Matching and innovating blockchain solutions for emerging needs. Ensuring that developers, enterprises, and institutions can build on Cardano requires a technology stack that is secure, predictable, and designed for long-term sustainability, particularly across growing industries, such as decentralized finance (DeFi), Web3, digital identity, and real-world assets (RWA). In 2025, the Cardano Foundation continued to strengthen and expand upon this framework across core elements of the network – from smart contract tooling and node software to identity solutions, oracle infrastructure and interoperability infrastructure, open-source stewardship, and developer enablement. Technical solutions for a changing world Real-world adoption relies on the availability of practical solutions that lower barriers for users, developers, and institutions. Throughout 2025, the Cardano Foundation committed more than ever to achieving this aim and announced updates to our Roadmap that support Cardano’s growing role as public digital infrastructure by continuing our blockchain for good initiatives and simultaneously increasing our efforts in the decentralized finance (DeFi) and Web3 sectors. These initiatives addressed both immediate and long-term needs. The Cardano Foundation Roadmap committed an eight-figure ada amount in liquidity from the Cardano Foundation to key Cardano stablecoin projects through multiple channels to improve access and strengthen essential market pathways. An increased focus on supporting and collaborating with community initiatives aimed at growing Cardano DeFi liquidity and adoption will collect valuable data, which will serve to improve the proposal process. This will be further supported by additional investment in the Foundation’s Web3 adoption team, focusing on integrations, listings, real-world assets (RWA) , and more. As adoption of digital identity solutions expanded globally, so too did the Cardano Foundation’s investment in developing tools to meet this demand. In 2025, the Foundation was proud to launch its identity solution Veridian , a privacy-preserving platform that enables organizations to issue and verify secure digital credentials anchored on Cardano. Built on open, interoperable standards and supported by mobile applications, Veridian was showcased across major global identity forums and tested in sandbox environments for use cases in NGOs, and the healthcare, education, manufacturing and supply chain management industries. These early deployments demonstrate Cardano’s potential to serve as a trusted data layer for institutions requiring high-assurance digital identity infrastructure. Finally, the Cardano Foundation further committed in 2025 to real-world asset solutions , a natural fit for the ecosystem and a space where the Foundation expects to gain momentum. Cardano’s native asset model, deterministic fees, and sustainability profile position it well for RWA adoption, and 2025 saw the launch of a US$10 million asset pool in collaboration with MembersCap . Scaling this category, however, requires the completion and adoption of key standards. The Foundation therefore continued work on proposals such as CIP-0113 and CIP-0143 to enable interoperable, programmable tokens that support more advanced asset structures. In parallel, the Masumi network, developed by the Serviceplan Group and NMKR, partnered with the Foundation to leverage the Cardano blockchain to create a decentralized network of AI agents and progress the adoption of the x402 payments framework, an internet-native standard that simplifies agent-to-agent transactions and broadens the accessibility of Web3 payments for everyday users. 8 Cardano Foundation Activity Report 2025