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According to CNBC, Arda, an AI manufacturing startup founded by former OpenAI research director and former Palantir head of product and engineering Bob McGrew, announced the completion of a $230 million financing round, with a valuation of $1.5 billion. This round of financing was led by Altimeter Capital, Accel, and Khosla Ventures.Arda develops AI software and agents for manufacturing engineers, helping to build and adjust assembly lines more quickly. Its AI models have been deployed at defense technology company Anduril. McGrew stated that when product design changes, retraining workers takes only one day, while adjusting automated production lines typically takes three to six months.Arda combines self-developed models, open-source models, and some cutting-edge models to run its software, with the next product roadmap incorporating robotics technology. Co-founders include Augustus Odena, Alex Mark, and Jakob Frick. Apoorv Agrawal from Altimeter noted that the global manufacturing industry is valued at $16 trillion, with approximately $3 trillion in the United States. McGrew joined OpenAI in 2017 and left in 2024.

According to CoinDesk, Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson stated that he is personally developing a new programming language for the Cardano network and collaborating with Input Output Global engineer Lucas Rosa. Lucas Rosa is a co-creator of Aiken, one of Cardano's main smart contract languages. Hoskinson posted on the X platform that this will be the first programming language to combine user transaction completion intentions with cryptographic proofs.It is reported that the language will support three tools: transaction intent, data with carry proofs, and Groth16 proofs. Transaction intent allows users to specify the goals they want to achieve, while leaving the specific steps to the application, for example, traders can request that a token be exchanged for another only when the final price meets certain conditions, without specifying the exact path.Data with carry proofs can attach cryptographic evidence to information, proving that it complies with specific rules, allowing other applications to verify without recalculating. Groth16 is a widely used proof system that can generate small-sized, fast-verifying proofs, demonstrating that conditions have been met without exposing private data.With the combination of the three, developers can build applications that coordinate transactions, check complex conditions, and pass verified information between services, ultimately verified by Cardano with a small proof. Currently, Cardano developers mainly use Haskell-based Plutus and Aiken to write smart contracts, while Input Output Global, founded by Hoskinson, has its own privacy blockchain Midnight with its language Compact. The name, public code, and release date of this new language have not yet been announced.

The official account of Cardano announced that the payment card Cardano Card, launched in collaboration with Wirex, will be discontinued on October 31, 2026. The card can still be used normally until then.The post stated that the partner Wirex is transitioning to a non-custodial model and will stop its custodial infrastructure, thus the collaboration between the two parties will end on October 31, 2026. The official statement indicated that users holding the Cardano Card will be directly affected and mentioned that further arrangements for the project will be announced as soon as possible.

The Cardano Foundation has spun off the digital identity project Veridian into an independent Swiss company and has tokenized most of its 1 million shares on the Cardano blockchain. Veridian becomes the first company to adopt the Cardano CIP-0113 standard.This standard allows token issuers to impose transfer restrictions and freeze or seize assets to meet regulatory requirements. Veridian's mobile wallet is now live and is developing related credentials to help individuals, businesses, and AI agents verify identities and permissions without relying on centralized databases.

The Cardano Foundation announced that the programmable token standard CIP-0113 has officially launched on the Cardano mainnet, allowing issuers of regulated assets such as stablecoins, tokenized funds, and bonds to directly embed compliance rules such as KYC, anti-money laundering, sanctions screening, asset freezing and confiscation, and transfer restrictions into the tokens, which will be executed by the Cardano ledger during each transfer, minting, and burning.This standard does not require a hard fork, and the tokens remain native assets of Cardano, with issuers able to update the rule modules according to regulatory changes.

According to CoinDesk, Brazil's state-controlled energy company Petrobras is testing the Cardano blockchain to track statements related to low-carbon fuels.The Cardano Foundation announced two research projects on Wednesday, one focusing on sustainable aviation fuel, which is a low-carbon aviation fuel alternative that can be used in existing aircraft and airports, and the other on Diesel R, which is diesel produced by Petrobras using renewable materials such as vegetable oils and animal fats.The aviation fuel project targets the book-and-claim model in green fuel sales: airlines can pay for the environmental benefits of sustainable fuel, even if the fuel itself is used elsewhere. This model requires recording the benefit attribution and claiming time to avoid double counting the same emissions reduction.The application records the source, recipient, and claiming time of each benefit through Cardano. In real scenarios, passengers can input their departure and destination airports to calculate the corresponding fuel benefits and receive a certificate linking their quota to the original fuel certificate. The diesel project records information on fuel production, transportation, and usage, compiling it into a complete fuel process history, which helps companies report Scope 3 emissions.Frederik Gregaard, CEO of the Cardano Foundation, stated that Brazil has been one of the most stable adopters of Cardano, from government agencies like SERPRO to industrial sectors like SENAI, and Petrobras continues to value the on-chain traceability and transparency.He mentioned that with x402 landing on Cardano and Fireblocks increasing support for Cardano native tokens, institutional interest continues to grow.

Cardano has joined the official x402 software development kit, allowing developers to enable applications or AI agents to use ADA or Cardano network tokens to pay for online services. x402 transforms the basic idle "402 Payment Required" response in web pages into a checkout process built into internet requests: the service provider returns the price and payment instructions, the agent signs the payment, and after transaction verification, the required data or computing power can be obtained.This means that AI agents can purchase individual datasets on demand when preparing reports, without the need for manual account registration, entering credit card information, or subscribing to monthly fees. x402 was created by Coinbase in 2025 and subsequently contributed to an organization under the Linux Foundation, with members including Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, Google, and Amazon Web Services. Solana, XRP Ledger, and several Ethereum-compatible networks have previously supported this standard.Engineers from the Cardano Foundation have built client and server software for payment requests based on the specifications passed in June, as well as a facilitator responsible for verifying and submitting transactions. The first version supports TypeScript, with Python support planned for later release. Facilitator documentation shows that it has completed a real transaction on the Cardano pre-production network, but it has not yet run on the mainnet, nor has it demonstrated scenarios where agents use ADA to pay for commercial services on a large scale.

The Cardano development company Input Output Group (IOG) issued a warning on its official X account, urging users to temporarily avoid interacting with its YouTube channel. The channel began streaming a video of Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson that is suspected to have been altered by AI, discussing a cryptocurrency giveaway event, and by the time of the report, the stream had been ongoing for nearly two hours.It is reported that the live stream encourages viewers to scan a QR code and promises to "double their wealth." IOG stated in the warning, "Please avoid interacting with the IO Group YouTube channel until further notice," and advised users not to click on links in the channel, not to transfer funds, or share personal information.

According to Crypto.news, Cardano governance company Intersect has updated its roadmap, dividing the Dijkstra upgrade into two phases: the first phase will go live in Q4 2026, including the Linear Leios scaling solution, nested transactions, new serialization structures, and PlutusV4 changes; the second phase will activate the Ouroboros Peras consensus protocol through a separate hard fork, with a target date of Q2 2027.Linear Leios introduces an endorsement block mechanism, where additional transactions are certified by the stake committee to enhance throughput while retaining the existing Praos security model. Additionally, Cardano plans to submit an amendment to add Dijkstra-related parameters by September 11. The Rust node client Amaru has already acquired relay and chain synchronization capabilities, with a mainnet block production target set for November 2026. Intersect emphasizes that the above timelines are estimates rather than commitments, and governance and community testing may lead to delays in activation.

According to The Block, Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson stated that quantum computing could pose a significant challenge to Bitcoin's governance capabilities. If the Bitcoin network cannot coordinate the necessary upgrades, BTC may lose its status as the largest cryptocurrency asset globally.Hoskinson mentioned that the problem with Bitcoin is that it is "frozen in time," making any changes very difficult. He believes that the early disappointment with Bitcoin's lack of flexibility was one of the reasons that led to the birth of Ethereum.

Midnight Foundation posted on platform X that the Wanchain Cardano BNB cross-chain bridge has experienced a security attack. Currently, several major exchanges, including KuCoin, Kraken, Binance, Bybit, OKX, and MEXC, have quickly responded by taking preventive measures to restrict the flow of stolen assets, including freezing related accounts and addresses, blacklisting the attacker’s wallet, and suspending the deposit and withdrawal services for the NIGHT token.Exchanges have confirmed that this incident is an isolated third-party bridging vulnerability and is unrelated to the Midnight Network mainnet and the NIGHT asset itself.

According to CoinDesk, the Cardano mainnet completed the "Van Rossem" hard fork on July 18, upgrading the protocol version to 11, primarily reducing the cost of smart contract execution and paving the way for subsequent scaling solutions.This upgrade was the first to be fully proposed, discussed, and voted on by the community through the on-chain governance process, rather than being directly led by the founding development company Input Output. On-chain data shows that the voting support rate was approximately 78.97%, all 7 members of the Constitutional Committee confirmed that the proposal complied with the "Cardano Constitution," about 53.02% of node operators voted in favor, and over approximately 93% of block production pledges have run the new version of the node.This upgrade prepares technically and procedurally for the scaling solution Ouroboros Leios, which is planned to go live in 2026.

On July 18, 2026, at 21:44:51 UTC, Cardano activated the Van Rossem hard fork, upgrading the network to protocol version 11, with no reported downtime. This upgrade is part of the changes within the Conway ledger era, aimed at reducing the operating costs of Plutus smart contracts, enhancing ledger security, and introducing new cryptographic tools.Van Rossem includes 5 Cardano Improvement Proposals, involving BLS12-381 multi-scalar multiplication, on-chain array types, optimization of multi-asset value processing, acceleration of list operations, and built-in modular exponentiation. Staking pools are now prohibited from reusing the same verifiable random function key across the entire network; each pool must hold a unique key bound to its identity.This upgrade was completed through the Cardano on-chain governance process, with the proposal to activation advanced by on-chain voting. Delegated representatives passed the proposal with a support rate of 77.63%, while the support rate among staking pool operators was 52.7%, and the constitutional committee's voting result was 6-0-0-1. Wallets holding between 100,000 and 100 million ADA saw their total balance rise to the highest level since 2023, currently controlling over a quarter of the circulating supply of ADA. Cardano will subsequently advance Ouroboros Leios and plans to achieve a target of over 1,000 transactions per second during the testing period in 2026.

The Cardano development company Input Output will transfer control of key blockchain components such as Haskell nodes, the Plutus platform, and the Daedalus wallet to external professional teams starting in August, as part of a multi-year decentralization initiative. Independent companies like Se7en Labs and Teragone will be responsible for some core infrastructure.At least three implementations of Cardano will be maintained in Haskell, Rust, and Go languages, and will be subject to community oversight and formal specification management. Cardano is currently facing weak network activity and a significant drop in the price of the ADA token. Founder Charles Hoskinson has defined this restructuring and the related setbacks in the ecosystem as necessary "growing pains" on the path to complete decentralization.

The governance company of Cardano, Intersect, stated on the X platform that EMURGO is unable to allocate the necessary resources to execute the Token2049 event due to its recent focus on handling the SecondFi security incident. After discussions among three parties, the responsibility for the event has officially been transferred to the Cardano Foundation.EMURGO submitted a transfer request to Intersect, which received agreement from all parties after discussions with the Cardano Foundation. Intersect stated that this decision was based on the urgency of the event timeline and the need to avoid delivery uncertainties. The Cardano Foundation has agreed to deliver the event within the approved scope, and both EMURGO and Intersect recognize its past execution capabilities. The delivery work for Token2049 has now officially been handed over, and the event is still scheduled to take place in October.Previously, in June, it was reported that SecondFi disclosed a security incident affecting approximately 16 million ADA (around 2.42 million USD at the time); however, SlowMist indicated that user losses from SecondFi could exceed 20 million USD.

The founding entity of Cardano, EMURGO, stated on Monday that the wallet service SecondFi, which was hacked, will not resume normal operations even after a security audit is completed, and requires all users to migrate their assets through the official recovery process. SecondFi is a rebranded version of the Yoroi wallet, which EMURGO claims is the largest wallet provider for Cardano.According to EMURGO's incident report on June 25, the service suffered four independent wallet theft incidents on June 22, with 374 addresses compromised and approximately 16 million ADA (worth about 2.4 million USD at the time) stolen. The team also managed to secure approximately 129 million ADA through emergency measures.EMURGO stated that the compromised wallets should be considered permanently exposed at the address and private key level, and restoring the compromised mnemonic phrases to other wallets does not eliminate the risk. EMURGO plans to launch an isolated wallet status check tool this week, followed by providing a secure export tool and an offline migration workshop in Tokyo, and is building a special repair fund for on-chain recovery systems, which will return assets to affected users after external audits are completed.

SecondFi posted on platform X that the team discovered security issues with a small number of Cardano wallets on the platform. The issue has been contained and affected features have been suspended, while the engineering team is actively working to restore all platform functionalities. To protect users, SecondFi has temporarily entered maintenance mode, and all front-end interactions have been suspended.

On May 29, CME included Cardano futures in 24/7 trading, and ADA subsequently joined the Nasdaq CME Crypto Index on June 8, alongside BTC, ETH, XRP, and Solana. However, ADA has fallen 37% over the past month to about $0.17, marking its lowest level since 2021. Issues at the ecological level continue to worsen: the analytics platform TapTools, which serves over a million users, has shut down due to the departure of key executives; the 2026 Singapore summit has been canceled because the governance vote did not reach the two-thirds absolute majority threshold of 66.67%, with a support rate of 65.21%; founder Charles Hoskinson warned that more DeFi projects will fail in the second half of 2026.According to DefiLlama data, the Cardano DeFi ecosystem's TVL has dropped from about $905 million at the end of 2024 to currently less than $140 million, a decrease of 85%. The only node worth paying attention to is the launch of the Ouroboros Leios testnet on June 23, which focuses on speed and throughput, with the mainnet deployment target set for the end of 2026.

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson stated that he has communicated with Phillip Pon and is planning to create a Discord to facilitate the migration of the Cardano community from X.Charles Hoskinson mentioned that he will continue to livestream on X in the future, but the Q&A session will only accept questions from the new Cardano Discord and the existing Midnight Discord. He stated that this move aims to provide the community with a better-managed and more positive communication space to foster genuine dialogue and drive real progress.

Notable cryptocurrency bankruptcy creditor Thomas Braziel (@Bkclaims) disclosed that the original documents collected from the Isle of Man show that the earliest structure of the Cardano Foundation involved Charles Hoskinson, Jeremy Wood, Ken Kodama, and others. Subsequent documents indicate that Hoskinson served as the "Enforcer" of the foundation— a key position responsible for ensuring that the foundation's board acted in accordance with its charter.It is worth noting that Cardano's initial coin issuance began as early as September 2015, while the Swiss Cardano Foundation was not officially established until September 2016. During this period, the terms of service and risk disclosures listed the "foundation" as the issuer or supporter. Additionally, historical records of the Swiss Cardano Foundation also confirm the existence of the predecessor foundation in the Isle of Man and show that it received approximately 1,090 BTC.