tl;dr
Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson clarified that the Cardano Treasury will not cover exchange listing fees for ecosystem tokens like SNEK and Midnight; such projects must fund listings independently. Listing fees on major platforms range from $100,000 to $500,000 and are typically raised through fun...
Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson has put an end to rumors that the Cardano Treasury will cover exchange listing fees for ecosystem tokens. In a straightforward statement on X, he clarified that projects such as SNEK and Midnight will not receive ADA from the treasury for these fees. SNEK, the primary meme coin on Cardano, had proposed requesting 5 million ADA to pursue a listing on a Tier 1 exchange like Hyperliquid. Listing fees on popular platforms range from $100,000 to $500,000, which projects usually raise through fundraising rather than using treasury reserves. Midnight, Cardano’s privacy-focused sidechain, also must fund its exchange listing independently despite Hoskinson’s personal involvement in its development.
While the treasury won’t fund exchange listings, it remains a crucial source for advancing Cardano’s technical development. The community approved using treasury funds to support ongoing protocol work by Input Output Engineering (IOE), the main team behind Cardano. Key projects benefiting from this funding include Ouroboros Leios, an upgrade to the proof-of-stake consensus for better network efficiency; Hydra, the layer 2 scalability solution designed to expedite transactions and reduce costs; and Project Acropolis, focused on governance improvements and enhancing modularity. Ricky Rand, general manager at IOE, emphasized that the funding approval demonstrates the viability of decentralized funding and project delivery at scale, expressing strong confidence in Cardano’s future.
This funding decision underscores a vital ethos in the Cardano ecosystem: treasury resources are intended for public infrastructure benefiting the whole network, rather than for marketing or commercial expenses of individual projects. It also highlights the maturing self-governance model through Project Catalyst, the on-chain voting system where ADA holders determine treasury fund allocation.
Hoskinson also proposed a treasury bond model for project funding, moving away from the idea of free treasury money for listings. Instead, projects could access loans from the treasury that must be repaid once they generate revenue, blending support with financial responsibility. The treasury has faced pushback before, including concerns over centralization and risks, leading to rejection of plans to convert part of the treasury into stablecoins. Nonetheless, interest in the Cardano ecosystem remains high, with anticipation building around the Midnight Glacier Drop airdrop and the upcoming Rare Evo conference, expected to announce Midnight’s official launch date.