Cardano News

The Cardano Foundation has partnered with SENAI São Paulo to drive blockchain adoption across Brazilian industry. This collaboration introduces specialized training, educator certification programs, and executive education. It also launches practical, real-world industrial pilots, including Digital Product Passports, after an initial technical immersion successfully onboarded 130 research and education specialists.

The latest ecosystem updates highlight the launch of the Ouroboros Leios testnet (Musashi Dojo), introducing parallel "endorser blocks" to potentially scale network throughput from 4.5 KB/s up to 200 KB/s. Additionally, applications open next week for the $80M Draper Dragon Orion Fund startup cohort and a voluntary Community Director seat on the Arouet Holdings board. Other major highlights include Pyth Network oracles going live on Cardano and the Cardano Foundation's inclusion in Fortune's Crypto Innovators 2026 list.

Developed in collaboration between the Cardano Foundation and BloxBean, the new Yaci Store 3.0.0-beta3 Analytics Module is now live. This open-source tool allows developers and researchers to export the entire Cardano blockchain into lightweight Parquet files for complex data queries directly on a local laptop. By streamlining access to transactions, UTXOs, and governance metrics, it eliminates the need for expensive, resource-heavy node infrastructure.

The Cardano Vision 2026 research roadmap outlines 15 key initiatives across six core technical pillars. Developed by a global academic consortium, the program drives multi-layer scalability (via Leios and Peras), cross-chain zero-knowledge (ZK) tooling, decentralized identity, and verified governance models. Its primary strategic defense is a bottom-up post-quantum cryptography (PQC) framework designed to preemptively swap out core consensus primitives for quantum-secure alternatives.

The Consensus team improved Mithril integration for snapshot exports, while Lace Carbon began internal testing. For scaling, Hydra v2.2.0 launched with upgraded benchmarks, and Mithril finalized recursive SNARK verification. Under Voltaire, the Constitutional Committee election became competitive with five candidates for four seats, with DRep voting starting June 23. The Research team advanced its Cardano Vision 2026 workstreams.

The Pyth Network has launched on Cardano, offering all ecosystem projects one year of free, unlimited access to a Pyth Pro API key. Facilitated by the "Pentad" under the critical integrations budget, this integration provides builders with institutional-grade, real-time market data. Structurally, it utilizes a pull oracle model where off-chain data is requested on-demand and verified cryptographically on-chain, keeping transaction fees minimal for decentralized applications.

The van Rossem hard fork upgrade for the Cardano Mainnet has officially commenced. The process coordinates two distinct governance actions: a Plutus Cost Model parameter update (enacted on June 18) and the hard fork initiation action (submitted on June 16). Following successful testing on the Preview and Preprod testnets, the final decision to ratify and execute the upgrade now rests entirely with the on-chain governance bodies (DReps, SPOs, and the Constitutional Committee).

The High Assurance team launched a smart contract testing beta tool, while the Mithril team completed its SNARK-friendly genesis certificate and optimized recursive scaling primitives. Under Voltaire, a critical call for candidates was issued for the upcoming Constitutional Committee election to ensure a competitive process. Finally, the Research team had its Cardano Vision 2026 proposal officially ratified by the community with 74.96% DRep approval.

The Cardano Foundation, EMURGO, and Rare Network shared results from their year-long Unified Global Events Marketing Strategy. Funded by the Treasury, this joint initiative boosted Cardano's brand awareness at 20 global tech conferences using a single, cohesive message. The campaign provided a promotional platform for 76 ecosystem projects, engaged over 7,500 participants (including a strong developer turnout), and initiated high-level institutional discussions with entities like the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG).

The Cardano Budget Process has commenced voting on the Hydra platform to fund core usability and security infrastructure. Meanwhile, the Van Rossem hard fork (Protocol Version 11) successfully launched on the PreProd testnet, marking the final checkpoint before mainnet deployment. New CIP updates introduced variable deposits for stake pool pledges and Hydra-powered L2 voting, while the Cardano Foundation announced a three-year partnership with the Brazilian Olympic Committee and published an agricultural tracking case study in India.