A new Catalyst pilot fund will start in August 2026, with a total grant pool of 2M $ADA. We look forward to working with the community and supporting the Cardano builders. More details soon. Read the announcement on the Forum and share your thoughts. forum.cardano.org/t/new-cata…

Big day. ⚽️ Well done Barça Vision, @andamio_teams, and @utxos_dev! Fund13 cohort #buildingoncardano

The Catalyst Pilot 2026 cohort is here. 12 projects bringing stablecoins, oracles, programmable tokens, and verifiable identity into real-world sectors. 40% of funding is paid up front, the rest is tied to on-chain adoption on Cardano. Meet the cohort: projectcatalyst.io/blog/meet…

solid month in the @cardano universe 👀 first, thirteen teams through @draper_u’s Genesis program earlier this month then, eight teams announced for the Cardano Accelerator Program through @cardano_CF’s Venture Hub twenty-one teams getting support to turn their work into businesses that last add @alphagrowth1’s @Cardano_Prime ambitions for DeFi, and @OrionFund’s work helping founders prepare to scale and attract investment more practical ways for builders to get backing, find their footing and reach actual users and then…at last this week, Catalyst nearly a year since fund14 results that minted on oct 10 then, the next Catalyst pilot cohort is heading for the launchpad to everyone who put their work forward, and everyone who helped us get here: thank you been a helluva ride. feels like a century but it’s [seatbelts] on 🚀

What's next for Cardano? This Thursday, we'll discuss exactly that with six people who are shaping the answer. Meet the panel: ∙Frederik Gregaard, CEO, Cardano Foundation ∙Laura Mattiucci, Director of Marketing & Communications, Cardano Foundation ∙Elis Moormaa, Global Events Team Lead, Cardano Foundation ∙Samiz Bayan, Partner, @DraperDragon ∙Damien Czapla, Amaru Maintainer ∙Daniel Ribar, Director of Project Catalyst, Cardano Foundation Moderated by Nicolas Cerny, Governance Lead, Cardano Foundation. On the table: TOKEN2049 week and the side events around it, node diversity and what Amaru is building, the Catalyst 2026 Pilot, the 2027 global events strategy, and where the ecosystem goes from here. Your questions will shape the last 20 minutes of the discussion, so leave your questions and set your reminders below. See you there!

🚨 BREAKING NEWS 🚨 Indianchain by Trivolve is officially LIVE on Cardano Mainnet. 🚀 This marks a historic launch as Indianchain becomes Cardano’s 1st Agritech project to onboard an Indian state government onto Cardano. We had the honour of meeting the Ministry of Agriculture’s Head of Information & Technology, Shri Praveen, for this remarkable day. We thank our @Cardano community for all the support.🙏

🧑‍🍳 when i mentioned we're going to begin benchmarking teams and identifying gaps for levelling up by targeted and segmented feedback loops - i wasn't kidding it started with introducing first of its kind technology readiness levels adapted to cardano frame not stopping there! next something new world class yet again: 🕸️🦸‍♂️

We completed our funded Catalyst Fund 14 Proposal and shipped: Cross-Chain Production-Ready Wallet SDK (Cardano - BTC). There are already few nice Cardano - BTC features in the eco, and its nice to have it also baked into Cardanos most used SDK at Mesh now.

Forensic Management System (FMS by Trivolve) continues to be the top five most transaction generating projects on Cardano Mainnet. 🚀 We promise to grow Cardano’s real world adoption exponentially with our upcoming updates and projects. Thank you, @Cardano , for your continued support. Stay tuned for what’s coming next!

🚀 From Workshop #01 to #09: A groundbreaking and inspiring journey! The full Recap Video for the Vietnam University Cardano Workshop & Onboarding Series is officially live 🎬👇 🙏 We would like to express our deepest gratitude to the @Cardano , @Catalyst_onX , our strategic partners, and esteemed speakers. Your support has been a solid launchpad, helping us bring practical Blockchain knowledge to thousands of Vietnamese students. 🔥 Incredibly proud of the Blockchain Pioneer Student Club (BPSC)! As the organizing team, BPSC has worked tirelessly, affirming its pioneering role in incubating the next generation of Web3 Builders and expanding the Cardano ecosystem in Vietnam 🇻🇳. This chapter closes to pave the way for even more explosive projects. Let's look back at the greatest moments in the video below! ✨

Two days left to express your interest in joining the @Catalyst_onX 2026 Pilot Decision Panel. 👇 There are technical and business tracks, with panelists reviewing proposals between 28 August and 7 September. Participation is compensated. Apply by 25 August: forms.gle/sbmA7VTZX1HkyarYA

We’re looking for more Decision Panel members for the Project Catalyst 2026 Pilot. If you’ve shipped or audited systems on mainnet, or have experience operating, funding or assessing ventures, we’d like to hear from you. Panelists will review proposals across late August and early September, with an honorarium provided for taking part. Funding decisions will be based on published guidance, with every score carrying equal weight and supported by a written rationale. Think you could bring the right experience to the panel? Apply by 25 August. It takes around five minutes. 👉 forms.gle/sbmA7VTZX1HkyarYA You can submit a proposal or serve on the Decision Panel, but not both.

Reminder: applications for the Apex Accelerator close September 1. DraperU has partnered with @Cardano and the Orion Fund for a 10-week program built for founders working in DeFi infrastructure, RWA and tokenization, enterprise and scaling, and emerging opportunities on Cardano. What's in it: → A Silicon Valley residency at Draper University → VCs and industry experts in the room throughout the program, not just on Demo Day → Up to $70K in investment If you're building something real on Cardano, this is your shot. 📅 Applications close September 1 🚀 Program starts in October #Cardano #Web3 #Accelerator #DraperUniversity

1/ funding decisions in the Catalyst Pilot are made by a Decision Panel fair question: who's on it? honest answer: that depends on who applies. and applications are open right now 2/ this is the next step of what Fund15 started. 1,643 submissions became 761, became 509 eligible, because we chose quality over volume and built the filters for it now the decision itself gets the same treatment: proposals earn funding through evidence and qualified judgment, scored against published guidance. not lost in volume, not lost in noise either 3/ "so CF controls the panel" is the obvious worry, so here's how it's actually built every panelist's score carries the same weight. no multipliers, no override. every score comes with a written rationale, question by question. conflicts get declared and reallocated. and CF's weight is capped at roughly a quarter of panel seats (a safety backstop, not a driving voice), so the wider ecosystem holds the majority by design. also CF folks don't earn rewards for this, only external panelists 4/ and no, public voting is not gone from catalyst's future. how future rounds decide stays open, and this round's results get published either way, misses included. outcomes get to decide that, not preferences. results first, always 5/ technical panelists: we're looking for people who have shipped or audited real systems on mainnet, not just studied them. you can read an architecture and spot what's missing, the hard part a proposal glosses over. you can tell whether "mainnet in 3 months" is a plan or a hope depth in one of the four areas beats breadth across all of them. and the discipline: "not how i'd build it" is not a low score. "this won't work, and here's why" is 6/ business panelists: you've operated, funded, or formally assessed ventures. you can tell evidence of demand from claims of demand. real users and commitments vs "the market is huge." you can stress a usage model and judge whether it survives once the grant stops paying same discipline: score the plan in front of you, not the one you'd have written 7/ the rough deal give or take: 12-ish reviews, late august into early september, honorarium compensation for taking part, the expression of interest application takes about 5 minutes and selection rests on what qualified evidence you link, not how much bloat you write and if you read those two and thought "that's me, mostly": that's enough. apply, link what you've built, and let us do the judging. worst case, you land on the substitute list and we call you when we need you oh - and of course - one lane per person: you can submit a proposal (be associated with one) or serve on the panel, not both as that'd be awkward real fast... 8/ apply by august 17: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F… the panel will be as reflective of community as the qualified people who join it so - please pull up a chair or tell someone about it in and around cardano ecosystem 🫡

one of the easter egg questions inside pilot submission form. where possible - can we turn around how we think about (not only) cardano grants/support in a more responsible way? let's force adult conversations about how we see our collective future and new standard to be... projectcatalyst.io/apply

In case you missed it, Cardano's funding engine is open for business again. 🏗️ Ten days left, and 50-200k $ADA per project up for grabs. If you're building with programmable tokens, oracles, stablecoins, or on-chain identity, the time to apply is now: projectcatalyst.io/apply

We spent a long time arguing about whether to do this. GeroWallet has been in development for years. Through bull markets and bear ones, through every opportunity that came with keeping our work to ourselves. There was always a reasonable case for staying closed, and for a while we made it. Then we watched what happens when a project asks people to trust what they cannot see. That settled it. In this industry trust isn't a claim you make in a headline. It's something people verify, or it isn't real. A wallet holds your keys and signs your transactions. You should be able to read exactly how. So today, GeroWallet's source code is public. The full browser extension: key derivation, encrypted storage, the signing path, and the whole UI. Cardano, Bitcoin, Midnight, and Apex Fusion. Funded by the Cardano community through @Catalyst_onX Fund 13. Thank you to everyone who voted for it. From here, we build in public. github.com/Gero-Labs/gerowal…

It’s open. The Catalyst Pilot is accepting proposals. The idea is simple: if you already have a working product, we’ll fund you to integrate new on-chain tools (oracles, stable coins, programmable tokens, or on-chain identity), with grants of 50,000 to 200,000 ADA. And unlike any round before it, the money follows real usage: the more genuinely your integration gets used, the more of your grant you earn. Sound like you? Everything you need is on the application page: projectcatalyst.io/apply. Submissions close August 20, 2026 at 6AM UTC. Worth knowing: submitting early works in your favor. Proposals are checked for compliance as they arrive by dedicated community curators, not after the deadline. If something in yours needs fixing, you’ll hear about it and can fix and resubmit while the window is still open. Submit at the last minute, and there may be no runway left to action. We’re also looking for panelists. In addition to work carried out by community curators, funding decisions are made by a Decision Panel of technical and business experts from across the ecosystem. It’s a short commitment in late August/early September, and applying takes about 5 minutes: express your interest by August 17. Fill in the form linked here: forum.cardano.org/t/its-open… One thing to keep in mind: you can submit a proposal or serve on the panel, not both. Pick your mission. Relevant rules of this pilot are published before it applies to anyone. Read them and build with those in mind: docs.projectcatalyst.io. Good luck everyone! 💪

Applications for the Project @Catalyst_onX 2026 Pilot are now open. 📣 A 2.5M $ADA fund for 10-15 teams building with oracles, stablecoins, programmable tokens, and on-chain identity. The window closes 20 August at 06:00 UTC. Learn more and apply now: projectcatalyst.io/apply

Protecting the Signal, Part 2: From Filtering Noise to Designing for Signal In January, I wrote about Protecting the Signal: how Fund15 cut submissions from 1,643 to 761 by design, then moderated 761 down to 509 eligible entries, and why we published every reason a proposal didn't advance. I ended that piece with a promise: lessons learned would be adapted rapidly. ref: nitter.net/dannyribar/status/2009… Fast forward to present day, with the Catalyst Pilot's curation stage to begin shortly, I want to show you what "adapted" actually looks like. The short version: everything Fund15 taught us after the fact, the pilot now publishes before anyone writes a word. And then it goes three steps further. 🗺️ The Map Is Now Handed Out in Advance In F15, we discovered the failure modes empirically and told you about them afterwards. The pilot inverts the timeline. Every non-advancement trigger from that article now exists as a pre-declared violation type, published before submissions open: Brief negligence ➡️ Scope Mismatch and Integration Eligibility. "Treat the brief as a binding contract" is now literal: every flag maps to a hard boundary in the Category Brief. The self-assessment paradox ➡️ Product Maturity. "Highly experienced" claims are replaced by a Technology Readiness Level with linkable evidence. Reviewers check what you link, not what you claim. ref: nitter.net/dannyribar/status/2083… Ghost credentials and broken links ➡️ Team & Credentials. Unverifiable, empty, or newly created profiles are the stated flag, in writing. Alias detection ➡️ One Proposal, cross-checked across applicants, entities, and every named team member in any role. Over-extension and historical standing ➡️ Cardano Standing: active project limits, delay thresholds, and undisclosed funding, all defined upfront. Placeholder content ➡️ Insufficient Information. Out-of-scope requests ➡️ Retroactive Funding and a published prohibited-use list. And the part I'm most pleased with: the Pre-Submission Checklist mirrors this flag list one to one. If you can tick them honestly, you clear the gate. Nobody can fail a rule they couldn't read. If they do - not sure we can help any more than that. 🔁 From Filtering to Repair In F15, non-advancement was terminal. In the pilot, an accepted flag doesn't just remove a proposal: the proposer is automatically notified of the issue category, the proposal returns to draft, and there is room to fix and re-finalize before the deadline. This is the biggest philosophical step since January. A funnel that only filters protects the signal. A funnel that lets fixable proposals repair themselves improves it. A good project with a paperwork gap no longer dies of paperwork. 🎯 One Gate, One Panel: Lanes Stay Clean F15's moderation carried two jobs at once: is this eligible, and is this good? The pilot splits them. Curation is a formal stage run by an invited pool of experienced community members, evolved directly from the L2 Moderation Bounty and calibrated on its real data: first valid flag wins, every flag needs evidence pointing to the specific rule, and accuracy is rewarded, not activity. Curators are the compliance gate. What passes them goes to a Decision Panel of technical and business experts, scoring against defined guidance, question by question. Curators protect the door. The panel judges what walks through it. Neither does the other's job. 📡 The Signal Doesn't Stop at the Ballot In January I described the Level-Set: due diligence continuing into onboarding. The pilot extends that logic through the entire lifecycle. Grants pay 40% to build, and the rest only against real, verified usage, measured in Cardano network fees: the number that is hardest to fake quietly and easiest for anyone to re-verify from public chain data. Signal protection now runs the full arc: submission ➡️ curation ➡️ decision ➡️ delivery ➡️ payment. Same philosophy at every step: proof over claims, rules before outcomes, evidence anyone can check. 🚀 The Outlook Step 1 was reducing volume. Step 2 was refining the signal. Step 3, the one we're taking now, is designing for signal from the first line of the rules: published thresholds, a self-audit checklist, paid expert curation, a cure period, and payment that follows verified adoption. The open door remains a community privilege. It stays open. It just comes with a map now. The pilot's curation window is ahead of us, and like everything in a pilot, this process will teach us things we'll adapt again. Drop your thoughts in the replies: what would you tighten, and what would you loosen? Ears to the ground, as always. D. get ready: projectcatalyst.io/apply

10,000+ applications later... 1/ every grant application we read says the same thing: "we're ready" or 'we're mature" ready/mature compared to what? arguably - web3 has no shared answer for that. so teams overshoot, reviewers guess, and money goes to whoever sounds most confident or yaps on socials by way of popularity contest 2/ and it's not really lying (not referring to 'fake it till you make it'' here). it's just hard to say how ready your product is when there's no scale to point at. so everyone defaults to "very ready" and hopes for the best 3/ we didn't want to invent our own thing here. NASA solved this decades ago with Technology Readiness Levels, a 1 to 9 scale, and programs like Horizon Europe fund against it. we took that and adapted it for Cardano 4/ the whole adaptation is basically one line. their "relevant environment" is our public testnet. their "operational environment" is our mainnet once you hold those two, the ladder reads itself. an idea is a 1. proof of concept, 3. running on a public testnet, 5. live on mainnet, 7. real users at real volume, 9 5/ from the Catalyst Pilot onwards, every applicant places their existing product on this ladder and links the evidence the bar for this pilot is TRL 5 or higher. your integration can be at zero, that's fine, that's what the grant pays for: getting it from nothing to mainnet, then to real usage 6/ the part i like most: programs can now state their bar in the same language. this pilot wants 5+. some future ideation round might want 1 to 3. you'd know which door is yours before writing a single word of a proposal 7/ and being honest about a low number stops hurting you. a 3 with real evidence reads better in review than an 8 that falls apart when someone clicks the links. reviewers check what you show, not what you claim 8/ it's a first version, we adapted it for on-chain software ourselves, and it will have rough edges. read it, place your product on it, tell us where it doesn't fit/work. that's what shapes version two docs.projectcatalyst.io/open…