The Cardano treasury

What the treasury is for

The Cardano treasury is a pool of ada held by the protocol itself. Ada only leaves it when the community approves it on chain.

It can fund any work the community approves, such as development of the protocol and its tools, research, and programs for the community and the ecosystem.

What the treasury funds

The most recent treasury withdrawals that took effect:

An approved withdrawal shows what the community agreed to fund. How the money is paid out and what the work delivers is reported separately. Standards for treasury-funded work

How spending is decided

Anyone can propose a treasury withdrawal. It needs approval from DReps and the Constitutional Committee, has to follow the Constitution and has to stay within the net change limit, the cap on how much ada can leave the treasury in a period.

Treasury rules in the Constitution · Standards for treasury-funded work

How the treasury is funded

Every epoch, a period of five days, Cardano combines the transaction fees of the previous epoch with a share of its reserves, the ada that is released into circulation step by step. 20% of this reward pot goes to the treasury, the rest is available as rewards for stake pools and delegators. Rewards that are not paid out return to the reserves. Projects can also return unused funding through a transaction called a treasury donation.

The reserves are finite. With the same percentage taken each epoch, a smaller reserve releases less ada for the treasury and for rewards. Income from transaction fees depends only on how much the network is used.

See the treasury in numbers

Returned funds and donations

Projects can return unused ada from treasury-funded work through a transaction called a treasury donation. Anyone can use the same transaction to contribute ada to the treasury.