Cardano completes Van Rossem hard fork in first solely on-chain approved upgrade

Cardano’s Van Rossem hard fork remains the central development for the network, but ADA has since rebounded sharply from a recent sell-off, rising about 7.8% over 24 hours to around $0.1747 after touching a low of $0.1615. The recovery, which left the token up 11% over seven days and briefly lifted it to an intraday high of $0.1774, has been supported by continued whale accumulation, roughly $435 million in 24-hour trading volume, and improving sentiment around the upgrade. Activated on July 18, 2026, the Van Rossem hard fork moved Cardano to Protocol Version 11 in what it says is its first major upgrade approved entirely through on-chain governance without direction from founding development company Input Output. The change went live with zero downtime and reduced Plutus smart-contract execution costs while adding technical changes including broader built-in compatibility, updated cost models, extra developer functions and stronger node security. The governance milestone involved approval from Delegated Representatives, stake pool operators and the Constitutional Committee, reinforcing Cardano’s transition toward community-led decision-making. Charles Hoskinson, the founder of Cardano and chief executive of Input Output Global, said investors should focus on the network’s technology and decentralization rather than short-term price swings, adding that development of Cardano’s Haskell-based node software is already being shared among multiple companies. The rebound came even as security concerns resurfaced around surrounding infrastructure. An exploit on Wanchain’s Cardano bridge led to the theft of about 515 million NIGHT tokens valued at around $9 million, though the incident affected bridge infrastructure rather than Cardano’s Layer 1 blockchain. Attention is now on whether ADA can sustain momentum toward the $0.20 area after recovering from recent lows.