Cardano Price Drops After Unveiling of Two-Stage Dijkstra Hard Fork Plans

Cardano's planned Dijkstra hard fork has been unveiled, with the first phase aiming to complete the code and prepare the chain for mainnet in Q4 of 2026. The upgrade will introduce new features such as Ouroboros Linear Leios, Nested Transactions, and PlutusV4 Script Context.

The second phase, scheduled for Q2 of 2027, will trigger Ouroboros Peras via another hard fork during the Dijkstra Era. Peras aims to improve Cardano's transaction finality by confirming completed transactions more quickly.

Despite the planned upgrades, Cardano's price has dropped 1.03% to $0.175 following the announcement. Trading volume on ADA increased by 89.88% to $388.36 million, while derivatives trading volume surged by 151.19% to $15.56 million.

However, open interest declined 1.76% to $451.31 million, suggesting traders closed some existing leveraged positions. The increased volume could be an indication of renewed market interest, but the declining open interest indicates prudence among derivatives traders.