Apex Growth Accelerator is wrapping up week 2. Week 1 alone: the cohort raced around SF, brought in $4,000 in a sales challenge (the most of any team), pitched for feedback ahead of Demo Day and finished with a survival experience alongside @TimDraper that founders called “life changing.” Some of them are Genesis alumni, back for the next stage. 8 weeks to go with @draper_u and @Cardano_CF. @KenomicAI @raycotarrida @caralvmar, @chatterpay @tomasdm_eth, @AscentRivals: @realgUbGuuB, @Ospree_io: @JavierTamashiro, @origamitech_ @korrom18, @NOMADZxyz @ivan_nomadz @vlad_nomadz, @MentionedMarket @taylorferran, @MasumiNetwork @Padierfind / @samizb @Andytang

UTXO builders, this one's for you 👀 Cardano 🤝 Bitcoin Vegas Come hear @TimDraper speak live and connect with founders, investors, miners, and institutions building the future of UTXO infrastructure.

Cardano Governance Hours This session takes a deep dive into Cardano x Draper Dragon: Orion Fund, together with the proposer. 📅 Thursday, 09 April 16:00 - 17:00 (UTC) 🧵 Open thread for details

This marks the initial phase of the Orion Fund. Our focus is to support ecosystem growth through structured deployment, transparency, and alignment with the broader Cardano community. The real work begins now.

Our investment focus surrounds sectors where Cardano’s architecture can support scalable products and real network usage. From Bitcoin DeFi, RWAs, AI, and more, we’re focused on investing, scaling, and mentoring builders.  Learn more about the proposed Orion Fund:

One of our solutions to derisk the treasury is to require each future tranche to undergo a separate on-chain governance action and review, based on the KPIs delivered in Year 1 via our dashboard. DReps vote again with full visibility into Tranche 1 performance. This is not a single approval for $75M. When Tranche 2 comes around, our public on-chain dashboard and ecosystem KPIs will answer a straightforward question: Is the Orion Fund on track to deliver on the long-term goals, or not? The data will be transparent, and the community will have everything it needs to make that call. The ecosystem outcomes and objectives we are tracking are designed to show whether the fund is materially contributing to Cardano’s growth trajectory: - On-chain activity growth: Are portfolio companies generating measurable increases in transactions, unique addresses, and fee revenue on Cardano? - TVL contribution: What has the fund’s portfolio contributed toward the $3B+ target (RWA $1.5B+ / DeFi $1.5B+)? What percentage of the way are we? (Section 4.3) - Developer and builder pipeline: How many new developers and founders entered the ecosystem through Draper University and the venture studio? Are we on track toward the 7x monthly active developer target? (Section 4.3) - Venture studio output: Were the targeted 1–2 new Cardano-native companies incubated? Were up to 8 existing projects mentored and brought value? What is their on-chain footprint? (Section 5.2) - Accelerator outcomes: Did Hacker House onboard 15 early-stage teams? Did the Growth Accelerator produce 10 investment-ready companies? Are they building on Cardano, and what KPIs do they bring? (Section 5.3) - Institutional and liquidity impact: Has the fund brought new opportunities for exchange listings, liquidity providers, or institutional attention to Cardano-native projects? -Strategic partnerships: What new integrations, institutional relationships, or cross-ecosystem bridges resulted from fund activity? Disclaimer: Please note that our response, including all communications related to the proposal, is made with reference to the disclaimers set forth in Section 12 of the proposal.

Join us this Friday as @samizb from @DraperDragon and @ChrisJoannou__ from @draper_u discuss with builders what it takes to unify Cardano and Bitcoin. 📅 Friday, March 27 🕐 8:00 AM PST 🕐 11:00 AM EST 🕐 4:00 PM CET 🕐 1:00 AM JST (March 28)

I'm bullish on the Cardano x Draper Dragon Orion Fund and what it represents. Let me explain why. If this works, it changes everything about how Cardano funds its own growth. Right now, the treasury sits there. It accumulates ada every epoch, and the only way capital leaves is through grants and budget allocations, one-time payments where the treasury gets nothing back. Even if companies make a profit, there is no upside for the treasury. The Orion Fund flips that. For the first time, the treasury becomes an investor. It puts capital to work, takes equity positions in the companies building on Cardano, and when those companies succeed, the returns flow back. The treasury grows. Not from inflation, not from fees alone, but from owning a piece of the ecosystem it funded. Think about what that means at scale. If Tranche One proves the model, and DReps approve future tranches, you're looking at a treasury that compounds. A treasury that gets stronger the more successful its ecosystem becomes. That's a self-reinforcing cycle no other chain has built. Ethereum doesn't have it. Solana doesn't have it. And once you've proven the template, a regulated fund, a governance-integrated SPV, community oversight, tranche-gated capital, there's nothing stopping Cardano from launching a second fund, a third fund, different managers, different verticals. DeFi fund (arguable the stablecoin defi liquidity budget), RWA fund, infrastructure fund. The Orion Fund isn't just a fund. It's the proof of concept for turning Cardano's treasury into the most sophisticated on-chain capital allocator in crypto. And then there's the ecosystem effect. Draper's exchange relationships mean Cardano-native tokens might get easier listed on Tier 1 exchanges. Their developer pipeline across 100+ countries means builders who never considered Cardano suddenly have a funded, supported path in. The venture studio means projects don't just get money, they get hands-on engineering support from experts. If even a fraction of the portfolio companies hit, Cardano's TVL target of $3B+ stops being aspirational and starts being a floor. More TVL means more fees, more fees mean a bigger treasury, a bigger treasury means more investment capacity. That's the flywheel. The Orion Fund is how you kick-start it.