Cardano Project Catalyst selects 12 projects for 2 million ADA pilot fund

Cardano’s Project Catalyst has selected 12 projects from 117 applications for its 2026 pilot funding program, which has a grant pool of 2 million ADA and ties most payments to actual network usage.

According to a September 24 announcement, the selections were the program’s first since October 2025 and followed a review process involving community curators and technical and business experts.

The selected projects cover stablecoin payments, decentralized finance, tokenized assets, healthcare, and supply chain tracking. Each team must demonstrate measurable adoption of its proposed integration to qualify for the full grant.

Project Catalyst has funded more than 2,000 proposals since its launch. The latest pilot follows the Cardano Foundation’s takeover of the program earlier this year and introduces a funding model that rewards projects based on their use after deployment.

Cardano Catalyst grants will depend on network activity

Under the new funding structure, selected teams will receive 40% of their approved grant after completing onboarding. Another 40% is tied to adoption targets, while the remaining 20% depends on sustained activity after the initial adoption period.

The final payment will be assessed around two months after the adoption window closes. Three projects with the strongest performance can qualify for bonuses of up to 50% of their grants.

According to the program’s original funding announcement, the Cardano Foundation established the pilot with 2 million ADA to support applications using recently introduced ecosystem tools.

The August application round offered grants ranging from 50,000 ADA to 200,000 ADA per project. Eligible proposals needed to integrate stablecoins, Pyth price feeds, programmable tokens, or blockchain identity systems into existing products.

Unlike previous funding rounds, the pilot does not rely on a public vote by ADA holders. Community experts and a specialist decision panel instead assess applications before selecting recipients.

The program measures adoption through qualifying Cardano network fees generated by external users. Results will be published on a public dashboard under its Proof of Adoption standard.

Selected teams have up to three months to launch their integrations on Cardano mainnet and demonstrate the products at Demo Day.

Funding remains conditional on completing onboarding, meaning selection does not guarantee an immediate payment of the entire approved grant.

Stablecoin payments and lending among selected Cardano projects

Several of the approved projects focus on making Cardano stablecoins usable for payments and financial services.

SyncAI’s anyqr proposal would let Cardano wallet holders pay merchants through local QR codes in 10 countries using USDCx. Participating businesses would receive payments in their local currencies.

PagFinance was selected for a separate payment integration involving Brazilian reais. Its proposed service would convert ADA or USDCx into reais through Brazil’s PIX payment network, with settlement tools for businesses.

Cexplorer’s Pay project focuses on merchant checkout services. Businesses would be able to generate invoices and payment links using USDM and USDCx, with payments linked to orders once transactions are confirmed.

VIA Labs received approval for AnyToAny, which would combine cross-chain bridging and token swaps into simpler transactions between Cardano and other networks. Its proposed routes include converting USDC held on exchanges into Cardano-based tokens.

In decentralized finance, House of Titans plans to develop ATLAS, a perpetual trading platform using USDM and USDCx as collateral alongside Pyth oracle price feeds.

Liqwid Labs will work on integrating signed Pyth prices directly into lending transactions. The project focuses on the price information used when users borrow funds or face liquidation.

Cardano’s Pyth oracle integration was previously covered by crypto.news in December 2025, when the network announced its partnership with the market data provider.

Dano Finance was selected to develop a lending feature that allows borrowers to change collateral through a single transaction without first repaying outstanding debt. Its proposal includes opening liquidation participation to independent parties.

L4VA Technologies will develop AI-assisted vault strategies for tokenized real-world assets. Its proposed system uses Pyth prices and USDCx within limits established through governance.

Tokenized assets and identity projects receive funding

Beyond financial applications, four selected proposals cover asset ownership, healthcare credentials, and supply chain records.

Anvil’s Wayup project will introduce programmable transfer rules for tokenized real-world assets. The system would enforce issuer requirements, including buyer eligibility, when secondary market transactions settle.

GreenSun Tech’s OriLife project focuses on agricultural produce. It proposes tokens representing produce ownership, with programmable rules governing transfers between growers and buyers.

Aline Health was selected for a medical travel identity project based on CIP-0170. The system would allow organizations to verify patient credentials without placing medical records directly on the blockchain.

Nucast’s nuhuman proposal focuses on digital identities for industrial robots and shrimp shipments. The project would use signed production records to track processing activity and export batches across a shrimp export operation valued at $60 million in the proposal.

According to Project Catalyst, six of the selected proposals include open source commitments. Three teams have pledged to return a portion of future platform or protocol fee revenue to the Cardano treasury.

The program did not identify the individual revenue-sharing commitments in its September 24 announcement.

Cardano Foundation changes Project Catalyst selection process

The Cardano Foundation took over stewardship of Project Catalyst in 2026 after the program had operated under Input Output Group.

The transition involved changes to previously allocated funding. In its July 2026 update, the Foundation said 19,498,234 ADA earmarked for Fund 15 had been returned to the Cardano treasury, excluding 501,766 ADA reserved for reviewers and moderators.

Another 21 million ADA allocated to Fund 16 and retrospective public goods funding was returned after the associated smart contract was canceled.

The Foundation’s June announcement said the new pilot would use undistributed ADA from previous funding rounds, including funds made available when recipients withdrew or failed to meet project milestones. The pilot therefore did not require a new treasury withdrawal.

The funding program opened for applications in August and closed submissions on August 20.

During the latest selection process, 52 active community curators helped narrow the original 117 applications to 31 proposals for final assessment.

A total of 116 people applied to participate in the decision panel, with 35 ultimately serving as active reviewers. Of those, 28 represented the community and seven came from the Cardano Foundation.

Each shortlisted proposal was assessed by between 11 and 19 panelists, who submitted 466 accepted reviews across the process.

Business considerations accounted for 70 points of the evaluation, while technical assessment carried 30 points. Reviewers examined potential users, the reasons they would adopt an integration, and the applicant’s plans to reach them.

Every proposal that reached the final decision stage was scheduled to receive a private scorecard and written feedback covering its strengths, outstanding questions, and recommended next steps.

The Catalyst team will meet selected applicants to agree on project priorities before onboarding and grant payments begin.