ADA Underperforms Bitcoin Despite Activating ‘Historic’ Van Rossem Hard Fork, Its First Community-Governed Upgrade

• Cardano successfully activated the Van Rossem hard fork, upgrading the network to Protocol Version 11 without downtime.
• The upgrade marked Cardano's first fully community-governed hard fork under the Voltaire governance framework.
• The proposal cleared all required approval thresholds across delegated voters, node operators and the Constitutional Committee.

Cardano (ADA) tokens did not see a big rally despite switching on a network upgrade called "Van Rossem" with no reported problems or downtime, which community members have called a “historic milestone.”

ADA’s price traded flat in the past 24 hours, even as Bitcoin (BTC) and other major cryptocurrencies moved higher. Bitcoin’s price gained as much as 1.5% in the last 24 hours, with Solana (SOL) leading gains among cryptocurrency majors with a 1.7% uptick on the day.

On Stocktwits, the retail sentiment around ADA remained in the ‘bullish’ zone, while chatter around it stayed at ‘normal’ levels over the past day. ADA’s price has fallen around 50% year to date. 

Governance Milestone Fails To Move ADA

Unlike past Cardano upgrades, which were typically decided and coordinated by the network's founding companies, this one was different. The fork went live at 17:44 ET on Saturday, moving the network to Protocol Version 11 with no reported downtime. Van Rossem was initiated and approved entirely through decentralized governance under Cardano's Voltaire framework.

It was proposed, debated, and voted on entirely by the Cardano community itself, using the network's own on-chain voting system. The Cardano community reacted, calling it a ‘historic milestone achieved’ on X. 

The Van Rossem hard fork is named after Max van Rossem, a Dutch Cardano community member and governance contributor, who died of heart disease in 2025. He was an ecosystem creator, developer, SPO, DRep, and delegate at the Cardano Constitutional Convention.

Cardano's First Community-Led Hard Fork

Before the upgrade could go live, it needed approval from three separate groups. Delegated voters, community members who vote on Cardano's behalf, approved it with 78.97% support, well above the 60% needed to pass, according to data from Cardanoscan. Node operators, the people who run the computers that keep Cardano running, approved it with 53.02% support, above the 51% required.

A seven-person oversight committee, which checks whether upgrades follow Cardano's constitution, also signed off. All seven members voted for the upgrade "Constitutional," well above the five votes needed to pass that stage.

However, despite the smooth upgrade, Cardano's token, ADA, didn't see any meaningful price movement. 

Read also: CLARITY Act Senate Delay Could Threaten Crypto Custody Safety, Says Senator Cynthia Lummis

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