Overview
- Cardano governance ratified the van Rossem hard fork and the upgrade is scheduled to activate on July 18, 2026, with Intersect urging infrastructure providers to update ahead of the boundary.
- Intersect says van Rossem will add Plutus functionality and reduce execution costs to make transactions and smart contracts cheaper while preparing the chain for the later Leios scaling upgrade.
- On-chain data show large wallets holding 100,000–100 million ADA have increased to about 25.65 billion ADA, the highest level since February 2023, while small-wallet holdings have slipped.
- Derivatives metrics point to elevated leverage with futures open interest rising to roughly $421–$445 million and a long-to-short ratio near 0.58; published funding-rate readings differ but overall short exposure is pronounced.
- ADA trades around $0.16 below key moving averages with dense liquidation clusters at roughly $0.160–$0.170, meaning a sharp move through those levels could force leveraged liquidations and sharply amplify volatility for traders and users.