Key Takeaways:
- Cardano's V11 "van Rossem" hard fork nears completion with 88% of blocks on new software.
- Binance and Coinbase have confirmed readiness for the upgrade.
- ADA rallied 11% to $0.16 as whales increased holdings ahead of the fork.
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Cardano nears van Rossem hard fork as 88% of blocks run V11
Cardano's V11 hard fork, dubbed van Rossem, is approaching full readiness with 88% of blocks minted using the upgraded node software, on-chain data show.
"The network has already executed the hard fork on its Preview and Preprod testnets to ensure stability," ecosystem contributors said, adding that required voting thresholds from Delegated Representatives and Stake Pool Operators have been reached.
Major exchanges Binance and Coinbase have confirmed operational readiness for the upgrade, which will introduce cheaper smart contracts, ZK-ready cryptography and new built-in functions. The fork still requires final approval from Cardano's Constitutional Committee. ADA traded at $0.16 as of July 3, up nearly 11% on the day, though still 84% below its 52-week high of $1.01 set last August, CoinGecko data show.
The van Rossem upgrade, named after the late community contributor Max van Rossem, is classified as an intra-era hard fork that will bridge Cardano to its next Dijkstra era without disrupting the protocol. Separately, a RealFi testnet is scheduled to go live July 6, and the Ouroboros Leios scaling protocol — targeting throughput of more than 1,000 transactions per second — is expected on mainnet by the end of 2026.
Whale accumulation has accelerated ahead of the upgrade. Wallets holding between 10 million and 100 million ADA increased their share of total supply from 37.66% to 38.13% during the final week of June, on-chain data show. The token's relative strength index of 46 indicates neutral momentum, with the 50-day moving average at $0.19 and the 200-day at $0.27.
On the ecosystem side, EMURGO, Cardano's commercial arm, resolved a Yoroi wallet synchronization bug on July 1, restoring user access to funds. Intersect, a member organization within Cardano, has minted over $9 million in USDCx using the Critical Integrations Budget. The network now hosts more than 11 million native tokens governed by 229,000 distinct token policies.
Looking ahead, a new Catalyst pilot fund worth 2 million ADA is set to launch in August, aimed at funding projects that implement Cardano's recent protocol integrations. August 9 also stands as a potential catalyst, with possible news regarding the approval of a spot exchange-traded fund.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
