Supporting the transition to fully decentralized, on-chain governance to solidify Cardano’s identity as an open public infrastructure. For decentralized networks to serve as public digital infrastructure, governance must provide a predictable, transparent way for millions of participants to shape the protocol’s evolution. In 2025, the Cardano Foundation supported Cardano’s transition to fully decentralized, on-chain governance for the first time. Through coordination with infrastructure partners, refinement of governance frameworks, distribution of voting power, and the introduction of accessible participation tools, the Foundation helped solidify governance as a core pillar of Cardano’s identity as an open public infrastructure. Transitioning to decentralized on-chain governance The Cardano Foundation remains committed to stewarding Cardano toward a fully decentralized governance model and continues to advance this objective. 2025 marked a defining moment in the network’s evolution with the activation of the Plomin hard fork , completing the transition to the governance framework introduced through CIP-1694 . Earlier governance preparations – including the development of CIP-1694 , global constitutional workshops, and the publication of the Our Cardano document – continued to guide the Cardano Foundation’s approach to this pivotal transition. Through active participation in the Intersect Hard Fork working group , the Foundation prepared exchanges and custodians for the upgrade, ensuring their infrastructure could accommodate the new governance mechanisms from day one. This work was an essential step toward enabling secure, confident participation across the broader ecosystem. Throughout the year, the Foundation also maintained a complete public voting record in its roles as both a Delegate Representative (DRep) and a member of the Interim Constitutional Committee (ICC) . However, because the long-term goal is a governance system led by the community, the Foundation chose not to stand for re-election when the Constitutional Committee voting period opened in September. This decision underscores the Cardano Foundation’s belief that resilient governance depends on broad, distributed stewardship rather than reliance on a single entity. Empowering all ada holders to participate in governance also remained a core priority to the Cardano Foundation throughout the year. This included measures to further support and promote greater ecosystem engagement, with several initiatives designed to broaden participation. In parallel, building on the successful delegation of 140 million ada to seven Builder and Developer DReps , the roadmap announced that a further 220 million ada would be delegated to eleven selected DReps from the Adoption and Operations categories, creating additional pathways for informed and active involvement. Governance tooling and accessibility Participation in governance hinges on accessibility and support from all entities tasked with stewarding the Cardano ecosystem, a responsibility the Cardano Foundation continues to treat with the utmost importance and which we placed even greater focus on in 2025. As part of our measures to support informed governance participation, the Foundation introduced several tools designed to reduce barriers to entry and improve clarity in decision-making processes. 12 Cardano Foundation Activity Report 2025