Cardano Sets Stage for Two Key Upgrades in H1, 2026, What to Expect?

Cardano is setting the stage for two key upgrades anticipated in the first half of 2026. Ouroboros Leios, the scaling solution for Cardano, is steadily progressing in its development.

The Cardano community-focused X account, Cardanians, revealed this in a recent post, highlighting its progress and stating that "Based on the regular reports from the development team and the development tracker, it looks very promising."

Cardano's Leios Testnet is expected to launch in June. Ouroboros Leios is expected to significantly increase Cardano's TPS, with a huge scalability upgrade to the network.

IOG Product Manager Carlos Lopez de Lara indicated a June timeline for a dedicated Leios testnet.

In the past week, Cardano builder Input Output Group revealed that it was changing course to prioritize Cardano’s growth. Development is ceasing on Acropolis to focus on chain abstraction. Tiered pricing will also be canceled to align with the Leios roadmap, with the decision returning 4.1 million ADA to the Treasury.

In January, the Ouroboros Linear Leios CIP, which provides the technical blueprint specifying how the protocol upgrade will work, was finalized and officially merged.

Enthusiasts believe that Cardano will massively scale thanks to Ouroboros Leios, with early simulations showing early that Leios could hit 200-1,000 TPS, based on transaction size. The first implementation, Linear Leios, could push Cardano past 1,000 TPS.

Cardano prepares for van Rossem hard fork

Cardano is setting the stage for the van Rossem hard fork. This intra-era update will bring about protocol Version 11, which will enhance Plutus performance, ledger consistency and node security.

Unlike other hard fork updates, this particular one does not require a transition to a new era, which means ease of integration.

The van Rossem upgrade is expected to take place in late June 2026, with progress being highlighted by the hard fork committee.