Cardano Foundation Cancels Conference After Failed DAO Vote

The Cardano Foundation has canceled its 2026 annual conference after its governance community shot down a revised proposal seeking to fund the event with treasury tokens.

“Governance requires not only participation, but also a commitment to accept collective decisions. The Cardano community has spoken and we respect the outcome,” the foundation posted to X on Saturday after voting closed on Friday.

The proposal sought to use 7.8 million Cardano (ADA) tokens worth $1.84 million to fund the event. 65.2% of votes were cast in favor of the proposal, which was just short of the 66.67% threshold needed to pass. 

The conference, called the Cardano Summit, was scheduled to take place on Oct. 5 and 6 in Singapore.

135 voters were in favor of proceeding with the event, while 61 were against and 24 abstained.

The vote follows a months-long dispute between Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson and many so-called Delegated Representatives (DReps), who have pushed for tighter spending from the foundation’s treasury.

The DReps, which are people or organizations that ADA holders can delegate their voting power to, voted against a similar proposal on May 9 that sought to use about 14 million ADA tokens to fund the event.

Only 10% of DReps voted in favor of that proposal, prompting the foundation to lower the requested funding amount under a new proposal.

Despite the cancellation, EMURGO, the investment and commercial arm behind the Cardano blockchain, passed a proposal to represent the Cardano ecosystem at the TOKEN2049 conference in Singapore on Oct. 7 and 8.

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Hoskinson is gauging interest in the possibility of scaling up the booth at TOKEN2049 and hosting an “embedded MiniSummit.”

The Cardano token has a market capitalization of $8.8 billion, but the network has less than $129 million in total value locked on the protocol, ranking 28th among blockchains.

The Cardano network has made $356,400 in network fees so far in 2026, a fraction of the $8.35 million it recorded in 2022.

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