Cardano (ADA) continues to hover around $0.165 on Monday, maintaining a relatively stable position following a modest uptick in the previous week. The token’s price remains unmoved even after a significant protocol enhancement was deployed across the network this past weekend.
The Cardano blockchain successfully implemented the Van Rossem hard fork on Saturday, transitioning from Protocol Version 10 to Version 11. Blockchain records from Cardanoscan verify that the network progressed from epoch 643 into epoch 644 as part of this upgrade cycle.
NEWS: V11 (van Rossem) hardfork is now officially live on Cardano $ADA mainnet.
It brought new Plutus capabilities, faster/cheaper smart contracts, and protocol prep for Leios.
Congratulations to the entire Cardano ecosystem on another successful upgrade!
pic.twitter.com/KLJtAaV9Uy
— Cardanians (CRDN) (@Cardanians_io) July 19, 2026
This particular protocol enhancement represents a historic milestone—it’s the first hard fork on Cardano to receive approval and implementation exclusively through decentralized onchain governance processes. Earlier network upgrades were managed and executed directly by Input Output, the technology development company responsible for creating Cardano’s blockchain infrastructure.
The Van Rossem upgrade delivers enhanced Plutus functionality along with optimized cost-model adjustments. The central objective centers on minimizing the expenses associated with running smart contracts on Cardano’s network.
In their Friday development update, Input Output explained: “Along with Plutus enhancements and refined Plutus Cost Model parameters, this protocol upgrade establishes the technical foundation for the subsequent Dijkstra era hard fork, which will bring Ouroboros Leios capabilities to the Cardano ecosystem.”
Ouroboros Leios represents an advanced scaling solution designed to complement Cardano’s current proof-of-stake consensus infrastructure. The technology is projected to deploy in the latter part of 2026, with the objective of substantially boosting transaction throughput while maintaining the robust security architecture of the existing protocol.
The Van Rossem protocol enhancement serves as essential infrastructure preparation for that future implementation, positioning it more as a foundational building block than a final destination.
Market reaction to the upgrade has been notably subdued. ADA’s valuation continues to track significantly below its 50-day, 100-day, and 200-day Exponential Moving Averages, which are currently positioned in the $0.180 to $0.270 range.
According to Coinglass funding rate metrics, the indicator turned positive on Friday and currently registers at 0.0061% as of Monday. When funding rates enter positive territory, it signals that traders holding long positions are compensating those in short positions, suggesting a modest improvement in market sentiment.
That said, ADA’s long-to-short ratio currently stands at 0.90 on Monday. Any reading beneath the 1.0 threshold reveals that a greater number of market participants are betting on downward price movement rather than upward momentum.
The Relative Strength Index currently sits just underneath the neutral 50 level, reflecting an absence of definitive directional strength. Meanwhile, the MACD indicator shows marginally positive readings but lacks conviction.
Looking at potential price levels, ADA confronts immediate resistance at the $0.173 mark, with the 50-day EMA creating another barrier at $0.177. Additional resistance zones are identified at $0.195 and $0.202. On the downside, support levels are positioned at $0.150 and $0.138.
Following the Van Rossem hard fork deployment, Cardano’s ADA token trades at $0.165 with a long-to-short ratio of 0.90 as of Monday’s trading session.
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