The Cardano Foundation confirmed on Saturday that its proposed Cardano Summit 2026 will not go ahead this year after an onchain vote to fund the event from the network's treasury failed to pass. The Foundation said in a post on X that it would respect the outcome and begin winding down summit execution.
"Governance requires not only participation, but also a commitment to accept collective decisions," the Foundation wrote. "The Cardano community has spoken and we respect the outcome."
Voting closed Friday, May 29, on a revised proposal seeking 7.8 million ADA, worth roughly $2 million, to stage a two-day summit in Singapore on October 5–6. Yes votes drew 65.21% of participating delegated representative (DRep) stake, just short of the 66.67% supermajority that treasury withdrawals require to pass, and the action expired without being ratified.
By headcount, a majority of voting delegates supported the request, 135 in favor to 61 against, with 24 abstaining, and the Constitutional Committee approved it. But under Cardano's rules, a simple majority is not enough, as treasury actions need roughly two-thirds of DRep stake behind them.
The measure was already a scaled-back version of an original 14.07 million ADA proposal (~$3.66 million) that bundled the summit with an EMURGO-run TOKEN2049 sponsorship. (EMURGO is the official commercial arm of the Cardano blockchain.) The Foundation later decoupled the two events, trimming the budget by more than 20% and adding audited fund management, milestone-gated payments, and an independent oversight committee.
Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson and Cardano Foundation CEO Frederik Gregaard each urged DReps to approve the revised proposal in the hours before voting closed. The Foundation itself, which holds voting power as a DRep, abstained from the summit vote, saying it wanted to avoid directing the outcome.
The decoupling ended up being a success, however. EMURGO's separate TOKEN2049 proposal passed, meaning Cardano will retain a presence tied to the major Singapore crypto conference. The Foundation voted in favor of the decoupled TOKEN2049 Platinum Sponsorship proposal.
The cancellation lands amid a wider run of recent treasury fights in the Cardano community. Cardano's delegated representatives have repeatedly pushed back on spending tied to Hoskinson, EMURGO, and Input Output Global this year, including a scaled-back IO funding package built around the Leios mainnet push.
ADA traded near $0.233 on Sunday, down about 5% over the past month, with the token ranked around 16th by market capitalization, per The Block's Cardano Price page.