Cardano Leios Testnet Peaks at 26.8 TxkB/s, Mainnet Still Pending
Cardano's public Leios testnet recorded a 26.8 TxkB/s peak in its Earth phase, according to Blockonomi. That is about six times the Praos-only mainnet figure the outlet cites. The metric is data throughput on a testnet, and mainnet delivery still needs governance approval.
Cardano's public Leios testnet, Musashi Dojo, recorded a peak of 26.8 TxkB/s in its Earth phase, Blockonomi reported on October 17, 2026. The outlet puts mainnet running Praos alone at 4.51 TxkB/s, making the testnet peak roughly six times higher. Neither figure has been checked against a primary report. The metric measures data throughput on a testnet, and mainnet delivery still depends on governance.
Reading the number
TxkB/s means transaction kilobytes processed per second. Blockonomi states it is not a transactions-per-second reading and cannot serve as a direct mainnet transaction count. The roughly sixfold comparison sets a testnet peak against the Praos-only mainnet figure. It is not a measured mainnet speedup.
A CoinTurk search snippet repeats the same figures, but the full page was not opened, so it is weak corroboration. This outlet could not check them against a primary report.
How Leios works
Blockonomi describes Leios as an Ouroboros extension that raises throughput without replacing the Praos chain. Block producers publish larger endorser blocks beside regular Praos blocks. A stake-weighted committee verifies them and issues a certificate. Certified transactions then enter the ledger through the existing Praos sequence.
Testnet findings
Musashi Dojo launched on June 23 (Blockonomi does not state the year) as the first public network run of the protocol, not a simulation. Blockonomi says it tested the full protocol across real distances and latencies.
Blockonomi, citing a development report that this outlet did not review, says the first phase covered more than 127,000 blocks, 30,000 endorser blocks and nearly 8,000 certificates. It says engineers found five incidents, including forks and synchronization failures, which the report described as implementation bugs rather than design failures.
Path to mainnet
Blockonomi reports that Linear Leios is slated for phase one of the Dijkstra hard fork, targeted for late 2026. This target was not checked against IOG or Intersect documentation. That date is subject to on-chain governance. DReps, stake pool operators and the Constitutional Committee must ratify a hard fork action.
Per Blockonomi, stake pools must also register BLS keys for Leios voting. Parameter changes will raise throughput in steps after activation, not in one network-wide jump.
Hoskinson's remarks
Blockonomi reports that in an October 17 exchange, Charles Hoskinson said Cardano would be complete only after Leios reaches mainnet. Blockonomi frames this as his personal completion standard, not a formal release declaration or roadmap change.
Market context
ADA traded near $0.2206 at 14:05 UTC on October 17, with a market cap of $8.28 billion, per DefiLlama and CoinGecko data. Per DefiLlama on October 17, Cardano's DeFi TVL was $63.72 million, against $49.89 billion for Ethereum and $5.96 billion for Solana.
Neither Blockonomi nor CoinTurk, as reviewed here, establishes a price or usage effect from the testnet result.
What to watch
Key markers are a governance ratification of the Dijkstra hard fork action, stake pool BLS key registration and the staged parameter increases. The test conditions behind the peak, such as duration, transaction sizes and node counts, were not available.