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.
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.”
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.”
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.”
Market reaction was muted in the immediate aftermath: ADA traded roughly unchanged on major exchanges, sitting at $0.80.
