Cardano's Van Rossem Upgrade Reaches Voting Phase Amid $16M Hack Fallout and ETF Countdown
Published on 07/08/2026 at 04:50 | Redaktion boerse-global.de
A security breach that drained 16 million ADA from Cardano wallets has forced two infrastructure projects to shut down, even as the network's most consequential technical upgrade enters its voting stage. The exploit, which struck 374 wallets on June 23, prompted Ctrl Wallet — formerly known as XDEFI — to permanently cease operations. Its core functions will be disabled on August 3, 2026, leaving users with a narrow window to export recovery phrases. A second project, SecondFi, has also folded in the wake of the attack. EMURGO, the commercial arm of the Cardano ecosystem, is developing rescue tools and a migration fund for victims.
The Van-Rossem hard fork, meanwhile, is gathering pace. Network data shows 86 percent of nodes have already adopted the new software, and support among delegated representatives stands at 60 percent. Finalization is slated for July 2026, making it the largest architectural overhaul since Cardano's genesis. Running in parallel is the Leios-Musashi-Dojo testnet, designed to boost throughput by a factor of 10 to 65. The upgrade is intended to radically improve scalability for decentralized finance applications.
On July 6, the RealFi project kicked off its phase-one testnet, introducing the USDR stablecoin and a mechanism that wraps real-world credit into on-chain staking yields. The initiative targets a total value locked of $1 billion. Charles Hoskinson, Cardano's founder, also teased a "Joe Rogan-level" project outside the cryptocurrency world on July 7, offering no specifics. He attributed part of the market's current stagnation to U.S. political developments.
Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying Cardano?
Price action has been a mixed picture. ADA slid 3.5 percent on July 7 to $0.18 and has since slipped further, trading at $0.17. On a weekly basis, the token is still up nearly 20 percent, but the 12-month chart shows a decline of more than 70 percent, with the coin nearly 83 percent below its August 2025 high of $1.01. The pullback has been accompanied by a sharp reduction in leveraged positions: open interest on futures fell 8 percent to $434.34 million, around $1.26 million in long positions were liquidated, and the funding rate cooled from 0.0093 percent to 0.0029 percent.
Despite the price weakness, the user base is expanding. Since the market bottom on June 23, 14,783 new non-empty wallets have been created. Large holders with 10 million to 100 million ADA increased their share of the total supply from 37.66 percent to 38.13 percent over the same stretch. Technically, ADA remains below its 50-day moving average of $0.19 and far below its 200-day average of $0.27. The relative strength index at 51.4 indicates neither overbought nor oversold conditions.
Investors are now eyeing August 9, 2026, when regulators are scheduled to decide on a proposed GADA exchange-traded fund. A green light could funnel institutional capital into Cardano, offering a catalyst beyond the network's own development milestones. Until then, the price is likely to remain buffeted by derivative movements and liquidation waves — independent of the progress being made under the hood.
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