Yoroi and EMURGO DReps End on 30 November: What to Do Now

The Yoroi and EMURGO DReps close on 30 November 2026. What changes for your ADA and rewards, and how to pick a new DRep in a few minutes.

6 min read

Painting of a relay race on a seaside promenade: one runner hands a cobalt blue baton to the next runner, who is already running on

Maybe you saw it in a post or in your wallet: “Your DRep is leaving.” The first question most people ask is whether their ADA is in danger. It is not. But there is one small thing to do before the end of November, and it takes about five minutes.

This article explains what is happening, what it means for you, and how to choose a new DRep. A DRep (delegated representative) is the person or group who votes on Cardano decisions for you.

What is happening?

EMURGO, one of the companies that helped start Cardano, runs two DReps: the Yoroi DRep (set as the default in the Yoroi wallet) and the EMURGO DRep. EMURGO has announced that both will be de-registered on 30 November 2026.

These are two of the biggest DReps on Cardano. On 7 November 2026, about 15,800 wallets still had their vote with them, together around 600 million ADA. If you used Yoroi and picked the DRep it suggested, your vote is very likely one of them.

This comes after the security incident in the SecondFi wallet (the new name of Yoroi) in June 2026, after which EMURGO decided to close SecondFi and the Yoroi wallet.

Is my ADA safe?

Your DRep never holds your ADA. A DRep only gets your voting power, not your coins. When the Yoroi DRep closes, nobody can touch your ADA because of it.

Your staking also continues. Your stake pool and your DRep are two separate choices, so your rewards keep coming from your pool as before.

So what is the problem?

Since the Plomin upgrade in January 2025, Cardano has one rule that many people still do not know: you can only withdraw your staking rewards if your wallet has a voting choice. That choice can be a DRep, or one of two automatic options (more on them below).

After 30 November, a wallet that still points to the Yoroi or EMURGO DRep has no valid choice any more. The rewards are still there, but the “withdraw” button will not work until you pick something new. Your voting power also stops counting, so your voice in Cardano is silent.

What should I do?

Choose a new voting option before 30 November. You have three choices.

  1. A new DRep. You give your voting power to a person or group whose votes you like. This is the choice that keeps your voice in Cardano decisions.
  2. Always Abstain. You say “I do not want to take part”. Your rewards can be withdrawn, but your ADA does not vote.
  3. Always No Confidence. A signal that you do not trust the Constitutional Committee, the small group that checks whether proposals follow Cardano’s rules. Pick this only if you really mean it.

Changing your choice is a normal transaction. It costs a network fee of about 0.2 ADA, there is no deposit, and you can change again later at any time.

If you still use Yoroi or SecondFi

Follow the official SecondFi guidance first, because your wallet itself must move.

  • SecondFi users: EMURGO asks everyone with a balance to use the migration tool to move their ADA to a new wallet they create with another provider. The tool unstakes your ADA, so in the new wallet you need to choose a stake pool and a DRep again.
  • Hardware wallet users: you do not need the migration tool. Connect your hardware wallet to another Cardano wallet app and continue there.
  • Old Yoroi users who never updated: read the same FAQ; it explains your options.

Only trust links from the official SecondFi pages. Never type your recovery phrase into a website, and never accept “help” from someone who writes to you first. That is always a scam.

How do I choose a good DRep?

You would not hire someone to make decisions for you without looking at their past work. A DRep is the same. Check four things:

  • Do they vote? Look at how many governance actions they voted on. A DRep who often skips votes wastes your voice.
  • Do they explain? Good DReps publish a short reason (a rationale) for each vote, so you can see how they think.
  • Do you agree with them? Read a few of their reasons on topics you care about, for example spending from the treasury.
  • Are they reachable? A website, an X account or a forum profile shows a real person who answers questions.

Useful places to compare DReps:

Try to avoid simply picking the biggest name again. When one DRep holds a lot of votes, a single decision maker can tip big results. Many smaller, active DReps make Cardano harder to capture, which is the whole point of decentralization.

How to change your DRep, step by step

The menu names change a little between wallets, but the steps are the same.

  1. Open your wallet and find Governance, Voting or DRep (in some wallets it is inside the Staking page).
  2. Paste the DRep ID of the DRep you chose, or search for their name. You can also choose Abstain or No Confidence there.
  3. Confirm and sign the transaction.
  4. Check the result after a few minutes: your wallet, or any explorer like Cardanoscan, should now show the new DRep for your stake key.

Some wallets, like Lace, send you to gov.tools for this step: connect your wallet there, find the DRep and press “Delegate”. It is the same transaction.

If you are creating a new wallet, remember that your first stake pool delegation also registers your stake key, with a 2 ADA deposit that you get back if you ever stop staking.

A short checklist

  • Your ADA is safe. Your DRep never had access to it.
  • Pick a new DRep, or Abstain, before 30 November 2026.
  • Without a valid choice, you cannot withdraw your staking rewards.
  • If you use SecondFi or Yoroi, follow the official migration guide first, then choose a pool and a DRep in the new wallet.
  • Compare DReps by how often they vote and whether they explain their votes.

If you want to learn more about what DReps do, read What Is a DRep? Cardano Voting, Simply Explained, or my story about my first vote as a DRep.

A small note, since you are choosing right now: I am a DRep myself. I vote as Alex BKV, and every vote comes with a one-line public reason on cardanodrep.org, so you can judge me before you decide. I also run BKV, a single independent pool with a 0% margin, and your ADA never leaves your wallet when you stake with it. If someone else fits you better, that is perfectly fine: any active DRep and any honest pool help Cardano.