The Cardano ecosystem recorded several major developments over the past week. Most notably, the launch of the Leios public testnet led activity. There were also upcoming decentralized finance (DeFi) initiatives, renewed ecosystem funding, and an application-level security incident involving the SecondFi wallet.
Here’s what happened in the Cardano ecosystem in the last week:
Leios Public Testnet Goes Live
Cardano officially launched the public testnet for Leios, its next-generation scaling protocol, on June 23. Named Musashi Dojo after the legendary samurai Miyamoto Musashi, the testnet marks one of the network’s most known technical milestones in years. Moreover, the upgrade is seen as a major boost to Cardano’s transaction throughput by up to 65X. A mainnet hard fork is targeted for November 2026.
Musashi Dojo is live! The Leios public testnet is here.
Huge credit to IO’s Leios team, and to the collaborators who made this possible: @Cardano_CF, @IntersectMBO & @blinklabs_io. This was a truly collective effort.
Come explore. Test it. Break it.https://t.co/EI6nlxHqYF… pic.twitter.com/AD21vZ2Hv7— Input Output Group (@IOGroup) June 23, 2026
The rollout is structured into five phases: Earth, Water, Fire, Wind, and Void. These will progressively test the protocol from initial design validation to adversarial testing before mainnet deployment. As a result, the testnet allows stake pool operators (SPOs) to deploy Leios-enabled block producers. Developers can also begin testing decentralized applications (DApps), wallets, and infrastructure ahead of the upgrade.
RealFi Testnet Set for July Launch
Input Output Global (IOG) also announced that Phase 1 of its RealFi testnet will launch on July 6.
The project aims to improve capital efficiency by enabling stablecoins to generate yield instead of remaining idle. The initiative represents IOG’s latest effort to expand decentralized finance (DeFi) use cases within the Cardano ecosystem.
Big news: the RealFi Phase 1 Testnet goes live on 6 July. 🚀
This is our first public step toward next-generation stablecoin infrastructure on Cardano – and a direct response to a problem we’ve been vocal about:
Crypto’s clearest success story has scaled as money. But not as… pic.twitter.com/uQe68ds6iM
— RealFi (@realfi_co) June 24, 2026
Project Catalyst Returns with 2 Million $ADA
Cardano’s community funding program, Project Catalyst, will return in August with a 2 million $ADA grant pool.
A new Catalyst pilot fund will start in August 2026, with a total grant pool of 2M $ADA.
We look forward to working with the community and supporting the Cardano builders. More details soon.
Read the announcement on the Forum and share your thoughts.https://t.co/MbM7xZ7IKc
— Project Catalyst (@Catalyst_onX) June 26, 2026
The upcoming funding round will prioritize projects building around technologies such as Pyth, Brale, stablecoins, programmable tokens, and on-chain identity. This will provide fresh capital for developers and ecosystem builders.
AlphaGrowth Proposes Treasury-Funded DeFi Initiative
Meanwhile, AlphaGrowth unveiled PRIME, a proposal with a vision to accelerate DeFi adoption on Cardano.
1/11
Cardano DeFi is ready for prime time.
Today we’re introducing PRIME:
a 12-month AlphaGrowth-run program to help Cardano attract liquidity, deepen DeFi usage, and become a first-class destination for capital. pic.twitter.com/nJ11h3jQWr
— alphagrowth (@alphagrowth1) June 22, 2026
The firm plans to request 120 million $ADA from the Cardano treasury to fund the initiative. It is also showcasing its previous work with major blockchain ecosystems including Compound, Uniswap, and Arbitrum. Notably, it says it helped support more than $1 billion in total value locked (TVL).
SecondFi Exploit Prompts Security Reminder
The week also saw a security incident involving SecondFi, formerly known as the Yoroi wallet. A vulnerability reportedly resulted in the theft of approximately 16 million $ADA.
SecondFi stated that affected users will be fully compensated and advised users to follow updates through its official channels.
Update https://t.co/23F2M0YrUp
— Charles Hoskinson (@IOHK_Charles) June 24, 2026
Addressing concerns, Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson emphasized that the blockchain itself was not compromised. He stated that Cardano’s protocol, cryptography, and core infrastructure remain secure.
He described the exploit as an isolated application-level issue rather than a network-wide vulnerability.
Cardano’s native token $ADA traded at $0.1439, declining 0.8% over the past 24 hours despite a series of ecosystem developments.
