Cardano to launch Plomin Hard Fork, ADA holders have voting power

The Cardano blockchain is set to undergo an upgrade with the launch of the Plomin hard fork on January 29, 2025, at 21:45 UTC. The hard fork is meant to steer Cardano’s transition toward a fully decentralized governance, as confirmed in a recent post by the Cardano Foundation on X.

According to the Intersect, Cardano ecosystem’s news outlet, the decision to implement the Plomin hard fork was finalized on January 24, after meeting three key approval thresholds during the interim governance phase. 

Originally intended to be the second phase of the Chang hard fork, part of Cardano’s roadmap inclusive of the Voltaire era, the upgrade was renamed in memory of Matthew Plomin, a notable Cardano community contributor. 

Tonight, Cardano evolves.

The Plomin hard fork takes effect, marking the transition to full decentralized governance. $Ada holders gain real voting power—on parameter changes, treasury withdrawals, hard forks, and the blockchain’s future.

A milestone in blockchain governance.

— Cardano Foundation (@Cardano_CF) January 29, 2025

The first part of the Chang upgrade was integrated in July 2024, but after the Plomin fork, ADA Delegated Representatives (DReps) will now vote for what steps the network will take in the future.

Technical upgrades and network readiness

The Plomin hard fork requires at least 85% of stake pools by active stake to upgrade to a compatible Cardano node version. Over 51% of stake pool operators (SPOs) reportedly voted in favor of the upgrade, with more than 67% of the interim constitutional committee (ICC) ruling the fork constitutional.

Unlike the nature soft forks in blockchain networks, the Plomin fork is not backward compatible, requiring stake pools and relay nodes to update to the latest node version. 

The Cardano Foundation has warned that failing to upgrade could expose outdated nodes to potential denial-of-service (DoS) attacks. SPOs must update to node version 10.1.4 to maintain their connection to the network.

As of January 22, around 78% of Cardano’s network nodes had already upgraded, signaling widespread readiness. Additionally, roughly 60% of exchange liquidity had been reported ready for the transition. 

The network’s foundation also mentioned that some wallets may not transition to the new node version immediately, but assured Yoroi Wallet users that their wallets will be part of the upgrade.

ADA price remains unresponsive to upgrade news

Meanwhile, Cardano’s native token, ADA, has not reacted positively to the Plomin hard fork news and was trading below $0.93 at press time, down 3.6% on the day, per Coingecko updates. The crypto has also witnessed a nearly 8% decline over the past week, although its current values are up 10% in the last month.

In the early Asian trading hours of Monday, Cardano’s price went to an intraweek low of $0.87, but it experienced a slight recovery to levels above $0.90 when US markets opened.

On the ADA/USDT trading pair, the coin has been trending lower after failing to break through the $1.20 resistance level. The token is currently consolidating within a large falling wedge pattern, with a potential retest of its lower boundary in the coming days. 

Despite recent losses, ADA remains above the 200-day moving average at approximately $0.715, which could encourage investors to take up buying positions. However, per TradingView’s market indicators summary, which tracks the 10 to 100-day moving averages on the trading chart, the general sentiment around Cardano holders leans more toward selling.   

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