Kaspa (KAS) Network Upgrade Scheduled for May 2026
A planned network upgrade, referred to as a "Covenant-centric" hardfork, is scheduled for May 5, 2026, designed to enable native programmable covenants on Kaspa. This will provide the foundational ability to create native tokens (like KRC-20 standards) and deploy basic smart contract logic directly on Layer 1, moving beyond simple transactions.
This upgrade is bullish for Kaspa because it unlocks the potential for DeFi, NFTs, and complex applications, directly increasing the utility and demand for the KAS token. However, the main risk is execution – a smooth hardfork requires broad miner and node operator adoption to avoid chain splits or instability.
Price Performance and Technical Analysis
The price of Kaspa (KAS) is $0.03220 today with a 24-hour trading volume of $18,130,808.90, representing a -3.50% price decline in the last 24 hours and a 3.30% price increase in the past 7 days. Market capitalization of Kaspa (KAS) is $879,241,083 and is ranked #74 on CoinGecko.
Analyst Javon Marks identified a clear falling wedge pattern on Kaspa's long-term chart, with price action breaking out of that wedge to the upside, with a target near $0.09.
Scaling Roadmap
Block rate increases planned for 2026–2027 aim to scale throughput from 10 to 25, 40, and eventually 100 blocks per second. Kaspa currently operates at 10 blocks per second (BPS).
Ecosystem Developments
Igra Network launched its public mainnet as a decentralized EVM layer on Kaspa's Proof-of-Work BlockDAG, providing 3,000+ TPS with fifteen protocols deploying.