The non-profit behind the Cardano ecosystem just dropped its financial report for 2023, and it’s packed with insights about where their funds went.
This report is the foundation’s first of its kind and is part of their commitment to transparency and openness. The only question is why didn’t they do this in January?
How much did they spend?
Cardano Foundation spent a total of $23.77 million last year split between three main areas, the adoption, education, and operational resilience.
This breakdown complements their earlier 2023 Activity Report, giving us a clearer picture of their financial priorities.
Let’s break the numbers down a bit. The $2.12 million earmarked for operational resilience went toward making Cardano more reliable and robust for institutional use cases.
They’ve been running their network for over 2,000 days without a hitch, so it can be considered as done.
This funding supported key initiatives like the Valentine hard fork, improved stake pool delegation, and testing new decentralized governance methods.
Cardano Academy
In the education department, the foundation focused on research and promoting discussions around blockchain concepts.
They didn’t just stop there, because they launched the Cardano Academy, held the Cardano 2023 summit in Dubai, and even hosted webinars to keep everyone in the loop.
But the biggest chunk of cash went to adoption. With $12.92 million dedicated to this area, Cardano wanted to boost utility and develop new tools for various use cases.
They rolled out an open-source programming language to make smart contract development easier and introduced solutions like Identify Wallet and Ledger Sync.
Network builders
Cardano is also keen on scaling both diversity and quality within its network activities. They’re working hard to ensure a balanced mix of traditional and blockchain-native use cases.
By the end of 2023, the value of the Cardano Foundation’s assets was at $478.24 million. This included 82.5% in ADA, 10.1% in Bitcoin, and the rest held as liquidity in U.S. dollars.
Frederik Gregaard, CEO of the Cardano Foundation, repeated the importance of accountability in their operations.
“This report highlights how we allocate our resources and how they advance Cardano as a public digital utility across various industries. We have over 100 employees collaborating with institutions, businesses, regulators, and policymakers to tackle societal and enterprise challenges in innovative ways across 25 countries.”
