Cardano's next major protocol upgrade now has an official two-stage rollout plan. Intersect presented the Dijkstra hard fork roadmap, with the first phase targeting code completion in Q4 2026 and the second phase in Q2 2027. The initiative will move Cardano to Protocol Version 12 and introduce the Dijkstra ledger era through a hard fork, beginning with Ouroboros Linear Leios.
Linear Leios is designed to increase transaction throughput without requiring larger base blocks or faster slot times. It will use existing Ranking Blocks alongside new Endorser Blocks that reference additional transactions. Certification of an Endorser Block requires aggregated signatures representing a 75% quorum of active stakeholders, after which a subsequent Ranking Block applies the transactions to the ledger. The first phase also includes Nested Transactions under CIP-118, Guard Scripts under CIP-112, account-address enhancements, removal of the isValid field, a PlutusV4 Script Context, and Fair Min Fees via CIP-23.
Structural support for Ouroboros Peras will be included in phase one, but activation is planned as an intra-era hard fork in Q2 2027. Peras will add a voting layer that lets committees of stake pool operators vote on recent chain tips, enabling the network to settle a tip sooner than under Praos. Before any mainnet launch, a Dijkstra-compatible node will be made available to testnet operators, followed by roughly two weeks of Preview testing and one to two weeks of Pre-production testing. Mainnet activation will require a Hard Fork Initiation action and governance ratification. Intersect has not provided a specific mainnet activation date. Meanwhile, the Rust-based node implementation Amaru can already relay, validate, and synchronize with the network tip, and developers target mainnet block production for November 2026. The Constitution will also receive a technical update, with CIP-181 removing the DRep norm for reward withdrawals and CIP-50 introducing a leverage parameter for staking rewards while preserving existing reward behavior by default.
ADA traded near $0.174, down about 1% over 24 hours, with a market capitalization of roughly $6.46 billion and 24-hour volume near $114 million. The token remains below $0.18 after retreating from an August 7 peak above $0.21. Short-term momentum remains weak, with the relative strength index at 35.06 and its signal line at 33.32. Analysts at AltCryptoGems described the decline as a bearish break in market structure amid heavy capital rotation across altcoins. Key support sits at $0.1706, the 78.6% Fibonacci retracement from the June low to the May high, while liquidation clusters between $0.183 and $0.187 may create volatility if buyers push ADA higher.
