The month in three
Early stake pool operator programme data looked encouraging.On 31 July the data team reported that 84% of stake pool operators (SPOs) in the accelerator programme saw delegation increase, against 17% of a comparable group outside it. Liam Furman said he built the comparison against similarly sized pools that were not taking part.The comparison group was selected internally rather than randomised, covers a short window, and is reported without sample sizes. Past delegation growth gives no indication of future results.
Testnet numbers came in strong. Rob Spitz reported around 3,000 verified testnet wallets on 17 July, with roughly 120 new users a day. Two weeks later Liam put testnet activity at the equivalent of one in seven active Cardano wallets, measured to 31 July.
The cross-chain design was shown in public for the first time. On 24 July the engineering team walked through how Cardano stays the source of truth while users get a native experience on other chains, and demonstrated one click flows that run a whole sequence of steps across several protocols. What was shown is in development, remains subject to change, and depends on completion of security review.
Session 04, 31 July: Data and treasury, with Liam Furman, Olivier and Vlad
Liam Furman leads the data team and previously held data roles at large consumer technology companies. Olivier is building the data platform. Vlad works with the investment and treasury teams.
Liam presented the first three weeks of testnet data. Alongside the SPO result, he reported 339 testnet wallets cryptographically linked to mainnet wallets holding 2.3 million ADA, and named Strik as one of the strongest performers in the programme with around 140,000 ADA in new delegation.
Vlad explained how the treasury thinks about liquidity, which he described as calibrating against known parameters such as settlement windows and redemption terms rather than forecasting market conditions. He said the peg rests on three things: on-chain liquidity in DEX pools, a stability fund, and the underlying asset portfolio.
Liam described the growth flywheel. Deep secondary market liquidity makes DeFi integrations possible, those integrations enable leverage and looping, and that drives total value locked (TVL). The data team also described a transparency portal they are building, which will bring on-chain and off-chain data together in one place.
Session 03, 24 July: Engineering, with Nathan, Jan and Peter
The engineering panel covered the cross-chain design. Cardano stays the source of truth for accounting and staking, while a bridge gives users a native experience on other chains. Jan described a hub and spoke arrangement where actions happen immediately on the other side and state syncs back to Cardano.The design is under development and subject to change.
Jan also showed the practical payoff: one click, one signature flows that run a sequence of steps across several protocols, including looping strategies with partners such as Liquid and Sunday.
Nathan said the protocol is live on Cardano testnet and bridge audits are underway. Audits reduce risk without eliminating it, and no audit is a guarantee that software is free of defects. He said the team has deliberately slowed development ahead of launch to concentrate on security. Open sourcing is on the backlog, GitHub will follow the current Discord work, and bug bounties are planned. These are current intentions rather than commitments. Peter said his near-term focus is the software development kit for partners.
The panel also explained how sUSDR behaves. It is fungible, it trades on decentralised exchanges (DEXs), and staking and unstaking happen at a universal exchange rate. There is no per-token history, so buying sUSDR on a DEX does not carry hidden unclaimed yield. Availability of sUSDr is restricted in certain jurisdictions. See eligibility below.
Session 02, 17 July: Marketing, with Rob Spitz
Rob Spitz introduced himself as a ten year crypto marketer, previously on Ethereum and Solana, now working on Cardano for the first time. Most of the session covered growth since the testnet opened.
He put the emphasis on real participants rather than follower counts. X followers went from around 950 to nearly 3,100 in two weeks. Discord reached nearly 750 verified members against a target of 1,000. The SPO programme drew over 100 applications, with more than 90 SPOs in Discord.
Rob then set out the SPO offer in detail nd pointed participants to the official programme terms. He closed on where the team will show up next: Salt in Wyoming, Token2049 in Singapore, and Abu Dhabi Blockchain Week in December.
Session 01, 10 July: Product, with Clay
Clay, Head of Product, walked through how the protocol works. UUSDr is designed to track the value of one US dollar. sUSDr is the staked version, which is designed to accrue returns.
The yield comes from real world assets rather than crypto strategies, which Clay said should make it steadier across market cycles. He described three asset sleeves: a liquidity layer of T-bills and money market funds, a semi-liquid sleeve, and a direct lending sleeve running on six to twelve month contracts, weighted towards emerging markets. Allocations are indicative and may change.
He also set out the points system. Testnet actions earn R points RealFi currently intends that R points will be recognised in a future distribution of the RFG token, if such a distribution occurs. R points carry no monetary value, confer no rights, cannot be transferred or redeemed, and create no entitlement to any token. No token generation event has been scheduled, and RealFi may amend or cancel the points programme at any time.. Points only vest if a user links their testnet and mainnet wallets and meets a minimum holding on mainnet. Clay described that as an anti-sybil measure.
On security, he said smart contract audits were underway and would finish before mainnet. On regulation, he said sUSDR staking is restricted in the US, UK and EU, while RFG is expected to be open in those places.