Cardano is entering a very important phase of its development, as its founding institutions are attempting to deliver the core infrastructure that all major blockchains already treat as standard.
On November 27, a new proposal sought community approval to allocate 70 million ADA tokens (worth around $30 million) to incorporate top-tier stablecoins, custody providers, cross-chain bridges, price oracles, and institutional analytics.
The effort is jointly backed 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 core message behind this collaboration is unmistakable: Cardano wants to enter 2026 with the economic system it has lacked for years.
Why the Cardano pivot is important
The integration push 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 around $248 million in TVL and approximately $40 million in stablecoins, as well as a limited pool for lending, liquidity provision, and RWA issuance compared to ecosystems that treat these assets as critical public services.
By comparison, Ethereum alone has over $170 billion in stablecoins, reflecting the scale gap Cardano is trying to close.
So without deep stablecoin reserves, liquidity avenues, or institutional tools, Cardano would continue to struggle to generate the network effects that make a blockchain economically relevant.
The fragility of the network came to light earlier this month when it experienced a brief chain split.
While the outage was quickly resolved, it intensified scrutiny over Cardano’s operational maturity, particularly its limited real-time analytics, monitoring, and other safeguards expected in institutional-grade environments.
The budget established for the integration aims to systematize the incorporation of first-tier suppliers, including milestones, audits, service level agreements and transparent delivery tracking.
So rather than one-off deals or ad hoc negotiations, supporters say the fund would create a formal and accountable channel to onboard the infrastructure that Cardano has historically lacked. Tim Harrison, director of Input Outputs, said:
“This is the type of unity and focus that will accelerate growth in DeFi, DePIN and RWA.”
Why these integrations might not be enough for Cardano
The push for integrations comes after Hoskinson spoke about what is really limiting Cardano’s DeFi growth.
Last month, Cardano’s founder acknowledged the network’s DeFi gap but rejected the notion that getting USDC, USDT or other fiat-backed stablecoins would “magically” transform adoption.
According to him:
“No one has ever argued and explained how the existence of one of these larger stablecoins will magically make the whole Cardano DeFi problem go away, make the price go up, vastly improve our MAU, our TVL, and all these other things.”
Instead, it points to a behavioral bottleneck by pointing out that millions of ADA holders participate in staking and governance, but few make 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, where the network’s current low liquidity discourages integrations, and the lack of integrations keeps liquidity low.
With this in mind, Hoskinson’s roadmap links the growth of the DeFi network to the interoperability of Bitcoin and the Midnight privacy network. He believes these integrations could funnel “billions” in volume into native Cardano stablecoins and lending protocols if executed well.
That framework is important for the new budget.
If the challenge Cardano faces is organizational, stemming from fragmented efforts, slow vendor onboarding, and the absence of a structured path for stablecoins and custody providers, then a program of community-mandated integrations could provide the governance mechanism the ecosystem lacks.
However, even with a coordinated onboarding 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 stress test of 2026
Next year will test whether Cardano’s governance and new vendor portfolio can translate its integrations budget into measurable economic growth.
Thus, if even a major fiat-backed stablecoin comes in deep as a market maker, Cardano’s $40 million stablecoin base could plausibly expand into the low hundreds of millions, a range consistent with early phases of adoption in other L1s.
Additionally, Cardano’s $248 million DeFi TVL could reach $500 million if the network secures credible analytics and custody platforms. Notably, this is a level where loans, RWAs, and liquidity paths begin to compound rather than stagnate.
Additionally, bridges, price oracles, and institutional wallets remain important integrations necessary for network growth.
Without them, liquidity will continue to circulate elsewhere. With them, Cardano enters 2026 with the minimum infrastructure required to compete for regulated DeFi pilots, RWA issuance and BTC-ADA liquidity flows linked to its Bitcoin interoperability roadmap.
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