Charles Hoskinson says Cardano treasury won’t cover listing fees for SNEK or Midnight

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson has ended speculation that the Cardano Treasury will be used to pay exchange listing fees for ecosystem tokens. 

In a direct statement posted on X, Hoskinson clarified that projects like SNEK and Midnight will not be receiving ADA from the treasury for this purpose.

The primary meme coin in the Cardano ecosystem, SNEK, has suggested asking the Treasury for 5 million ADA. The goal? They are allegedly going after Hyperliquid, a relatively young centralized exchange, to pay for obtaining a listing on a Tier 1 exchange.

Based on the information provided by the team, listing on one of these popular platforms is not cheap. It can be anything from $100,000 to $500,000. Instead of employing treasury reserves, the business typically needs to raise these funds through fundraising. Significantly different from the norm is the SNEK proposal. 

The announcement also applied to Midnight, Cardano’s privacy-centric sidechain built for data protection and confidential smart contracts. Although Hoskinson is personally involved in Midnight’s development, he reaffirmed that it would also need to self-fund its exchange listing when it comes.

Community approves treasury use for core development

While the Cardano Treasury won’t be used to fund exchange listing fees, it remains an essential resource for supporting the network’s technical evolution. The Cardano community approved a proposal to allocate treasury funds toward ongoing protocol development led by Input Output Engineering (IOE), the primary technical team behind Cardano.

The money will support several significant projects. Cardano’s proof-of-stake consensus mechanism has been enhanced using Ouroboros Leios to increase network performance and efficiency. Cardano’s layer 2 scalability solution, Hydra, is also integrated to facilitate quicker and less expensive transactions. Project Acropolis, which aims to enhance governance mechanisms and the general modularity of Cardano’s design, is another important area of concentration.

According to Ricky Rand, general manager at Input Output Engineering, securing funds was only the first step. He said the approval showed that decentralized funding and project delivery could work well at scale and expressed confidence in Cardano’s future. 

The community’s decision highlights a core principle within the Cardano ecosystem: treasury funds should be used to develop public infrastructure that benefits the entire network, not to cover marketing or commercial expenses for individual projects. It also demonstrates the growing effectiveness of Cardano’s self-governance model, particularly through its on-chain voting system known as Project Catalyst, where ADA holders decide how treasury resources are allocated.

Hoskinson proposes a treasury bond model for project funding

Though he didn’t abandon everyone, Hoskinson essentially destroyed the “free treasury money for listings” concept. Rather, he eliminated the concept of repayable bonds, which allow projects to obtain ADA from the Treasury but are loans rather than handouts. When they start earning money or secure some revenue, it’s time to repay it. 

In the past, Cardano has encountered opposition to ideas about the Treasury. Concerns about dangers and centralization led to the recent rejection of an attempt to convert a portion of the sovereign wealth fund into stablecoins.

There is still a lot of interest in ecology despite the controversy. There is growing anticipation for the Midnight Glacier Drop, an airdrop connected to the Midnight project. The Rare Evo conference, which is scheduled for later this quarter, is anticipated to provide the official launch date.