Input Output (IO), the engineering organization behind Cardano, submitted nine treasury funding proposals on Wednesday totaling $38.9 million, nearly 50% less than the $97.5 million it requested from the community last year.
Cardano's Leios Upgrade and Bitcoin DeFi Tool Pogun Headline Input Output's 2026 Funding Slate
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Key Takeaways:
- Input Output submitted 9 Cardano treasury proposals totaling $38.9M, nearly 50% less than its 2026 ask.
- The Leios upgrade targets 1,000+ TPS and is scheduled to hit the Cardano mainnet by the end of 2026.
- DReps have until May 24, 2026, to vote on all proposals through Intersect’s governance platform.
Input Output Cuts Cardano Treasury Ask to $38.9M for 2026, Down Nearly 50% From Last Year
The reduction is deliberate. In a release shared with Bitcoin.com News, IO says it is moving toward a self-sufficient model and intends to shrink its treasury ask each year until it can fund operations independently. The 2026 slate is built to finish infrastructure already in progress and hand stewardship of that work to a broader set of community contributors.
Two priorities anchor the portfolio: decentralization and scalability. IO evaluated more than 25 initiatives before finalizing the nine proposals made public today.
The largest technical bet is Leios, a consensus upgrade targeting a 10-to-65-times increase in Layer 1 throughput, with a goal of 1,000-plus transactions per second. The Leios testnet ships in June 2026. Mainnet is targeted for year-end.
UTXO HD, a complementary node optimization, is designed to keep Cardano nodes running on residential hardware indefinitely. IO frames both upgrades as the final piece of a performance roadmap years in the making.
On the Bitcoin side, IO is backing Pogun, an end-to-end Bitcoin DeFi engine for Cardano. Pogun bundles a non-margin credit market, yield infrastructure, and a trust-minimized Bitcoin bridge. Its credit market is set to launch on mainnet in Q2 2026.
Other proposals cover Plutus script optimization targeting roughly 25% reduction in script preparation overhead, Layer two ( L2) scalability through Hydra and Midgard Labs, formal verification tooling via the High Assurance consortium, and Blockfrost API infrastructure scaled for Leios throughput.
Three protocol upgrades are also in the slate: CIP-159, which adds native micro-fee support; CPS-23, which enables a native multi-asset on-chain treasury; and Babel Fees, which lets users pay transaction costs in stablecoins without holding ADA.
IO is delivering several proposals in partnership with outside teams. VacuumLabs is working on Plutus. Midgard Labs is handling L2. Pragma and the Cardano Foundation are contributing on developer relations. A new dedicated entity for Haskell engineering is under discussion.
Jeff Watson, Head of Technology at Cardano Business Unit at IO, explained that the proposals connect directly to ecosystem growth and that IO is positioned to move quickly on delivery.
“IO is perfectly placed to adapt quickly, increasing the utility and experience across the ecosystem, and we feel that these proposals relate directly to growth for the community,” Watson detailed.
IO published its reasoning for what did not make the cut alongside what did. The organization framed that transparency as a condition of fiscal responsibility, given that treasury funds belong to the Cardano community.
All nine proposals are administered through Intersect, Cardano’s member-based governance body. Delegate representatives, or DReps, have until May 24, 2026, to vote. Funding is milestone-gated. Charles Hoskinson is expected to release a video this week addressed directly to DReps.
