Developing and maturing adoption- critical technology As adoption accelerates, maturing the technical foundations of the Cardano ecosystem remains essential. In 2025, the Foundation concentrated on the tools and infrastructure that directly determine real-world readiness and system robustness. This included collaboration and deep work with PRAGMA , the member-based, not-for-profit open source association, and the maturation of Aiken , Cardano’s high-level smart contract language, first released in 2024. Having proven to be one of the most impactful solutions ever supported by the Foundation, Aiken continued to evolve in 2025, with a focus on stabilizing and standardizing the Aiken language to drive wider adoption and enterprise readiness. Core efforts include ongoing maintenance and feature development for the Aiken compiler, ensuring the stability and performance necessary for production environments. The release of Aiken Standard Library (stdlib) v3.0.0 marked a significant milestone, providing a robust, foundational set of verified building blocks used by nearly all Aiken smart contracts, which drastically improves code quality and developer efficiency. Aiken also achieved broader recognition across the global open-source ecosystem through its acceptance into GitHub’s Linguist project , increasing visibility, tooling support, and accessibility for teams adopting Cardano for mission-critical applications. Elsewhere, the Cardano Foundation continued to promote and foster operational resilience, including through the advancement of Amaru , a Rust-based node designed for full interoperability with the existing Haskell implementation, contributing to a more distributed and fault-tolerant network architecture. In 2025, Technology continued Amaru delivered several foundational capabilities, including full governance integration – proposals, voting, DReps, and ratification – alongside key networking features such as networking primitives, deterministic execution pipeline, and chain-selection logic. Treasury smart contracts for Amaru’s internal operations were also implemented. Development now focuses on trustless relay optimization, edge deployment for low-cost devices, and a comprehensive simulation testing framework to validate Amaru’s behavior ahead of production use. These efforts enhance the diversity and robustness expected of mature, decentralized systems. Strengthening infrastructure and ongoing developer support The efforts, talents, and enthusiasm of Cardano developers worldwide are paramount to the future of the ecosystem and its adoption. To empower these builders, the Foundation prioritizes accessible, high-quality open- source technology. In 2025, the Foundation expanded its work across a suite of open-source services – including Ogmios, Kupo, Rosetta (Java), Veridian, Cardano Ballot , Tool Compass , Merkle Patricia Tries , Hydra, and Yaci, Yaci Store, Yaci DevKit, and Cardano Client Library – supporting broader interoperability and reinforcing Cardano as a public digital infrastructure. Additionally, supporting developers through clearer documentation and tooling helps to achieve broader experimentation and adoption of Cardano. As such, the Cardano Foundation facilitated a comprehensive update to the Cardano Developer Portal to improve navigation, eliminate redundancy, and introduce practical, scenario-driven guides suitable for new and experienced builders. This restructuring aligns the portal with best practices in developer onboarding and ensures Cardano’s expanding tooling ecosystem is easier to adopt and apply. In 2025, the Cardano Foundation also expanded platform reliability through a series of critical infrastructure initiatives. The launch of the Governance Voting Tool equipped stakeholders with a secure, intuitive mechanism for on- chain participation, reinforcing transparent and accountable decision-making processes. Simultaneously, the user experience across the ecosystem improved through running infrastructure for major decentralized oracles on Cardano, such as Charli3 and Orcfax , and the release of Cardano Ignite , a toolset enabling streamlined deployment of multi-stake-pool test environments with essential services integrated by default. Alongside this technical work, the Foundation provided end-to-end support to major exchanges during the Plomin hard fork. This engagement ensured uninterrupted operations and safeguarded continuity across key market participants. Operational resilience also remains at the core of the Cardano ecosystem, which was proven in real time this year. In November 2025, Cardano demonstrated the resilience of its proof-of-stake architecture and the maturity of its operating model when the network successfully responded to a temporary chain partition incident through rapid, coordinated action across stake pool operators (SPOs), the Cardano Foundation, IOG, EMURGO, Intersect’s security council, and the wider Cardano ecosystem. The chain remained operational throughout, self-repaired as designed under Ouroboros within approximately 14 hours, and reinforced Cardano’s reputation as one of the industry’s most robust and reliable blockchains. Cardano Foundation 2025 spending . % 9 Cardano Foundation Activity Report 2025 1 0 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 0 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 4 0 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 0 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 3 0 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 US$ m RWA Technology investment Asset pool – MembersCap collaboration