Cardano hands off core infrastructure as Van Rossem upgrade activates
In brief
- Input Output hands core infrastructure to specialist firms, beginning August 2025
- Van Rossem hard fork activates July 18 with 77.63% approval, reaching Protocol Version 11
- ADA rises 2% to $0.165, market cap $6 billion on announcement
Handoff to External Teams
Input Output announced Friday it will hand control of core blockchain infrastructure to outside specialist firms, beginning in August. Se7en Labs and Teragone are among the firms taking over core infrastructure development. Teragone already leads development of Mithril, Cardano's stake-based signature protocol. The company will shift focus to research and new ventures through IO Labs and IO Ventures.
The decentralization model goes deeper than a simple vendor handoff. At least three independent node implementations in Haskell, Rust, and Go will run in parallel, overseen by community bodies Intersect and Pragma. This multi-implementation approach reduces single points of failure and distributes governance across the ecosystem. The transition runs through 2027.
Van Rossem Goes Live
The Van Rossem hard fork went live on mainnet on July 18 at 21:44 UTC. The upgrade was ratified on July 13 with 77.63% approval from delegated community representatives. The upgrade takes Cardano to Protocol Version 11 and introduces new Plutus built-in functions designed to cut smart contract execution costs.
The timing and framing matter. Cardano has been grinding lower since August 2025, with the 50-week exponential moving average below the 200-week. ADA hasn't come close to matching its 2024 highs near $1.20. Technical indicators reflect the weakness—the Relative Strength Index is sitting at 34, and the Average Directional Index points at a strong bearish long-term trend.
Market Response
Cardano (ADA) was trading near $0.165 with a $6 billion market capitalization at the time of the announcement. ADA was up about 2% on the day. Futures positioning shows open interest in ADA futures sits around $193 million, with a long-to-short ratio of 2.84. That ratio suggests traders are net long, betting on continued upside from the governance transition and protocol upgrade.
