Almost Fully Elected Through Delegates

An unprecedented level of engagement defined Cardano’s most recent governance vote, with nearly all tokens on the network playing a role in the decision-making process.

Statistics shared by Input Output Global (IOG) CTO Romain Pellerin revealed that 99.5% of the 4.657 billion ADA allocated for delegation was used to participate in the voting via the Delegated Representatives system on the platform.

Key Insights

Voting Results Show Strong Support for Proposal

The voting outcomes reflected clear community opinions. From the total ballots cast, 76% or 3.57 billion ADA were in favor of the proposed measure, while 918 million votes were against it, and 169 million expressed no confidence. A tiny fraction—just 0.5% of the delegated stake—opted not to participate.

This voting event marks a significant advancement in Cardano’s designated “Voltaire governance era,” named after the renowned French Enlightenment thinker.

Understanding Cardano’s Liquid Democracy Framework

Reports from network developers indicate that Cardano employs a “liquid democracy” governance structure, allowing ADA holders to engage flexibly. In this system, token holders can delegate their governance powers to Delegated Representatives (DReps) while retaining full access to their funds.

The voting authority of these representatives corresponds to the amount of ADA allocated to them. Importantly, ADA holders are free to revoke their voting rights anytime, ensuring continuous control over their representation.

DReps participate in voting for various network-wide proposals, including technical updates and treasury allocations.

Recent Hard Fork Activates Full Governance Features

The governance capabilities demonstrated through this vote became fully operational following the completion of the Plomin hard fork in January 2025. This update established essential functions of Cardano’s governance framework, such as treasury withdrawals, and formalized the role of DReps within the ecosystem.

Following this technical update, ADA holders had multiple options for participation. They could directly vote on proposals, delegate their voting power to a DRep they select, abstain altogether, or express a formal no-confidence vote.

One key design consideration highlighted by developers was to maintain unchanged staking rewards for ADA holders who chose not to participate in governance, reflecting practices prior to the hard fork and facilitating a smooth transition to the new governance framework.

The impressive turnout for this inaugural critical vote suggests that the community has embraced Cardano’s governance model, merging representative voting with individual token holders’ autonomy.

As of the time of this report, ADA was trading at $0.72, having increased by 15% over the past week, according to recent data.