfolio live on GovTool. Voting window opens.

24 May 2026. DRep voting window closes.

Q2 2026. Pogun credit market targets mainnet launch.

June 2026. Leios testnet expected.

Q3 2026. CIP-159 Phase 1 ships in the Dijkstra era.

End of 2026. Leios mainnet target. Stewardship transitions to partners.

Action checklist

Before the next Dispatch:

• Please read the portfolio overview at momentum.cardano.iog.io and open the individual pages for the proposals that matter most to your constituents.

• Listen to the launch-day X Space recording for context directly from the proposal owners.

• Review the full proposals on GovTool and Intersect, and leave rationales where you have formed a view.

• Share questions in the Cardano Forum threads - so proposal owners can engage before the window closes.

WHERE TO START
Portfolio site: momentum.cardano.iog.io
Launch-day X Space: https://twitter.com/i/spaces/1lKQRvzPZvkGE
Vote: gov.tools — deadline 24 May 2026.

Also live on GovTool

While DReps read through the IOG slate, two other treasury withdrawal proposals are open for voting in parallel. Both deserve time on their own merits.

Pebble + Gerolamo — HLabs 2026 Budget. Submitted by Michele Nuzzi of Harmonic Laboratories. Funds continued work on Pebble, a strongly-typed smart-contract DSL that compiles to UPLC, and Gerolamo, a TypeScript Cardano node - one of the alternative node clients driving client diversity on the network. Voting closes 29 April 2026 (Epoch 628). As of 17 April, DRep support stood at 44.34% against the 67% threshold, with one of seven Constitutional Committee votes cast in favour.

Cardano Summit 2026 and TOKEN2049 Singapore. Submitted by the Cardano Foundation and EMURGO on 14 April, following the rejection of an earlier proposal for the same events. Requests 14,076,539 ada (approximately USD 3,659,900) to fund a dual-event strategy in Singapore from 5–8 October 2026: the Cardano Summit and a Premier Title Sponsorship at TOKEN2049. Funds are administered via Sundae Labs treasury contracts with milestone-gated disbursement; oversight sits with DQuadrant, Intersect, NMKR, and Sundae Labs. Voting expires 9 May 2026 (Epoch 630). DRep support was at 7.02% as of 17 April, with no CC votes yet cast. The Cardano Foundation has stated that the Summit will not proceed if this proposal fails.

Both proposals show the range of what the 2026 treasury is now being asked to fund - core developer infrastructure on one side, ecosystem visibility on the other. Make sure you read, form a view, and leave rationales where they matter!

Closing

Treasury season is upon us. Whether you agree with the specific proposals or not, this is the largest governance moment of the year for DReps. Five weeks. Plenty of time to read, question, and decide.

See you next time. ☕

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Published by the DRep Forum | gov.tools | drepforum.substack.com

This week’s Dispatch covers a governance-heavy slate: a new Info Action that could determine the future of Project Catalyst, and two treasury withdrawal proposals seeking your vote. Plus, USDCx is three weeks live and the numbers are starting to tell a story.

In addition, it was good to see cross ecosystem collaboration through the Cardano x Pyth hackathon in Argentina.

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TL;DR – Five Key Takeaways

1. The Cardano Foundation has submitted an Info Action requesting community approval to become the managing entity for Project Catalyst. If it doesn’t pass by end of May, Catalyst operations face an undetermined pause.

2. Draper Dragon’s Orion Fund treasury withdrawal (50M ada) is open for voting — the first tranche of an $80M venture fund targeting Cardano ecosystem growth.

3. The Amaru treasury withdrawal (₳10.1M ada) for a Rust-based Cardano node continues to gather DRep votes.

4. Intersect’s Budget Process Framework Info Action is live. If it passes, the structured 2026 budget cycle begins and proposal submissions open in April.

5. USDCx crossed three weeks on mainnet. Early integrations are live on Liqwid, Minswap, and SundaeSwap.

Governance Roundup

LIVE: Draper Dragon Orion Fund — 50M Ada Treasury Withdrawal

A new treasury withdrawal governance action was submitted on March 12 for the Draper Dragon Orion Fund. This requests 50M ada as the first tranche of an $80M venture fund designed to accelerate Cardano ecosystem growth.

The fund targets three categories: direct investments in Cardano-native startups, growth capital for in-house venture initiatives, and startup acceleration programs through Draper University. It is structured to return value to limited partners — including the Cardano treasury — before Draper Dragon receives a profit.

Voting is open. The Cardano Foundation has published its support for the action.

PASSED: Amaru Treasury Withdrawal — ₳10.1M Ada

The Amaru treasury withdrawal has passed, with 68.25% voting in favour. The action approves ₳10,142,000 to fund a Rust based, fully interoperable Cardano node. Amaru aims to improve node diversity, accessibility, and network robustness, with milestones across 2026. The proposal commits to public reporting, audits, and returning any unspent funds.

LIVE: Budget Process Framework — Info Action

Intersect submitted an Info Action on March 5 proposing the framework for the 2026 ecosystem budget cycle. This does not approve spending or select proposals. It asks DReps whether the ecosystem should adopt a structured process for collecting, reviewing, and consolidating proposals into treasury withdrawals.

If the framework receives majority support from active voting stake, proposal submissions open in early April, with treasury withdrawals targeted for mid-to-late June.

Cardano Foundation Catalyst Stewardship

On March 17, the Cardano Foundation submitted an Info Action on GovTool requesting community approval to become the new managing entity for Project Catalyst.

What is it? Project Catalyst has been managed by Input Output Global since its launch in 2020. Following a joint review, IOG and the Cardano Foundation agreed in late February to transition stewardship to the Foundation. Catalyst team members are already joining the Foundation to maintain continuity. Fund 15 and Fund 16 have been paused, but more than 500 active projects across Funds 10 to 14 still need milestone reviews and payouts.

Why does it matter? The Info Action has now passed 50% which makes it likely it’ll pass, approving the Cardano Foundation as the new managing entity for Project Catalyst. This removes the immediate risk of an operational pause and allows the transition to move forward with continuity for existing grantees, reviews, and payouts.

USDCx: Three Weeks In

USDCx launched on Cardano mainnet on February 27 through Circle’s xReserve infrastructure — the first Tier 1 stablecoin on the network. The integration was delivered through the Critical Integrations program funded by the community, with IO signing a commercial agreement with Circle to deploy the production infrastructure.

At launch, over 15 million USDCx tokens were minted. Integrations are live on Liqwid, Minswap, and SundaeSwap, supporting swapping, lending, borrowing, and liquidity provision. The stablecoin uses Circle’s Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP) for burn-and-mint interoperability, meaning users can deposit USDC from any supported CEX directly into a Cardano wallet without touching Ethereum.

For DReps, USDCx matters because it was funded by treasury. It addresses Cardano’s long-running stablecoin liquidity gap (previously under $40M total) and creates the settlement infrastructure needed for DeFi growth, RWA tokenisation, and institutional engagement. Early adoption data is worth watching as the ecosystem enters budget season.

🔔 All Active Governance Actions

Participation is the system-wide constraint. Below are the deadlines for all active governance actions.

Cardano Budget Process Framework

Dingo: a Block Producer in Go

Cardano Defi Liquidity Budget

Cardano x Draper Dragon: Orion Fund

Cardano Foundation Managing Catalyst

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TL;DR – Five Key Takeaways

1. The Constitutional Committee size reduction from 7 to 5 members was rejected by the community.

2. Two new treasury withdrawal proposals are now on-chain: Amaru 2026 and Dingo by Blink Labs.

3. Intersect’s Cardano Budget Process Framework has been submitted on-chain — DRep vote needed.

4. USDCx (a Circle-backed USDC stablecoin) was launched on Cardano.

5. Budget season is open. The treasury runway is set at ₳350M. Proposal submission opens in April.

Cardano Budget Process Framework

Intersect's Budget Committee has submitted an Info Action proposing the formal framework for how the 2026 Cardano ecosystem budget cycle will run. See the deep-dive section below.

This is an Info Action, not a spending decision. Voting YES does not allocate a single ada. What it does is signal that you support using this structured process to organise the 2026 budget cycle. If it reaches majority support (>51% of active voting stake), the submission window opens and proposals can begin to be collected.

Why this vote matters for DReps

The 2025 budget cycle worked, but it was rough. Proposals came in inconsistent formats, comparison was difficult, the review load was heavy, and on-chain thresholds often did not align with off-chain processes. This framework is the community’s attempt to fix that — before the next wave of proposals lands on your desk.

The five-stage cycle

1. Planning — strategic vision, NCL, and budget framework preconditions confirmed on-chain. All three are now in place for 2026.

2. Proposal submission — standardised template, minimum proposal size of 100,000 ada, and a 1,000 ada treasury contribution to reduce low-quality submissions.

3. Community review and refinement — draft proposals visible to the community, proposers can iterate based on feedback before the window closes.

4. Off-chain DRep advisory voting — proposals that achieve at least 67% support from participating DRep stake (via Ekklesia/Hydra) advance to on-chain stage. This threshold filters proposals before the formal on-chain vote, reducing voting fatigue.

5. Execution — approved treasury withdrawals are administered by Intersect using milestone-based smart contract disbursements, with an independent Oversight Committee providing checks and balances.

Key differences from 2025

• All proposals use a standardised template — apples-to-apples comparison across initiatives

• Proposals must map to Cardano Vision 2030 KPIs — so DReps can evaluate expected ecosystem impact, not just narrative

• Once voting begins, proposals are locked and cannot be edited — protecting fairness and aligning the on-chain vote with a fixed off-chain reference

• Participation is optional — proposers can still submit Treasury Withdrawal actions independently through standard governance mechanisms

📊 Read the full framework: Building a 2026 Ecosystem Budget for Cardano

🗳️ Vote on the governance action: Cardano Budget Process Framework

CC size reduction rejected

The proposal to reduce the minimum Constitutional Committee size from 7 members to 5 did not pass. Low participation from the community signalled that perhaps a larger, more distributed committee remains the right safeguard at this stage of governance maturity. Worth noting for any future parameter discussion: the threshold and rationale for CC membership size will continue to be a live conversation.

Amaru Treasury Withdrawal 2026

Amaru is a production-grade Cardano node implementation written in Rust, developed under the PRAGMA open-source association. Budget season 2026 is now open, and Amaru was the first proposal of the new cycle to hit on-chain — submitted as a Treasury Withdrawal action, covering the next phase of development.

Node client diversity is a core resilience factor for Cardano. Amaru is one of the projects that reduces reliance on a single implementation. This is a direct funding ask from the treasury — read the proposal before voting.

Dingo by Blink Labs

Having concluded the first series of workshops for this milestone, the Beyond MVG team is now preparing to facilitate further sessions as part of Milestone 3. These upcoming workshops will continue the project’s mission of refining Cardano’s governance through community-driven data.

Join our upcoming X Space workshop: We will be hosting a similar workshop on X Space on 18th February 2026 at 16:00 UTC. You can join the session here [add link from Matthew Coops].

Access the Findings: A comprehensive summary and key insights from the initial workshops are available for public review via Beyond Minimum Viable Governance (MVG) Governance Experience Insights Workshops.

USDCx launched on Cardano.

What is USDCx?

USDC is a fiat-backed stablecoin issued by Circle — one of the most widely used dollar-pegged assets in crypto. USDCx is a wrapped version of USDC that can circulate natively inside the Cardano ecosystem, giving developers and users access to a fully regulated, dollar-denominated asset on-chain.

USDCx works in tandem with Circle Gateway and Circle CCTP, making it interoperable with USDC across supported blockchains without relying on third-party bridges.

👉 Learn more about USDCx on Cardano here: https://usdcx.iog.io/faq

Why DReps should care

Stablecoins are critical DeFi infrastructure. Without a reliable, regulated on-chain dollar, Cardano DeFi protocols face a ceiling on institutional adoption, liquidity depth, and settlement reliability. USDCx addresses that gap directly.

For governance specifically, several threads connect here:

• Treasury-funded work is delivering visible outputs. The Critical Integrations Budget is not an abstraction — USDCx is a signed agreement.

• Future proposals in DeFi, liquidity, and RWA verticals will operate in a materially different environment once USDCx is live. Factor that into how you evaluate those funding requests.

• Bridge risk and custodial risk — longstanding topics in Cardano governance discussions — are directly affected by whether Circle-native USDC is available. This reduces the dependence on third-party bridge solutions.

Your vote → Real-world outcome

USDCx is the most visible near-term proof point that DRep votes produce ecosystem-level change. You approved the Critical Integrations Budget. Pentad signed with Circle. That chain of accountability runs directly through your ballot.

What is coming next

Budget season 2026 is fully open. The treasury runway is set at ₳350M. The framework vote is live. Proposal submission opens in April. Between now and June, DReps will be doing the most consequential work of the governance year — reviewing proposals, weighting ecosystem impact, and casting on-chain votes that determine how Cardano’s treasury is deployed for the next 12 months.

🔔 All Active Governance Actions

Participation is the system-wide constraint. Below are the deadlines for all active governance actions.

Amaru Treasury Withdrawal 2026

Cardano Budget Process Framework

Dingo: a Production-Grade Block Producer

Cardano Defi Liquidity Budget Withdrawal

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In collaboration with Circle, Input Output has deployed the technical infrastructure for USDCx on Cardano – bringing dollar-denominated liquidity backed 1:1 by USDC in Circle xReserve.

This integration was delivered through the Critical Integrations program, funded by the Cardano community.

For the first 10 days, IOG will subsidize bridge fees for USDCx transfers to Cardano to help you get started with lower costs, with all other network and DEX fees remaining the responsibility of the user.

👉 Read the FAQs for details

What is available at launch

USDCx launches with real integrations (Minswap, Liqwid, SundaeSwap) and observable on-chain activity from day one. Users can mint USDCx by depositing USDC into the xReserve smart contract on Ethereum, burn USDCx on Cardano to release the equivalent USDC on Ethereum, swap into Cardano native assets, and deposit or withdraw directly from supported centralized exchanges.

Use cases USDCx enables

• DeFi: strengthening lending and borrowing, expanding liquidity across the ecosystem

• Payments: seamless settlement across chains and borders

• Institutional adoption: regulatory alignment and compliance standards that reduce barriers to enterprise participation

👉 Read the press release

👉 Read the full announcement:

The NCL defines the treasury runway for the 2026–27 period. A small amount of additional DRep participation will confirm the ceiling and keep treasury-funded work moving smoothly under the new constitutional rules.

The Cardano treasury-funded work to analyze and recommend improvements to Cardano's governance structure is underway. Find the links to get involved and stay up to date in this post.

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TL;DR – Five Key Takeaways

1. The Net Change Limit currently sits at 50.05% DRep support. The Net Change Limit currently sits at 50.05% DRep support. If it stays above 50% by the end of the epoch, it will clear the constitutional threshold and pass with a YES vote.

2. If passed, the Net Change Limit will begin at the start of Epoch 613 on 13 February 2026 and conclude at the end of Epoch 713 on 3 July 2027. It sets a ceiling of 350M ada, and unless a new NCL is approved this is the maximum that can be withdrawn from the treasury during that period.

3. The updated Constitution is now in force, with >79.8% of active DRep voting stake having approved it. It simplifies funding by folding the old Budget Info Action into Treasury Withdrawals, tightens rules so linked documents must be immutable and all withdrawals carry audit-style safeguards, and cleans up definitions so thresholds and roles are easier to reason about.

4. Intersect has six months of track record as the Cardano budget Administrator, currently administering 345M $ada with contracts, milestones, evidence and audits.

5. Pentad has signed the USDCx integration agreement with Circle, marking progress on the critical integrations work funded through governance. Through this integration, USDCx will soon be available, providing a USDC-backed stablecoin to developers and users and enabling access to crosschain USDC liquidity.

Beyond Minimum Viable Governance

The Cardano treasury-funded work to analyze and recommend improvements to Cardano’s governance structure is underway—find the links to get involved and stay up to date.

This work is focused on gathering practical input from ADA holders, DReps, SPOs, Constitutional Committee members, governance tooling & data providers, and community project leaders.

The team behind Beyond Minimum Viable Governance (Beyond MVG) has published an updated set of links - linktr.ee/BeyondMVG - covering its ongoing workshops and surveys—they’re looking to learn from you!

Having concluded the first series of workshops for this milestone, the Beyond MVG team is now preparing to facilitate further sessions as part of Milestone 3. These upcoming workshops will continue the project’s mission of refining Cardano’s governance through community-driven data.

Join our upcoming X Space workshop: We will be hosting a similar workshop on X Space on 18th February 2026 at 16:00 UTC. You can join the session here [add link from Matthew Coops].

Access the Findings: A comprehensive summary and key insights from the initial workshops are available for public review via Beyond Minimum Viable Governance (MVG) Governance Experience Insights Workshops.

Register for the Beyond MVG X Space

This workshop captures concrete examples, dependencies, and desired outcomes. These insights are synthesized into evidence-backed observations that help the Beyond MVG project identify priority governance improvements, align them with measurable metrics, and inform actionable next steps, including CPS or CIP drafts.

Register

The Net Change Limit in plain language

The Net Change Limit is a constitutional parameter, not a spending decision. Its purpose is to define the maximum amount that can be withdrawn from the treasury over a specific period, allowing individual Treasury Withdrawals to be assessed against a known ceiling rather than in isolation.

For this cycle, the proposed Net Change Limit would apply from the start of Epoch 613 on 13 February 2026 through to the end of Epoch 713 on 3 July 2027. During this window, the total amount withdrawn from the treasury cannot exceed ₳350M unless a new Net Change Limit is approved.

This structure separates capacity from allocation. The Net Change Limit sets the outer boundary. Decisions about which projects are funded, when, and why come later through individual Treasury Withdrawals, each of which must meet the constitutional requirements for documentation, immutability, and accountability.

CAST YOUR VOTE

The Cardano Constitution v2.4 is now in force

The updated Cardano Constitution is now the reference text for every on chain governance action. A key change is how funding is structured. The old Budget Info Action has been removed, along with various expectations and encouragement clauses.

Instead, Treasury Withdrawals now carry the full burden of justification and accountability. Each withdrawal must stand on its own, with its purpose, rationale and supporting information contained in that action.

The Constitution also locks down the artefacts DReps are asked to read. Any document linked by URL must be immutable once submitted, so what you review and vote on cannot be changed afterwards. This aligns the on chain decision with a single, fixed off chain reference.

Finally, definitions have been cleaned up. Terms such as Active Voting Stake, DRep, SPO, Net Change Limit and Treasury Withdrawal Recipient are now defined once and used consistently. That makes thresholds and outcomes easier to understand when you read future governance actions.

You can read the full text here if you want the detail:

UPDATED CARDANO CONSTITUTION

You passed the ₳70M critical integrations budget. Now USDCx is arriving on Cardano.

You approved the ₳70M Critical Integrations Budget to bring missing infrastructure to Cardano. The USDCx integration agreement between the Pentad and Circle is one of the first visible outcomes of that push, giving Cardano a Circle backed dollar rail for DeFi and settlement.

• Cardano integration to Circle has begun. Through this integration, USDCx will soon be available, providing a USDC-backed stablecoin to developers and users and enabling access to crosschain USDC liquidity.

• xReserve works in tandem with Circle Gateway and Circle CCTP to make USDCx interoperable with USDC across supported blockchains, without reliance on third-party bridges.

Intersect is now executing treasury work under permanent leadership

Over the last six months, Intersect has moved from “setting up” the Administrator role to actually running it day to day. It is administering roughly ₳345M of previously approved treasury work using contracts, milestones, delivery evidence and audits, inside the guardrails defined by the Constitution.

In practice this means that when a governance action is approved, it does not stop at an on chain tick box. Intersect turns it into legal contracts and on chain vendor contracts, tracks milestones against what DReps voted for, checks the evidence, and only releases payments when agreed criteria are met. If something is late or incomplete, payments can be paused until it is resolved. Delivery data is also being opened up through public dashboards and an administration API so others can inspect and build on it.

Intersect has also moved from interim to permanent leadership. Jack Briggs has now been appointed Executive Director of Intersect after serving in the role on an interim basis. That closes the loop on this being a temporary setup. There is a named person accountable for how the Administrator runs and how it serves the ecosystem over time.

🔔 All Active Governance Actions

Participation is the system-wide constraint. Below are the deadlines for all active governance actions.

Net Change Limit

Name Protocol V11 HF - van Rossem

Increase Transaction & Block Memory

Withdrawal Cardano DeFi Liquidity Budget

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Happy New Year. And we wish you abundance in your personal lives and for Cardano in the year ahead!

This edition is a nudge to participate in reviewing and voting on the Cardano 2030 proposal, an early step in the governance process that helps shape priorities for funding and execution in 2026. Feel free to share with other DReps too!

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Why participation matters here and now

As of mid-January, a majority of DRep stake has not yet recorded a vote on this Info Action, which under the current approval thresholds effectively counts as a no by default, despite strong momentum across recent governance decisions. Participation in the coming week can materially affect the outcome.

But more on this a bit later in this newsletter…

Review 2030 proposal and record a vote

You passed the ₳70M Critical Integrations Budget

At the start of 2026, voting closed on the ₳70M Critical Integrations Budget treasury withdrawal. With broad participation, it passed with 84.2% approval. That participation created clarity, cohesion, and real momentum.

In addition, the Constitutional Committee was successfully restored.

An on-chain vote returned the CC to full operational capacity, ensuring smooth oversight for the 2026 roadmap. 👏👏👏

Review the Cardano 2030 Vision, Mission & Strategy Framework proposal

So back to our lead item. This newsletter issue focuses on a different kind of governance action. The Cardano 2030 Vision, Mission & Strategy Framework is an Info Action, not a budget or funding decision. Its purpose is to establish a shared long-term direction and a small set of agreed outcomes that future strategy, funding, and accountability can be measured against. In short, this sets the baseline before execution accelerates in 2026.

Deadline: 19 January 2026 (end of Epoch 608)

Review 2030 proposal and record a vote

🔔 All Active Governance Actions

Participation is the system-wide constraint. Below are the deadlines for all active governance actions.

⏰ 14th Jan Add CC Member: Christina

⏰ 19th Jan Cardano Constitution v2.4

⏰ 19th Jan Cardano 2030 Vision

⏰ 29th Jan Hydra Trading Infrastructure

⏰ NCL 350M (Epoch 613 to Epoch 713)

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It’s a special time of year: holiday season is here, and Cardano governance is in a critical voting window. Please vote as soon as possible. Please read on for why!

VOTE NOW

Cardano is finally in a position to negotiate for the tier-one integrations the community has been asking for. Stablecoins, trusted oracle networks, bridges, custody, and the basic utilities we’ve been missing.

But there is one problem. The Constitutional Committee seat selected off-chain still needs to be ratified on-chain. Until that happens, governance cannot function properly and nothing can be enacted.

There is obviously not a lack of support. The community has shown huge support, with around 82.11% of DRep stake voting in favour of the Critical Integrations Info Action. It crossed its approval threshold within four days, faster than any Info Action so far.

That is why Cardano needs you to show up and vote. If DReps and SPOs do not participate, we will have to wait until next year. You can learn more about it below but if there’s on action you need to take it’s to vote ‘Yes’ on this governance action to get the Constitutional Committee running again

“Mum and Dad” are finally talking again

IOG, EMURGO, the Cardano Foundation, Midnight, and Intersect have agreed on a shared delivery plan. When the community jokes about “Mum and Dad,” they mean the major Cardano orgs pulling in the same direction. This five‑org group is often referred to as the “Pentad,” and they’ve set aside past differences to coordinate delivery together.

And that means Cardano can negotiate and execute tier-one integrations as one coordinated effort.

Stablecoins, oracle networks, bridges, and the supporting infrastructure all become simpler to land when the major delivery orgs are pulling in the same direction.

That Pentad alignment is already translating into funded work and active execution, focused on long-standing community priorities: tier-one stablecoins, trusted oracle networks, and the integrations Cardano needs to compete.

For more context from the execs involved here are the highlights from a recent X space: https://x.com/benohanlon/status/1998476851770253630

This funding targets the basic utilities Cardano still lacks:

• Tier-one stablecoins

• Institutional custody options

• Globally recognised oracle networks

• High-assurance cross-chain bridges

• Advanced on-chain analytics

How funds actually move and how accountability works:

The Budget Info Action defines the ₳70,000,000 funding category, along with its scope and accountability, but it does not move any funds. A separate Treasury Withdrawal must be approved to transfer the ₳70M into Intersect custody, where it can be deployed through milestone‑based contracts. Any unused funds return after 24 months. Allocation decisions are made by a Steering Committee representing the five entities, while an independent Oversight Committee verifies milestones to ensure disbursements only occur once deliverables are met.

So, the community has already said Yes to the info action. So what’s stopping us? Governance is stuck because the CC can’t currently ratify what comes next.

The bottleneck is the Constitutional Committee (CC) quorum. With membership temporarily down to six, the CC can’t ratify governance actions on-chain. Restoring the CC to seven members is the immediate prerequisite, because major items — including the ₳70M Critical Integrations Treasury Withdrawal and the NCL extension — can’t be ratified until quorum is back.

In other words: the community has already said yes — the system just needs the final CC seat vote so governance can do its job.

Fixing it is a shared responsibility. DReps and SPOs both need to vote to restore the CC, with threshold-based approval:

And it is threshold based:

• 67% approval from DReps

• 51% support from SPOs

Once that vote clears, the CC returns to seven members and regains the ability to ratify governance actions, including treasury withdrawals.

Here’s how you help unblock it.

What to do now: vote on the full set of actions currently live — each one clears a prerequisite for the next:

1. 🚨👉 Add Constitutional Committee Member

2. Withdraw ₳70,000,000 for Cardano Critical Integrations Budget

3. 2025 Net Change Limit Extension

If you’re a DRep and also an SPO, you have leverage in both roles. Show up in both where applicable. That’s the fastest path to clearing the unblock votes and getting integrations into execution.

Extra nudge: DReps who are also SPOs

If you’re a DRep and you also run a pool, you have outsized leverage here. Please show up in both roles where applicable — it’s one of the fastest ways to clear the last prerequisites.

Click here: https://linktr.ee/CardanoSPOs

The close

So Mum and Dad are finally talking again — and for once, the Christmas list is actually being bought. The ₳70M plan is on-chain, the deliverables match what the community has been asking for, and the vote already has serious momentum. The only thing that can still delay it is people not showing up.

So: if you’re a DRep — and especially if you’re a DRep who’s also an SPO — please show up and vote.

GM DReps,

It has been a pivotal month for Cardano. Major votes closed, the Constitutional Committee lost quorum, meaning it no longer had the minimum number of members required to fully operate. The network also faced a serious incident after a malformed transaction triggered a soft fork. Even so, the network stayed online, proved resilient, and the ecosystem responded quickly and professionally. Core scaling engineering also made a visible leap forward. This edition explains what happened, why it matters, and what comes next as we enter a decisive governance cycle.

TL;DR – Five Key Takeaways

1. Cardano Atlantic stepped down after the CC compensation proposal failed, which pushed the Constitutional Committee below the minimum required members and prevented it from operating at full capacity. Voting continues, but the Committee cannot currently ratify treasury withdrawals, parameter updates, or upgrades until quorum is restored. DReps now need to vote in the snap election https://intersect.ekklesia.vote/ so the Committee can regain quorum and full on-chain governance can resume. without further delay.

2. The November 21 network partition briefly split the chain, but Ouroboros automatically converged the forks, demonstrating real-world protocol resilience.

3. IO Engineering released the always-on Leios Development Tracker, giving the community continuous visibility into progress on Cardano’s major scalability upgrade.

4. Several governance actions closed this week, including the CF’s top level domains info action, the Ikigai reimbursement, and Cardano’s first 5M ada repayable treasury loan to SNEK.

5. The Hard Fork Working Group continues coordinating readiness for upcoming upgrades.

Elections for new CC member now underway

https://intersect.ekklesia.vote/

Following the retirement of the Cardano Atlantic Council, fresh snap elections for a new CC member are now underway. And your vote is needed on Eklesia.

Restoring quorum is now the ecosystem’s immediate priority. Until a replacement is elected, the Constitutional Committee cannot ratify governance actions on-chain. While voting can continue as normal, no treasury withdrawals, parameter updates, or upgrades can take effect until quorum is re-established.

The vacancy arose when the recent CC compensation proposal - intended to create neutral, on-chain remuneration for Committee members - did not receive enough DRep support. Cardano Atlantic had made compensation part of their service criteria from the outset, and when the proposal failed, they announced that they would retire their keys after the epoch boundary.

Their departure lowered the Committee below the minimum size required by CIP-1694, triggering the temporary loss of ratification capability and making this snap election essential.

Intersect has moved quickly: candidate registration closed within days, voting is imminent, and governance operations are expected to resume around early January if DReps turn out and participate.

Vote on Eklesia. Help restore quorum. Keep Cardano’s governance moving.

DReps: Action Required. Vote Now!

Off-chain voting runs from November 26 to December 5 via Ekklesia. Five candidates registered during the November 17–24 window, including three individuals and two consortiums. Your participation determines how quickly the Constitutional Committee can regain quorum.

If the vote passes, the new CC member will be submitted on-chain around December 8, with full on-chain governance capabilities expected to resume by early January.

Vote here:

https://intersect.ekklesia.vote/

More information: https://docs.intersectmbo.org/cardano-facilitation-services/cardano-governance/2025-cc-snap-election-overview

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Network Partition Causes Short-Lived Fork, Ouroboros Converges as Designed

On November 21, Cardano encountered a temporary network partition that caused the chain to diverge into two competing forks, but the underlying cause was not a protocol flaw. It was a rare interaction between specific node versions that produced divergent block selection under certain load conditions.

To address the issue, IO Engineering, the Cardano Foundation, EMURGO, SPOs, exchanges, and technical experts from across the ecosystem formed a rapid response group - coordinated by Intersect - to diagnose the issue, deploy patched versions, and stabilise infrastructure.

Both forks continued producing blocks independently, but Ouroboros treats this kind of divergence as a soft fork, meaning consensus can still converge if one chain becomes sufficiently denser.

Stake began shifting toward the patched version, therefore the denser chain overtook the other and the - gradually at first, then rapidly - and the network automatically converged back to a single canonical history without requiring a rollback, checkpoint, or manual reset.

Most proof-of-stake networks would require intervention in an event like this, but Cardano’s design allowed the network to self-correct in the wild, providing a real-world confirmation of the expected behaviour of the consensus algorithm. And the responsiveness and unity of our decentralised community.

The technical response resolved the fork, therefore the ecosystem’s focus briefly shifted from ongoing governance debates to collective problem-solving, producing an unusual level of cross-team coordination.

Post-mortems from Intersect and Pi explain the root cause, the sequence of events, and why Ouroboros was able to converge the network automatically. A full technical after action report and retrospective is now underway and will share its findings and next steps in due course.

Incident reports:

• https://www.intersectmbo.org/news/incident-report-network-partition-analysis-and-resolution-strategy

• https://www.intersectmbo.org/news/cardano-mainnet-incident-facts-at-a-glance

• https://www.314pool.com/post/cardano-post-mortem-2

Leios Development Tracker Launches, Bringing 24/7 Public Visibility Into Engineering Progress

IO Engineering has released a development tracker for Leios, giving the community a single, always-updated view of its 24/7 ‘follow the sun’ engineering progress. The work had previously been spread across teams and repositories, making it difficult to see how fast the upgrade was moving. The tracker solves that by consolidating milestones, workstreams, and daily updates in one place.

Leios is designed to significantly raise Cardano’s throughput while maintaining decentralization and security. This matters because Cardano’s long-term economics depend on higher transaction volume as reserve emissions decline. The network needs more real activity to keep stake pool operations sustainable, and Leios is the upgrade intended to unlock that capacity.

With the tracker now live, DReps and ecosystem teams finally have clear visibility into how implementation is progressing. This transparency helps them anticipate upcoming decisions, understand what’s blocking or moving, and follow the technical work that will shape Cardano’s next phase.

• Track progress: engineering.iog.io/leios

• Docs: leios.cardano-scaling.org

• Roadmap: github.com/orgs/input-output-hk/projects/167

Other Governance Updates

First Treasury Loan to SNEK Foundation Approved – The Cardano Treasury ratified its first-ever loan-based withdrawal: 5M ada to the Snek Foundation for global exchange listings. Unlike traditional grants, this model introduces repayment over five years at 2.44 percent interest, administered by Intersect with oversight from industry veterans including former Kraken CEO Tal Cohen. The foundation has already delivered Tier 1 listings on Kraken, Crypto.com, and KuCoin, creating a documented pathway future projects can follow, with independent audits providing bi-yearly public reporting.

CF’s Top-Level Domains Info Action Successful – The Cardano Foundation‘s info action to secure community endorsement for the .ada and .cardano gTLD applications concluded successfully. The application targets Q1 2026 and is funded entirely through Foundation resources, strengthening Cardano’s digital identity infrastructure without drawing on the treasury.

Ikigai Reimbursement Successful –A proposal to reimburse 103,000 a from an early governance action deposit passed, resolving a case where the submitter lost access to their 100,000 ada deposit due to a node bug shortly after the Chang hard fork. The additional 3,000 ada compensates for lost staking rewards and airdrop eligibility, closing the loop on a process failure and demonstrating that corrective governance is functioning as intended.

Hard Fork Working Group Progress – Intersect continues coordinating readiness for the next upgrade through the Hard Fork Working Group, aligning SPOs, exchanges, and node teams to ensure a smooth rollout. https://cardanoupgrades.docs.intersectmbo.org/

Cardano Foundation AI Proposal Examiner (Beta) - The Foundation has released a beta AI tool to help DReps, SPOs, and CC members review governance submissions more efficiently. It assesses constitutional alignment, governance-process conformity, rationale clarity, and risk factors. Early testers are seeing typical first-stage issues such as misclassification and overconfident reasoning, so the tool serves best as a fast pre-scan rather than a decision-maker.

☕ If you only do one thing today…

Participate in the CC snap election on Ekklesia.

Restoring quorum is the fastest path to re-enabling on-chain governance, treasury execution, and protocol progress.

Stay sharp, stay voting, and stay accountable.

The Double Espresso Dispatch is the DRep Forum’s governance newsletter — published only when there’s something worth your time. Get curated highlights, key community insights, deadlines, and proposal links. Clear, concise governance, no noise.

It’s a packed week for Cardano governance. The Ekklesia vote closes in less than 24 hours, committee elections end Nov 7, and DReps are deciding on the ₳5M Snek treasury loan, Cardano’s first on-chain loan. Meanwhile, Constitution v2.3 proposes a leaner governance framework, and a new draft 2026 budget process sets a tentative roadmap through next June.

🗳 24 HOURS LEFT — Vote for Intersect’s Executive Director (Closes Oct 31, 12 PM UTC)

Intersect is selecting its first permanent Executive Director, and both Members and DReps have until tomorrow (Oct 31, 12 PM UTC) to vote on Ekklesia.

Why it matters: This vote decides who leads Intersect’s operations, treasury, and committee coordination into 2026. Current interim Executive Director @JBriggsLondon, who has applied to continue, said his focus since May has been stabilizing operations, completing the treasury cycle securely, and improving collaboration across members, committees, and DReps.

He’s joined on the ballot by several other candidates, including Andrew, Dmitry, Simon, Christophe, and Edward.

The outcome will determine Intersect’s direction as Cardano governance moves into its next phase.

How to take part:

• 📄 View candidates information: Ekklesia Candidate Profiles

• 🗳 DReps vote → https://intersect.ekklesia.vote/

• 🗳 Members vote →

  https://members.intersectmbo.org/dashboard/voting/290475427020

• 📖 Full process in Intersect’s Knowledge Base → https://docs.intersectmbo.org/intersect-team/open-positions/executive-director

Polls close Oct 31, 12 PM UTC. Results decide which candidates advance to panel interviews in November.

🧾 2026 Budget Framework Draft — DRep Feedback Open

A new draft budget framework, jointly developed by Intersect’s Budget Committee and the Cardano Foundation, outlines a clearer multi-step process for the 2026 funding cycle. It aims to make budgeting more transparent, predictable, and aligned with Cardano’s long-term roadmap.

Tentative timeline:

• Oct–Dec 2025: DRep feedback and approval of the new process

• Q1 2026: Proposal collection and review

• Q2 2026: Budget Info Action and Treasury Withdrawals

• June 2026: First payments expected

💬 Share feedback → intersectmbo.typeform.com/to/zUOsBIu2
📖 Read more → Building a Better Budget Process for 2026

📊 THIS WEEK’S SNAPSHOT

1. Active governance items: 3 Info Actions, 1 Treasury Withdrawal, 1 New Constitution, Committee Elections, Executive Director poll

2. Treasury at stake: ₳5.103M (₳5M loan, ₳103K reimbursement)

3. Closing soonest: Executive Director poll October 31, 12 PM UTC; Committee Elections Nov 7, 2025

Active Governance Actions

Treasury Withdrawal: ₳5M SNEK Treasury Loan for Global Listings

🗳 Governance Action Type: Treasury Withdrawal

📊 Approval Threshold: 67% required — currently 27.6%

⏰ Deadline: Nov 14, 2025 (15 days left)

💰 Amount: ₳5,000,000 (repayable loan at 2.44% APR over five years)

Cardano’s first loan-based treasury withdrawal. ₳5M would fund the Snek Global Listing Expansion, supporting new exchange listings for SNEK through a repayable treasury loan. Funds are administered by Intersect via the treasury-contracts framework with milestone-based releases and independent audits beginning in year three. Repayments come from Snek’s network revenues and treasury, with early payments allowed.

A Board of Advisors includes Tal Cohen, Frederik Gregaard from Cardano Foundation, Phillip Pon, Fahmi Syed from Midnight Foundation, and Rapha C-Roy. Certain financial details are withheld for negotiation confidentiality, but audits and receipts are planned for transparency.

View on Adastat

Info Action: Reimburse Ikigai Deposit

🗳 Governance Action Type: Info Action

📊 Approval Threshold: 50% required — currently 23.9%

⏰ Deadline: Nov 21, 2025 (22 days left)

💰 Amount: ₳103,000

This proposal reimburses the ₳100,000 deposit lost during the Ikigai Info Action shortly after the Chang hard fork, when a node bug and unfamiliar new system prevented recovery. It includes an additional ₳3,000 for missed rewards and opportunity costs. The goal is to correct an early technical loss and close one of the first governance issues faced on-chain.

View on Adastat

Info Action: Securing Generic Top-Level Domains for the Cardano Ecosystem (.ada and .cardano Domains)

🗳 Governance Action Type: Info Action
📊 Approval Threshold: 50% required — currently 32.5%
⏰ Deadline: Nov 25, 2025 (26 days left)

The Cardano Foundation is seeking community support to apply for .ada and .cardano top-level domains with ICANN during the next application window in early 2026. The initiative is self-funded and aims to secure Cardano’s digital identity, strengthen its visibility, and bridge Web2 and Web3. A Community Advisory Group will guide management to ensure the domains are operated transparently and for the benefit of the wider ecosystem.

View on Adastat

New Constitution: Cardano Constitution v2.3

🗳 Governance Action Type: New Constitution

📊 Approval Threshold: 75% required — currently 50.91%

⏰ Deadline: Nov 5, 2025 (6 days left)

Cardano Constitution v2.3 streamlines governance and strengthens accountability. It removes non-binding expectations, the Budget Info Action mechanism, and mandatory Constitutional Committee conduct rules. It adds clear definitions, enforces immutability of proposal documents, and applies treasury audit and accountability safeguards to all withdrawals.

Version 2.3 incorporates extensive DRep feedback from v2.0 (which had 86.23% DRep participation) and addresses concerns about clarity, enforceability, and oversight. It represents a focused update designed to reinforce legitimacy and improve consistency across governance processes.

View on Adastat

🧠 IO Research — Cardano Vision 2025–2030 Program

Input Output Research (IOR) has launched Cardano Vision, a five-year research and development agenda to secure Cardano’s long-term leadership in blockchain science. The initiative spans 20+ foundational research and 7 technology validation streams under Work Program 2025, bridging deep research with real-world engineering.

Software Readiness Levels (SRL) adapted from NASA:

• Fundamental Research (SRL 1–2): formalizing ideas and proofs, 3–5 years to market

• Technology Validation (SRL 3–5): prototyping, validating and specs, 1.5–3 years

• Targeted Implementation (SRL 5+): guiding engineering into production, 0–18 month

This creates a transparent pipeline where verified research advances into prototypes and CIPs, prior to full implementation. The first year has already delivered major outputs across consensus (Leios, Minotaur), zero-knowledge proofs (zk-Snarks), light clients (Cavefish), and layer-2 scalability (Hydra tail, state channels).

📘Forum Post: Fundamental Research & Technology Validation Reports (Final)

🏛️ Process & Ecosystem Updates

Committee Elections (Closes Nov 7):

New governance committees will guide 2026 budgets and constitutional decisions.
→ More info https://www.intersectmbo.org/news/voting-in-the-committee-elections-october-2025

2026 Budget Framework Released:
Intersect published a new multi-step review process to improve proposal quality.
→ https://www.intersectmbo.org/news/building-a-better-budget-process-for-2026-proposing-a-multi-step-framework

Smart Contract Capacity on Testnet:
Parameter updates to improve scalability are in testing. Mainnet deployment timeline TBA.
→ https://www.intersectmbo.org/news/improving-smart-contract-capacity-parameter-updates-enter-cardano-testnet

🔗 Resources

• View all proposals on Adastat

• Constitution v2.3 Draft (IPFS)

• Cardano Forum

• Intersect News

Thanks for reading. If you’d like to support our work in the DRep Forum, please share this post.

The Double Espresso Dispatch is the DRep Forum’s governance newsletter — published only when there’s something worth your time. Get curated highlights, key community insights, deadlines, and proposal links. Clear, concise governance, no noise.

TL;DR – Five Things

1. Constitution v2.0 – Info Action, Vote Closes Sept 6. Championed by Yuta from Japan, the draft reflects community feedback and has already seen 173 DRep rationales. Supporters highlight clarity and streamlined treasury processes; critics object to new identity disclosure rules for treasury withdrawals. If you haven’t yet, review the draft and cast your vote on-chain.

2. Intersect Board Elections → Applications open until Sept 12 (7 days left) for 4 community-elected seats (up from 2). Voting Sept 15–26. Board oversees ₳270.5M treasury admin and guides technical committees.

3. Client Diversity & Leios Trade-offs: IO is pushing 24/7 to deliver Leios in 2026, but alternative clients may lack resources to keep pace. DReps could face trade-off decisions on funding, timing, and rollout.

4. GovTool Funding – Treasury Proposal Coming. GovTool’s ₳1.15M Info Action passed with 58% support. A Treasury Withdrawal proposal is now being prepared to fund 12 months of maintenance, open-source contributions, and new features.

5. Constitutional Committee Transition Complete. The fully elected Constitutional Committee is now live, ratified at epoch 579/580 after a one-epoch delay due to parameter limits. This marks the shift from the interim committee (appointed by founding entities) to a community-elected body — ending the bootstrap governance phase and beginning elected oversight.

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🗳 Constitution v2.0 – Info Action, Vote Closes Sept 6

Status: 173 DReps have already voted with rationales. Yuta’s constitutional rewrite simplifies the text (55% shorter), removes unused provisions, and drops budget info action requirements.

Views are divided: supporters highlight these improvements in clarity and efficiency. Critics, however, focus on the new rule requiring identity disclosure for treasury withdrawals, arguing it risks excluding pseudonymous builders. Notably, Kostas Panagias voted NO, calling identity disclosure a “red line” and published his rationale here.

• 📄 Full Constitution v2.0 Text

• 📊 All DRep Rationales

🔧 Client Diversity & Leios Trade-offs

TL;DR: Charles reaffirmed IO’s support for client diversity. The challenge is coordination and resources as Leios targets 2026 — meaning DReps may soon face trade-offs on whether to fund alternative clients, delay Leios, or proceed Haskell-first.

Key Points from the full video on X.

• Leios timeline: IO is running a 24/7 development push on the Haskell node to deliver Leios in 2026. Charles cautioned that alternative clients may lack the resources to keep pace — raising likely governance trade-offs for DReps: fund them, delay Leios, or proceed Haskell-first.

• Client diversity: Cardano’s model has always aimed for multiple client implementations, enabled by formal specifications and a future certified client program rather than a single “official” node. Charles reaffirmed that IO values the work of alternative builders, collaborates with Pragma teams, and sees client diversity as essential for decentralization.

• Coordination: The plan was for client work to run through Intersect’s steering committees, but many builders now coordinate through Pragma. Charles noted closer alignment on specifications would reduce costs and avoid interoperability risks, while stressing collaboration will continue.

Watch Charles's full explanation: https://x.com/IOHK_Charles/status/1962649340721405969

📋 Intersect Board Elections

Candidate applications are open until September 12th (7 days left) for four community-elected board seats (expanded from two last year). Voting runs September 15–26.

💡Elected board members provide strategic oversight of Intersect, which will administer ₳270.5M in treasury funds. They guide technical steering committees and shape Cardano’s primary governance infrastructure.

📊 Info Actions

Info Actions are non-binding votes that signal community support for ideas. If they pass, the next step is usually a formal Treasury Withdrawal or governance action.

GovTool Funding - Info Action Passed

The GovTool Info Action passed with 58% support, signalling community backing for continued development. A Treasury Withdrawal proposal (~₳1.15M) is now being prepared to fund 12 months of maintenance, incentivized contributions, and new features. DReps will soon decide whether to resource GovTool—the governance platform already used by 48,000+ people in 170+ countries—to keep it community-owned and actively developed.

Cardano in Oceania – Info Action Live
₳778K proposal for a regional growth strategy across Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific. Led by selfdriven Services, it focuses on training, enterprise pilots, hackathons, and ecosystem mapping — aiming to prove a repeatable model of community-driven adoption that could scale to other regions. Supporters highlight Oceania as a strategic testbed; voting now open.

📊 IO Research Mid-year Reports

Fundamental Research Report → Updates on 20+ research streams, from Ouroboros Omega (Leios, Peras) to Democracy 4.0 governance, ZK capabilities, and tokenomics design. A 3-week community feedback window is open to help shape research priorities.

Technology Validation Report → Six prototypes tested and ready for deployment, including Leios (5x throughput scaling), Ouroboros Phalanx (anti-grinding), recursive SNARKs, and Minotaur restaking. These mark the bridge from research to implementation.

• Fundamental Research feedback

• Technology Validation feedback

💡 Why it matters for DReps: Fundamental research sets long-term treasury funding priorities. Technology validation highlights which advances are close to deployment — shaping near-term governance and funding decisions.

🌐 Other Updates

1. Constitutional Committee Framework: New infographic by Mike Hornan explains building on-chain consortiums with the Credential Manager. Step-by-step guide for technical implementation.

2. The Cardano Foundation have rebuilt the developer portal with new guides, demos and more

3. University of Edinburgh Constitution Research: Academic study on Cardano's constitutional governance process needs active DRep participation. Your experience shapes research that could influence future governance design across blockchain ecosystems.

4. MLabs launched their Catalyst funded protocol, Feesaswap.io which allow users to pay transaction fees in CNTs instead of ADA.

Stay sharp, stay voting, and stay accountable.

Thanks for reading. If you want to support our work in the DRep Forum please share this post

⚡️TL;DR – Five Key Takeaways

1. ICC Vote Live: Please vote!!! Both DReps and SPOs must vote by September 1st to replace the Interim Constitutional Committee with the new tranche of fully elected members. Miss this, and governance grinds to a halt until a new CC can be voted in. For more information, check out Intersect’s blog on the topic.

2. Intersect’s Treasury Cycle Complete: 37 proposals passed — Intersect’s first on-chain treasury withdrawal is wrapped, approving ₳270.5M for funding out of a total of ₳275M. That means funded builders can now move forward, bringing confidence and greater certainty to the ecosystem. A milestone for Cardano governance, powered by your votes!

3. Rare Evo Workshops: Governance bottlenecks aren’t on-chain, they’re in-person. Unclear ecosystem KPIs combined with a lengthy budget process drove in-person discussions around some kind of executive function and how much, if any, strategy to delegate while maintaining final authority and decision-making power.

4. Feedback Needed: Rare Evo surfaced important governance conversations — but not all voices were in the room. Three live surveys — Budget Committee, GMC Marketing, and the Cardano Constitution study — let DReps and SPOs ensure their perspectives shape the next cycle. Don’t just fill them in — share them, encourage others, and keep the feedback momentum alive.

5. Leios Dashboard Demo: IO showcased a new dashboard that will make the development of Cardano’s next consensus upgrade, Leios, transparent and trackable. Expect live feeds of commits, global contribution maps, milestone status, and an open roadmap — turning a complex rollout into something the whole community can follow.

🗳 ICC Vote — Urgent Action

The vote to replace the Interim Constitutional Committee (ICC) with the first fully elected Constitutional Committee (CC) is now live, with a close date of Sept 1 to keep governance moving forward.

• Thresholds: both DReps (67%) and SPOs (51%) must approve. Miss it, and governance stalls — no treasury withdrawals, no parameter changes, nothing moves until another CC vote.

• This is Cardano’s first fully elected CC — a decentralization milestone that ends the interim phase and removes founding entities’ control. The biggest risk is SPO awareness and turnout, with their voices critical in this vote.

🎙 Catch up: X Space replay → (Aug 20, hosted by @IntersectCIVICS). It framed the CC transition as a critical test of governance in action, showed how DReps and SPOs play different but complementary roles, and highlighted the risk of low SPO participation — making early turnout essential.

👉 DReps: vote now at gov.tools
👉 SPOs: follow one of these guides: CF | ATADA | EarnCoinPool | Sanchonet Video

Treasury Withdrawal Results — Closing the Loop

DReps have spoken, approving 37 treasury Intersect-submitted Treasury Withdrawals totaling ₳270.5M. This landmark result ensures many of Cardano’s builders can continue delivering value and working with certainty.

If you’re wondering what comes next for these proposals, Intersect’s latest Dev Report outlines the process, including:

• KYC/KYB and Vendor Contract Signing

• Funding of Vendor Smart Contracts

• Vendor induction calls

For the full breakdown of these steps, see Intersect’s Dev Report #75 here.

Feedback Needed — Closing the Loop

Rare Evo governance workshops surfaced important issues — but not everyone was in the room. This is where you come in.

Three surveys are live now, and they’re how DReps and SPOs make sure their perspectives shape the next cycle:

• Budget Committee survey – input on how oversight should evolve

• GMC Marketing survey – feedback on community marketing efforts

• Constitution study – shaping how the Cardano Constitution develops

• Post workshop report - recap of key themes and prioritized issues from two days of collaborative discussion

Your role doesn’t stop at filling them in. Share them, encourage others to complete them, and keep the feedback momentum alive! Governance only works if the loop is closed between action, accountability, and response.

Outcomes of the Governance Workshops (Aug 5–6, pre-Rare Evo)

Ahead of Rare Evo, IO hosted two days of governance workshops in Las Vegas. The sessions dug into Cardano’s biggest governance challenges and the mechanics of the 2025 budget process.

Top signals for DReps:

• Off-chain bottlenecks are the problem — unclear processes, poor communication, missing documentation

• No KPIs, no north star — without agreed and quantifiable objectives, DReps lack criteria to measure the value and relevance of proposals or budgets

• Proposal overload — volume and inconsistency risks burning out DReps

The message: governance challenges aren’t just about protocol design, they’re about process. These are the issues DReps will be asked to weigh in on in future cycles.

📑 [Workshop slides + summary document]

Accountability Statements (IOE + Tweag)

Two treasury-funded teams have recently published post‑vote updates that spell out how they’ll deliver and report.

• IO Engineering (IOE) — From roadmap to reality: transparency, accountability, and momentum
  IOE says funding is milestone‑based (payments released only when milestones are delivered), with Intersect named as administrator and a smart‑contract oversight process run by a dedicated committee. They commit to monthly video updates, monthly engineering timesheets, and tracking audit/maintenance costs with any unspent amounts returned. They’ll also publish quarterly breakdowns of engineering days and IOE vs vendor spend, and onboard external vendors (incl. CDEC participants) to broaden delivery capacity.

• Tweag — Engineering the Future of Cardano: A Deep Dive into Key Infrastructure Proposals
  Tweag explains the funded work in plain terms. Highlights include Ouroboros Peras moving toward a testnet (pre‑alpha parameters dashboard, implementation for caught‑up nodes, temporary centralized vote diffusion), a canonical ledger state format, black‑box conformance testing for ledger and consensus (to avoid accidental forks across implementations), a Plutus script re‑executor for on‑chain analysis, Genesis sync accelerator (CDN‑assisted, still trustless), cleaner block/tx codecs (removing EBBs, explicit protocol versioning), a “hoarding node” for invalid/orphaned data, block‑cost investigation, Cardano‑Node‑Emulator modernization, and history expiry using Mithril checkpoints.

The takeaway for DReps: both posts set explicit reporting and delivery expectations. You can track progress against named milestones and practices—and follow up where commitments are made.

🔗 IOE blog | 🔗 Tweag blog

Leios Development Dashboard

At Rare Evo, Input | Output’s Kathryn Stacy previewed the Leios development dashboard, describing it as a “window into the heartbeat of the entire development lifecycle for the Leios protocol.” The demo showed how the dashboard will surface time-relevant insights through an informational banner, display a live commit feed of development activity, map contributions globally with a visual globe view, track repository-by-repository progress, and present an open roadmap with milestone status. She noted the dashboard is still running on dummy data, with more details on dashboard launch to come via official IO channels.

(Leios is a planned consensus upgrade for Cardano; the dashboard’s purpose is to make its development visible and trackable.)

👏 Shoutout to Stevie and the IO team for the award‑winning Rare Evo booth that showcased the demo. And to all the Cardano projects hosting booths and community members who made the trip to Vegas.

Rare Evo Panels — Watch Back:

RareEvo’s Governance Dev Day put Cardano governance under the spotlight with stacked sessions that helped set the tone for the next treasury cycle.

• Treasury & Budgeting Panel → Questions cut straight to accountability: how are treasury funds tracked and reported? Panelists pushed for KPIs, better proposer tooling, and frameworks that DReps can trust. Signal: votes must weigh not just vision, but verifiable delivery. 📺 Watch the panel

• Future Funding Models → Should Cardano rely only on the treasury, or diversify with sovereign-fund style approaches and partnerships? Consensus: treasury alone may not be enough long-term — a challenge DReps will face in future votes. 📺 Watch the session

• Constitutional Roadmap → The debate: constitution as minimalist rulebook or broader social contract? Either way, it’s the backbone of Cardano’s long-term legitimacy. 📺 Watch the session

• Growth Marketing Panel → Governance without visibility falls flat. This session pushed how Cardano tells its story — reaching builders, delegators, and policy-makers. Signal: governance impact is only as strong as communication reach. 📺 Watch the session

• Charles Hoskinson Keynote → Charles reminded attendees that DReps don’t just have admin duties — they hold directional power, steering the chain itself. Delegation isn’t passive; it’s trust in DReps to make Cardano’s next chapter real. 📺 Watch the keynote

Closing

If you do one thing after reading this edition, make sure you vote in the ICC election before Sept 1. Without it, governance stalls — nothing moves until the new Constitutional Council is in place.

Governance isn’t theory anymore. It’s live, and every vote shapes what happens next.

Thanks for reading, and for doing the work that keeps Cardano moving

🔥 That’s the dispatch. As always: stay sharp, stay voting, and stay accountable.

TL;DR – Five Key Takeaways

1. Non-votes count as 'No' votes, not abstentions. DRep participation directly impacts governance outcomes. If you don’t vote then you are effectively voting ‘No’. Vote ‘No’ or ‘Abstain’ if you don’t want to vote ‘Yes’. But don’t deny strong projects funding by not voting!

2. CExplorer launched a DRep Withdrawal Leaderboard alongside governance section improvements, enhanced data, modern design, and faster infrastructure.

3. Multi-voting is now live on Tempo’s platform, streamlining the voting process.

4. Intersect Product Committee updated their website with a new vision creation process for community input.

5. Intersect launches Smart Contract Treasury Framework - All ada now moves on-chain automatically with two contract types: Treasury Contracts hold funds while Vendor Contracts pay project milestones. No single entity controls the funds as an independent Oversight Committee (consisting of the Cardano Foundation, DQuadrant, Sundae Labs, NMKR and Xerberus) must approve moves.

🚨 Vote Early Because It Really Matters

Vote early—set the tone for builder certainty. If projects are headed for a ‘No’ vote, it gives them time to address any questions and clarify any concerns. After a long and involved process that they have investing their time into, it gives proposers time to respond, engage, and clarify before the deadline. Waiting until the end hides the signal and limits their options.

🗳️ Making Voting Easier: New Tools & Enhancements

You can vote and find all the proposals listed using Gov Tool, Cardano Foundation’s Voting Tool, Cardano Builder DAO’s Voting Portal, Tempo’s governance actions platform or the Governance Space platform.

Multi-voting is also a feature available on Tempo tools which give you the ability to batch vote / vote on multiple proposals at the same time. In addition, you could watch the "Bulk-Voting" on Treasury Withdrawals with the SPO-Scripts (video here) published by Martin @ATADA_Stakepool

Register: Governance Workshop

Input | Output is hosting Cardano Governance Workshops on August 5th ahead of Rare Evo's Governance & Dev Day (August 7th). The two-day workshops bring together DReps, SPOs, builders, and governance leaders to discuss improvements to Cardano's decentralized governance system and plan next steps for the ecosystem.

If you are in Las Vegas for Rare Evo - or can make it out there - it’s a great opportunity to meet with fellow DReps and help keep governance moving forward.

Ecosystem Updates

1. Catalyst F14 launches with ₳20,000,000 in funding available for Cardano projects.

2. U.S. Clarity Act passed the House, creating digital asset regulations. The bill defines "digital commodities" as decentralized assets without active management. Analysis suggests Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Cardano are the only blockchains meeting these "mature" standards.

3. “Lost Stake” Cardano Problem Statement just dropped addressing “sticky stake”.

4. EMURGO launched Cardano Card which will support payments in ADA, SOL, BTC, USDC and USDT

5. Intersect announced the new Oversight Committee compromised of five organizations that will oversee the management of their smart contract configurations.

6. AR.io Network have teamed up with Midnight. As part of the partnership they will be working on several projects together, including offering decentralized storage.

7. Anzens Official have partnered with SH Payments to give ADA holders access to EU bank accounts with dedicated Euro IBANs

8. Blockchain.com’s DeFi wallet now supports Cardano, enabling users to send, receive and hold ADA.

Academic Research into Cardano Governance

Lamprini Georgiou is a PhD student at the University of Edinburgh School of Law. She is planning to incorporate a study of the Cardano constitution in her thesis. She has prepared a survey to capture your perspectives. She's looking for input from DReps and anyone who has been part of the Constitutional journey.

If you can find 20 minutes to fill this in, she'd much appreciate it. And it's a great opportunity to tell the Cardano governance story in academic circles!

Governance Survey

Thanks for reading! If you’d like to support this newsletter then please share and leave a comment.

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It’s been a minute! Great to have you back reading another edition of the DRep Dispatch. We’re not here to tell you what to think—just to help you stay up to speed on what others across the ecosystem are thinking.

TL;DR – Five Key Takeaways

1. Constitutional Committee (CC) Election Results: The election results are in, pending audit and official confirmation by DQuadrant. Intersect will formally announce the new CC on Sunday..

2. Intersect Activity Report for June 2025 by Adam Rusch has been posted and the Intersect Board Meeting minutes are now available. Intersect has advanced Cardano treasury governance by finalizing the budget process and developing a secure, multi-layered smart contract system for transparent treasury fund oversight. The organization also reinforced its legal foundation, expanded its Board ahead of Fall elections with new safeguards, and plans community engagement initiatives to uphold accountability and decentralized governance.

3. Cardano Sovereign Wealth Fund (CSWF) Proposal: Charles Hoskinson proposes evolving Cardano’s treasury from a passive ADA-only holding into an actively managed, multi-asset fund aimed at protecting value, increasing liquidity, and supporting ecosystem growth. DReps may soon vote on a $100 million pilot to initiate this transition—see full details below.

4. GovTool Platform Continuity: Recent updates improve user access and security, including simpler authentication and author verification. Although formal funding was not approved by DReps, Intersect’s interim director secured a short-term grant to maintain the platform, ensuring continuity but not replacing formal governance approval.

5. Shareables: The Cardano Foundation has published 14 clear, downloadable flow charts that break down how key governance actions are proposed, voted on, and approved. Example below.

Cardano Sovereign Wealth Fund (CSWF): Our Treasury Is Sitting Still While the Rest of the Industry Moves Fast. DReps Hold the Keys.

June 16th white board hosted with Charles Hoskinson
🎧 → Whiteboard Video | 📄 → Transcript

Charles Hoskinson has outlined a proposal for a Cardano Sovereign Wealth Fund (CSWF) in a recent whiteboard video. The aim: move from a passive, ADA-only treasury to an actively managed, multi-asset fund designed to protect value, build liquidity, and support ecosystem growth.

Cardano currently holds one of the largest treasuries in crypto –top 5 globally when including own tokens, according to DeFiLlama. The default ranking excludes native assets like ADA, favouring ecosystems that already operate multi-asset treasuries stacked with USDC and USDT. That’s something Cardano could address –if it shifts from passive holding to active deployment.

The CSWF proposal outlines a professionally managed structure that would diversify the treasury, seed stablecoin liquidity, support DeFi growth, and enable strategic partnerships with other ecosystems.

DReps may soon be asked to vote on whether to begin this transition –maybe starting with a $100 million pilot focused on stablecoin infrastructure

What’s the opportunity?

The CSWF would give Cardano access to the same strategic tools already in use across other leading ecosystems:

• Diversify holdings to reduce exposure to ADA volatility

• Deploy capital into stablecoins, DeFi, and Bitcoin to drive usage

• Take positions in other ecosystems to support strategic alignment

• Generate yield to grow the treasury or repurchase ADA

• Signal operational maturity through active, accountable deployment

What’s the constraint?

Currently, none of that exists:

• Unmanaged: The treasury holds 1.7 billion ADA and no other assets

• Exposed: Spending power fluctuates entirely with ADA’s price

• Inactive: There’s no mechanism for capital deployment or liquidity support

• Outpaced: Other chains are already using treasury strategies to compete

“They don’t take $33 million in stablecoin volume issuance seriously. They don’t take 330 million TVL seriously.” - Charles Hoskinson, @IOHK_Charles

What do DReps Need to Consider?

Charles has proposed the idea of a $100 million stablecoin-focused pilot as a first step in activating a Cardano Sovereign Wealth Fund. If this moves forward, DReps may be asked to vote on whether to authorize it. Ecosystems are increasingly deploying capital to attract builders and grow liquidity. Cardano has the resources to participate—but currently lacks the structure to do so. The CSWF proposal is a test: not just of treasury strategy, but of Cardano’s capacity to act through governance.

Bitcoin DeFi: A Big Opportunity—If We Deploy Liquidity

🗓 June 17th recording hosted by @Andrew Westberg

🎧 Watch the full video | 📄 Transcript

Bitcoin DeFi could become one of Cardano’s most powerful growth engines—if there’s stablecoin liquidity to support it. DReps will have to vote on whether that infrastructure gets funded.

What’s the opportunity?

Bitcoin DeFi demand is real—and growing:

• Bitcoin holders want to borrow against BTC without selling, creating demand for stablecoin lending.

• Major retailers are exploring stablecoins to avoid billions in credit card fees.

• Cardano is building the necessary tech. Lace is integrating a Bitcoin bridge. BitVM is under exploration. But none of it matters if users can’t do anything once they arrive.

What’s the constraint?

• Without stablecoin liquidity, Bitcoiners won’t bridge.

• Algorithmic stablecoins lack the trust and off-ramp utility required for real-world usage.

• Builders and users need fiat-backed coins like USDM or USDC to enable lending, payments, and ecosystem activity.

Decentralization Trade-Off: Liquidity vs Sovereignty

Fiat-backed stablecoins enable real activity, but the governance risks differ.

• USDC and USDT are controlled by external issuers. In a fork, they choose which chain gets support—and which one loses liquidity. That gives off-chain actors decisive influence in on-chain outcomes.

• USDM mints directly on Cardano and is designed to meet regulatory expectations while preserving chain-native control.

• Upcoming funding proposals may favor adoption through these stablecoins. DReps will need to weigh immediate utility against longer-term resilience..

What do DReps Need to Consider?

Proposals may soon be brought forward to deploy stablecoin liquidity—potentially through sovereign wealth fund–style structures. These decisions will determine whether Cardano invests in the infrastructure needed to support Bitcoin DeFi use cases. DRePs will need to assess whether stablecoin strategies are a priority for builder adoption, and what role treasury deployment should play in enabling that.

Leios and the Future of SPO Rewards. A real, testable path toward making SPO rewards sustainable.

🗓 June 10th X Space hosted by @cryptstitution
🎧 → Listen | 📄 → Transcript

How does the network pay for itself? Cardano’s stake pool operators (SPOs) secure the network, but their rewards currently come from a reserve that shrinks every epoch. Within 5–10 years, this reserve will no longer sustain current rewards, putting network security and decentralization at risk.

Leios is a proposed protocol upgrade designed to scale throughput dramatically– potentially to thousands of transactions per second (TPS)– while preserving decentralization. It restructures block production into an assembly line of parallel tasks that better use network and CPU resources, enabling many more transactions without compromising security.

To maintain economic sustainability, the network must reach a minimum throughput of roughly 50 TPS, the point at which transaction fees can fully support SPO rewards. Today, Cardano processes about 10 TPS, well below this threshold.

What’s the opportunity?

• Leios can scale Cardano’s throughput much higher – to hundreds, potentially thousands of transactions per second (TPS), according to simulations.

• This opens the door to ‘Visa-level’capacity while maintaining decentralization.
  At a minimum, Leios aims to raise throughput to around 50 TPS, the break-even point where transaction fees can sustainably cover SPO rewards as the current reserve dwindles.

• Higher TPS beyond that threshold means more fee revenue, more applications, and stronger network economics over time.

What’s the constraint?

• Current network throughput hovers around 10 TPS, well below the sustainable minimum.

• SPO rewards depend on a shrinking reserve that will run out in 5–10 years unless fees can fill the gap.

• Scaling brings trade-offs: increased transaction latency (from ~20 seconds to 1–2 minutes), higher bandwidth and storage costs for SPOs, and bounded determinism introducing concurrency in transaction ordering.

What do DReps Need to Consider?

Leios requires DReps’ approval through Cardano’s governance process. This decision involves balancing technical trade-offs—like increased latency and higher operational costs—against the urgent need for a sustainable economic model that secures SPO rewards and network scalability.

Your vote will shape the network’s future: enabling higher throughput to support growing demand and fees, or risking a decline in SPO incentives that could threaten decentralization and security.

As one of the first major protocol decisions DReps will face, this vote sets a precedent for how infrastructure upgrades are governed going forward.

Constitutional Committee Election Results

The Constitutional Committee election results are in, with final confirmation pending audit completion by DQuadrant.

Why this matters

The first fully elected Constitutional Committee sets the tone for how the Cardano Constitution will be interpreted in practice. Their independence, engagement with the community, and decision-making style will directly shape all governance actions DReps participate in.

Final Committee Composition

Intersect has closed voting and shared the top 7 candidates along with their term preferences:

Two-year terms (4 seats):

• Eastern Cardano Council (₳1.06B voting power) - 7 members across Asia-Pacific

• Ace Alliance (₳1.05B voting power) - 5 members with legal/technical expertise

• Cardano Japan Council (₳992M voting power) - Regional representation

• Tingvard (₳949M voting power) - Nordic consortium with engineering focus

One-year terms (3 seats):

• Cardano Atlantic Council (₳1.87B voting power) - Current ICC members

• phil_uplc (₳899M voting power) - Individual technical expert

• KtorZ (₳821M voting power) - Individual protocol developer

Consortiums won six of the seven seats, indicating that DReps prefer groups with a range of perspectives and collective decision-making over individual candidates. These groups represent different regions and bring varied governance approaches from across the world.

The two individual winners are well-regarded technical experts, showing that DReps also value deep blockchain knowledge alongside governance experience. Throughout candidate discussions, all confirmed that Constitutional Committee members decide on constitutionality, while DReps assess merit and community benefit –preserving a clear separation of roles within governance.

Intersect 3-Part ‘Meet the Candidates’ Series

🗓 June 27th X Spaces hosted by @IntersectMBO

These X Spaces provide an inside view of candidates competing to form Cardano’s first fully elected Constitutional Committee, a key group responsible for upholding the blockchain’s governance rules. The candidates, ranging from individuals to multi-member consortiums, discussed how they interpret the constitution, manage conflicts, and handle community engagement.

The sessions reveal key challenges, like deciding who should vote in governance—just delegated representatives or all ADA holders—and how to keep the process transparent and fair. Candidates also talk about how they’ll communicate decisions that might not be popular but are necessary under the constitution.

Anyone interested in the nuts and bolts of Cardano’s governance will find this a valuable look at the trade-offs and responsibilities these candidates face, and why voting in this election will influence the chain’s future governance structure.

• Part 1 → 🎧 Listen | 📄 Transcript

• Part 2 → 🎧 Listen | 📄 Transcript

• Part 3 → 🎧 Listen | 📄 Transcript

GovTool Feedback & Sustainability Update

🗓 June 20th X Space hosted by @IntersectMBO
🎧 → Listen | 📄 → Transcript

Why this matters: Why this matters: GovTool is a core governance platform used by DReps and the wider Cardano community. Recent updates have addressed key user experience issues, improving accessibility and security for governance participation.

Sustainability Grant & Builder Commitment: Although DReps did not approve formal funding for GovTool, Jack Briggs, interim director at Intersect, has arranged a short-term sustainability grant to maintain platform continuity. This grant supports essential maintenance and incremental improvements while governance funding discussions continue. The GovTool team, including builders such as Lido Nation, Juno Stakepool, Byron Network, and WeDeliver, remains committed to ongoing support during this period of uncertainty.

Recent Improvements:

• Simplified authentication, removing wallet validation barriers for browsing proposals

• Added author verification on treasury withdrawal actions to prevent impersonation

What DReps need to know: The sustainability grant ensures short-term platform stability but is not a replacement for formal governance-approved funding. DReps and the community continue to evaluate funding proposals and provide feedback. Meanwhile, the development teams are focused on keeping the platform reliable and user-friendly.

Opportunity: Academic Research on Cardano Governance

Lamprini Georgiou, a PhD researcher at the University of Edinburgh, is studying digital trust, democracy, and blockchain governance through the lens of the Cardano Constitution.

Why it matters:
This research explores how blockchain governance systems establish democratic legitimacy and represent communities in decentralized environments. Insights from dReps’ real-world experiences will provide valuable data on how the Cardano Constitution functions in practice.

What this means for Cardano:
Academic attention validates the broader significance of Cardano’s pioneering governance model and may inform future improvements across blockchain ecosystems – and beyond.

How to participate:
DReps are invited to contribute by completing a research survey, helping bridge the gap between academic theory and governance in action.

Research Survey Link

Project Ecosystem Updates

Check out the snapshot below for an updated overview of the current number of projects building on Cardano and when you can expect to see them launched:

• MuesliSwap launched MidStarterApp, an all-in-one ecosystem for Midnight projects built on Cardano

• Voting in the Constitutional Committee election has officially closed, audit reports will be shared soon.

• Flow DeFi announced their platform will support USDA when their mainnet is launched.

• CTRL Wallet announced a partnership with Emurgo. Support for CNTs is already live with more features to follow

• BTC Grow will be offering non-custodial BTC staking, powered by Cardano smart contracts. Testnet is expected to launch in July

Thanks for reading. If you want to support our work in the DRep Forum please share this post!

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The purpose of this newsletter is to reduce noise and increase signal - offering DReps a neutral, fast-read view of Cardano governance. We’re not here to tell you what to think, but to help you keep up to speed with what others are thinking, across the board.

TL;DR – Five Things to Share This Week

1. ₳275M Budget Info Action Vote Open - Ends June 13. DReps are voting on Intersect’s budget proposal to fund 39 ecosystem initiatives. This is the only active governance action; others have expired. This is a signal vote, not a disbursement.

2. 24 Hours Left: Treasury Withdrawal Poll Closes Today. This is a non-binding temperature check, not a governance action. DReps are also weighing in on how to structure Treasury withdrawals to support Intersect decision making. Option E (39 individual withdrawals) currently leads, but would come with operational trade-offs if fully implemented.

3. Most Treasury Proposals Didn’t Pass. Only two governance actions passed, Amaru Node (80.43%) and the ₳350M NCL cap.

4. Constitutional Committee (CC) Elections Go On-Chain. Voting will be DRep-based, using hot/cold wallets or CLI. More info here.

5. Charles AMA: Highlights Missing Executive Function. Hoskinson flagged Cardano’s lack of an “executive branch” as a challenge to strategy and roadmap coordination. He suggested the community may need to delegate limited execution authority for strategic clarity and to avoid delays.

🔔 Reminders: Governance Action Timelines

• 🚨 3 DAYS LEFT! Cardano Blockchain Ecosystem Budget - 275M ada Administered by Intersect → Review

And as a reminder the governance actions that have passed so far…

• PASSED AT 80.43% - Amaru Node Development 2025 proposal who are also at @Amaru_Cardano on X

• PASSED AT 73.35% - 350M ada Net Change Limit

When Off-Chain Signals Hit On-Chain Stakes

So what’s been happening?

Intersect (Cardano’s member-based org) is running a non-binding poll on Ekklesia to understand DRep preferences on how to proceed with 2025 treasury withdrawals. Five options are currently up for voting by DReps. Option E - putting all 39 proposals and their associated withdrawals up front - quickly became the most talked-about and leads the poll (39 of the 87 votes cast at time of writing). Some questioned why it was offered at all, given concerns about Intersect’s ability to facilitate it. The poll is open until Tuesday 10th June at 23.59 UTC

This poll surfaced a few key tensions:

• What exactly is Ekklesia for - signalling or steering?

• What role should Intersect play - coordinator, facilitator, or something more decisive?

• Is off-chain coordination clarifying the path - or muddying it?

It’s understandable if you’ve found this confusing. Many DReps reported that the real issue wasn’t the options - it was the lack of clarity around how to engage. Intersect’s stated aim was to simplify decision-making and build alignment before on-chain votes. But some feel that wasn’t clearly communicated. The inclusion of Option E, without context or support plans, created mixed signals. That doesn’t make DReps defiant. It points to a process that’s still taking shape.

We know this moment comes with baggage. Some will say this newsletter is soft on Intersect. Others may say it’s unfair to unduly criticize a process that continues to evolving. Either way, we’re all still learning and we’re here to lay out the facts - so you can judge the signals for yourself.

🗓 X Space: The Road Ahead – Intersect on Funding, Governance & Cardano’s Future

🗓 June 6th X Space hosted by @IntersectMBO
🎧 → Listen | 📄 → Transcript

Why listen?

Last month, DReps submitted a ₳275M budget info action, as required by the constitution to further ratify the amount that DReps has suggested they would support by voting on 39 budget proposals via the Ekklessia tool. That vote doesn’t actually release funds - it is a constitutionally required signal to proceed, not an approval. The next step is deciding how to structure the actual Treasury Withdrawals. To prepare for that, Intersect launched a (non-binding) poll on Ekklesia asking DReps to indicate how they want withdrawals structured.

How do you want Treasury Withdrawals structured?

The goal is to balance three things:

• How much granular discretion DReps have in approving spending

• Provide vendors clarity on their funding runway

• What Intersect can realistically manage from an operational point of view

This poll also serves to clean up earlier confusion. Ekklesia wasn’t clearly framed as a coordination layer - intended to assess initial consensus - so many DReps were unclear on what they were signaling. The result was ambiguity. This vote is about clarifying intent before anything moves on-chain. This was Intersect’s clearest attempt yet to clarify how the ₳275M budget info action moves from signal to spend - and how the current withdrawal vote on Ekklesia is more than logistics. It’s a test of governance UX, trust, and process clarity.

Understanding the Five Withdrawal Options

Jack Briggs outlined five potential withdrawal structures:

• Single withdrawal (omnibus)

• Two support brackets - proposals above 67% and between 50%+1 and 67% (Single withdrawal for each)

• Two support brackets - proposals above 67% and between 50%+1 and 67% (in two sets of withdrawals)

• Five brackets by Ekklesia support -50-59%, 60-69%, 70-79%, 80-89%, 90-100% (in two sets of withdrawals)

• 39 Individual Withdrawals

The vote is advisory, not binding. But it gives Intersect a clearer signal on how much discretion DReps want - and how much complexity the ecosystem is willing to manage. The 39-option offers granularity but creates too much operational burden; Intersect has said that vendors would need to submit their own transactions for Option E, 39 withdrawals. Intersect has also stated that its preferred options that benefit the ecosystem while reducing administrative burden are options B & C.

“The tricky one is the 39 withdrawals… that one we need to work through a little bit more because there is a deposit requirement that’s obviously quite large… We might need to phase how we do those… Ideally - again, this is an operational thing from Intersect - it is cleaner for us to have fewer withdrawals. If we have 39 [withdrawals] going over the course of two months, then we're starting projects at different times. And it does add complexity to our delivery assurance function as part of our role as an administrator.”

— @JBriggsLondon, Interim Executive Director, Intersect

Read the Voting Pack (Intersect)

Intersect as Administrator: Milestone-Based Funding

It is also important to note that once any project funding is approved, there are checks and balances in place to ensure the community is getting what it paid for. If Intersect proceeds with administering a group of proposals - as signalled in the budget info action - it will do so under traditional contracts and milestone-based oversight:

• Vendors will submit monthly milestone reports

• Milestones will be reviewed and publicly tracked

• A smart contract system (via Sundae Labs and Xerberus) is being phased in

• Intersect will pilot the system first, then extend it to vendors over time

“We’ve already processed 294 milestones and are scaling our assurance team to match.” - Jack Briggs

💡 All approved proposals, whether withdrawn individually or as part of a grouped structure, are subject to milestone-based contracts. Vendors must meet agreed deliverables before any funds are disbursed. If a team doesn’t hit its targets, the remaining funds are not released. This system is designed to reduce risk while still giving builders a fair opportunity to deliver. It’s a safeguard that ensures ecosystem funds are earned through actual progress - not just promises.

To support transparency, xerberus.io is building a public dashboard where DReps and community members can monitor milestone approvals, disbursements, and delivery status - helping governance scale without centralizing trust.

Community Signal — and the Limits of the Poll

Some DReps, including Ken Ladd and Johnny Kelly, pointed out a key limitation in the current voting mechanism at the end of 2024:

DReps could only vote for one option, not rank them or support multiple acceptable outcomes.

Ken Ladd shared a suggestion on X for enabling multi-option Yes voting, which would allow more granular sentiment collection. In this system, DReps could signal all withdrawal structures they find acceptable - not just their top choice.

“If you’re in a community and picking several options, asking for all the OKs is better than voting once.”

The nature of consensus is not about everybody getting exactly what they want. But rather, aligning on a decision that as many people as possible can at least live with. Going forward, this mindset will be key to Cardano moving forward if we want to harness our decentralized skill sets and avoid getting caught up in contention or decision paralysis.

This video is a nice short reminder of why multi-option voting is useful when trying to reach an acceptable path forward among multiple stakeholders. This newsletter’s aim is to present all the signals and structural choices clearly- not to imply consensus where there isn’t one, and not to ignore momentum where it does exist. Option E may be leading, but it’s not unanimous - and the tooling design itself shapes how sentiment is recorded.

Charles AMA: Executive Function in a Decentralized System

🗓️ June 8th AMA with Charles Hoskinson
🎧 [Click to listen to full AMA]

Charles Hoskinson reflected on Cardano’s evolving governance architecture, stating that while strong legislative and judicial branches are now in place, the ecosystem lacks a functioning executive branch -resulting in roadmap confusion, budget friction, and diluted strategy.

Key Insight

“We reduced the power of the executive function dramatically… now we don’t have a recognized executive branch in the Cardano government. That’s why it’s hard to set roadmaps, define KPIs, or pursue strategy.” — @IOHK_Charles

He noted that various groups -IO, Intersect, the Foundation - each have their own roadmap, which fragments governance. However, he emphasized this is not failure but evolution, and the next step may involve reintroducing executive function through consent-based delegation.

“Just maybe, we need to start adding some executive function back in… and that’s okay—so long as it’s delegated with consent from the legislative and judicial branches.” — @IOHK_Charles

Why It Matters

This is the clearest public acknowledgment of why roadmap alignment has been so difficult: Cardano has no executive function. It exposes a core design challenge - how to enable strategy and execution without recentralizing control. Charles signals that the community may need to delegate limited authority if it wants coherent, forward motion in 2026.

🗓 X Space: Budget Spotlights – Haus, NFT CDN & Event Pavilions

🗓 June 3rd X Space hosted by @cryptstitution
🎧 → Listen | 📄 → Transcript

Why listen?

This Space showcased three proposals from the ₳275M budget info action that have majority dRep support but limited public visibility. Each one tackles a different part of the ecosystem stack - infra, real-world assets, and ecosystem presence. With treasury withdrawals coming soon, these spotlights are a chance to hear from the people behind the proposals—and understand what Cardano would actually be funding.

🌐 NFT CDN: Infrastructure-as-a-Service

• Proposal: ₳600K to make Cardano’s NFT delivery infrastructure free to use for 18 months

• Pitch: Remove paywalls for developers, support ecosystem-wide asset rendering, explore long-term sustainability

• Traction: Used by Pool.pm, Eternl, and major projects; 8.8B API calls since 2022 with 100% uptime

• Model Options: Treasury acquisition, open-source, or decentralized version

• Takeaway: Treating backend infra as a public good—not a SaaS business.

“It took us $100K and nine months to build this. Now we want other devs to get that value from day one—free.” — Rocky (NFT CDN) @SmaugPool @nftcdn_io

🏠 Haus: Real Estate Tokenization

• Proposal: Migration of $20M TVL and 36 deals from private Ethereum chain to Cardano

• Pitch: Open-source tokenized home equity platform, with 5% profit-share to the Cardano treasury until the funding is repaid

• Why Cardano? Gas costs, better ecosystem alignment, and a path to long-term scale

• Takeaway: A Cardano-native entry into the $17T real estate market - and a test case for RWA credibility.

“We built this with $1,000 and two suitcases. Now we want to bring it to Cardano and give back.” — @dt_siddharth @haus

🏛️ Cardano Pavilions: Visibility at Events

• Proposal: Host 10 coordinated Cardano booths at major events, lowering cost per project

• Pitch: Shared space, project curation, pre-event strategy, and better Cardano visibility

• Cost Model: ₳2,500 per project vs. ₳15–20K for solo booths

• Takeaway: An ecosystem-wide marketing multiplier, especially for under-resourced teams.

“Everyone knows Cardano. They just don’t know who’s building on it.” - @invalid_eutxo @DiscoverCardano

📜 Yuta has a Constitution v2.0 in Development

YUTA (@yuta_cryptox) has released a draft of the Cardano Blockchain Ecosystem Constitution v2.0, with final feedback requested by June 16th at 00:00 UTC.

According to YUTA's announcement, key changes from v1.0 to v2.0 include:

1. Streamlined Process: YUTA claims removing Budget Info Actions will cut unnecessary off-chain budget processes that slow down DRep decision-making.

2. Enhanced Treasury Protection: YUTA states the draft maintains all existing safeguards from v1.0 including administrator requirements, independent audits, oversight metrics, dispute resolution, and Net Change Limits, while adding roadmap settings as requirements and flexible treasury withdrawal conditions.

3. Simplified Document: YUTA reports the word count has been reduced by 55% (from 3,082 to 1,385 words) while adding definitions and fixing formatting issues.

YUTA's draft aims to address governance friction points while preserving treasury security measures. DReps can review the full document and change log at the links provided in the announcement. → Full Constitution v2.0 Draft → Change Log

Project Ecosystem Updates

Check out the snapshot below for an updated overview of the current number of projects building on Cardano and when you can expect to see them launched:

1. Bitcoin Ordinals bridged to Cardano for the first time using BitVMX

2. The Catalyst interactive map highlighting funded projects went live this week

3. Cardano Foundation & UNHCR launched a world-first Crypto-Backed ETP for refugee aid

4. Tempo released a governance action dashboard that monitors voting results and allows for the creation of community polls.

5. Artifex Labs launched their first open source public project, Reverse DJED

6. Input | Output and Cardano Foundation both announced they will not be standing for re-election in the Constitutional Committee elections.

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🔔 Reminders: Governance Action Timelines

• 🚨 TODAY! 2025 Cardano 200M NCL expires 29th May (Epoch 261) → Review

• 🚨 2 DAYS LEFT! 2025 Constitutional Committee elections; >2 more days to candidate yourself (Closes; May 31, 2025 6:00 PM (UTC) →Apply as a candidate

TL;DR

• The @Amaru_Cardano governance action is at 45.4% YES votes

• New EMURGO CEO’s Masterplan to accelerate Cardano → Watch here

• EMURGO & Cardano Foundation announce delegation strategies to DReps. CF delegated 20M each to Tempo.Vote, Cerkoryn, Sidan Lab, Socious, Kyle Solomon, Chris Gianneloni (Blinklabs) and Mesh.

  • EMURGO’s announcement here.

  • Cardano Foundation Delegation Strategy here.

• Input | Output, EMURGO and Cardano Foundation confirmed they are stepping down from the Interim Constitutional Committee in September → announcements here, here and here.

• Update on the @IntersectMBO Board of Directors recent meetings from Adam Rusch → Read here.

• Roundtable Talk: Learnings From The Interim Constitutional Committee → https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1lDxLzQbqDoGm

• Ongoing – Treasury withdrawal votes require a 67% threshold (not a simple majority). Intersect continues to consult on optimal approach for on-chain voting process.

• New Blog: Useful roundup of governance tools and resources published on Essential Cardano.

What DReps Are Saying About Intersect’s ₳275M Ecosystem Budget

The Intersect-submitted 2025 Treasury Budget Info Action is an important next step in the Cardano budget process. Intersect has put forward a list of 39 ecosystem initiatives, with a total proposed cost of ₳275 million. While in itself the vote on this info action doesn’t directly approve any funds, it establishes a body of projects that can be put forward for funding via Treasury Withdrawal action (s).

Included projects are a shortlist based on DRep signalling (above 50%) via the Ekklesia platform earlier in May. A ‘Yes’ vote on the omnibus proposal will unlock the next gate on the way towards treasury funding for these projects, whether subsequent treasury funding is requested in an omnibus proposal, batches or individually.

This infographic summarizes the main arguments for and against the 2025 Treasury Budget Info Action.

🔗 Proposal: ₳275M Ecosystem Budget Info Action (Open for Review until June 13th) until June 13th)

X Space: Cardano Foundation Delegation Strategy

🗓 May 28th X Space hosted by @Cardano_CF
🎧 → Listen | 📄 → Transcript

Why listen?

Cardano Foundation has just delegated 140M ADA to seven builder-aligned DReps—each receiving 20M ADA—to rebalance representation in governance. Their goal: amplify underrepresented technical voices without steering how those DReps vote.

You’ll hear:

• How and why these 7 DReps were chosen.

• What this strategy means for governance decentralization.

• How active, smaller DReps might position for future rounds.

If you’re a DRep making decisions—or hoping to grow influence—this is foundational.

“The 7 that we selected, really, they ticked all of the boxes... They’ve been contributing to Cardano—building tools, building infrastructure, or they have their own product—and they’ve participated in governance for quite some months.” — @NicolasC3rny

New Delegation Strategy – Amplifying Builders

To decentralize decision-making and support underrepresented contributors, Cardano Foundation has delegated 140M ADA to the following DReps:

• Tempo.Vote – Governance platform

• Sidon Lab – Technical Solution Provider

• Socious – Decentralized Social Impact Platform

• Cerkoryn – Creator of ChangWatch.com

• Kyle Solomon (DripDropz) – Longtime DRep & product committee member

• Chris Gianelloni (Blinklabs) – Go Node development

• Mesh – TypeScript SDKs, multisig tools, and wallets

✅ Each received 20M ADA
✅ No vote guidance or interference
✅ All had track records as active builders and voters

X Space: Budget Approval & Treasury Withdrawals

🗓 May 27th X Space hosted by @IntersectMBO
🎧 → Listen | 📄 → Transcript

Why listen?

Understand clearly how Cardano’s significant 2025 Budget (275M ADA, 39 projects) withdrawal strategy will balance DRep oversight demands with practical governance workloads and vendor needs. Hear Jack Briggs address the explicit trade-offs and upcoming community decisions. Also includes timely updates on Constitutional Committee elections shaping Cardano's governance.

"We need practical solutions that deliver funding quickly but never at the expense of transparency, accountability, or community trust." — @JBriggsLondon

Budget Approval and Treasury Withdrawal Process

• Granular Voting Options: Discussion on providing DReps explicit voting choices (individual vs bundled proposals) via upcoming polls on Ekklesia.

• Phased Funding Approach: Treasury withdrawals likely structured into phases, with the initial tranche (~175-190M ADA) covering approximately six months.

• Smart Contract Oversight: Transitioning to ADA-only milestone payments via smart contracts developed by Sundae Labs.

• Legal Structure & Oversight: Cardano Development Holdings (CDH) manages legal frameworks with Intersect as administrator.

Additional Highlights

• Constitutional Committee Elections: Fully community-driven elections in June, candidates selecting term lengths based on vote counts.

• GovTool Continuity: Interim maintenance funding secured until July 2026, with long-term strategy open for community input.

• Community Outreach Initiatives: "New Dawn" campaign promoting Cardano's visibility beyond traditional channels, using platforms like Reddit and Brave.

For DReps: Future treasury votes will likely follow this structured approach rather than lump-sum withdrawals.

X Space: The Age of Node Diversity

🗓 May 20th X Space hosted by @cryptstitution
🎧 → Listen | 📄 → Transcript

Why listen?

This was the first time Cardano’s node builders came together publicly to explain how client diversity is reshaping the protocol’s infrastructure. You’ll learn what defines a Cardano node, how teams are specializing across Rust, Go, .NET, Scala, and TypeScript, and why shared standards like Blueprints and conformance testing now underpin network coordination. It also previews how governance must evolve—where off-chain consensus across teams becomes as critical as on-chain voting. If you’re making decisions about Cardano’s future, this is foundational.

“Client diversity is not optional. It’s foundational to protocol security, network resilience, and credible neutrality.” — @rom1_pellerin

Node Diversity – Amaru, Acropolis & Beyond

Cardano is entering a multi-client era. Seven+ teams are building nodes in different languages (Rust, Go, TypeScript, .NET, Scala) with varying scopes: from full block production to DApp backends and testnet experimentation.

Proposal: Amaru Node Development 2025 (₳1.5M budget)

Node Teams Featured:

• Amaru (Rust, by PRAGMA) – Feature parity target with Haskell node

• Acropolis (Rust, by IOE) – Modular architecture with future-proofing for L2s

• Dolos (Rust, by TxPipe) – Tailored for DApp backend use

• Dingo (Go, by Blink Labs) – Focused on reusability and indexing

• Razor (.NET, by SAIB) – Built to onboard .NET developers

• Scalus (Scala, by Lantr) – Ledger rule framework for L2 experimentation

• TypeScript Node (Harmonic Labs) – Lightweight, relay- and browser-friendly

📋 Governance Updates

Delegation Strategy Announcements:

• Cardano Foundation: 140M ADA delegated across 7 DReps (20M each): Tempo.Vote, Cerkoryn, Sidan Lab, Socious, Kyle Solomon, Chris Gianneloni (Blinklabs), Mesh.

• EMURGO: Announced removal of Genesis ADA from direct voting.

• Input | Output, Cardano Foundation & EMURGO: All confirmed stepping down from Interim Constitutional Committee in September, after serving during bootstrap period.

Constitutional Committee Elections:

• Fully community-driven election process in June.

• Candidates select term lengths based on vote counts.

• Candidate applications close May 31st; voting from June 5th.

Treasury Process Developments:

• Smart contract oversight systems in development (Sundae Labs).

• Cardano Development Holdings (CDH) managing legal frameworks.

• GovTool maintenance secured through July 2026.

Community Engagement

Global DRep Activity:

Azteca Event (Mexico) - On May 27, the 'Azteca Event' was held at Universidad Autónoma de Tlaxcala, Mexico, organized by Cristian Jair Rojas. DReps Lucas Macchiavelli and Rodrigo Oyarzun presented on decentralized governance, with @ChileStakepo sharing DRep analytics from @governancevote. Source →

Treasury Contributions:

Development Momentum:

Cardano has surpassed Ethereum in core development commits over the past year (per Cryptometheus data).

Project Ecosystem Updates

Check out the snapshot below for an updated overview of the current number of projects building on Cardano and when you can expect to see them launched:

• Input | Output, Sundial and BitVMX introduce Bitcoin DeFi and ‘Cardinal’ in Las Vegas.

• The Catalyst Interactive Map just went live!

• Lace 1.22 is here! The update allows users to be part of a beta program that allows storing and managing BTC from Lace.

• Bodega Market have partnered with Sundial with the intention of making Bodega Bitcoin’s 1st prediction market.

• TapTools have introduced Cardano Builder DAO, a smart contract-governed funding mechanism designed to support Cardano builders.

• Metera Mainnet is officially live, allowing users to trade Indexes on Cardano.

• Liqwid Labs have launched their Bitcoin DeFi product which includes, bi-directional bridging from multiple Cardano-Bitcoin bridge solutions.

🔔 Reminders

• May 30 – Deadline for the next DRep governance‐action vote → Review proposals

• May 31 – Constitutional Committee (CC) nomination deadline → Submit your nomination

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TL;DR

• ₳275M Ecosystem Budget Info Action now open for review until June 13th

• Amaru Node Development Proposal (primarily implemented in Rust) aims to strengthen network security and censorship resistance

• Stablecoin Liquidity Fund targets 4% annual treasury returns (Proposal discussion here; not yet linked on-chain due to metadata issue—resubmission likely.)

• Community governance tools transitioning to open-source maintenance model

• Registered DReps have grown x7 since April—now at 929 total

DRep Geographic Distribution

A snapshot of the top 100 DReps by delegated stake shows strong community presence in Japan and the USA, with notable representation across every continent.

Breakdown of DRep votes on three recent governance actions included below—key splits and trends at a glance.

Budget Actions: Amaru & Stablecoin Liquidity

🗓️ May 13th X Space hosted by @cryptstitution

🎧 → Listen | 📄 → Transcript

Why listen?

This discussion explores the strategic implications of node diversity and DeFi liquidity for Cardano’s resilience and growth—plus key trade-offs DReps must navigate in treasury governance.

Node Diversity – Amaru Proposal

A Rust-based node initiative to enhance security, decentralization, and infrastructure resilience, complementing the current Haskell node.

• Proposal: Amaru Node Development 2025 (₳1.5M budget)

• Affiliation: Submitted via PRAGMA, a member-based org focused on shared infrastructure

• Goal: Current roadmap give a first binary release by June 25 (Relay) and the block production in Q3 25 beta release by Q1 2026

• Security: Planned 3× audit cycle before mainnet integration

Stablecoin Liquidity – DeFi Treasury Proposal

A major treasury initiative to boost stablecoin liquidity, drive DeFi adoption, and generate ongoing revenue for Cardano.

• Proposal: Cardano Treasury DeFi Liquidity Budget

• Team: Managed by a multisig governance committee including:
  @cryptofly777, @DarrenCamas, @ElderM, @giozzi, @TheAntinomist, @LidoNation

• Approach: Community-led, transparent, and KPI-driven

• Target: 4% annualized return to the treasury in Year 1

• Note: Metadata issue flagged on gov.tools—resubmission likely. (Confirmed by Matthew Capps during the Space; team is working with Ryan to resolve.)

What's New and What's Next: an Intersect Update w/ @Jennycitalinda & @CardanoNoodz

🗓️ May 13th X Space with @Jennycitalinda & @CardanoNoodz
🎧 → Listen | 📄 → Transcript

Why Listen?

This space covers major governance developments, including the ₳275M Ecosystem Budget, Constitutional Committee elections, and the future of governance tooling—with a strong focus on transparency, oversight, and Intersect’s evolving role.

₳275M Cardano Ecosystem Budget

• Overview: The budget proposal—submitted and administered by Intersect—allocates ₳275M across 39 community-approved proposals, each aligned with Cardano’s strategic priorities.

• Process: Proposals vetted with ₳3.8B ADA in stake participation

• Mechanisms: Built-in milestone-based fund distribution and oversight

Transparency & Delivery Assurance

• Tools: Public dashboards by xerberus.io to track milestones and fund usage

• Oversight: Includes regular audits and an independent committee to ensure accountability and trust in treasury management

• Demo: → Watch the walkthrough

Governance Tooling Strategy

• Shift: Governance tools like GovTools are moving to community-led maintenance

• Goal: Open-source APIs and infrastructure to increase ecosystem contribution and resilience

Intersect Strategic Neutrality

Intersect is shifting toward a more impartial role, stepping back from direct governance positions (e.g., Constitutional Committee seats) to better support and facilitate community-led processes.

Intersect committee election results

The Cardano community answered the call in the 2025 Q1 committee elections, with 522 members, 27% of eligible voters, casting a total of 11839 ballots among 119 candidates competing for 36 seats across eight committees.

→ Read Full Result

X Posts: Decoding Governance Mechanics

🔄 Budget Mechanics Demystified

Why it matters: Approval of the budget proposal is just step one. Actual fund disbursement will require separate governance actions with higher thresholds.

📊 Voting Data Analysis

Key insights: The data reveals funding distribution by category, with Core Development (47.2%), Marketing & Innovation (30.7%), and Research (5.2%) receiving the largest allocations.

🔍 How Info Actions Work

Takeaway: Info actions serve as preliminary approvals for consideration, not final funding commitments.

ℹ️ Voting Mechanics

@invalid_eutxo shares critical voting insights:

"The way governance is set up, the 'no vote' is useless. You can achieve the same by just not voting. Only a yes or an abstain vote makes a difference."

By the numbers: According to Dave, withdrawal actions represent 67% of "active voting power" in the current governance landscape.

Project Announcements

Check out the snapshot below for an updated overview of the current number of projects building on Cardano and when you can expect to see them launched:

• Flow DeFi shared a preview of their open-source lending protocol — with a public testnet launching in the coming weeks. → view the announcement

• FluidTokens launched Babbel Fees on mainnet — users can now pay transaction fees in CNTs, wBTC, and stablecoins → view the announcement

Useful Links

AdaStat – GovTool – Tempo – SyncAI Network – 1694-tools – DRep Watch – GovernanceSpace Analytics

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