Cardano funding in 2026: Catalyst, treasury and PRIME

What happened to Project Catalyst Fund15?

Fund15 is paused, and no decision to cancel it has been published. It opened in November 2025, and voting was paused on January 13, 2026 for a strategy review. Its voting and results dates still read "To Be Announced", and no decision on Fund15 had been published as of October 29, 2026. Fund15 used category limits of 15,000 to 750,000 ADA, but it never reached a vote.

Project Catalyst used to fund Cardano projects through numbered rounds decided by ADA holder votes, most recently Fund14 in 2025. Past grantees include Mesh, DIA and VESPR. In 2026 the full fund was replaced by the Catalyst Pilot, a short round with no public vote.

How the Catalyst Pilot 2026 worked

The pilot took applications from August 6 to August 20, 2026, with a budget of 2.5M ADA (about $625,000 at late-September 2026 prices). It was for teams that already had a working product, on Cardano or another chain, and wanted to add a new Cardano integration that could be live on mainnet within three months. Applicants had to be 18 or over and pass KYC or KYB, and each could submit one proposal.

Community curators checked proposals for compliance, and a decision panel of community members and Cardano Foundation staff scored the business case (70%) and the technical case (30%). Grants of 50,000 to 200,000 ADA were paid in three parts:

1. 40% at onboarding, after KYC and a Statement of Milestones.
2. Up to 40% based on the network fees your integration earns.
3. 20% if that usage holds about two months later.

Top performers could also earn a bonus of up to 50% of their grant from a separate 400,000 ADA pool. The pilot was funded from ADA left over from earlier funds, not from the Cardano treasury. Its priority areas were oracle integrations such as Pyth price feeds, stablecoins such as USDM and USDCx, programmable tokens (CIP-0113) and on-chain identity (CIP-0170).

The pilot conditionally selected 12 teams on September 24, 2026. No next round has been named. To hear about one, sign up for email alerts or watch the Project Catalyst site.

Cardano PRIME: treasury-funded DeFi grants

Cardano PRIME is the open choice for DeFi teams. It is a 12-month program paid for by the Cardano treasury and run by AlphaGrowth, with a target of $200 million in net-new, non-circular total value locked (TVL). Of its 120M ADA budget, cardano.org lists $5.6M for ecosystem grants; the program also pays for liquidity incentives and marketing.

PRIME funds the DeFi building blocks Cardano is missing. Its application lists RFP categories including wallets, bridging, vault and executor standards, curated lending, concentrated and automated liquidity, CDPs, yield-bearing stablecoins, oracles, perps, RWAs and on-chain credit, insurance, launchpads and agent infrastructure.

What PRIME asks for:

• A technical scope, KPIs, a requested amount (in USD or ADA) and milestone dates.
• A realistic audit plan for any new contracts.
• TVL or activity that is verifiably new, not recycled from elsewhere.

Cardano-native teams and teams moving from other chains can both apply, at any stage from idea to mainnet. AlphaGrowth reviews applications as they arrive, holds a short scoping call with shortlisted teams and funds the build in milestones. It publishes no per-grant floor or ceiling, and our 4-week decision time is an estimate. AlphaGrowth's own site was not reachable when we checked, so these details come from cardano.org's funding directory and the application form.

Asking the Cardano treasury directly

Any person or team can request money from Cardano's on-chain treasury. Since the Plomin hard fork, treasury spending happens only through treasury withdrawal governance actions under CIP-1694, and every ecosystem budget, including new Catalyst funding, goes through this route. cardano.org counts about 800 million ada committed this way since on-chain governance went live in 2025.

The process, as described on cardano.org and by Intersect:

1. Draft the proposal and gather feedback, ideally through Intersect's yearly Cardano Budget Process.
2. Submit the withdrawal on-chain, for example through GovTool, with a 100,000 ada deposit that is refunded after the vote.
3. The action passes when DReps holding 67% of the active voting stake approve it and the Constitutional Committee finds it constitutional.
4. It is ratified at an epoch boundary, and the funds move one epoch later.
5. An administrator such as Intersect signs a contract with you after KYC or KYB and pays by milestone through a smart contract.

There is no published cap per proposal. The limit is the treasury's net change limit and what DReps will approve. Recent withdrawals range from millions to over 100 million ada, such as a ₳25.4M Intersect withdrawal ratified in July 2026 and the 120M ada PRIME program. cardano.org points small or early-stage work to Catalyst or hackathons instead.

The 67% threshold comes from Intersect's August 2025 explanation and may have changed with later constitution updates, so confirm it before you submit. Our guides to blockchain treasury funding and writing a DAO funding proposal cover how on-chain treasury requests are judged.

Two programs outside the directory

The Cardano Accelerator Program (CAP) and Intersect's Maintainer Retainer Program are both active, but we could not verify enough about each to list them. Both appear on cardano.org's grants and funding page.

Cardano Accelerator Program

CAP is the Cardano Foundation's cohort accelerator for early-stage startups. It is for registered companies with a live, transacting product, not individuals or ideas. Each cohort has a theme: Spring 2026 focused on DeFi and real-world asset tokenization, and Fall 2026 on data verification, such as digital product passports, supply chain traceability and verified identity.

Each team receives CHF 10,000 (about $11,000), paid against milestones, plus mentoring, go-to-market and regulatory guidance and an investor Demo Day. Applications for the Fall 2026 cohort opened in May 2026, and on September 21 the Foundation announced eight selected ventures ahead of a February 2027 Demo Day. No date for the next application window had been published, and the pages we could read do not say whether CAP takes equity.

Maintainer Retainer Program

Intersect's Open Source Committee pays experienced contributors on an ongoing basis to maintain repositories Cardano depends on. It aims to cover about 25 projects, half core (such as the node, ledger, Plutus and DB-Sync) and half nominated by the community (such as Hydra, Mesh and Oura). As of October 2, 2026, applications were open both for projects and for developers who want to join as Community Maintainers.

Community Maintainers must have reached Trusted Committer level on Intersect's contribution ladder. New maintainers go through a 30-day evaluation, then quarterly and annual reviews, and pay continues only while they meet the benchmarks. Intersect does not publish what a maintainer is paid. For similar programs on other chains, see open source maintainer funding.

Which Cardano route fits your project?

Match the route to the stage of your project:

• A DeFi primitive, from idea to live: apply to Cardano PRIME now.
• A working product on another chain that wants a Cardano integration: PRIME if it is DeFi; otherwise wait for the next Catalyst round, which has not been announced.
• Large infrastructure or a mature team: a treasury withdrawal, ideally through Intersect's budget process.
• A registered startup with live transactions: watch for the next CAP cohort.
• An experienced open-source contributor: the Maintainer Retainer Program.

If none of these fits yet, our guide on how to apply for Web3 grants explains how to find and compare programs on other chains.

FAQ

Is Project Catalyst Fund15 cancelled?

No decision to cancel Project Catalyst Fund15 has been published. Fund15 voting was paused on January 13, 2026 for a strategy review, and its voting and results dates still read "To Be Announced". In its place, Catalyst ran the smaller Catalyst Pilot 2026 in August. As of October 29, 2026, no decision on Fund15 and no Fund16 had been announced.

When is the next Project Catalyst round?

No next Project Catalyst round had been announced when we rechecked on October 29, 2026. The last round, the Catalyst Pilot 2026, closed on August 20, 2026 and conditionally selected 12 teams on September 24. Watch projectcatalyst.io and the Cardano forum, where the pilot was first announced, for the next call.

Can teams from other chains get Cardano funding?

Yes. Cardano PRIME accepts teams moving to Cardano from other chains as well as Cardano-native teams. The Catalyst Pilot 2026 also accepted teams whose working product was on another chain, as long as the new Cardano integration could be live on mainnet within three months. In both cases the funded work has to happen on Cardano.

How much can the Cardano treasury pay one project?

The Cardano treasury publishes no cap per proposal. Each treasury withdrawal is limited only by the treasury's net change limit and by whether DReps and the Constitutional Committee approve it. Recent approved withdrawals range from millions to over 100 million ada. Submitting one requires a 100,000 ada deposit, which is refunded after the vote.

Does Cardano funding require KYC?

Most Cardano funding routes require identity checks before payment. The Catalyst Pilot 2026 required applicants to be 18 or over and pass KYC or KYB. Treasury withdrawals paid through Intersect need KYC or KYB due diligence and a signed contract. The Cardano Accelerator Program accepts only registered legal entities, not individuals.