AlphaGrowth Opens PRIME Draft Seeking 120M ADA for Cardano DeFi Liquidity

AlphaGrowth has opened the public draft for PRIME, short for Protocol Readiness, Incentives, and Market Expansion, a proposed 12 month program aimed at strengthening Cardano DeFi. The draft requests 120 million ADA, valued in the document at 19.2 million dollars under a 0.16 dollar planning assumption, and is open for community feedback before any on-chain treasury vote.

PRIME Targets Cardano DeFi Liquidity Growth

PRIME is presented as a community coordinated program to strengthen Cardano’s DeFi ecosystem by improving protocol readiness, activating incentives and expanding durable on-chain liquidity. AlphaGrowth says the program is designed to help Cardano become more competitive in TVL while moving toward a DeFi environment that can sustain itself through fee revenue.

The draft targets more than 200 million dollars in net qualifying TVL growth over 12 months. According to the proposal, Cardano DeFi is starting from an estimated base of about 90 million dollars in TVL and 45 million dollars in stablecoin supply, while recent infrastructure additions such as USDCx, LayerZero v2, Pyth and Dune are listed as components for the next phase of DeFi activity.

AlphaGrowth frames the current challenge as the conversion of existing infrastructure into active liquidity, deeper markets, users, volume and fee generation. The draft identifies fragmented liquidity, inefficient liquidity and insufficient liquidity as the main market structure problems PRIME is designed to address.

Budget Includes Grants, LP Incentives and AlphaGrowth Compensation

The proposed budget includes 35 million ADA for ecosystem grants, 27 million ADA for LP incentives, 29 million ADA for a performance fee reserve, 15 million ADA for marketing and business development, 11 million ADA for AlphaGrowth’s fixed advisory fee, 1 million ADA for legal and compliance work and 2 million ADA for an independent audit.

The draft separates program spending from AlphaGrowth compensation. It states that the fixed advisory fee and the performance fee reserve are AlphaGrowth compensation, while ecosystem grants, liquidity incentives and marketing are program spending. The proposal lists AlphaGrowth’s maximum compensation at 6.4 million dollars under the planning assumption, consisting of a 1.76 million dollar fixed fee floor and a 4.64 million dollar performance fee ceiling.

The performance fee reserve is tied to verified qualifying TVL growth and is not presented as an automatic payment. The draft says any unearned portion would return to the Cardano Treasury, and no performance fee would be paid before Operating Group sign off on the TVL attribution methodology.

Phase Gates and Governance Controls Define the Draft

PRIME is structured across three phases. Phase 1 covers a current state audit during the first two months. Phase 2 covers gap analysis and implementation recommendations between months two and four. Phase 3 covers incentive and capital deployment from months five to twelve, but only if the Operating Group affirms the Phase 3 release at the end of month four.

The draft states that about 90 million ADA, approximately 14.4 million dollars under the same planning assumption, would remain gated until the Phase 3 release decision. If the Operating Group does not approve the release, those tranches remain undisbursed under Operating Group governance instead of automatically moving into PRIME deployment.

The proposed governance model gives AlphaGrowth responsibility for program design, analysis, recommendations and execution workflows, while the Operating Group would review material recommendations and hold veto authority. The draft states that AlphaGrowth would not hold funds, authorize its own payment or control the custodian account.

Several operational elements remain unfinished in the public draft. The contract counterparty, constitutional administrator and funds administrator are listed as to be determined, with Intersect MBO and BitGo Trust named as current considerations for administrative and custody roles before any on-chain vote.

The reporting framework includes quarterly updates on qualifying TVL growth, transaction volume, raw fees, monthly active users and TVL persistence. The draft also includes return triggers for unused funds, unearned performance fees and certain failed milestone conditions, including a negative Phase 3 release vote.

If PRIME moves into Cardano’s on-chain governance process, DReps would be asked to evaluate a DeFi growth program with defined budget lines, milestone gates, public reporting obligations, compensation limits, custody controls and return mechanisms. The draft links treasury withdrawals to measurable targets for liquidity, stablecoin depth, user activity, fees and retained capital, while leaving final approval to Cardano’s governance process.