On June 20, 2025, Input Output Global (IOG) introduced the Cardano Blueprint, a comprehensive, open-source reference guide to the platform. This living document is designed to be a single source of truth, detailing Cardano's core components, architecture, protocols, and design principles. The Blueprint aims to enhance transparency and accessibility for developers, researchers, and the wider community. By providing a standardized technical reference, it seeks to improve the onboarding process and foster a deeper understanding of Cardano's intricacies.

The June 20, 2025, development report highlights significant work by the ledger team to modernize the codebase and prepare for an upcoming intra-era hard fork. This included enhancing CDDL specifications, reducing technical debt, and conducting preliminary work on nested transactions. The report also touched upon future node improvements like log-structured merge (LSM) trees and revised stake pool incentives. Governance participation continued to grow, with an increase in the number of registered DReps.

The June 06, 2025, development report highlights the release of Lace wallet v.1.23, which features a more accurate pricing feed for Cardano native tokens in response to community feedback. On the scaling front, the Mithril team delivered support for node v.10.4.1 and UTXO-HD in their tools and advanced the development of the DMQ node. The Leios team finalized an analysis of overcollateralization models and progressed on their Rust-based simulation framework for evaluating transaction duplication and conflict likelihood.

A blog post by Input Output Global (IOG) from June 06, 2025, details the evolution of the Cardano node from a monolithic application into a modular framework. This transformation breaks the node into smaller, independent components for aspects like consensus, ledger, and networking. The post explains that this modular design enhances flexibility for developers, simplifies updates, and critically, fosters client diversity. By enabling the creation of alternative node clients, this evolution aims to improve the overall resilience of the Cardano network.

The June 06, 2025, development report highlights the release of Lace wallet v.1.23, which features a more accurate pricing feed for Cardano native tokens in response to community feedback. On the scaling front, the Mithril team delivered support for node v.10.4.1 and UTXO-HD in their tools and advanced the development of the DMQ node. The Leios team finalized an analysis of overcollateralization models and progressed on their Rust-based simulation framework for evaluating transaction duplication and conflict likelihood.

The May 30, 2025, development report highlights the bridging of Bitcoin Ordinals to Cardano via BitVMX and a new partnership between the Cardano Foundation and UNHCR for a crypto-backed ETP supporting refugees. Core technology work focused on performance benchmarks and preparing for the LSM-tree storage layer. The consensus team onboarded to the Leios simulator and patched several CDDL specifications. Smart contract work included enhancing CEK-machine diagnostics and expanding documentation.

The May 23, 2025, development report highlights the release of Cardano node v.10.4.1, introducing the UTXO-HD feature for flexible UTXO set storage. Ecosystem updates include Flow DeFi releasing its litepaper and integrating with Strike Finance, Trust Wallet enabling in-app DRep delegation, Emurgo announcing it will no longer use genesis ada for governance, and a new Liqwid Labs integration with Begin Wallet. Growth continued in projects, transactions, and smart contract deployment.

In a blog post dated May 19, 2025, Input Output Global (IOG) explains how its Mithril protocol provides lightweight access to the Cardano blockchain. Mithril allows users and applications to verify the state of the chain quickly and securely without downloading its entire history. This is achieved through a stake-based multi-signature scheme where a quorum of stakeholders certifies snapshots of the blockchain. This significantly lowers resource usage, making it ideal for light wallets, mobile applications, and layer 2 solutions.

The May 16, 2025, development report highlights consensus team fixes for Genesis and progress on Cardano Blueprint CDDL validation. Brave and IO are partnering to integrate Cardano into the Brave wallet. Plutus team advanced formal methods and modular-exponentiation testing. Scaling work included Leios simulations reaching 1,000 TPS and Mithril DMQ node advancements. The Cardano budget proposal was submitted on-chain as an info action, and FluidTokens launched Babel fees.

Input Output Global (IOG) published a blog post on May 09, 2025, detailing native tokens within Cardano's Extended UTXO (EUTXO) model. The post explains how these tokens function without requiring smart contracts for creation or transfer, unlike account-based systems like Ethereum. This design offers enhanced security and reduced transaction fees for users. The article contrasts Cardano's approach with traditional ERC-20 tokens, emphasizing the inherent advantages of its native token implementation.