Voters in the Cardano community have voted to approve a new $71M upgrade for the Cardano Network. The treasury proposal would fund major network upgrades and unlock 96 million ADA: about 13% of Cardano’s total treasury. The proposal was approved with 74% of the vote.
This is also a first for the ecosystem, with core development funding being directly approved by the community, a major step forward for Cardano’s decentralized governance model.“This is a milestone moment for Cardano,” said Tim Harrison, EVP Community & Ecosystem at Input Output. “This vote of confidence empowers us to move forward with full transparency, shared responsibility, and a renewed commitment to building an open, resilient ecosystem”, he added. Following the vote, Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson also thanked the community for their support and trust, saying simply: “Let’s get it done.”
This funding will power upgrades aimed at improving interoperability, scalability, and the developer experience. In addition, the upgrades could lower transaction costs from 0.34 ADA ($0.25) and improve throughput, addressing key barriers to DeFi adoption. Testnets will likely go live in the next month or two, giving users on the Cardano Network access to review the upgrades.
Will the Cardano Upgrade Send ADA Higher?
Several other major crypto platforms have upped their capabilities this year, leading to climbs in their native cryptocurrencies. Solana raised block capacity by 20% in July, while Ethereum increased its gas limit and launched the Pectra hard fork in May. The next Ethereum upgrade, Fusaka, is set for late 2025.
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Cardano’s native cryptocurrency, ADA, is up 2.5% on Monday following the announcement. The coin slumped 7.8% in the past week, but remains up over 20% in the last 30 days. Last week saw the crypto market enter a bit of a bearish period, highlighted by Bitcoin falling back below $116,000. The market is hoping for a rebound this month, perhaps led by Ethereum’s continued rally and crypto ETF approvals.