Cardano Price Tumbles After Dijkstra Hard Fork Plans Unveiled

Cardano's Dijkstra hard fork plans have been unveiled for 2026, and the news has sent the price of Cardano (ADA) down by 1.03% to $0.175.

The planned two-stage upgrade will take place in phases, with the first phase aiming to complete the code and prepare the chain for mainnet in Q4 2026. This will include upgrading Cardano to protocol version 12, introducing features such as Ouroboros Linear Leios, Nested Transactions, and PlutusV4 Script Context.

The second phase, set to take place in Q2 2027, will trigger Ouroboros Peras via another hard fork during the Dijkstra Era. This is expected to improve Cardano's transaction finality by confirming completed transactions more quickly.

Trading volume on ADA has 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.