Governance ReviewNo. 21Epochs 585 to 58726 Sept 2025 to 11 Oct 2025

The Snek Foundation's ₳5M listing loan budget closes at 65.1%

The Snek Foundation's ₳5M loan budget for exchange listings closed with 65.1% DRep support after two earlier withdrawal requests had failed without an approved budget. The proposed interest rate was 2.44%. The Cardano Foundation recommended a higher rate of 5% to 10%.

65.1%

of DRep power behind the Snek Foundation's ₳5M loan budget, on 163 yes votes to 64 no, with six committee members finding it constitutional

10.5%

of DRep power behind Cardano in Oceania's ₳778,000 plan, on 47 yes votes to 94 no, with six of the seven committee members finding it constitutional

₳5.66B

delegated to DReps at epoch 586, the highest reading up to then, held by 861 DReps

₳78.0M

of the ₳350M ceiling still unused at epoch 587, with nothing paid out since epoch 578

The Snek Foundation’s ₳5M loan budget closes at 65.1%

Budget: ₳5M Loan for Cardano’s Global Listing Expansion - Powered by Snek closed at the start of epoch 587 with 65.1% of DRep power behind it, on 163 yes votes, 64 no and 17 abstain. Six committee members found the budget constitutional, while the Cardano Japan Council abstained.

The Snek Foundation and Intersect filed the budget in epoch 580, after the two withdrawal requests of the review of epochs 579 to 581 expired, and it asks for the ₳5M as a loan rather than a grant.

The loan would carry interest of 2.44% a year. Under its terms repayment must begin no later than the last day of the third year, when an independent audit sets the schedule for the rest, and principal and interest must be repaid within five years of the payment, under a loan agreement administered by Intersect. The money would pay for listing the SNEK token on centralised exchanges and retail brokers, liquidity for its ada pairs and legal and compliance costs, with a board of advisors that includes Tal Cohen, formerly chief executive of Kraken US, Frederik Gregaard of the Cardano Foundation and Phillip Pon of EMURGO.

Yoroi W₳llet voted yes, calling it “the first loan-based Treasury request” and writing that SNEK had already self funded $4.5M and secured listings on Kraken, Crypto.com and KuCoin. YUTA voted yes, writing that the Snek team’s snek.fun had 749,811 transactions in a year, second only to Minswap v2, and an estimated ₳1.44M of annual revenue on TapTools figures, “a source of loan repayment”. The Eternl DRep Committee voted yes, writing that the intention to repay “with a clearly defined schedule is what makes this proposal a no brainer”, and CryptoCrow that listings are “a solid boon” for native assets. The Cardano Foundation voted yes, disclosed its chief executive’s seat on the board, and listed a public loan agreement and a cost breakdown among its non-negotiable requirements for the later withdrawal, recommending an interest rate of 5 to 10% instead of 2.44%.

SASA_nagamaru_ながまる voted no, writing that success was defined only as “achieving listings” or “increasing liquidity” with no numerical targets, that no cash flow forecast showed several million ada could be repaid, and that if repayments were missed “the Treasury effectively provides an unsecured loan and the community absorbs all the risk”. CardanoYoda (MANDA Pool) voted no, writing that SNEK’s existing listings had traded $88,000 in one day on Kraken, $30,000 on KuCoin and $2,000 on Crypto.com, and had lifted on chain activity only in “a short-term spike”.

The Snek loan budget and Cardano in Oceania, in delegated ada

Bars show the votes cast, in delegated ada

YesNoAbstain

On Cardano in Oceania more ada abstained than voted either way. The bars show votes cast only, and each share also counts power that did not vote on the no side. Both are information actions, which carry no approval threshold on chain.

Cardano in Oceania’s ₳778,000 plan closes at 10.5%

Cardano in Oceania closed at the start of epoch 586 with 10.5% of DRep power behind it, on 47 yes votes to 94 no and 33 abstain, and six of the seven committee members found it constitutional. It asked the community for ₳778,000 for training and mentoring local advocates, a hackathon, meetups, governance workshops and marketing across Oceania, released milestone by milestone by Selfdriven Services as administrator, with a disputed milestone open to appeal to the DReps through an information action. Its document lists no author.

Yoroi abstained, writing that the plan’s focus on events, hackathons and community activities seemed better suited to Catalyst, and YUTA voted no, writing that it would be more appropriate to start with a smaller budget through Catalyst and that “many similar initiatives have received funding in the past, yet few have delivered clear, measurable outcomes”. EMURGO abstained, writing that it was advancing “a unified global marketing initiative”, and recommended exploring with Intersect whether the activities could be folded into the unified marketing plan for 2026. The Cardano Foundation voted yes, calling the plan “strategically sound”, and asked for a narrower focus and baseline data before any withdrawal. CardanoYoda voted no, writing that 37 of 39 recent proposals had been approved, many for booths and marketing, and that projects in the same category “should be submitted and reviewed together” so that they compete. hix_coffeepool☕️ voted no, writing that the plan did not say who would receive and manage the money.

Constitution v2.3 is filed in epoch 586

CARDANO BLOCKCHAIN ECOSYSTEM CONSTITUTION v2.3 was filed in epoch 586 and kept a change v2.0 had proposed before it expired at the start of epoch 581: removing the budget information action as a separate step before a treasury withdrawal and folding its requirements into the withdrawal itself. It would also add definitions, require proposal documents to stay immutable and apply treasury audit safeguards to every withdrawal. Its deadline was the start of epoch 593.

The stablecoin budget, strategy draft and GovTool withdrawal stay open

Stablecoin DeFi Liquidity Budget, Defining the Cardano 2030 Vision & Strategy and Withdraw ₳1,150,000 for GovTool 12 months active maintenance and development were still open at the close, with deadlines at the start of epochs 589, 590 and 591.

The window recorded 309 votes, 294 from DReps, 6 from pools and 9 from committee members, with final votes from 117 distinct DReps. The power delegated to DReps reached ₳5.66B at epoch 586, the highest reading up to then, across 861 DReps. The count of DReps with a vote in the last 12 epochs fell from 341 to 316. The treasury reading rose ₳8.2M to ₳1.61B. Nothing had been paid from it since epoch 578, and ₳78.0M of the ₳350M ceiling, which runs to the end of epoch 604, remained unused.

Decided in this window

Action	Outcome	DRep yes
Cardano in Oceania: A community-led strategic plan for investing in growth.	Closed 586	10.5%
Budget: ₳5M Loan for Cardano's Global Listing Expansion - Powered by Snek	Closed 587	65.1%

Open at the close of the window

Action	Amount	Status	DRep yes
CARDANO BLOCKCHAIN ECOSYSTEM CONSTITUTION v2.3		Voting ends at the start of epoch 593	n/a
Stablecoin DeFi Liquidity Budget		Voting ends at the start of epoch 589	n/a
Defining the Cardano 2030 Vision & Strategy		Voting ends at the start of epoch 590	n/a
Withdraw ₳1,150,000 for GovTool 12 months active maintenance and development	₳1.2M	Voting ends at the start of epoch 591	n/a

n/a: the record holds no DRep share from inside this window for this action, only a tally read after it closed.

The numbers behind the window

Delegated to DReps, at the start of epoch 585: ₳5.64B
Delegated to DReps, at the start of epoch 587: ₳5.62B
Votes cast in the window, superseded votes included: 309
DReps whose final vote fell in the window: 117
Treasury, at the start of epoch 585: ₳1,597.4M
Treasury, at the start of epoch 587: ₳1,605.5M

DRep shares are the share of counted power: abstaining power is left out, while power that did not vote and power delegated to the always no confidence option are folded into the no side. Committee shares are yes votes over the members active at the decision minus those who abstained.
That the loan budget drew more support than the two withdrawal requests before it is a comparison of two results. The rationales quoted are the voters' accounts of this vote, cited under the sources below, and are not read as explanations of their earlier votes.
The loan terms, what the regional plan asked for and what the two revisions of the constitution would change are read from their own documents, named under the sources below. Nothing about the loan is verified beyond what its own text promises. The committee reason for the earlier withdrawal requests is the published rationale of the Eastern Cardano Council on the larger one: the other six members voted the same way without one being quoted here.
None of the four proposals open at the close is decided here, so this edition gives no share for any of them from inside this window, and the table shows none.
The count of DReps with a recent vote is a rolling twelve epoch measure, so it falls as older votes age out of the window whether or not anyone stops voting. Votes cast is every vote of epochs 585 to 587 across all three roles, superseded votes included, and per epoch DRep counts exclude votes without a block time. Delegated power excludes the predefined delegation options. The ceiling in force runs to the end of epoch 604, which is not the end epoch the site registry carries today.

Sources and further reading

20 sources, open the list

Yoroi voted yes on the loan budget, writing that it is the first loan based treasury request, complementing the grant model with repayment at 2.44% a year, and that SNEK had already self funded $4.5M and secured listings on Kraken, Crypto.com and KuCoin. the rationale of Yoroi on the loan budget
YUTA voted yes on the loan budget, writing that the Snek team's snek.fun has a proven ability to generate revenue, with 749,811 transactions a year, second only to Minswap v2, and an estimated 1,437,600 ada of annual revenue based on TapTools, which it took as a source of loan repayment. the rationale of YUTA on the loan budget
The Eternl DRep Committee voted yes on the loan budget, writing that the SNEK team has a track record of delivering and that its intention to repay the treasury on a clearly defined schedule made the proposal a no brainer. the rationale of the Eternl DRep Committee on the loan budget
CryptoCrow voted yes on the loan budget, writing that exchange listings are a solid boon for Cardano native assets and that the token had been a key figure in the ecosystem for years. the rationale of CryptoCrow on the loan budget
The Cardano Foundation voted yes on the loan budget, disclosed that its chief executive Frederik Gregaard sits on the proposal's advisory board, listed a public loan agreement and a high level cost breakdown among its non-negotiable requirements for supporting a later withdrawal, and recommended an interest rate of 5 to 10% a year in place of the proposed 2.44% for a loan without collateral. the rationale of the Cardano Foundation on the loan budget
SASA voted no on the loan budget, writing that the model is innovative, but that ₳5M is a heavy burden, that success is defined only as achieving listings or increasing liquidity with no numerical targets, that no cash flow forecast shows the sum can be repaid, and that if repayments are missed the treasury has made an unsecured loan and the community absorbs the risk. the rationale of SASA on the loan budget
CardanoYoda voted no on the loan budget, writing that the Snek Foundation had already invested $4.5M in listings on centralised exchanges, that the trading volumes were underwhelming, $88,000 on Kraken, $30,000 on KuCoin and $2,000 on Crypto.com over one day, and that the listings had lifted on chain activity only in a short term spike before the numbers returned to previous levels. the rationale of CardanoYoda on the loan budget
YUTA voted no on the regional plan, writing that it would be more appropriate to start with a smaller budget through Catalyst, and that many similar initiatives had received funding in the past while few delivered clear, measurable outcomes. the rationale of YUTA on the regional plan
Yoroi abstained on the regional plan, writing that its focus on events, hackathons and community activities seemed better suited to Catalyst. the rationale of Yoroi on the regional plan
EMURGO abstained on the regional plan, writing that it was advancing a unified global marketing initiative, and recommended connecting with Intersect to explore folding the activities into the unified marketing plan for 2026. the rationale of EMURGO on the regional plan
The Cardano Foundation voted yes on the regional plan, calling it strategically sound, and recommended a narrower focus and baseline data for the region before any withdrawal. the rationale of the Cardano Foundation on the regional plan
CardanoYoda voted no on the regional plan, writing that 37 of 39 recent proposals had been approved, many for booths, marketing and local communities, and that projects in the same category should be submitted and reviewed together so that they compete. the rationale of CardanoYoda on the regional plan
hix_coffeepool☕️ voted no on the regional plan, writing that it did not clearly identify who would receive and manage the funds. the rationale of hix_coffeepool☕️ on the regional plan
Hephaestus Stake Pool voted yes on the regional plan, writing that the plan's website gives team, supporter and administrator details, and naming Selfdriven Services as its administrator. the rationale of Hephaestus Stake Pool on the regional plan
The loan budget lists the Snek Foundation and Intersect as authors and asks for 5,000,000 ada as a loan rather than a grant, at interest of 2.44% a year, the average staking reward rate plus 0.07%. It says repayment must commence no later than the last day of year three, when an independent audit reviews the repayments made and sets a schedule for the rest, and principal and interest must be repaid in full within five years of disbursement, under a binding loan agreement administered by Intersect. The money is for listings of the SNEK token on centralised exchanges, retail brokers and trading platforms, liquidity and market making for its ada pairs, and legal and compliance costs, with a board of advisors that includes Tal Cohen, Frederik Gregaard of the Cardano Foundation, Phillip Pon of EMURGO, Fahmi Syed of the Midnight Foundation and the chief executive of the Snek Foundation. the document behind the loan budget
Tal Cohen is the former chief executive of Kraken US. GoMining on Tal Cohen joining its advisory board
The document behind the regional plan lists no author and asks for 778,000 ada for training and mentoring local advocates, a hackathon, meetups, governance workshops and marketing in Oceania, released milestone by milestone by Selfdriven Services as administrator, with disputes over a milestone open to appeal by an information action put to the DReps. the document behind the regional plan
The Eastern Cardano Council voted no on the larger of the two earlier withdrawal requests for the same plan, finding it unconstitutional because the constitution permits no withdrawal that is not made under a budget then in effect, and the request had no budget information action associated with it. the published rationale of the Eastern Cardano Council on the larger listing request
The document behind constitution v2.0 lists among its major changes the removal of the budget information action requirement for treasury withdrawals. the document behind constitution v2.0
The document behind the next revision says it would remove the budget information action mechanism, absorbing its requirements into treasury withdrawal actions. It would also drop provisions it calls aspirational rather than enforceable, add definitions, require proposal documents to stay immutable, and apply treasury audit safeguards to every withdrawal: the requirements to appoint independent auditors and publish annual reports, designate administrators and keep funds in auditable separate accounts, which previously applied only to withdrawals above 1,000,000 ada in a two year period, would become general. the document behind the next revision