Cardano Builder Input Output Seeks $46.8 Million for Scaling and Bitcoin DeFi

Input Output is Cardano's principal engineering company and has long overseen protocol development and network upgrades. As Cardano advances on-chain governance, the way its community treasury funds core development has drawn close attention. The latest proposal concerns network scaling and could also affect Cardano's ability to integrate Bitcoin assets and the DeFi ecosystem.

Input Output has reduced its 2026 funding request to $46.8 million as it seeks to gradually reduce its reliance on the Cardano community treasury. The funding would prioritize the Leios consensus upgrade to increase transaction processing speed and the development of Pogun, a system designed to bring Bitcoin decentralized finance functionality to the Cardano network.