Cardano’s development company Input Output (IO) and privacy-centric browser maker Brave Software have announced that full Cardano support is coming to the native Brave Wallet, marking one of the most substantial integrations of the blockchain since the Voltaire governance era began.
According to the joint press statement, the IO-led engineering effort will embed send, receive, swap and signing functionality for ADA and all Cardano native assets directly inside the browser, without extensions, “establishing Brave as a key partner to the Cardano community in the age of Voltaire.”
Brendan Eich, Brave’s co-founder and chief executive, framed the move as a bet on multi-chain optionality and privacy: “Our partnership with IO reflects Brave’s commitment to building a Web3 that maximizes interoperation for user choice… Integrating Cardano into Brave Wallet not only expands multi-chain access, but also enhances security, governance participation, and the overall user experience.”
Wave of Cardano Deals Ahead
Cardano creator and IO chief executive Charles Hoskinson called the collaboration “a natural fit,” arguing that Cardano and Brave “share a vision for a more secure, accessible, and user-respecting Web3” in which on-chain activity is possible “while enabling active, on-chain participation.”
Moreover, Hoskinson hinted via X that the Brave wallet deal is merely the first in a cadence of long-stalled partnerships that IO’s privacy-first sidechain project Midnight has revived. “The Brave announcement is the first in a series that will come out throughout the summer and fall that I term the ‘fixing broken windows’ deals that originated from Midnight negotiations… There are several dozen deals like this for ADA and Cardano native assets. Midnight has picked up the baton and started finishing them. Many, many more to come!”
Midnight, which uses zero-knowledge proofs to enable confidential smart contracts, is central to Hoskinson’s broader pitch. Replying to community enthusiasm, he quipped that “Midnight on Brave is going to give advertising companies heart attacks,” to which another X user cited VPN providers as the next cohort likely to be unsettled. Hoskinson’s laconic answer—“And VPNs :)”—underscored the privacy-preserving ambitions of the sidechain.
For Brave, the integration means adding ADA to a roster that already includes Ethereum and Solana inside a wallet used by what the company says are more than 85 million monthly active browser users. IO’s press desk confirmed that Brave Wallet will also support swaps of Cardano native tokens such as NIGHT, and that governance voting for upcoming Voltaire-era improvement proposals will be accessible without leaving the browser.
Beyond technical enablement, the announcement revives a back-story that Hoskinson claims should have played out in 2022. Negotiations were “long overdue,” he wrote, alleging that “a certain entity dropped the ball.”
With those hurdles apparently resolved, IO and Brave both hinted at future “innovation around engagement with Cardano’s governance and Midnight,” suggesting that Brave could become an early venue for Midnight-native assets once the sidechain exits its current developer-preview phase.
Market reaction was muted in the immediate aftermath: ADA traded roughly unchanged on major exchanges, sitting at $0.80.
Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com
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