ADA Stays Put: Cardano DReps Swipe Left on IOG's 12.29M ADA Bitcoin DeFi Date 💔

Cardano ($ADA) delegated representatives have rejected an on-chain proposal to withdraw 12.29 million ADA from the community treasury to fund Input Output's Pogun Bitcoin DeFi product, according to Koios summary data recorded in the final vote. Of the DRep voting power, 35.67% backed the measure while 64.33% opposed it, leaving the requested ADA untouched in the treasury and forfeiting the revenue-sharing terms Input Output had attached to the arrangement. The result marks the first high-profile treasury rejection of an IOG-led proposal and underscores the independence of the DRep body elected directly by ADA holders.

Pogun is Input Output's pitch for bringing Bitcoin into decentralized finance, structured around a credit market, a yield product, and a BitVM-powered trust-minimized bridge. The on-chain proposal that DReps voted down asked for 12.29 million ADA and tied repayment to quarterly earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, with the calculation anchored to $2.95 million in EBITDA. Input Output's April 2026 overview had offered 20% of Pogun earnings back to the treasury until the initial funding was repaid, followed by a perpetual 5% return on Cardano-related products, though the on-chain text itself carried no explicit exclusivity covenant.

Charles Hoskinson has since said IOG will no longer default to launching future products on Cardano, a shift in posture that follows the DRep vote directly. Cardano governance requires sign-off from both the Constitutional Committee and DReps for a treasury action to pass, and the committee cleared Pogun unanimously before the DRep body declined to follow. The split between the two approval tracks is what makes the outcome notable within the protocol's governance process.

The practical result is twofold: Cardano retains the 12.29 million ADA in its treasury, and the project forfeits the 20% Pogun revenue share and subsequent 5% perpetual return that Input Output had outlined in its April 2026 overview. No further treasury allocation for Pogun is currently scheduled on-chain, and Input Output has not announced an alternative funding path for the product at the time of writing.