TLDR
- Input Output submitted nine Cardano treasury proposals for 2026 funding.
- The group said its total funding request is just under 50% of last year’s.
- Leios testnet is targeted for June, while mainnet is planned for late 2026.
- IO’s public tracker shows Leios testnet progress at about 24%.
- IO also requested 62.1 million ADA for network maintenance and security.
Input Output Global has submitted nine treasury proposals for 2026 as Cardano prepares for the Leios upgrade. The company said its total request is “just under 50%” of last year’s. The plan puts Leios at the center while funding core systems, developer tools, and new revenue models.
Leios stays central to the 2026 roadmap
Input Output said Leios is the main upgrade in its 2026 roadmap. The proposal links the upgrade to Cardano’s wider growth goals. It says the network must move from about 800,000 monthly transactions to more than 27 million by 2030.
The proposal describes Leios as “the mechanism purpose-built to get there”. IO said the upgrade could bring a “10x to 65x throughput increase” while keeping Cardano’s current consensus design. The company sees that as necessary for DeFi, tokenized assets, and enterprise activity.
Leios is expected to enter testnet in June. Mainnet remains targeted for the end of 2026. Still, IO’s public development tracker shows the work is still in the middle stage.
The tracker says the main specifications are mostly complete. However, testnet progress is listed at roughly 24%. That suggests more work remains before the upgrade reaches production use.
Treasury request covers maintenance and scaling tools
One proposal asks for 62.1 million ADA for network maintenance. At current values in the report, that equals more than $15.8 million. The budget would support node upgrades, monitoring systems, and security work.
IO said “everything else depends on it” when explaining the maintenance request. That places basic infrastructure ahead of other development goals. The company also tied this work to the network’s long-term reliability.
The scaling plan also includes Layer 2 tools. IO pointed to Hydra and the Midgard rollup as part of the same effort. It said “only with both does Cardano have a credible L2 story”.
That approach shows Leios is not the only part of the upgrade plan. Instead, the roadmap combines base layer changes with extra scaling systems. IO presented them as linked parts of one broader buildout.
Developer experience and new revenue plans
Several proposals focus on developer tools and onboarding. IO said the current experience is fragmented and slows ecosystem growth. Internal research found many developers leave because the onboarding cost is too high.
A six-month plan aims to improve setup, tooling, and support. Another proposal targets formal verification and improvements to Plutus. IO said the goal is to make verification tools usable without “a PhD and three months of setup”.
Other proposals focus on how users and builders pay for services. Planned Babel Fees would let users pay transaction fees in tokens other than ADA. IO also wants wallet features that support micro-fees and new revenue options for developers.
A separate proposal called Pogun targets bitcoin liquidity. IO described BTC as “the world’s most valuable digital asset” that is “almost entirely idle”. It sees Cardano as a possible credit and yield layer for that capital.
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