Cardano has never had a shortage of talented builders. What it's lacked is a bridge from that talent to Silicon Valley networks, mentorship, and capital. That's the gap the Genesis program is built to close, and this week, we watched the first cohort pitch on stage after four weeks of building, testing, and rewriting their ideas. Thirteen teams, spanning AI, payments, DeFi, infrastructure, and consumer, some brand new to Cardano and some who've been building here for years. Great judging panel including @TimDraper, @Andytang, @samizb, Aleeha Banerjee from our investment team, and Stephen Wood from @Cardano_CF. It was amazing to see Orion Fund come to life in person alongside the builders. Every part of Orion came together: @Cometa_Labs providing technical mentorship and growth support, our very own @DraperDragon investment team mentoring and advising founders, and @draper_u making it all possible. Best of all, this is only the beginning. Our investment and growth teams will continue working with these founders well beyond Demo Day, with many more cohorts to come across all stages this year and next. Thank you to everyone who made it happen!

AI agents need payment rails before they need anything else. Without a way to pay for compute, data or API access mid-task, the agentic layer stalls at the demo stage. This is why x402 matters so much. @Cardano just joined @Solana, @XRPLF and a handful of other chains already running on it, letting an agent pay in ADA for a dataset or API call mid-request. No account, no subscription. The official implementation works and has been proven on testnets, with mainnet next. Agents transacting on-chain looks increasingly likely. The real question is which rails developers reach for when they build the next layer. I think the plumbing decisions being made now are the ones that stick, and it's part of why the @OrionFund, our fund with @Cardano_CF , backs this ecosystem.

We're live. Join @Cardano_CF for Build, Scale, Showcase, unpacking Cardano's next steps forward at @TOKEN2049. nitter.net/i/spaces/1wGWjlMBLDMKQ

TOKEN2049 week is almost here Join us and @Cardano_CF for a live X Space on what's next for Cardano: the ecosystem, node diversity, Project Catalyst, and where things go from here. Thurs, Sept 24 at 16:00 CEST. Bring your questions 👇

@blockchainwk made one thing obvious: the AI and blockchain conversation has moved past theory. Loved to see how many people from the local community showed up and how much they look forward to this each year. Lots of builders, regulators, students, and investors in one room brought together people who don’t always get to learn from each other. In almost every room, the questions were about what it actually takes to put these systems into practice, not what they might someday do. Local gatherings like this are what keep the relationships and the harder conversations going after everyone's flown home. Thanks to the organizing team and @ichuckcain for having me! Now I'm already in Barcelona, looking forward to the @EBlockchainCon starting tomorrow 🇪🇸

This week, @samizb is speaking at @EBlockchainCon, representing @OrionFund and @DraperDragon. Come and say hi if you're in Barcelona! 🙌

Today, we honor the life and legacy of Bill Draper. He was one of the pioneers who helped shape venture capital as we know it. Long before Silicon Valley became synonymous with startups and venture capital, Bill was already backing people building the future. He began his venture career in 1959, and went on to co-found Draper & Johnson Investment Company and later Sutter Hill Ventures, one of the earliest venture firms in Silicon Valley. Over the following decades, he helped finance hundreds of technology companies and entrepreneurs. Among the early companies backed during his years at Sutter Hill were LSI Logic, Apollo Computer, Measurex, Qume, Activision, and Hybritech. Years later, Bill became one of the earliest investors in Skype. This bet reportedly returned roughly 1,000x. And his influence went far beyond individual investments. The firm he built, Sutter Hill Ventures, would go on to become an original investor in NVIDIA in 1993, alongside Sequoia Capital. When it was decades before GPUs became the infrastructure powering the AI revolution. Bill also took venture capital global. He launched Draper International, one of the first U.S. venture funds focused on India, helping bring the Silicon Valley model to a new generation of entrepreneurs. Then he applied the same belief in people to public service and philanthropy, serving as Chairman and President of the U.S. Export-Import Bank, leading the United Nations Development Programme, and later co-founding what became the Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation, bringing venture-style support to social entrepreneurs around the world. But perhaps his greatest legacy cannot be measured in exits or returns. It lives in generations. Bill learned venture capital from his father, General William H. Draper Jr., one of the earliest venture capitalists on the West Coast. He passed that entrepreneurial spirit to his son, Tim Draper, and today the Draper family continues backing founders across multiple generations. The tends, the technologies, the market opportunities changed throughout the years. Bill’s fundamental belief did not: back extraordinary people with the courage to build what does not exist yet. Bill Draper helped establish that philosophy in Silicon Valley. We are proud to carry it forward. Thank you, Bill, for helping build the industry, and the legacy that made so much innovation possible.

The @draper_u Genesis program has accelerated my business! Validated my positioning, connected me with my customers and launched me with Gusto! Cardano is going to change the world. And, programs like this are what we need to onboard the next generation of builders! I can't wait for what's next! 🚀

We're excited to announce that we're expanding ChatterPay into the Cardano ecosystem. Now +2B people can send ADA, USDCx, USDM, USDA directly on WhatsApp. No new apps. Just send a voice or text message, and that's it. The easiest way to onboard new people into Cardano!

Meet ChatterPay (@chatterpay), one of the teams from our Genesis program. Anyone can send ADA or USDCx to a WhatsApp contact, across a network of 2B+ users, as easily as sending a text. A look at how everyday payments can work on Cardano.

😬 Day 11 was the day everyone at @draper_u had been stressing about. Pitching our startups in front of @TimDraper. The tension beforehand was crazy, but everyone in the Genesis cohort absolutely delivered. All that preparation paid off. Now the pitches go live Friday. For the Cardano community, I think this is important viewing. Treasury funding helped make this program happen, so this is where you get to see what we're building and what came from that investment. Now… back to building. Cardano will win $ADA

Bitcoin's liquidity and @Cardano's governance model are two of the more complementary pieces in crypto right now. Most of the industry still treats them as separate conversations, and separate rooms. On October 7 at @token2049 Singapore, we're putting them in the same one. UTXO Pitch Night, hosted by the @Cardano_CF, @draper_u and Draper Dragon: founders across Cardano, Bitcoin, and the wider UTXO ecosystem pitch live for up to $500K, at LAVO, 57 floors above Marina Bay Sands. Project applications are open August 31 - September 14, 2026. Links to event registration and pitch contest submissions are below.

Draper University × @Cardano in the news: why are we betting on in-person acceleration? Bitcoin.com just covered why we’re doubling down on something increasingly rare in Web3: in person residencies and accelerator programs. Our 10-week Apex Accelerator brings founders to Silicon Valley, with $70K in funding and the Draper ecosystem behind them. Huge thanks to @BitcoinNews for covering what we’re building! Read the full story here: news.bitcoin.com/featured/wh…

This really has been a once in a life time opportunity with @draper_u @TimDraper What I’ve learnt from the program will have long lasting cascading effects in Cardano. If you’re building, join the program. Special thanks @OrionFund @Cardano_CF and @samizb @DraperDragon

If you’re building in crypto, blockchain, decentralization, or Web3, Tim Draper has a message for you. Applications are open for the Draper University x @Cardano Apex Growth Accelerator, an in-person program in Silicon Valley for founders ready to turn ambitious ideas into venture-scale companies. For more than a decade, DraperU has brought together founders who want to build what’s next, giving them access to a community of entrepreneurs, mentors, investors, and operators who can challenge them, support them, and continue opening doors long after the program ends. As @TimDraper puts it, the value is not only in the program itself. It’s in the relationships you build with other founders working on similarly ambitious problems. These people can help you succeed, and you can help in return. If you’re building in crypto, blockchain, decentralization, or Web3, this is your opportunity to join the Draper ecosystem and spend 10 weeks building in Silicon Valley. Apply to Apex by Sep 1 -> draperuniversity.com/cardano…