Cardano completed the Van Rossem hard fork on July 18, upgrading the protocol version to 11. The upgrade did not interrupt network operations and, more importantly, marked Cardano’s first major upgrade fully approved through on-chain governance, no longer solely driven by the founding development company, Input Output.
First decided by on-chain governance
This upgrade is named after the late Cardano contributor Max van Rossem, who was involved in node operation, community governance, and constitutional design—parts of which form the governance process now being implemented.
Under Cardano’s current governance structure, upgrades require approval from multiple parties. Support from community-delegated DReps stands at 77.63%, exceeding the 60% threshold; support from stake pool operators is at 52.7%, just above the 51% requirement. The Constitutional Committee, responsible for reviewing whether the upgrade complies with Cardano’s constitutional documents, has also approved it.
Cardano's governance transformation did not happen all at once. The Chang hard fork in 2024 introduced on-chain voting, and the Plomin hard fork in early 2025 further delegated decision-making power to token holders, with Van Rossem becoming the first major upgrade to be formally implemented under this mechanism.
Protocol version upgraded to 11
From a technical standpoint, Van Rossem is a targeted upgrade that does not alter Cardano’s underlying structure. Its primary goal is to reduce the execution cost of Plutus, Cardano’s smart contract language, which underpins DeFi applications, NFT marketplaces, and on-chain payment tools.
After the reduction in execution costs, developers can deploy more complex applications at lower fees. The upgrade also includes five technical improvements, such as new cryptographic tools and a security patch for staking pools: each staking pool must now use a unique encryption key to close off known attack vectors.
Input Output also notes that Protocol Version 11 introduces constant-time array indexing, native Value handling, faster list traversal, and new cryptographic primitives. The existing transaction structure remains unchanged, and built-in functionality for Plutus V1, V2, and V3 is now uniformly compatible.
Paving the way for future scaling
For regular users, this upgrade will not immediately change their daily experience. However, for developers and the network roadmap, Van Rossem is a crucial prerequisite for future scaling.
Last week, Input Output stated that it would transfer core development work to an external specialist team starting in August. Van Rossem is the first upgrade completed during this transition phase.
Cardano’s next focus is Ouroboros Leios. This initiative aims to overhaul transaction processing, targeting a network throughput increase of 30 to 65 times the current level and striving to exceed 1,000 transactions per second. Van Rossem is considered a necessary technical prerequisite before advancing this scheme.
ADA's price showed limited reaction.
Although the upgrade itself carries governance and technical significance, market reaction has been relatively muted. Reports show that ADA has traded sideways over the past three days, with its price hovering around $0.1662, corresponding to a market capitalization of approximately $6 billion.
On-chain data platform Santiment shows that the total holdings of large holders with 100,000 to 100 million ADA have reached their highest level since 2023, while smaller holders have reduced their positions. The report also mentions that Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson expects Leios to launch on mainnet by the end of 2026, with the public testnet Musashi Dojo having gone live on June 23.