Cardano news: 19 to 27 October 2026
8 stories from the Cardano world, 19 to 27 October 2026, each in a few sentences. Published 27 October 2026.
24 October 2026
Three treasury requests, including a 22 million ADA copper reserve, await votes
Intersect's weekly update lists three treasury withdrawal requests open for DRep votes: Toto Finance's 22 million ADA Cardano Strategic Copper Reserve, which expires on 15 November, and the AURORA credit-market and Trivolve Tech PFMS proposals, which expire on 20 November. Each needs yes votes from 67% of DRep stake. As of 22 October they had 0.25%, 0.38% and 2.93%.
If your ADA is delegated to a DRep, your stake counts in that DRep's vote on whether this treasury money is paid out.
Source: Intersect
22 October 2026
Public Dijkstra testnet opens to stake pool operators ahead of node 11.2
Intersect said in its 22 October upgrade bulletin that DijkstraNet, the public test network for Cardano's next hard fork, is open to stake pool operators after a restart on 21 October. It runs node 11.1.3 on protocol version 11 with one-day epochs, and node 11.2, which carries the Dijkstra features except Leios, was expected to be tagged that week. The bulletin gave no date for mainnet.
Nothing changes on mainnet yet, because this is the public test stage before the Dijkstra hard fork, which still has no set date.
Source: crypto.news
21 October 2026
Stake pools vote against raising k to 1000 in an on-chain poll
An on-chain info action asking whether the stake pool target number k should rise from 500 to 1000 expired at the start of epoch 663 on 21 October without support. Of the stake that voted, 97.79% of pool stake and 92.21% of DRep stake said no. Info actions only record opinion, so no parameter changed.
The k value decides how much stake a pool can hold before extra stake stops earning more rewards, and it stays at 500 for now.
Source: Realtap
21 October 2026
Cardano Foundation asks EU to keep DeFi and staking outside MiCA
The Cardano Foundation published the response it sent on 30 September to the European Commission's review of the MiCA crypto rules. It argues against extending MiCA or creating new rules for DeFi, staking and other protocol-level activity, and says rules should target people who control assets or transactions. It notes that ADA holders delegate stake without giving up custody or locking their ADA.
The EU review could decide whether people in Europe who stake ADA from their own wallet come under new crypto rules.
Source: Cardano Foundation
21 October 2026
Intersect sends 115,172 ADA from a 2025 budget back to the treasury
On 20 and 21 October, Intersect used the SweepTreasury function of its 2025 Treasury Reserve Smart Contract on mainnet for the first time. Two transactions of 55,172 ADA and 60,000 ADA returned 115,172 ADA from the 2025 Cardano Product Committee budget to the Cardano treasury. Intersect also said every 2026 budget project now has its own smart contract.
It shows that ADA held in Intersect's budget contracts can be sent back to the community treasury in on-chain transactions anyone can check.
Source: Intersect
20 October 2026
Midnight introduces Nightmode to shield user identity in trades on other chains
In a 20 October post that gives no release date, Midnight described Nightmode, which links its privacy network to public blockchains through multi-party computation vault contracts. A user deposits an asset into a vault on its home chain, receives a matching balance in Midnight's Multi-Chain Shielded pool to trade or stake, and burns that balance to get the original asset back. Trade values stay visible but are not linked to the user's identity, and seven private cryptographic signatures govern access to the vaults.
It shows how Midnight, the privacy network linked to Cardano, plans to add privacy for assets that stay on their own chains instead of crossing a bridge.
Source: Midnight Network
20 October 2026
Input Output sets out a staged path for Leios to reach mainnet
Input Output's 20 October update says Leios, the upgrade meant to raise Cardano's capacity, arrives with the Dijkstra hard fork but switches on in stages. Stake pools first register new BLS voting keys, and activation needs keys covering roughly 90 to 95% of delegated stake. Capacity would start at 3 to 5 times today's limit of about 4.5 kilobytes of transaction data per second, with 10 to 15 times planned through later governance votes.
Higher capacity will not start on hard fork day, because it depends on enough pools registering keys and on later parameter votes.
Source: crypto.news
20 October 2026
Cardano Foundation joins letter asking SEC to classify digital commodities as non-securities
On 20 October, the Cardano Foundation, Chainlink Labs, Hedera, Aptos Labs, Ava Labs and the Stellar Development Foundation sent the SEC a joint letter on its proposed Regulation Crypto Assets framework. They asked for digital commodities to be classified as non-securities in the rule itself rather than in guidance, and for clearer rules on secondary trading and staking. The SEC proposal, introduced in August, drew about 140 public comments over 60 days.
A clear US rule on which tokens are not securities could shape how American exchanges and staking services handle ADA.
Source: Cointelegraph
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