Cardano has activated the Van Rossem hard fork, moving the blockchain to Protocol Version 11 in what the network described as its first major upgrade approved entirely through onchain governance. The change took effect on July 18, 2026, at about 21:44:51 UTC, with no reported downtime.
Upgrade within the Conway era
Van Rossem is an intra-era upgrade inside Cardano’s Conway ledger era rather than a replacement of the chain’s governance framework. The fork is designed to reduce the cost of running Plutus smart contracts, strengthen parts of the ledger, and expand the set of cryptographic and data-handling tools available to developers.
The release is built around five Cardano Improvement Proposals. CIP-133 introduces multi-scalar multiplication over BLS12-381, a feature aimed at verifying large numbers of signatures in a single step. That capability is relevant to zero-knowledge proofs, multi-signature wallets, and some compliance-oriented tools that previously depended on offchain computation. CIP-138 adds a native array type for onchain data, while CIP-153 improves the way the network processes multi-asset values. CIP-132 adds a dropList function to make list operations faster, and CIP-109 brings modular exponentiation in as a built-in operation.
Security changes for operators
The hard fork also includes changes aimed at network resilience and operational safety. Stake pool operators are now required to use unique Verifiable Random Function keys for each pool, a measure intended to close a possible attack path. Cardano also tightened ledger consistency rules so that nodes remain aligned more reliably as transaction volume increases.
These operational changes mean node software updates are necessary for stake pool operators that want to remain synchronized with the network after the upgrade.
First major upgrade governed fully onchain
A notable part of the Van Rossem rollout is the way it was approved. According to the source report, the proposal advanced through Cardano’s onchain governance process from submission to activation, with support from delegated representatives, stake pool operators, and the Constitutional Committee. That makes it the network’s first major hard fork carried out through onchain voting rather than centralized coordination.
The move is therefore being presented not only as a technical update, but also as a test of Cardano’s governance model under live conditions.
Market signals and what comes next
Following the upgrade, ADA was trading near $0.16, while trading volume was reported to be lower immediately after the fork. The source article also said wallets holding between 100,000 and 100 million ADA had increased their balances to the highest level since 2023, indicating a larger concentration of supply among large holders.
The next major focus for the network is Ouroboros Leios, a planned parallelized consensus upgrade. According to the report, Leios is targeting more than 1,000 transactions per second in 2026 and is associated with projected throughput gains of roughly 30 to 65 times. For now, the immediate effects of Van Rossem are expected to show up more clearly in developer activity and onchain usage than in short-term price action.
Source: news.bitcoin.com