Cardano is entering a very important phase of its development, as its founding institutions attempt to provide the basic infrastructure that every major blockchain already treats as standard.
On November 27, a new proposal sought community approval to allocate 70 million ADA tokens (worth approximately $30 million) to integrate top-tier stablecoins, custody providers, cross-chain bridges, pricing oracles, and institutional analytics.
This effort is jointly supported by Input Output, EMURGO, the Cardano Foundation, Intersect and the Midnight Foundation, an unusually coordinated coalition for a network often criticized for its slow alignment and decentralized drift.
The central message of this collaboration is unequivocal: Cardano wants to enter 2026 with the economic plumbing that it has lacked for years.
Why the Cardano pivot is important
The push for integrations comes at a time when Cardano’s economic base is still relatively shallow.
For context, DefiLlama data shows that the Charles Hoskinson-led network has approximately $248 million in TVL and approximately $40 million in stablecoins, as well as a limited pool of lending, liquidity provision, and RWA issuance compared to ecosystems that treat these assets as fundamental utilities.
In comparison, Ethereum alone contains over $170 billion worth of stablecoins, reflecting the scale gap that Cardano is trying to close.
So, without stablecoin reserves, liquidity avenues, or institutional tools, Cardano would continue to struggle to generate the network effects that make a blockchain economically relevant.
The network’s fragility became apparent earlier this month when it experienced a brief chain split.
While the disruption was resolved quickly, it has intensified scrutiny of Cardano’s operational maturity, particularly its limited real-time analytics, monitoring, and other safeguards expected in institutional-grade environments.
The budget set up for integration aims to systematize the onboarding of leading suppliers, including milestones, audits, service level agreements and transparent tracking of deliveries.
So instead of one-off deals or ad hoc negotiations, supporters say the fund would create a formal, accountable pipeline to integrate infrastructure that Cardano has historically lacked. Tim Harrison, Director of Input Outputs, said:
“This is the kind of unity and focus that will accelerate the growth of DeFi, DePIN and RWA.”
Why these integrations might not be enough for Cardano
The push for integrations comes after Hoskinson spoke about what’s really limiting Cardano’s DeFi growth.
Last month, Cardano’s founder acknowledged the network’s DeFi gap, but pushed back against the idea that landing USDC, USDT, or other fiat-backed stablecoins would “magically” transform adoption.
According to him:
“No one has ever made the argument and explained how the existence of one of these larger stablecoins is going to magically make Cardano’s whole DeFi problem go away, drive up the price, massively improve our MAUs, our TVL and all these other things.”
Instead, he highlights a behavioral bottleneck by noting that millions of ADA holders participate in staking and governance, but few are making the leap to DeFi. He also added that the network faces coordination and accountability challenges.
Hoskinson argued that this creates a classic chicken-and-egg problem, in which the network’s current low liquidity discourages integrations, and the lack of integrations keeps liquidity low.
Given this, Hoskinson’s roadmap ties the growth of the DeFi network to Bitcoin interoperability and the Midnight privacy network. He believes these integrations could funnel “billions” in volume to Cardano’s native stablecoins and lending protocols if executed well.
This framework is important for the new budget.
If the challenge facing Cardano is organizational, resulting from fragmented efforts, slow vendor onboarding, and the lack of a structured path for stablecoins and custody providers, then a community-mandated onboarding program could provide the governance mechanism that the ecosystem is lacking.
However, even with a coordinated integration framework, the budget will only change outcomes if it ultimately mobilizes passive ADA holders toward active liquidity and attracts issuers with market makers willing to support real volume.
The 2026 stress test
The next year will test whether Cardano’s governance and new vendor pipeline can translate its onboarding budget into measurable economic growth.
So, if even a major fiat-backed stablecoin arrives with market maker depth, Cardano’s $40 million stablecoin base could plausibly expand to a few hundred million, a range consistent with early adoption phases on other L1s.
Additionally, Cardano’s DeFi TVL, worth $248 million, could reach $500 million if the network secures credible custody and analytics platforms. This includes a level at which loans, RWA and liquidity flow begin to accumulate rather than stagnate.
Additionally, bridges, pricing oracles, and institutional wallets remain important integrations necessary for network growth.
Without them, liquidity will continue to flow elsewhere. With them, Cardano enters 2026 with the minimum infrastructure required to compete with regulated DeFi pilots, RWA issuance, and BTC-ADA liquidity flows tied to its Bitcoin interoperability roadmap.
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