Cardano activates van Rossem hard fork via onchain governance

The Cardano network is taking a historic step: the van Rossem hard fork has been activated, bringing the network to Protocol Version 11. What makes this upgrade unique is that it is the first to be fully approved through onchain governance, without the involvement of a central party.

Cardano is available at OKX and Bybit.

What changes with Protocol Version 11?

The upgrade introduces a series of technical improvements. Multiple new Plutus primitives are being added, as defined in CIP-0109, CIP-0132, CIP-0133, CIP-0138 and CIP-0153. In addition, all built-in Plutus functions are now consistently available via Plutus V1, V2 and V3, significantly expanding the capabilities of existing scripts.

Another relevant addition is support for so-called “case” expressions for built-in types such as Bool, Integer and Data in Untyped Plutus Core. This delivers better performance and cleaner script logic. The ledger remains within the Conway era, so no era transition takes place. According to Wu Blockchain, the cost model improvements are intended to lower the execution costs of smart contracts.

Onchain governance as a milestone for Cardano

The approval of the van Rossem hard fork via onchain governance marks an important moment for the Cardano network. The proposal, submitted on 16 June 2026 during Epoch 637, received “Ratified” status and was assessed as constitutional. The voting deadline was set for 18 July 2026 at Epoch 643. More details on the governance proposal can be found on the governance portal.

The upgrade also lays the technical groundwork for the upcoming Dijkstra era, the next major phase in Cardano’s roadmap. The Cardano price currently stands at $0.17, a slight increase of 0.5% over the past 24 hours. Whether the activation of the hard fork will affect the price in the shorter term remains to be seen.