| Status | Selection Complete |
|---|---|
| Dates | Applications opened August 2026 and are closed; selection announced 24 September 2026; teams have up to 3 months to launch on mainnet. |
| Eligible applicants | Product teams only |
| Funding type | Milestone and adoption-based grants (ada) |
| Total fund (official apply page) | 2.5M ada |
| Per project | 50–200k ada |
| Teams targeted | 10–15 |
| Paid upfront | 40% |
Figures quoted from the official apply page as of 2026-11-05. Another official page (cardano.org glossary) describes a 2M ada pilot; check the apply page for the authoritative figure.
Integration themes
- Oracles
- Stablecoins
- Programmable tokens (CIP-0113)
- On-chain identity (CIP-0170)
How projects were selected
Community curation, then a decision panel (35 active panelists: 28 community, 7 Cardano Foundation) scoring business 70 points and technical 30 points. No public community vote in this pilot.
Payment structure
- 40% at grant start after onboarding
- Up to 40% for adoption, proportional to qualifying usage vs declared target
- 20% for sustained activity, assessed about two months after the adoption window
- Bonus of up to 50% for top performers (the apply page says up to four projects; the results blog says the three best-performing)
Stages
- Application
- Community Curation
- Panel Assessment
- Selection
- Onboarding
- Product Development Current stage
- Adoption Evaluation
- Sustained Usage Evaluation
The Pilot's rules are a trial and are not confirmed for future programmes.