CB DAO 1 Year Progress

5/19/2026

As Cardano continues through its era of on-chain governance, decentralized autonomous organizations are becoming an important way to direct treasury funding toward essential projects and services across the ecosystem. DAOs can help make funding more efficient by giving active ecosystem participants a structured way to review proposals, support builders, measure progress, and improve accountability over time.

Cardano Builder DAO has been a strong example of how this model can work when funding is focused on live projects, measurable KPIs, community participation, and services that help retain users, developers, and liquidity on the network.

In this article, we’ll explore how things have gone so far for Cardano Builder DAO, what can be improved, and more.

CB DAO Treasury Proposal

Cardano Builder DAO was started during the spring of 2025 following a lengthy process to properly set up and formalize the DAO. Later that year, it submitted its first Cardano Treasury Proposal. Later that year, it submitted its first Cardano Treasury Proposal, seeking 12 million ADA in funding to support builders and innovation across the network’s ecosystem.

This proposal was designed to allow member projects to work toward goals that support and improve Cardano’s ecosystem by contributing to key performance indicators (KPIs), including increased on-chain activity, Total Value Locked (TVL), adoption, and more.

The treasury withdrawal is to be administered by Intersect, with project delivery, milestones, acceptance criteria, payment amounts, and expected delivery dates agreed upon between the vendor and Intersect on behalf of Cardano Development Holdings.

The DAO is designed to fill a gap in ongoing support for live, user-facing products and services that are already contributing to Cardano’s real usage, transaction volume, and ecosystem engagement. Through a transparent governance framework, accountability mechanisms, and a metrics-first funding approach, CB DAO aims to help established builders scale sustainably while continuing to contribute to Cardano’s long-term growth.

CB DAO Round 1

Once the proposal passed the Cardano governance process, an internal CB DAO member vote took place, which determined 20 out of 27 initial requesting members of the decentralized autonomous organization would receive funding. The round recorded 1,285 votes, produced over 1,000 comments of dialogue and feedback, and reached an 83% participation rate on funding temperature checks.

In total, 56 governance actions were executed, 21 member meetings were conducted, and 5,541,335 ADA was distributed to approved teams.

Once the DAO started working toward the goals set out in the proposal, it was decided that transparency and accountability could be increased to better align with the ethos of the Cardano network. This led to the creation of a KPI dashboard, making it easier to track the progress of funded DAO members.

In the Round 1 section of the Cardano Builder DAO KPI Dashboard, users can view and track over 70 KPIs that funded members worked to increase over the initial six-month period.

CB DAO Round 2

After a successful first round of CB DAO governance, Cardano Builder DAO moved into Round 2 of its governance roadmap in early 2026. This included the ratification of governing documents, membership votes to expand the DAO, treasury fund migration, and a vote focused on the temperature check voting process.

The DAO then moved into proposal submissions, discussion, and voter diligence. During this phase, projects submitted proposals for potential funding from Cardano Builder DAO, reviewed and discussed other proposals, and provided written feedback on every submission from fellow DAO members.

In total, 29 requesting members submitted proposals to receive funding during the DAO’s second governance round. Of those, 17 projects received a share of 6,000,000 ADA in funding to work toward goals designed to improve the ecosystem and services of the Cardano blockchain.

Round 2 also saw additional changes within the DAO, including a few board members resigning and new members joining the board to fill vacant roles.

Other changes were made to increase fairness within the DAO, including a vote that prevented DAO members from voting for themselves in governance funding rounds. The same change also made board members ineligible to receive funding.

Currently, all funded projects are working toward their outlined KPIs and have submitted their Checkpoint 1 KPI numbers, which can be viewed in the Cardano builder DAO KPI Dashboard.

Lessons Learned & Areas for Improvement

Cardano Builder DAO’s first funding round showed strong demand for a dedicated structure that supports live projects and essential services already contributing to Cardano’s ecosystem.

One of the clearest positives was the high level of participation, with CB DAO seeing some of the strongest engagement of any DAO within the Cardano ecosystem. The addition of a KPI dashboard also helped promote trust and transparency, especially since the first round moved quickly and many KPIs were initially self-reported by participating projects.

As the DAO continues to mature, future rounds could benefit from an even clearer eligibility framework that focuses funding on high-impact projects, essential services, and actively used products that support ecosystem growth. This would help ensure treasury funding continues to flow toward initiatives with measurable contributions to usage, adoption, infrastructure, liquidity, and long-term network value.

The first round also highlighted areas where the governance process could be improved. Board members were allowed to request funding during the initial round, which created a potential conflict of interest that CB DAO later recognized and addressed. An amendment has since been introduced to prevent this from happening again, helping strengthen fairness and credibility in future rounds.

The review and comment process also created a heavy workload for participating companies, as spending days responding to every proposal can take time away from their core mission and product development. Finding ways to preserve thoughtful review while reducing unnecessary operational burden could make the process more efficient for future rounds.

Private voting created another challenge, as it allowed members to vote no without providing rationale. While private voting can help protect independence, future improvements could explore ways to increase accountability and encourage constructive feedback without compromising voter integrity.

Closing Thoughts

Cardano Builder DAO was created to direct treasury funding toward projects that are already helping drive usage, liquidity, development, and retention across Cardano.

That responsibility is not taken lightly, as every ADA distributed from the treasury should be handled with care, accountability, and a clear focus on strengthening the network.

Through its first two rounds, CB DAO has helped active teams continue building through a difficult market while giving the community more visibility into their progress through KPIs and public reporting.

The process has not been perfect, but CB DAO has shown that it puts Cardano first by improving its governance, addressing conflicts, strengthening fairness, and aligning itself with the standards expected from treasury-funded initiatives.

As Cardano governance continues to evolve, CB DAO represents an important experiment in how ecosystem participants can coordinate funding, accountability, and builder support in a more structured way. It will be interesting to see how CB DAO and other initiatives impact Cardano and its ecosystem in the coming months and years.

You can find out more about Cardano Builder DAO here.

KPIs for funded DAO members can be tracked here.

This article is strictly for informational purposes and does not constitute a promotion or financial advice. Our aim is solely to provide users with the latest news and updates within the Cardano ecosystem. All numbers, prices, and statistics presented are provided to the best of our ability, but errors may occur. Always verify independently as well.

We hope this helped you get caught up with the most recent crypto news. If you enjoyed the read make sure to follow TapTools on X and join our Discord.