Cardano mainnet slows after technical issue; node upgrade advised

The glitch began on November 21, 2025, when the community-based organization Intersect reported that block production on the Cardano mainnet had slowed significantly. According to Intersect, the bug did not halt the network entirely, but the slowdown raised concerns about scalability and performance.

According to recent updates, the Cardano Foundation is working with service provider organisations (SPOs) and teams from Intersect, Input Output Global, and Emurgo to address the issue. Cardano co-founder Charles Hoskinson said they are preparing a community upgrade to node version 10.5.2 and that the team will publish a post explaining what happened and how the problem was resolved.

While the slowdown has worried some users, others pointed to the network’s already low activity. The founder of the metaverse project Sappy Seals, known as @wabdoteth, shared a sarcastic reaction to the incident, writing: “Cardano mainnet is down and nobody has noticed yet because nobody uses it.”

In one of our analytical articles, we broke down the criticism over Cardano for slow progress compared with Ethereum and Solana, with some claiming ADA is dead. As we mentioned, the project follows a scientific, peer-reviewed approach. Under the leadership of Charles Hoskinson, the development team (Input Output Global / IOHK) has been focused on building secure and scalable architecture rather than rushing features.

Cardano is actively expanding its ecosystem and forming partnerships. Key roadmap stages include “Basho” (for scalability via sidechains) and “Voltaire” (for decentralized governance).

However, Cardano, founded in 2015, lags behind other networks. According to DefiLlama, it is the 27th largest blockchain in terms of total value locked (TVL) at $188.4 million. Cardano’s native cryptocurrency, ADA, is the 10th largest crypto with a market cap of over $14 billion. At the time of writing, ADA trades at around $0.40, 11% down in a day and 86.74% below its all-time high of $3.10 set on September 2, 2021.