nate 💳

My thoughts on a Cardano conference takeover blueprint, based on our unified Cardano presence at Token2049 Singapore and merging @IOHK_Charles ideas from his recent @jasonappleton (Crypto Crow) interview. If you haven’t seen it, watch 2 mins in where he talks Token2049 takeover, @InputOutputHK event planning learnings, and the 2026 approach. The blueprint for future global activations hinges on three areas: Cardano conference takeover, Community, Developer and Governance and VIP/Investor engagement. Each drives different KPIs and targets distinct audiences: Retail, Developers, and Investors. Example events include @token2049 , Bitcoin 2026, @consensus2026 , Abu Dhabi Finance Week, plus a few other valuable ones I personally added.

@Padierfind Inspired by Timothy? 😂

First Bald-Patrick presentation today. Nice.

Well done to the teams involved for pulling this together on behalf of Cardano

An update on our engagement with @Mastercard. While Cardano was not included in the initial cohort of 85 launch partners, @emurgo_io has been actively engaging with their APAC team to change that and ensure our ecosystem is represented. Following a leadership transition at Mastercard APAC —where our primary contact moved to EY — we have successfully connected with his successors. They were excited to speak with us and I am pleased to share we are now in the Qualification Stage for the Global Crypto Partner Program. With the continued support of the Cardano community, I am confident in a positive outcome. This important: Please like and share to show @Mastercard the strength of our ecosystem. Mastercard is a global firm.. we need to show them that our inclusion into their Partner Program will make a difference to them. Surely this is an initiative the entire Cardano ecosystem can support! #cardano86 Let's go!!! #cardano #mastercard @Cardano_CF @Cardano @IOGroup @midnightfdn

Join us in Tokyo for this panel session on RWA Tokenisation at @teamz_inc

@USDKG_Official @sakuraslife @teamz_inc Looking forward to joining the stage with you

We are proud to announce that @sakuraslife, Deputy CEO for International Cooperation at Gold Dollar $USDKG, will be speaking at @teamz_inc Summit in Tokyo. Panel: Tokenizing the Real World - Unlocking the Trillion-Dollar RWA Opportunity April 8 | 17:00–17:30 Joining: @emurgo_io (@nateacton) @angryeasily (@midaslabsxyz) Andrea Perin (@bancaditalia) @Krastus101 (@aetheriumX_fun) We are looking forward to the discussion on how tokenized real-world assets are shaping global financial infrastructure

Not sure why I am picking on this one, but that's a good opportunity to give a fair shot at: what has @Cardano_CF done in the past 12 months (give or take)? So, in no particular order: *inhale* - Organised the Cardano Summit 2025 in Berlin attended by ~1000 Cardano enthusiasts (and even more online). - Timely voted on every single governance proposals with clear rationale. - Sponsored the third Buidler Fest in Buenos Aires, with 10 builders from CF attending, 5 of which gave talks or organized discussions. - Continued improving and providing free access to a governance voting tool (voting.cardanofoundation.org) for all DReps and CC members alike. - Revamped, restructured and completed the developers portal (developers.cardano.org) to reduce barrier to entry for newcomers. - Assisted IOG and SPOs during the November incident, providing network monitoring data and tools instrumental to the recovery. - Sponsored and facilitated access to Antithesis (antithesis.com) an advanced platform for system-wide property-based testing. - Minted $1,000,000 USDA to support DeFi liquidity on Cardano. - Organised and hosted ~25 roundtables (youtube.com/watch?v=BQI_Je…) and ~4 SPO roundtables (youtube.com/watch?v=9IjDL4…) with community members to talk and debate about Cardano's burning topics. - Released the Veridian identity wallet into Android and iOS app stores. - Conducted the 4th annual Cardano Developer Ecosystem Survey (cardano-foundation.github.io/state-of-the-d…) compiling useful insights from a large sample of Cardano developers. - Developed and curated Cardano Events (cardano.org/events/) to make Cardano events more easily discoverable. - Actively participated in most Intersect committees, following community elections, such as: the Intersect Steering Committee, the Civics Committee, the Product Committee, the Technical Steering Committee, the Open Source Committee, the Budget Committee and the Growth and Marketing Committee. - Launched the Cardano Venture Hub (cardanofoundation.org/en/academy/ven…), with the first cohort going through an acceleration program *right now*. - Worked with DFX & BrickTowers to integrate ADA as a payment solution (cardanofoundation.org/blog/ada-accep…) in supermarket PoS. - Developed and deployed the necessary off-chain infrastructure for programmable tokens (CIP-113) while contributing to evolution of the underlying sub-standards (cardanofoundation.org/blog/programma…). - Continued the work on the IBC bridge (github.com/cardano-founda…) to connect Cardano to the Cosmos ecosystem (and to any IBC-compatible chain really). - Maintained and further developed a variety of Open Source projects, such as (but not limited to): Aiken, Yaci (store and devkit), Ogmios, Kupo, cardano-wallet, cardano-addresses, elm-cardano, Originate, Rosetta, - Published 'I Can Aiken' book on book.io (book.io/book/i-can-aik…), a complete/end-to-end course on Aiken. - Recorded various episodes of the 'Let's Talk Cardano' podcast (open.spotify.com/show/6bLMheFsI…). - Published 9 case studies (cardanofoundation.org/case-studies) of businesses integrating with Cardano. - Answered and defended Cardano to various regulators and institutions such as the SEC Crypto Task Force, the European Data Protection Board or the Financial Conduct Authority on the regulation of crypto-asset activities. - Initiated and supported the development of Konduit: an open source, trustless L2 protocol that connects Cardano and the Bitcoin Lightning network. (konduit.channel) - Attended crypto and blockchain events all along the year to ensure Cardano presence everywhere: Rare Evo, Paris Blockchain Week, Women-in-Tech summit, Azteca 2025, Blockchain Rio, Buidler Fest 2026, JCon, Digital Assets Forum, Teamz summit, ... - Supported the development of Amaru, an alternative Cardano node, by allocating 2 engineers to the project, improving Cardano's resilience and decentralisation. - Published a full financial report of the foundation's accounting directly on Cardano, while providing the tool and methodology to do so entirely as open source (cardano.org/news/2025-07-0…) - Assisted hundreds of exchanges in their Cardano onboarding or upgrades, especially when the network gets a little bumpy. - Kept running Cardano bootstrapping relays still (unfortunately) necessary to ensure Cardano's dynamic availability until the complete roll-out of Ouroboros Genesis. - Welcomed and on-boarded various Cardano ambassadors to the ambassador program. - Worked alongside IOG, EMURGO, Intersect and the Midnight Foundation as *the Pentad* to integrate top industry actors with the Cardano ecosystem such as: USDCx, Pyth or Layer 0. - Exposed ten of thousands of blockchain enthusiasts to Cardano through the Binance Academy course on fundamentals (binance.com/en/academy/tra…) - Helped hundred of builders get started or unstuck on Cardano through the various community channels (X, discord, Github, Reddit, ...) - Contributed and helped getting to "last check" three important CIPs such as CIP-0113 (Programmable token-like assets), CIP-0170 (KERI-backed metadata attestations) or CIP-0171 (On-chain Smart Contract Bytecode Verification). And... I'll stop here knowing very well I am forgetting many things (my apologies to the efforts I forgot), there's just too much.

Tokenizing RWAs has moved well beyond the whitepaper stage and is rapidly becoming one of the decade’s biggest capital market opportunities. EMURGO VP of Marketing @nateacton will moderate a panel on “Tokenizing Real World Assets (RWA): New Multi-Trillion-Dollar Market Opportunities,” featuring speakers across central banking, onchain infrastructure, and digital asset services. Panelists include leaders from @bancaditalia, @midaslabsxyz, @aetheriumX_fun, and @USDKG_Official. 📅 April 8 | 5:00 PM JST | Main Stage

If you bought into the mini Anthropic IPO last week you're now up 18x 🤯 this is just insane this point - $VCX is now trading at $565 - The fund's actual net asset value is $19 per share - Investors are paying ~30x what the underlying holdings are worth A $650 million portfolio of private companies is being valued by the market at nearly $10 billion. To put the premium in perspective: If you buy one share of VCX at $565, you're getting roughly $19 worth of Anthropic, OpenAI, SpaceX, Databricks, and Anduril. The other $546 is pure demand premium. You are literally paying $546 for the privilege of accessing these companies. And people are lining up to do it. Truly insane scenes

📢 The SEABW 2026 stage is open for applications. We are looking for the voices leading the conversation. From regulatory frameworks and institutional adoption to tokenization, stablecoins, AI agents, and base layer infrastructure. If you are pushing Web3 forward in Southeast Asia, the stage is yours. May 20–21. True Icon Hall, Bangkok. #SEABW2026 Submit speaker application via Quick Links on our website. 🔗 seablockchainweek.org

I'd like to share a follow-up from my previous post about the changes to @YoroiWallet . The Yoroi mobile wallet update has been approved by the app stores and is now live on your device. We have removed Yoroi as a one-click option. Surprisingly, the Chrome extension is still pending review. We'll keep you posted. Thank you for your ongoing patience and rest assured our team is moving as quickly as possible. On a separate but related note, @JaromirTesar has invited me to join a discussion to discuss Cardano governance, and I want to acknowledge that publicly. It was a good-faith message and I appreciate it. @ItsDave_ADA and I also connected. These conversations should happen with an open mind and I am happy for them to be on the record. We will also extend the invitation to other active Dreps who care deeply about the ecosystem's direction and can contribute to the discussion. More details, including the outcomes of these forward-thinking discussions, will follow. See changes to the mobile app below.

Hi @ItsDave_ADA, I’m writing this now—on a Sunday—because I saw your post about stepping back from Midnight content. We cannot afford another "Cardano Whale" situation where we lose a vital community voice because of friction or a lack of clarity. I listened to the snippet from @IOHK_Charles. I think he's trying to help diffuse so I am grateful for his ongoing support of @emurgo_io . I had intended to wait until Monday (in Singapore to respond) as I wanted to learn all of the issues that community cared most about. To be honest, I know I won't be able to satisfy everyone. There are some people who just want to see us fail (or just post for memes or attention). But... You, Cardano Yoda @JaromirTesar , and others are the reason this ecosystem has a soul. You fight because you care, and you’re pushing for something the "real world" rarely offers: true transparency and fairness. I want you to know that I don’t just hear you; I recognize the validity of what you’re and others like @dori_coin are saying. To be completely candid, I have been having active discussions with the Cardano Foundation @Cardano_CF about the very issues you’ve raised. I’ve been contemplating capping or even reducing Emurgo’s voting power to ensure we don’t become a point of centralization. Fred @F_Gregaard can attest to this—in fact, he recently directed me to a university professor specializing in blockchain governance. I spoke with him last week and asked him the same tough questions you’re asking me. His response actually surprised me, and it's changed how I'm looking at the problem. There is a formal paper coming out in a couple of months that explores this exact dynamic on Cardano. While I know that feels "too late" for the current heat of the moment, I’ve committed to having Yoroi participate in the study so we can use data, not just intuition, to fix this. To address your two main points directly: Decentralization & Emurgo's Power: I agree that a founding entity holding too much sway is antithetical to our core tenets. I am open to concessions here. Still there has to be a place for casual ADA holders to delegate to DReps who actually vote (everytime), who provide rationales, and who can be held accountable (like what you are doing now). For better or worse, we are one of those places. Still, I think the more important concession to make is the one below. Yoroi UI/UX: You are 100% right. It should be easier to find and select diverse DReps. We shouldn't be "defaulting" into a position of power through better placement; the tech should empower community choice. I believe @Cerkoryn even wrote some scripts on this. My tech team told me about so we are looking into it. What I will tell you is this... I will commit to building an easier governance centre for @YoroiWallet where choosing other DRep is at least a drop down menu or click. I will direct a squad on Monday to review @Cerkoryn scripts and if they are easy to implement (and back tested as safety is the most important thing for a wallet), we will either work to deploy them or do better. I will also put a pause (by disabling the delegation) on @YoroiWallet accumulating any more voting power until the governance centre is complete. I am not a technologist so I don't know if that requires us to resubmit to Apple Store or Google Play, so I will get you an update on Monday after I speak with the tech team. I just need you to know the intent is there. The governance centre will take a couple of sprints but I will publicly commit to fixing it. I also have a serious ask for you @ItsDave_ADA @JaromirTesar and others in the community: once we address the above Emurgo, how do we address the rest of the top 25? Alliances will form or have formed. Outside entities will enter who may not have best interest of the community at heart. If we don't solve the underlying mechanism, we’re just kicking the can down the road until a truly malevolent actor comes along to extract value. Furthermore, how do we reach the 75% who don't vote? If they stay silent, the fate of Cardano is left to 10–15 DReps —which I know is the last thing you want. The professor shared that voter apathy is actually the biggest issue to governance. We see this IRL too. Anyways, that's for another day. Next Steps: Let's talk IRL: Twitter is great for a voice, but irl is where we solve problems. I’d like to jump on a call with you to dive deeper. Feel free to DM me. I can do the same. I sincerely hope you are willing to talk. We are not fully AI bots yet. :) Open Table: We should invite Cardano Yoda and whoever else you feel brings a fresh, open-minded perspective. I actually welcome it and we should record it so it's on the record. Common Ground: Our goal is the same—a Cardano where founding entities matter less over time, and the community matters more. You aren't on a witch hunt; you're vested in our success. I see this clearly. Let’s work together to make sure that success is actually decentralized.

@CardanoSummit @Cardano_CF 🙌

It's coming.

A new way to experience Midnight is coming… Introducing Midnight City Simulation, a world where you can experience rational privacy for the first time. Early access opens soon 👉 midnight.city

ICYMI: @IOHK_Charles shares how Midnight will accomplish what the first three generations of blockchain couldn’t: privacy that works, identity that scales, and cooperation that accelerates adoption. Full breakdown below 👇 youtube.com/watch?v=TMGkYE…

@Padierfind Nothing wrong with that 😁

No one told me that getting autistic girlfriend would mean I have to look at Pokemon card collections.

@JaromirTesar Thank you for creating this, it would be interesting to see the sum of distribution of delegation within each of the Dreps to understand the holistic picture. For example, Yoroi has over 18k delegators given the wallet access point for many ADA holders

Top 10 DReps vs. the rest. Over 1000 DReps have been registered, but the top 10 DReps control 46,7% of voting power.

@planetmaaz @phil_uplc IO took on the commercial contract with Circle, allthough we would have strongly preferred not to. We are working to push fees towards zero. In no way is this a profit-making endeavor, and we may not even recoup our minimum costs.

It's been extraordinarily beneficial being off X for the past two months, leaving the heavy lifting to AI and intermediaries. I haven't missed the cynical bad faith and endless drama this platform spreads, nor the pathological inability to feel a win. USDCx was an awesome accomplishment. Alongside so many others in February. I'm glad I got to feel them completely. I look forward to March with much more to come. I'd highly encourage everyone to step away from this platform in exchange for others that don't cause so much mental harm and the destruction of your soul.