Cardano news

JPG Store, the leading Cardano NFT marketplace, announced it will shut down on May 23, 2026, citing operational unsustainability. The platform, launched in 2021, will cease operations in two phases: a restriction mode starting April 23 disables new listings and offers, while all functionality ends on May 23. Users with self-custody wallets retain access to their NFTs via other platforms. Those using social login wallets must migrate assets to standard wallets within 30 days. Active listings, offers, or loans should be canceled or settled before the deadline. JPG Store's closure follows other NFT marketplace shutdowns, including Nifty Gateway and Immutable. The team released open-source contract repositories to support ongoing Cardano development.

Input Output Global, the primary developer behind Cardano, has requested $46.8 million from the network's treasury for 2026 operations, down from $97.5 million in 2025. The funding prioritizes scaling Cardano to support Vision 2030 targets and capturing Bitcoin liquidity via DeFi. Key initiatives include the Leios consensus upgrade to boost throughput from 7-10 transactions per second to over 1,000, and Pogun, a DeFi engine to turn Bitcoin into productive capital on Cardano. The proposal also allocates funds for developer tooling improvements and off-chain scaling solutions like Hydra and Midgard.

Input Output Global has submitted scaled-back treasury proposals for Cardano's 2026 roadmap, requesting about 50% less funding than last year. The plans center on the Leios network-scaling upgrade, which aims to increase transaction throughput by 10x to 65x to support DeFi and enterprise use. Leios is scheduled for testnet in June 2026 with mainnet launch by year-end, though current development progress is at approximately 24%. The proposals also include infrastructure maintenance, developer tooling improvements, and new economic models like Babel Fees for paying transaction fees with non-ADA tokens.

Volatility Shares has launched 2x leveraged ETFs for Cardano, Stellar, and Chainlink, allowing traders to amplify daily price movements in these major altcoins. The firm, which debuted the first leveraged crypto ETF in the U.S. in 2023, also introduced traditional futures-based ETFs for the same cryptocurrencies. These new products target sophisticated traders seeking specific digital asset exposure, following the firm's earlier leveraged ETFs for Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and XRP. The move comes amid a favorable regulatory environment, though the SEC has recently cautioned issuers against offering 5x leveraged funds due to risk concerns.

Cardano's new privacy-focused network Midnight has launched, aiming to bridge the gap between its $9.1 billion market valuation and limited on-chain activity. The network targets regulated finance by embedding privacy and compliance features, with initial operators including Google Cloud and MoneyGram. Midnight's architecture allows institutions to demonstrate compliance without exposing sensitive data, using a dual-token model and TypeScript-influenced smart contracts. Key early use cases include Monument Bank's plan to tokenize retail deposits and Worldpay's stablecoin payments proof of concept. The network's success will depend on whether it can attract real adoption from regulated institutions, with the verdict resting on actual application deployment and workflow commitments beyond the current federated launch phase.

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson has unveiled Midnight, a privacy-focused blockchain designed to bring real-world assets onchain with end-to-end privacy. The network features zero-knowledge proofs for selective data disclosure and a dual-token system with NIGHT for governance and DUST for gas.

Cardano faces extreme negative sentiment as ADA shorts spike to their highest level since June 2023, with the token down 71% since September. This sets the stage for a potential short squeeze if a catalyst emerges. The catalyst could be the imminent launch of Midnight, a privacy-focused sidechain that aims to attract institutional flows by reframing privacy as a compliant, programmable product. Midnight uses a dual-token model with NIGHT and DUST, which may not directly boost ADA's value. Despite low on-chain activity, Cardano has integrated infrastructure like LayerZero and USDCx to support growth. Midnight's launch represents a key experiment for the network, offering a fresh product line and compliance-friendly narrative amid regulatory pressures.

Cardano whales have been selling ADA consistently for three weeks, offloading approximately 380 million tokens worth over $103 million, signaling eroding confidence among major holders. This selling pressure, combined with most investors being underwater on their positions, creates a challenging environment for ADA's price recovery, which currently trades at $0.264 below key resistance levels.

Cardano has rolled out a series of governance and infrastructure upgrades—including ratified 2030 Vision, a revised constitution with immutable links and self‑contained treasury withdrawals, an on‑chain financial audit via Reeve, Yaci Store 2.0 governance‑state derivation, early‑access formal verification tools, and treasury guardrails limiting ADA net changes and introducing milestone‑based payments. The changes aim to make Cardano more auditable and compliant ahead of the EU’s MiCA regime, positioning it as a “governable” chain attractive to enterprises, regulators and tokenized‑asset projects that require transparent controls. While Cardano’s tokenized asset volume remains outside the top‑10 compared with Ethereum and others, the article notes the strategy’s success will depend on actual use of milestone contracts, broader adoption of Reeve, and institutional projects in its 2026 accelerator delivering production‑scale deployments.

Cardano’s ADA token can now be used for purchases at 137 Spar supermarkets across Switzerland. The payment option is enabled through a partnership with fiat on‑ and off‑ramp platform DFX.swiss, which uses the Open Crypto Pay standard to let users scan a QR code and pay directly from native wallets, with stores receiving Swiss franc settlement. Cardano Foundation CEO Frederik Gregaard described the integration as the start of a shift toward everyday crypto use, likening ADA payments to card transactions. The rollout follows Spar’s earlier Bitcoin Lightning Network pilots and reflects Switzerland’s broader embrace of cryptocurrency payments.