Cardano has successfully completed its Van Rossem hard fork on July 18, 2026, at 21:44:51 UTC, upgrading to protocol version 11 at the epoch boundary, with the Hard Fork Working Group, coordinated by Intersect, reporting no downtime during the transition, a significant milestone for the crypto market and investors.
Upgrade Details
The Van Rossem hard fork marks a significant change to the Cardano network's core rules, requiring all nodes to run compatible software, and node operators had to upgrade their software before the switch to stay in sync with the mainnet, ensuring the blockchain remains secure and stable, with the price of Cardano's coin, ADA, likely to be impacted by this development.
Governance and Voting
The upgrade was governed entirely by on-chain voting for the first time, with the community's governance bodies approving the change directly on the blockchain, a major shift from centralized coordination, and a key aspect of Cardano's move to community governance under the Conway ledger era, with 77.63% of delegated representatives, known as DReps, voting in favour of the hard fork, above the required 60% threshold.
Market Impact
The successful completion of the Van Rossem hard fork is expected to have a positive impact on the Cardano market, with investors likely to view the upgrade as a significant step forward for the blockchain and crypto ecosystem, and with the price of ADA potentially increasing as a result, as the network becomes more secure, stable, and decentralized, attracting more investors and users to the Cardano platform.