Summary
- Cardano successfully activated the Van Rossem hard fork on July 18, moving to protocol version 11 without any service interruptions.
- This marks the first major upgrade of the network governed entirely by on-chain voting from the community, without oversight from a central entity.
- The upgrade reduces costs for Plutus smart contract execution and includes five technical enhancements, such as new cryptographic tools and a security measure mandating unique cryptographic keys for every stake pool.
Cardano has executed a hard fork, launching the Van Rossem upgrade over the weekend and updating the network to protocol version 11.
This is not the first hard fork for Cardano, but it is significant as it was conducted without involvement from Input Output, the blockchain's founding development firm. This aspect of the upgrade is just as crucial as its technical benefits.
A hard fork represents a permanent and essential shift in a blockchain's core rules, applied across all network nodes simultaneously. Historically, such changes have been directed by Input Output.
The Van Rossem upgrade is intended to enhance scalability and reduce costs on the Cardano network. It stands out as the first significant upgrade completely approved through on-chain governance, which involved votes from elected community members, server operators, and an oversight committee.
The upgrade is named after Max van Rossem, a Dutch contributor to Cardano who passed away in October 2025. Van Rossem was instrumental in creating the governance system that facilitated this upgrade.
Approval came from three distinct groups. Delegated representatives, or “DReps,” who are community members elected to represent Cardano holders, voted in favor at 77.63%, surpassing the 60% requirement. Stake pool operators also supported the upgrade with a 52.7% backing, just above the necessary 51% threshold.
The Constitutional Committee, a seven-member board responsible for ensuring compliance with Cardano's founding principles, also endorsed the proposal. The shift towards this governance model began with the Chang hard fork in 2024, which initiated on-chain voting, followed by the Plomin hard fork in early 2025, that empowered token holders with real decision-making abilities.
Details of the Upgrade
Van Rossem is categorized as an intra-era upgrade, focusing on specific enhancements without altering Cardano’s core framework. Its primary objective is to decrease costs associated with Plutus execution. Plutus serves as Cardano's programming language for smart contracts, which underlie every DeFi application, NFT marketplace, and on-chain payment solution within the network.
Lower execution costs enable developers to create more sophisticated applications at reduced expenses.
This upgrade consolidates several technical proposals, including faster verification of digital signatures through new cryptographic tools and a security enhancement that mandates each stake pool to utilize a unique cryptographic key, thus closing a known vulnerability.
With Van Rossem now operational, what changes can developers expect?
Protocol Version 11 introduces constant-time array indexing, native Value handling, quicker list traversal, and new cryptographic primitives.
Built-ins will function across Plutus V1, V2, and V3, maintaining the same transaction structure. https://t.co/lpUO158oJA
— Input Output Group (@IOGroup) July 20, 2026
For regular users, there are no immediate changes.
Recently, Input Output announced it plans to transition development responsibilities to external teams starting in August. Van Rossem is the first upgrade to occur under this new approach.
The next focus is Ouroboros Leios, which aims to overhaul transaction processing, targeting a throughput increase of 30 to 65 times current levels, with a goal of exceeding 1,000 transactions per second. The Van Rossem upgrade is a technical prerequisite for this milestone.
Current Cardano (ADA) Price: Stable but Unchanged
Despite the significance of this development for Cardano supporters, market reactions suggest that the hard fork has not yet generated enough enthusiasm to impact prices significantly.
Currently, Cardano, trading as ADA, has remained relatively stable for three days, hovering around $0.1662, with a market cap of $6 billion. While bullish sentiment exists, the overall trend remains bearish; the announcement of the hard fork has stabilized prices and averted a deeper price drop.
The 50-day exponential moving average (a trend indicator reflecting recent price movements) is below the 200-day average, indicating a classic bearish trend. The relative strength index (RSI), which ranges from 0 to 100 (with above 70 indicating overbought and below 30 suggesting oversold), is currently at 48.8, indicating a neutral position. The Average Directional Index (ADX), which evaluates trend strength, is at 16.1, showing weakness, although its directional component has shifted from bearish to bullish, signaling potential market shifts.
Whales holding between 100,000 and 100 million ADA tokens have increased their holdings to the highest level since 2023, according to Santiment data. Conversely, smaller holders are reducing their stakes.
Charles Hoskinson, the founder of Cardano, anticipates that Leios will be ready for mainnet launch before the end of 2026, with the public testnet (named Musashi Dojo) debuting on June 23.