Pogun: Capital Without Compromise
*Proposal as pdf: https://ipnso-com.ipns.dweb.link/?cid=bafybeibbrhuis55rl52hsp5rboooobjg4rvq7q5ly2mern7s7f3xcbjzwi* Bitcoin is a \$1.5T asset with virtually no native DeFi infrastructure. The race to become the dominant credit and liquidity layer for BTC is the largest open market opportunity in crypto. Pogun is an end-to-end Bitcoin liquidity and credit engine built to position Cardano as the definitive home of Bitcoin DeFi. Demonstrating our commitment to the proper use of public funds, Pogun will return 20% of EBITDA to the Cardano Treasury until the initial funding is repaid. This will be followed by an ongoing 5% perpetual return. Pogun delivers three integrated components: * **Credit Market (Q2 2026)** - A non-margin peer-to-peer credit market. A fully on-chain, oracle-free lending protocol where collateral is only at risk upon default, not price fluctuations. * **Yield (Q3 2026)** - A deposit-and-earn layer that routes user capital into yield-generating strategies across private credit, RWAs, and structured fixed-income products. * **Bridge (Q4 2026)** - BitVM-powered trust-minimized bridge providing 1-of-N security for institutional-grade Bitcoin custody: bridge BTC to Cardano, borrow against it, and earn without surrendering custody of the underlying asset. To execute this roadmap, this treasury withdrawal requests ₳12.29M (equivalent to \$2.95M USD at a reference rate of \$.24/₳).
Reasoning
Written after the vote was cast
What this asks for, and from whom
Pogun asked for 12,290,000 ADA under the banner of capital without compromise.
What would have to be true for this to be a good use of treasury funds
Capital formation tools that keep builders from surrendering control to outside investors serve the ecosystem, if they work and if the terms are genuinely better than what exists.
What specifically concerns me
Financial infrastructure proposals at this size need a demonstrated user base, and my standing concern applies: capital deployment vehicles are commercial by nature and usually have private funding available to them.
What I am asking of the proposer if this passes
It was dropped. The bar for anything that touches capital allocation should be a track record of allocating capital successfully. Bring that and the conversation changes.