Cardano activates Van‑Rossem Hard Fork, enhancing on‑chain governance and smart‑contract efficiency

On 18 July 2026 Cardano implemented the Van‑Rossem Hard Fork, upgrading the network to Protocol Version 11. The upgrade was approved entirely through on‑chain voting: delegated representatives voted 77.63 % in favour, stake‑pool operators 52.7 %, while the Constitutional Committee recorded six yes votes and one abstention. The fork introduced new cryptographic primitives, lowered execution costs for Plutus smart contracts and added scalability features, and it went live without any downtime.

The technical improvements have coincided with increased accumulation by large holders, with whale wallets now controlling up to 5.69 billion ADA. Despite the upgrade, ADA’s market price remains modest at roughly $0.16‑$0.18. Expectations persist for a spot‑ADA ETF, with regulatory decisions anticipated in the second half of 2026. Cardano’s ecosystem is also expanding through partnerships such as Clearstream’s digital ADA custody, Kraken validation pools, and a Visa debit card slated for use in over 130 countries. Security incidents affecting ancillary services (a Wanchain bridge and the SecondFi wallet) were reported, but the Cardano blockchain itself was not compromised.