Cardano treasury rejects 12.29M ADA funding request for Input Output's Bitcoin DeFi product
Cardano's delegated governance voters let a 12.29 million ADA funding request for the Pogun project expire without ratification. The September 2026 vote showed 64.33% of representative voting power against the proposal, blocking a development funding request from Input Output, the company that helped build the Cardano blockchain.
Charles Hoskinson, Cardano's founder and Input Output's leader, responded by saying future Input Output products will deploy based on technical and commercial fit rather than automatically prioritizing Cardano first.
What the vote showed
The Pogun governance proposal asked Cardano's treasury for 12.29 million ADA to fund development of a credit and liquidity product designed to bring Bitcoin into decentralized finance. Delegated representatives, or DReps, voted with 35.67% in favor and 64.33% against.
A separate body, the Constitutional Committee, recorded seven yes votes representing 100% committee approval. The two results are compatible because they reflect different governance roles. The DRep vote failed to ratify the spending request while the committee showed support from that specific body.
What Pogun offered Cardano
The proposal offered Cardano a share of Pogun's earnings in exchange for the development funding. According to Input Output's April 2026 overview, Pogun would have returned 20% of earnings to the Cardano treasury until the initial funding was repaid, followed by a perpetual 5% return on Cardano-related products.
The repayment amount was tied to $2.95 million. The proposal framed the calculation as a share of quarterly earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization.
What Hoskinson said
In a September 18, 2026 broadcast, Hoskinson said Input Output will choose the best network for each product instead of following a Cardano-first policy. He still described Cardano as the strongest technical choice for Bitcoin DeFi connecting systems that use Bitcoin-like transaction outputs.
Hoskinson stated that RealFi would launch on Cardano in October 2026 and Pogun would arrive within 90 days of the broadcast, or by roughly mid-December 2026. These dates remain forward-looking targets that could change.
What is confirmed
The 12.29 million ADA Pogun funding request expired without ratification. The DRep vote was 35.67% in favor and 64.33% against. The Constitutional Committee recorded seven yes votes representing 100% committee approval. Input Output proposed Pogun as a Cardano-funded Bitcoin DeFi product. The proposal offered 20% of earnings until repayment, then 5% from Cardano-related products. Input Output helped build Cardano and remains a major participant in its ecosystem.
What is still unclear
Whether Cardano forfeited significant revenue depends on Pogun's future earnings, usage, and network distribution. The article states these claims remain speculative because Pogun has not established these figures. The exact economic relationship between Cardano and Pogun will differ from the rejected funding proposal since Cardano could benefit from network activity without receiving the revenue share that was rejected.
Why it matters
The vote tested Cardano's decentralized governance in practice. DReps withheld public capital from an affiliated commercial project despite Input Output's role as a founding builder. The outcome shows that even well-connected developers must earn network support through governance rather than automatically accessing the treasury. It also demonstrates Input Output's freedom to deploy products wherever technical and business conditions are strongest.
Sources
Newisty Editorial Team covers technology, cryptocurrency, digital products, online platforms, developer tools and the wider digital economy. Our content is researched from official sources, company announcements, public documentation, market data and other primary or reputable sources. Articles are reviewed and edited before publication for clarity, accuracy and useful context.