The nonprofit foundation supporting the Cardano ecosystem, the Cardano Foundation, has revealed in a recent report that as of Dec.31, 2023, it held $478.24 million in assets, with 82.5% of those being held in ADA, 10.1% in BTC, and the rest in cash and cash equivalents.
According to the report, the foundation allocated $19.22 million in three key focus areas and spent $4.55 million on operational costs to expand its capacity. Its $23.7 million in expenses for the year, according to its Financial Insights Report, were meant to “improve Cardano’s suitability and recognition as an infrastructure component of institutional-grade use cases.”
Notably, since the turn of the year the price of the flagship cryptocurrency Bitcoin has risen more than 118% to now trade at $92,500, while the price of Cardano’s ADA lost around 0.3% of its value.
If the Cardano Foundation held onto its assets since then, it could now have over $100 million worth of BTC, given the cryptocurrency’s rapid rise over the last few weeks. Whether or not it has held onto the funds is unclear.
The report details that the Cardano Foundation’s main income stream comes from the staking rewards generated by delegating the ADA tokens it holds on the Cardano network. Last year, it notes, its 668.8 million ADA tokens generated 20.9 million additional ADA, a 3.1% return.
The report reads:
The Delegation Strategy outlines the Foundation’s approach to selecting stake pools for delegation, prioritizing pools that significantly contribute to the Cardano community over those that offer the highest yield. The focus is on maximizing impact for the ecosystem rather than financial returns for the Foundation.
The report comes shortly after the Cardano network launched node 10.1 in a critical release ahead of the upcoming Chang 2 hard fork, which will bring significant upgrades to the network’s governance system, including completing the transition to on-chain governance.
The hard fork builds upon the foundation laid out by the Chang 1 hard fork back in September and will empower ADA token holders to directly participate in the future of the protocol through its governance system.
By delegating their voting power to Delegated Representatives (DReps) or assuming the role of Dreps, ADA token holders will be able to vote on-chain. Beyond governance, the recent upgrade ahead of the hard fork introduces various technical enhancements, including new Plutus primitives for improved smart contract functionality, as well as better support for Stake Pool Operators.
The successful implementation of Chang 2 hinges on the approval of both the Interim Constitutional Committee (ICC) and 51% of the stake from Stake Pool operators. Once these thresholds are met, a one-epoch ratification period will commence, followed by the full activation of the hard fork.
Featured image via Unsplash.
