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Crypto’s value is from being outside regulatory apparatus, says Arthur Hayes

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Crypto’s value is from being outside regulatory apparatus, says Arthur Hayes

Miami, FL — Crypto doesn’t need regulation – something that charting the price of bitcoin over successive U.S. governments clearly shows, according to the provocative co-founder of BitMEX and CIO of Maelstrom, Arthur Hayes.

Hayes’ thesis is simple: fiat liquidity – precisely, the printing of more units of fiat money – is the only thing that affects bitcoin’s value proposition.

“If you want to talk about the price of Bitcoin and what’s the fair value, or what’s the future price, all that matters is how many units of fiat are there today,” Hayes told the audience at Consensus Miami 2026. “How many units of fiat will there be in the future, and what’s the pace of this fiat creation?”

While there’s a lot of talk about tradfi and regulators and crypto coming together and having this “bastard child,” the majority of people who attend conferences like Consensus want only to see the number go up, Hayes said. But they forget what has made the price of Bitcoin go from from zero to however many trillions of dollars that it’s worth today, he added, hammering his thesis home:

”The more money that is printed in the U.S. and around the world, the more value that bitcoin will have in fiat currencies,” said Hayes. “And it’s this liquidity part of the equation that really drives the price of bitcoin, and not anything to do with politics.”

Few executives in crypto maintain a social presence as lively, chaotic and strangely insightful as Hayes’. Behind the lapel-grabbing theatrics lies a track record that traders pay attention to. For instance, Hayes was early to the rise of several AI-adjacent tokens, a sector that dominated speculative flows throughout 2024 and 2025. He also championed Zcash (ZEC), which rallied more than 450% over the past year.

Looking back over the last few U.S. administrations, key factors can be picked out that greatly bolstered the value of bitcoin, Hayes said. This started with the bailing out of banks during the banking crisis and printing a lot more money, which sent bitcoin “off to the races.”

More recently, events like COVID, stimulus checks, Biden’s New Green Deal, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine have driven up the value of bearer assets like bitcoin and gold.

“This is the value that bitcoin provides outside of the regulatory apparatus,” Hayes said. “It’s precisely the reason that it does not adhere to the regulatory regime that some of you wish to put it under with bills like the Clarity Act and other things.”

Sumsub and Chainlink Bring Privacy-Preserving KYC to Major Blockchains

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Sumsub and Chainlink Bring Privacy-Preserving KYC to Major Blockchains

Sumsub and Chainlink are moving identity checks deeper into blockchain infrastructure. The initiative aims to make regulated digital-asset products easier to access without repeatedly exposing users’ personal data.

The companies said Tuesday that Sumsub’s verification system will be integrated with Chainlink’s Automated Compliance Engine, or ACE, to support privacy-preserving identity credentials across Ethereum, Arbitrum, Avalanche, Polygon and Base.

The arrangement gives users a way to complete know-your-customer checks once and reuse verified claims across multiple wallets.

That could reduce a persistent friction point in crypto: every exchange, wallet, issuer or protocol often runs its own onboarding process, even when the same user has already been verified elsewhere.

Under the first phase, a user completes Sumsub’s KYC flow and proves control of a wallet by signing a message. Chainlink ACE then issues a Cross-Chain Identity credential, or CCID, that can contain verified claims such as “Age > 18” without putting raw personal information onchain.

The system is designed to let protocols and asset issuers confirm eligibility without seeing passports, IDs or other underlying documents.

“Digital asset markets need identity verification that can extend into compliant on-chain workflows without forcing users through repeated onboarding,” said Ilya Brovin, chief growth officer at Sumsub. “Through Chainlink ACE, Sumsub can extend its identity verification services into compliant institutional digital asset markets and help enable access to permissioned assets with less friction.”

Chainlink ACE is a compliance layer that connects asset issuers, identity providers, risk-scoring platforms and distribution channels into a managed stack, allowing policies to be configured once and enforced across chains. Its framework includes identity verification, policy enforcement, monitoring and reporting tools for compliance-focused digital assets.

The launch comes as tokenization is moving from pilot projects toward regulated market infrastructure.

Nasdaq has proposed allowing tokenized securities to trade on its main market, while Reuters reported that the exchange wants tokenized instruments to carry the same material rights as traditional securities before they are treated equivalently.

That context matters.

Tokenized funds, equities, bonds and real-world assets cannot scale like permissionless meme coins. Issuers need to know whether a wallet belongs to an eligible investor, whether the user is in a permitted jurisdiction and whether transactions comply with sanctions and anti-money-laundering rules.

The challenge is doing that without turning public blockchains into public databases of personal information.

According to Chainlink’s technical documentation, ACE’s Cross-Chain Identity component links onchain identities through CCIDs to offchain credentials such as KYC/AML status, accredited-investor status or fund-subscriber status. It also supports policy enforcement, allowing smart contracts to restrict access based on allowlists, denylists and jurisdictional rules.

It promises simpler onboarding for end-users. The larger incentive for institutions is programmable compliance across fragmented blockchain networks.

That is why the initial support list is notable. Ethereum remains the largest smart-contract settlement layer. Arbitrum, Polygon and Base are major Ethereum scaling networks. Avalanche has also positioned itself around institutional and financial-market use cases.

The partnership is not the first attempt to solve reusable identity in crypto.

Circle introduced Verite in 2022 as an open-source framework for decentralized identity. It was designed to let users hold portable credentials in a crypto wallet and prove claims such as KYC status or accredited-investor eligibility without disclosing personal data to every application.

Polygon ID, later developed under Privado ID, also pushed self-sovereign identity and verifiable credentials as a way to prove user attributes without repeatedly sharing documents. World ID has focused on proof-of-personhood, while Coinbase, Circle and other firms have explored credentials for compliant DeFi access.

The results have been mixed.

Reusable identity has become a widely accepted design goal, but adoption has remained fragmented. Many systems operate inside specific ecosystems, rely on separate credential formats or lack a common compliance layer that issuers, wallets and protocols can use across chains.

That is the gap Sumsub and Chainlink are trying to address.

Chainlink already has a broad role in crypto infrastructure through oracles, data feeds and cross-chain services. Sumsub brings a conventional compliance business that serves fintech, crypto, trading and online platforms.

Together, the companies are trying to bridge two markets that often move at different speeds: regulated finance and public blockchain infrastructure.

“We’re excited to see Sumsub support Chainlink’s Automated Compliance Engine to advance privacy-preserving identity and compliance infrastructure, enabling the Cross-Chain Identity framework for our clients,” Ishan Vishnoi, VP of BCM Product & Business Ops at Chainlink Labs, said in a statement shared with AlexaBlockchain.

“This is the kind of scalable, privacy-preserving compliance infrastructure needed to unlock tokenized assets at institutional scale,” he added.

The initiative also reflects a broader regulatory shift.

Global securities watchdog IOSCO said tokenization could reshape how assets are issued, traded and serviced, but warned that adoption remains limited and that blockchain-based assets can introduce new risks, including uncertainty over investor rights and counterparty exposure.

hat warning is relevant to identity infrastructure.

Without reliable identity, tokenized assets may remain limited to closed pilots, private ledgers or highly controlled platforms. With reusable compliance credentials, issuers could theoretically distribute regulated assets across multiple public and private blockchains while still enforcing investor eligibility.

The near-term impact will likely be modest.

Phase 1 is aimed at retail users participating in ACE launch campaigns. The bigger test is Phase 2, scheduled for summer 2026, when the model is expected to shift toward asset issuers as end users.

Future phases may allow users to authorize third-party access to underlying data through APIs, according to the announcement.

That could make the system more useful for institutions that need deeper checks than a simple age or jurisdiction claim. It could also raise new governance questions around consent, data access, revocation and liability if credentials become widely used across financial applications.

The announcement signals that onchain identity is becoming part of the same infrastructure race as custody, settlement, oracles and tokenization.

The market no longer needs only faster blockchains. It needs systems that let regulated assets move across them without forcing users to surrender privacy at every checkpoint.

The article “Sumsub and Chainlink Bring Privacy-Preserving KYC to Major Blockchains” was first published on AlexaBlockchain. Read the complete article here: https://alexablockchain.com/sumsub-and-chainlink-bring-privacy-preserving-kyc-to-major-blockchains/

Read Also: MoneyGram, Pairpoint and eToro Back Midnight’s Privacy Blockchain Before Mainnet

Disclaimer: The information provided on AlexaBlockchain is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Read complete disclaimer here.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Canva, Wiki Commons

Sequans Sells 1,025 Bitcoin As Revenue Falls, Losses Mount

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Sequans Sells 1,025 Bitcoin As Revenue Falls, Losses Mount

Paris-based Sequans Communications sold 1,025 bitcoin during the first quarter of 2026, cutting its digital asset reserves nearly in half as the IoT semiconductor maker grappled with declining revenue and mounting losses tied to a treasury strategy that has turned from ambitious to burdensome.

The sale reduced Sequans’ bitcoin position from 2,139 BTC at year-end 2025 to 1,114 BTC by April 30, marking the second major disposal in six months for a company that less than a year ago proclaimed plans to accumulate 3,000 bitcoin as a “long-term store of value”.

The financial pressure is evident in the numbers. Sequans reported revenue of $6.1 million for the quarter ended March 31, down 24.8% from $8.1 million a year earlier. The year-over-year comparison reveals the company’s vulnerability: the prior-year period included significant license and services revenue from Qualcomm that did not recur, exposing the underlying weakness in product sales.

While product sales did increase 45% from the year-ago quarter, gross margin compressed to 37.7% from 64.5% as lower-margin hardware displaced the lucrative licensing income. For a company burning cash, the shift in revenue mix compounds the challenge.

Sequans’ Bitcoin strategy became a burden

The bitcoin holdings that CEO Georges Karam once framed as a balance-sheet asset have become a source of substantial losses. Operating losses reached $50.5 million in the quarter, driven by $29.3 million in unrealized impairment charges on bitcoin holdings and $11.7 million in realized losses from selling the digital assets.

The company used bitcoin sale proceeds to redeem convertible debt and fund an American Depositary Share buyback program, a pragmatic move to reduce liabilities but one that underscores how the treasury strategy has shifted from accumulation to liquidation.

The remaining bitcoin holdings are largely encumbered. Of the 1,114 BTC held as of April 30, 817 bitcoin — representing 73% of current holdings valued at $62.3 million — remained pledged as collateral for $35.9 million in outstanding convertible notes. The pledged bitcoin exceeds the debt value, reflecting the over-collateralization required by lenders wary of cryptocurrency volatility.

The remaining debt is scheduled for redemption by June 1, 2026, after which all bitcoin will be unrestricted and available for sale. Whether Sequans will retain those assets or continue liquidating to fund operations remains an open question.

Net loss totaled $54.3 million, or $3.73 per diluted ADS, compared to $7.3 million, or $0.29 per ADS, in the prior-year quarter. Even on a non-IFRS basis—which excludes impairment charges, stock-based compensation, and accounting adjustments related to convertible debt—the net loss was substantial at $20.7 million, or $1.42 per ADS.

CEO Georges Karam framed the bitcoin sales as “decisive steps to simplify and strengthen our balance sheet,” while highlighting momentum in the company’s core IoT semiconductor business. 

He cited a growing backlog, maturing design wins, and customer interest in Cat-M, Cat-1bis, and 5G eRedCap connectivity solutions, as well as new RF transceivers for drones and defense applications.

Sequans shares have fallen 51.5% over the past six months to $3.01, reflecting investor skepticism about both the bitcoin strategy and the core business trajectory. 

The company ranks 40th among publicly traded firms holding bitcoin, far behind Strategy’s 818,334 BTC and Twenty One Capital’s 43,514 BTC.

Wall Street warns human-built markets can’t keep up with machine-speed trading

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Wall Street warns human-built markets can’t keep up with machine-speed trading

Miami Beach, FL — A growing group of Wall Street and crypto executives say the financial system is heading toward a breaking point, as markets shift from human-paced processes to machine-driven activity that runs around the clock.

“We’re moving to a world where transactions happen at a speed no human can track,” Sandy Kaul, head of digital assets and innovation at Franklin Templeton, said during a panel on the future of capital markets at Consensus in Miami on Tuesday. At the same time, “almost every process in capital markets today was built for humans, and none of them will stand up to what’s coming,” she added.

The tension between those two ideas — faster, automated markets and legacy systems designed for manual oversight — sat at the center of the conversation.

For decades, financial markets have relied on layered processes to handle trades. Systems batch transactions, reconcile records and settle trades hours or even days later. That structure dates back to a time when physical stock certificates moved across Wall Street by hand.

Now, blockchain infrastructure is starting to remove those constraints. Panelists pointed to tokenization — the process of turning assets like stocks or money market funds into digital tokens — as a key shift. These tokens can move instantly, settle in seconds and operate continuously.

“We are unwinding a system that’s been in place for 50 years and going back to settling one transaction at a time,” Kaul said, describing how real-time settlement could replace today’s batch-based model.

That shift has practical implications. In a tokenized system, an investor’s cash could remain fully invested until the exact moment it is spent. “Every penny of my earnings is fully invested from the moment I earn it to the moment that I spend it,” Christine Moy, partner at Apollo, said, outlining a future where idle cash largely disappears.

The same logic applies to large corporations. Instead of holding cash across multiple accounts worldwide, companies could pool funds into yield-generating assets and convert them only when payments are due.

Still, major hurdles remain. While blockchain networks can already process transactions quickly, some panelists argued that the industry lacks the rules and standards needed for institutions to operate at scale.

“We’ve solved the transaction problem. What’s missing is a standard for governance,” said Tom Zschach, former chief innovation officer at Swift, pointing to the need for clear rules around ownership, compliance and permissions.

That gap matters for large financial firms, where reliability often outweighs speed. “If there’s a chance it might not work, it’s a non-starter. What institutions need is certainty,” he said.

At the same time, competitive pressure is rising. As newer platforms offer faster and more flexible financial services, traditional firms risk losing clients if they fail to adapt.

Taken together, the discussion suggests the next phase of market evolution will not just be about faster trades. It will center on rebuilding the underlying systems so they can support continuous, automated flows of capital—without breaking the trust that global finance depends on.

Weaving AI into the Fabric of Your Financial Organization

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Weaving AI into the Fabric of Your Financial Organization

Kieran Ivers from Brightbeam discusses the practical realities of integrating AI into financial organizations, emphasizing that successful change management starts small and addresses human concerns directly. Ivers acknowledges that organizational change can be scary, especially when employees have accumulated years of  knowledge and Brightbeam’s approach is to avoid proposing a lengthy, multi-year process. Instead, they focus first on eliminating the cognitively taxing, high-volume tasks like data transfer and copy-and-paste that are prone to human error. By using AI to solve this immediate, tedious work, Ivers explains that teams are quickly freed up for higher-value tasks, creating early wins and encouraging immediate buy-in from both staff and leadership.

Ivers describes the ideal AI implementation as a flywheel strategy. Rather than aiming for one large solution, Brightbeam breaks the adoption process into quick, value-adding use cases that can be developed in as little as 12 weeks. Each successful case builds momentum, accelerating the acceptance of AI as an everyday operational tool and the core message here is that AI cannot be a temporary bolt-on but must be intrinsically woven into an organization’s overall strategy to be successful.

Brightbeam also tackles critical concerns surrounding data governance, privacy, and data sovereignty, a major and ongoing concern for large organizations dealing with regulations like GDPR. When using cloud-hosted AI solutions, the risk extends beyond just the data itself to include the organization’s processes, standard operating procedures, and the output of the AI. This is particularly relevant when governmental policies in certain jurisdictions may allow for access to these systems. To mitigate this, Brightbeam is actively working with firms, especially those in the regulated banking and insurance space, to explore options.  This ensures models can be run in-house, keeping data safe and secure and close to where the action happens, without compromising the value that AI adds.

Looking ahead five years, Brightbeam stresses that AI integration is not just a competitive advantage but an operational must for financial organizations and future success will be measured by how AI assisting humans in making the right decisions faster. A key indicator of true success for Brightbeam is when their clients no longer rely on them to maintain and operate their AI systems.

Ivers points out that companies can now up skill their current staff to manage these models at a much lower cost. AI offers immense value now, but organizations must move fast to weave it into their fabric, or risk being disrupted and left behind, much like what happened to market giants in past technology shifts.

Stellar Gets Its First Regulated, Yield-Bearing Stablecoin with YLDS Launch

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Stellar Gets Its First Regulated, Yield-Bearing Stablecoin with YLDS Launch

YLDS is an SEC-registered, USD-pegged stable asset from Figure.

Figure Technology Solutions (Nasdaq: FIGR) — a fintech company that builds blockchain-native financial products including lending, trading, and digital asset infrastructure — today announced the launch of YLDS on the Stellar network, marking the first time a regulated, yield-bearing dollar product has been made available on the chain.

YLDS is Figure’s SEC-registered stablecoin issued by Figure Certificate Company, combining stablecoin liquidity with money market-style yield. The product is designed for regulated entities such as fintechs and neobanks that require compliant onchain dollar holdings. Notably, Figure HELOC — a token representing home equity loans originated on-chain — currently ranks #9 among all cryptocurrencies by market cap, a signal of the scale Figure has achieved in tokenizing real-world financial assets, though not without controversy.

“We built YLDS to do what banks do with your deposits: hold dollars, earn yield, move money, but onchain and regulated,” said Mike Cagney, executive chair of Figure. “Fintechs and neobanks can now access that product on the Stellar network.”

Stellar processed $55.6 billion in stablecoin payment volume in 2025 and hosts more than $2 billion in onchain tokenized real-world assets from issuers including WisdomTree, Ondo, and Franklin Templeton. According to rwa.xyz data, Stellar ranks as the fourth-largest chain by distributed RWA value, with $1.6 billion tokenized on the network. The launch builds on Stellar’s expanding DeFi infrastructure, which was further strengthened when RedStone brought institutional-grade oracle price feeds to the network in March — unlocking more sophisticated financial products on the chain.

Raja Chakravorti of the Stellar Development Foundation called the launch an expansion of “dollar-denominated stablecoin products that combine yield, usability, and global reach.”

Earlier this year, the blockchain developed by Figure, Provenance, saw its TVL hit an all-time high of $1.2 billion, driven entirely by Figure Markets’ activity, as The Defiant reported.

This article was written with the assistance of AI workflows. All our stories are curated, edited and fact-checked by a human.

Consensus Miami Day 1: Sights and sounds

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Consensus Miami Day 1: Sights and sounds

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. — CoinDesk’s flagship Consensus conference kicks off today at the Miami Beach Convention Center, bringing thousands of people together for the annual big-tent event to discuss the digital assets sector.

Day one of the conference will see local officials and startup executives lay out the state of the crypto world. Arthur Hayes, Lily Liu, Jesse Pollak, Anatoly Yakovenko, Mike Cagney, Brad Garlinghouse and more will present keynotes or take place in firesides to open the conference, weighing in on everything from the current macroeconomic environment to the future of AI tooling to the growth of decentralized finance. Keep an eye on this liveblog for updates throughout the day.

On the policy front, CoinDesk will see discussions about the U.S. Department of Justice’s fight against developers of mixers and hear from Congressional staffers about how exactly crypto-specific legislation is being written. Congressman Steven Horsford will discuss his effort to reform how the U.S. handles taxes around crypto transactions, while CFTC Chairman Michael Selig talks about his agency’s growing efforts to wrangle crypto and prediction markets.

Agentic payments, privacy tools and more familiar crypto tooling will — naturally — also see discussions throughout the day.

Tomorrow will also see CoinDesk host its Capital Markets Summit, bringing together traditional finance veterans with companies trying to bring these products onchain. A key theme at Consensus Hong Kong this past February was the growth of tokenization as a way for these long-established firms to build faster, more efficient tooling for their existing products. Is that trend real and will it continue? Come find out.

Tomorrow — and throughout the week — we’ll also have meetups for folks interested in different topics, like prediction markets or the midterm election, to connect with each other. Definitely take advantage of those; the Consensus Lobby has been one of the most-appreciated aspects of this event for the last decade, but now you can hang in a dedicated space for it instead of hoping for an empty corner in an actual lobby.

Aevi on How Open Orchestration Changes the Game for Payments

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Aevi on How Open Orchestration Changes the Game for Payments

At Fintech Meetup 2026, Teresa Biko, Head of Business Development for the U.S. at Aevi, addressed an issue that has plagued the financial services industry for years: the fragmentation of payments. Aevi highlights that the payments landscape is complicated by an array of specific acquirers, different hardware, local methods of payment, and varying regulations. This complexity is particularly frustrating for Independent Software Vendors (ISVs), who are often forced to rebuild pieces of their payment infrastructure every time they try to scale or enter a new market.

A major risk Aevi identifies is the resulting lack of flexibility, which severely limits an ISV’s growth potential. If a company is locked into a specific acquirer or device, their expansion is restricted by that vendor’s market reach and capabilities, which may not match the ISV’s global ambitions. The solution, according to Aevi, lies in establishing a true abstraction layer, or open orchestration, that completely separates the ISV from the underlying complexities of in-person payments. 

This open orchestration approach fundamentally shifts the balance of power and by gaining independence from specific vendors, ISVs acquire significant control. This power can be leveraged in multiple ways, such as negotiating favorable pricing terms with both acquirers and hardware providers which is something that is often impossible under current, restrictive contracts. This newfound flexibility allows ISVs to dictate their own pace of growth and market entry. Aevi projects that this change will be transformative. Payments, which many ISVs currently view as a necessary evil will become a major strategic advantage and this efficiency and speed will allow them to scale and win in new markets much faster.

Bitcoin absorbed $200 million profit-taking at $80,000

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Bitcoin absorbed $200 million profit-taking at $80,000

Bitcoin bears likely consider $80,000 as an area to take profits around, but onchain data suggests it is the opposite.

Bitcoin’s net realized profits, the metric that tracks the dollar value of coins sold above their original purchase price across the network, spiked to $207.56 million on Sunday, the highest reading in a month, per data from onchain analytics firm Santiment.

The print arrived as bitcoin briefly crossed $80,000 for the first time since January before reversing to $79,000 late Monday and rising above $80,000 again in Asian morning hours Tuesday.

Realized profit spiking during a rally — rather than a sell-off — is indicative of holders sitting on gains realizing profits and newer participants entering the market at current levels.

The cost-basis suggest a change in the underlying market structure.

Cost basis refers to the price at which a holder originally bought their coins, and it shapes how they react to future price moves. Old holders cashing out on Sunday transferred their coins to buyers willing to pay around $80,000, which raises the average entry price across the network.

That thickens the layer of holders whose break-even point sits close to current levels, and they tend to be the most likely to panic if prices drop. New buyers at are unlikely to dump on a routine pullback as they just got in.

The size of the move also fits the bullish read. The $207 million print is a one-month high, not an all-time high. Genuine cycle tops produce realized profit events that climb into the multiple billions, after which the market typically rolls over within days.

The onchain read aligns with the options-market positioning that CoinDesk reported earlier Tuesday.

Volatility markets did not chase the breakout, as traders are still paying more to protect against a drop than to bet on a sharp move higher, which shows the broader market remains cautious.

But options desks are also seeing demand for cheap call ratio trades, a structure that works best if bitcoin keeps climbing steadily without exploding through a higher strike. This suggests directional traders remain cautious while more sophisticated options flow is positioning for a steady grind higher.

Whether the breakout extends depends on the macro tape that the on-chain data cannot see, with the Iran-U.S. ceasefire fraying. Strategy reporting earnings later on Tuesday the April nonfarm payrolls print dropping Friday. Any of those can override what the chain is signalling.

Cardano Scaling Criticism Grows As Hoskinson Defends Leios

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Cardano Scaling Criticism Grows As Hoskinson Defends Leios

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Charles Hoskinson pushed back against criticism that Cardano prioritized governance over scaling, arguing that the network’s current roadmap reflects years of research rather than a delayed pivot. The dispute comes as Input Output’s latest treasury proposals put Leios, Peras, layer-2 infrastructure and developer tooling back at the center of Cardano’s 2026 technical agenda.

In a post on X, the Cardano founder said he was “getting insanely tired” of what he called a “false narrative” that scaling had been abandoned in favor of governance. Hoskinson argued that scaling work had been continuous since before Shelley, spanning layer-2 designs, the eUTXO accounting model, zero-knowledge research, partnerchains and, ultimately, Leios.

“It was an enormously challenging problem that we relentlessly attacked from many different angles including L2 innovations, a brand new accounting model- eutxo- zero knowledge ideas, partnerchains, and capstoning with Leios,” Hoskinson wrote. “Many of these ideas required deep r&d and original publications. This cannot be made faster by throwing more people at it. It’s research.”

Cardano Scaling Debate Heats Up

His comments land at a sensitive moment for Cardano governance. Input Output has submitted nine treasury proposals for community review, describing them as tied to Cardano’s 2030 vision and focused on scalability and decentralization. IO says the 2026 funding request totals $46.8 million, down from $97.5 million last year, and is intended to help deliver key roadmap components while moving more development capacity into a broader contributor ecosystem.

That structure is part of the tension. In a separate exchange, Hoskinson warned against a fragmented voting outcome after community members debated whether the IO proposals should be treated as a coordinated package or as separate funding items. Responding to concerns that DReps could approve only a subset of the proposals, he wrote: “Sadly, this is the end result of a piecemeal roadmap. It’s an iPhone by committee, with people deciding whether they prefer the fingerprint sensor to wireless charging. You end up with a bizarre, useless product.”

The core of Hoskinson’s argument is that Cardano’s scaling path could not be separated cleanly from its governance path. Voltaire, in his view, was not a detour from throughput work but a prerequisite for deploying major upgrades in a system where parameters, client diversity and treasury spending now require community legitimacy.

“No one was pulled from scaling research and development,” he wrote. “There were dozens of scientists and engineers brainstorming and prototyping for years. A semi-centralized and not secure halfway house could have been implemented that crashed all the time like other blockchains. Or we could do it right like we’ve always done things with the Cardano ecosystem. We chose the latter.”

Leios sits at the center of that defense. IO’s treasury overview describes the consensus proposal as the largest technical initiative in the current portfolio and says it is designed to deliver sustainable throughput capacity at the protocol level. The same overview says a Leios testnet is expected soon, with mainnet targeted by the end of 2026, alongside a broader delivery model involving Intersect, Tweag and TxPipe.

Hoskinson presented that as the payoff from Cardano’s slower, research-heavy approach. “We now have a full design for Leios, Peras, and a great L2 strategy. They are elegant and future proof. We now have the best scaling strategy in the entire cryptocurrency space. That’s what the time bought us.”

The layer-2 side of the roadmap is also part of the argument. IO’s proposal package includes production hardening for Hydra, a planned Midgard mainnet launch, and shared L2-agnostic primitives meant to support current and future Cardano scaling systems. The overview frames Hydra and Midgard as complementary rather than competing designs, with Hydra targeting known-party, high-frequency environments and Midgard aimed at open, permissionless applications.

Hoskinson also used Bitcoin’s post-quantum debate as a contrast, arguing that Cardano’s governance system gives it a route to resolve contentious technical issues without splitting authority between informal factions. He claimed Bitcoin’s debate over whether to move or leave vulnerable coins exposed is “the single greatest endorsement of the value of governance,” adding that Cardano would “sidestep this issue thanks to governance.”

At press time, ADA traded at $0.2528.

Cardano price chart
ADA remains below key resistance, 1-monthly chart | Source: ADAUSDT on TradingView.com

Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com

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