Hi, this is Charles Hoskinson broadcasting live from warm, sunny Colorado. Always warm, always sunny, sometimes Colorado. I wanted to share a tweet that I just saw and give some context behind it. It's actually an incredibly cool thing.
So, it's from our good friend Dr. Nav. He is the leader of Iagon, which is one of the largest and most prominent Cardano applications. They are doing some super cool stuff and have the potential to be one of the most interesting partner chains long-term, contributing significantly to the industry as a whole. Our problems are their problems, and their problems are our problems, and everybody is working together. This tweet shows that they've done something very significant and meaningful for every single person in the Cardano ecosystem.
I’d like to read it out. He says, "I've been working with Fireblocks integration for a few months, and I want to share why Fireblocks engagement is a major milestone for Cardano and every project issuing CNTs. We have now signed and kicked off integration with Fireblocks to deliver a full Cardano stack for their institutional clients. Fireblocks is building dedicated SDK and tooling around Cardano and CNTs, including support for CNT transfers, balance and history queries, ADA staking and governance, a unified SDK with a simple interface for customers, and a webhook capability so exchanges and institutions can properly monitor ADA and CNT activity. On top of that, Fireblocks will be using Iagon's insights API. That means when a Fireblocks client wants to run Cardano infrastructure or query the Cardano blockchain, they will be able to do so using enterprise-grade nodes and analytics powered by Iagon in the background. Fireblocks today is one of the core infrastructure providers for the institutional side of this industry. Their platform is used by over 2,000 organizations, including names like Revolut and BNY Mellon, and is connected to major trading venues and exchanges such as the Coinbase International Exchange, crypto.com, and Binance US, among others. Many of the banks, fintechs, brokers, custodians, funds, and treasuries that touch digital assets rely on Fireblocks as their operational backbone. This integration is about making Cardano's and CNTs operationally straightforward for serious institutions and about placing Iagon's compute and insight capabilities within that flow. It's a long-term infrastructure play, and I'm confident it will materially change how Cardano is accessed."
Special thanks to michael.ada, global head of technical integrations at the Cardano Foundation, for helping on the technical side. This would not have been possible without you. Fred mentioned this to us during our meeting at Thanksgiving, that this was one of the things in the works. He also posted, "Iagon will be fronting the bill; we'll ask for advancements through the pentad integration proposal."
This is an example of when you create an executive function, other people start adding to it, contributing to the mission and getting things done. We engaged Fireblocks about nine to twelve months ago through the Midnight Foundation when we were talking to Copper, BitGo, and others about CNT support because this was a big component of exchange listings. They were a bit lukewarm at first, but I think they've started warming up quite a bit. It's really cool to see that the Iagon folks were able to get it over the line and finish, getting these guys to a point where they said, "All right, let's do it for Cardano." We always knew there was an inevitability behind it, but somebody had to be the one to kick down the door and make it happen. Sometimes you just have to have that persistence and be willing to show up. Some organizations are easy to work with, while others take a little convincing to get them where they need to be.
We’re incredibly proud, and we think this is a huge win for the Cardano ecosystem. It's also a significant win for the Iagon team as a whole because not only is that integration there, but there is a consumer and provider aspect to it. When an integration happens, one of the primary concerns for the integration provider is who will consume it and whether they will make money outside of just offering the service. They are essentially being asked to build a business into your chain, so who will use that business in the chain?
This is relevant for exchanges because typically, exchanges like crypto.com or others do not self-custody. They use these types of providers to hold onto their clients' assets for security purposes. If you want to get listed on the exchange, you need the custodian to do that, which is why we pushed so hard for Copper, among others, because it was necessary for some of our listing plans with Midnight. You’ll notice that we’re not listed on crypto.com because we actually need Fireblocks for that. Now, this opens up that possibility for everyone else.
The point of the pentad wasn't just about the core five; it's about bringing everybody together. When people can negotiate and do things like this, it's important that they be reimbursed for their time and acknowledged for the great work they’ve done for the community as a whole. I didn’t expect this announcement today; I expected it to come a little later, and we’re incredibly glad that it got over the line. There’s a lot to do, including integrations, audit work, and other tasks.
At least on the IOG side, I can promise the Iagon team that if they need any help or assistance, we’re here. They’re already working with the Cardano Foundation's integration team, which is good, too. They are just as competent, capable, if not more so, than the people on our side. Hopefully, we can get this into the calendar and figure out when it's going to hit and how to ensure that Fireblocks gets some consumption and demand. There are many more integrations to announce and efforts to happen. I suspect that before it’s all said and done, this whole pentad proposal will be pushing forward probably a dozen or so more.
When you look at the totality of it all, we’ll see how many can actually be closed and negotiated with names that people are very excited about. I was expecting just to talk about Pith today, but being able to discuss Fireblocks is a testament to the decentralization and quality of the community as a whole, as well as the quality of some of the projects in this ecosystem, Iagon included.
As a reward to them as a community member, show some love, buy a cyclone, maybe take a slight position in Iagon, become an ambassador for their work, join their social channels, and give them a like and subscribe. They did really well today. This was a huge accomplishment and a massive step forward for Cardano as a whole, showcasing that we’re serious.
In 2026, this is our year. We have Hydra waking up, linear Leos being deployed in the system, Starstream, an incredible DeFi experience, and Midnight, which is already live. All the capabilities are turning on for the Cardano dApps, allowing us to have a significant leap in privacy and Bitcoin DeFi. This is our year to get billions in TVL, millions of new users, and to make crypto simple, easy, and effective for the countless millions coming in. This is our year to grow. Governance is here; we can make big and small decisions and recover from governance changes. We have vibrant, strong, real-world organizations like Intersect. This is awesome stuff. It’s working.
We had to go through 2025 to earn the right to have a 2026. So, thanks to all for listening, and congratulations to this team. Again, like and subscribe to all their work, go get yourself some hardware, and start mining. Give some love to that protocol. Good work is good work. These are very tough negotiations with tough counterparties. This was one that kind of slipped through that we wanted to get, and they were slippery and tough. I’m glad that the Iagon team was able to land it and get it done. They accomplished something we couldn’t do, and that’s pretty cool when you think about it.
Overall, the rest are in hand, and we’re feeling pretty good about it and excited. I’m already getting a meeting set up with Jared Jack to talk to Dr. Nav, ensuring they’re part of the bigger family. There will be a few other stragglers negotiating various things, small and large. We’re trying to close some bigger deals, creating a collaborative model where people know where to go and how to interact to create collective bargaining and strength in numbers.
We also need to figure out how to create a whole end-to-end launch plan. Pith was just announced today, but it’s not enough just to have Pith; we have to do a pithathon and a hackathon. Santiago will probably take that in March, where we get Cardano dApps to build something with Pith on the Cardano network, showing demand and use cases for them to consider. This is a sign of good faith to the providers, demonstrating that the Cardano ecosystem wants to use their tools, will consume their services, and create demand for the integrations that come in.
That’s equally important to what’s happening with getting it onto the chain. You can’t just have it on the chain; you need use and utility with it. Thank you, Iagon team, each and every person from the top to the bottom. You deserve this day. We’ll call it Iagon Day. Thanks, guys.
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