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. In a statement shared with Bitcoin.com News, IO said the reduction is deliberate, part of a shift toward self-sufficiency: the organization intends to shrink its treasury ask each year until it can fund operations independently. The 2026 slate is designed to finish infrastructure already in progress and hand stewardship to a broader set of community contributors.
Leios Mainnet Expected by End of 2026, Targeting 1,000+ TPS
The largest technical bet is Leios, a consensus upgrade aiming for a 10-to-65-times increase in Layer 1 throughput, with a goal of more than 1,000 transactions per second. The Leios testnet ships in June 2026, with mainnet targeted for year-end. A complementary node optimization, UTXO HD, 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.
Pogun: An End-to-End Bitcoin DeFi Engine for Cardano
On the Bitcoin side, IO is backing Pogun, which 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 Protocol Upgrades and Tooling
Other proposals include Plutus script optimization targeting roughly 25% reduction in script preparation overhead, Layer 2 scalability via Hydra and Midgard Labs, formal verification tooling through the High Assurance consortium, and Blockfrost API infrastructure scaled for Leios throughput. Three protocol upgrades are also in the slate: CIP-159 adds native micro-fee support; CPS-23 enables a native multi-asset on-chain treasury; and Babel Fees 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 on L2, and 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: “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.” IO also published its reasoning for proposals that did not make the cut, framing 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 (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.