Designed for Enterprise. Built for Everyone.

After three years of building for Cardano, today we have difficult news to share. Most of you know and love SteelSwap for being the most advanced aggregator on Cardano with the cheapest fees. We have been in continuous operations and kept alive on conviction and love of the ecosystem. Thus, we would like to announce that we are not going anywhere. Times are tough, but we are tougher. Instead, we are doubling down. We are actively working on new products and features. Keep an eye out for the new things we are building.

I mean...he's been right for the last few years...

I truly want to see @MidnightNtwrk succeed. If they pull it all off, Cardano will be so much stronger. My fingers are crossed.

I am so happy that I was listening to the $IAG space yesterday. It is an enormous comfort to know that there is so little risk of the project closing it's doors because of revenue issues. I am confident that $IAG will remain after this chapter ends. @IagonOfficial

Gotta add @CashAnvil to the list of deranged people trying to "kill" Charles 😅

The only reason I don't think Cardano is done is because the foundation is strong and there is an opportunity for the community to take it over. We really do have a product that commercial enterprises can use that serves them better than any other option.

What would it take to save @TapTools?

I can think of a few projects that are truly commercializing Cardano, but one really stands out above the rest. It is one thing to say we need to support the projects commercializing the chain it is another thing to do it. It is another thing still to say you will do it so long as someone gives you money.

Today, I'm super happy with @IagonOfficial.

Decentralization.

Fireblocks The proposal presents Fireblocks as a new full native integration funded in V2, expected to cover $ADA, CNTs, staking and governance workflows. That already means V2 is not purely a maintenance proposal. It is partly a new integration proposal bundled inside a maintenance budget. The official CCI V1 closure report is explicit that Fireblocks did not result in a V1 disbursement and that the ecosystem instead got an Iagon SDK level Fireblocks integration outside V1. The report even acknowledges that this delivered "material institutional access." Meanwhile, the public Fireblocks GitHub repo for cardano-raw-sdk describes a Fireblocks/Iagon integration that already supports: - ADA and CNT transfers - governance operations - staking operations - and mainnet/preprod/preview support through the Iagon API That is exactly why I have an issue with the V2 framing. The proposal and closure report effectively say - yes, Iagon delivered something meaningful but "most institutional counterparties" still need a full native L1 Fireblocks integration. The problem is that this is asserted, not really proven. There are no named counterparties, no quantified demand, no pipeline value, no expected custody volumes, no exchange listings tied to it and no business case explanation for why the existing Iagon path is not sufficient for a larger portion of the market. It also contradicts discussions Iagon has had with business partners wanting to use the solution. From a business perspective, that means V2 is undervaluing an existing ecosystem delivered stop-gap while asking Treasury to pay again for a deeper version without clearly quantifying the incremental return. For transparency - I am the CEO of Iagon and Iagon works with Fireblocks. That may create a perceived conflict of interest, so I want to disclose it clearly. My comments on Fireblocks should be read as focused on governance, scope clarity and Treasury accountability, not as a statement against Fireblocks as a company or product. My issue is not with Fireblocks itself. My issue is whether this proposal clearly justifies the additional Treasury spend and properly explains the incremental value to Cardano.

For some reason I love all of this. Feels real. We created a system where the powerful can actually be undermined by the will of the people. Those who positioned themselves at the top of this structure are the first to come face with what that actually means. This can work. $ADA

Isn't all the Cardano and Leios research and coding public? For these people who are part of the IOG or IOR teams that are considering what happens if this funding doesn't go through, can you not continue this work on whatever aspect of Cardano you're already working on? Can you put forward a proposal that the community actually supports? Continue your work without IOG or IOR supervising what you're doing. I really value the scientists that are working on this but I'm not really convinced anymore that IOG (especially the C-Suite) really cares about Cardano's community. I do believe that the community would show enormous support for scientists intending to work on these projects, whether it be maintenance or improvement or Leios especially if they were separate from the massive institution that IOG and IOR have become

DReps, let’s push Leios over the threshold and get it funded. I’ve followed the team’s work closely over the last year. The level of transparency, technical communication, and visible progress has been exactly what Cardano governance should reward. Leios is focused on a real constraint. Throughput, parallelisation, and better utilisation of blockchain capacity are fundamental if Cardano wants to support larger scale usage without compromising decentralisation. What gives me confidence here is that this has not been built behind closed doors. We’ve seen ongoing research updates, public discussion, prototype demonstrations, benchmark data, and open tracking of progress. That matters when treasury funds are involved. From my perspective, the value delivered and the long term impact on Cardano exceeds the spend being requested. We do not have long left before this expires. Let’s get this across the line. adastat.net/governances/73e1…

Charles and IOG are asking for $46M from the community treasury for 2026, yet we are still waiting for Leios and Peras. It's time to state the obvious: Cardano is bigger than IOG, and we are not held hostage. 💡 The code belongs to us (Intersect). We can hire the world's top engineering and Haskell powerhouses (like Galois, Well-Typed, and Runtime Verification) to finish the job. No more YouTube promises and delayed timelines—just elite engineering, formal verification, and strict milestones. The Voltaire era is here, and the treasury is in the community's hands. It's time to issue open RFPs. 🗳️🔥 #Cardano #ADA #Voltaire #Intersect #CryptoGovernance How to Make This a Reality (The Action Plan) To turn this tweet into reality, a political and technological shift within the Cardano ecosystem is required. Here are the practical steps to execute this: 1. Code Ownership via Intersect (Already Complete) The first step is behind us. The core Cardano repositories (⁠cardano-node⁠, consensus protocols) are no longer exclusively owned by IOG. They have been transitioned to Intersect's management (specifically under the ⁠intersectmbo⁠ repository). Legally and technically, we don't need IOG's permission for anyone else to touch the code. 2. DRep Vetoes & Opening RFPs For this to happen, community representatives (DReps) must vote against IOG's monolithic budget proposals for 2026. Simultaneously, Intersect’s development committees must draft clear "Requests for Proposals" (RFPs). For example, an open tender titled "Coding and Mainnet Implementation of Ouroboros Leios" would be published. Any software firm in the world could bid on it. 3. Solving the Payment Friction (ADA to Fiat) Traditional elite engineering firms like Well-Typed (UK) or Galois (US) don't pay salaries in ADA and won't accept exposure to crypto market volatility. The Solution: Intersect (as a registered legal entity) receives community approval to withdraw ADA from the Treasury, sells it gradually via Over-The-Counter (OTC) desks or converts it to USDC, and signs standard B2B contracts with these software firms—exactly how NASA or AWS would hire them. 4. Decentralized Work Distribution (A Consortium Model) Instead of giving one company absolute power (like IOG has today), the work is split to ensure transparency and security: Development & Coding: A company like Well-Typed takes the Leios research papers and writes the code in Haskell efficiently, as it's their native domain. Auditing & Verification: A completely separate firm, like Runtime Verification, acts as the "auditor." They are funded to mathematically prove that Well-Typed's code won't break the network. 5. Strict Milestone-Based Funding Unlike the old model where IOG received massive capital upfront, contracts with external firms will be rigid. Payments are released in tranches: 20% upfront to commence work. 30% upon deploying the code to a public Testnet. The remaining 50% released (via smart contracts or DRep approval) only after a successful, active deployment on Mainnet. If a company is six months late, they absorb the labor costs, not the Cardano Treasury. @NaVi_GaT0R @JaromirTesar @ItsDave_ADA we can do this!

$IAG aiming to generate as much revenue as Cardano this year...look at the difference in valuation between these projects. One of them is severely undervalued.

@yutazzz There are other ways to reach the things which are "needed". It does not need to be done through IO/Charles, there are other options. So please reevaluate your statement: "Since I can't choose to destroy everything, I will change my vote." You can still vote no, without destroying something, and we still can reach our goals. Or think about it: How decentralized are we, IF stopping to fund ONE SINGLE entity will destroy everything? Time for Change!

It's looking more and more to me that stepping away from IOG or at least limiting our dependence upon them, is the thing that can truly make Cardano shine as a decentralized institution and make us more robust. It also seems necessary for survival in the long run. We can't have one group pose an existential threat to the chain whenever they feel upset. Keep in mind that these brilliant people are human beings not IOG assets. They can work for anyone, including us or other projects that decide to take up this task. If we can take up the mantle as a grassroots movement and keep building, then Cardano achieved its objectives. Decentralization, truly.

95% of the budget should not continue going towards infrastructure Bigger emphasis on increasing stablecoin liq on chain Bigger emphasis on promoting liquidity across our defi ecosystem Bigger emphasis on dapp development that brings new users/volume/tx activity