Cardano’s scaling roadmap took a concrete step forward after Anastasia Labs CEO Philip DiSarro reported on September 16 that Midgard—the project’s native Layer-2—now runs a “functional node” with live pathways for settling state on Layer-1 and finalizing state commitments. In a post on X, DiSarro summarized the status succinctly: “Update on Midgard: We have a functional node, with support for state settlement on the L1, and state commitment finalization. You can transact on the L2 at lightning speeds with low latency and the results are displayed in your wallet (a fork of Lace ) in real-time.” He added that the next engineering checkpoints are “the delivery of L1 deposits and withdrawals, and the forced transaction inclusion mechanism,” concluding, “Things are coming together nicely and we’re extremely excited to bring this into the hands of the community.” Charles Hoskinson amplified the development with a tongue-in-cheek meme—“Everything is proceeding as I have foreseen”—a line that underscored how closely the Cardano founder has tied Midgard to the network’s broader scaling narrative this cycle. While lighthearted in tone, the post signals executive-level attention on progress that, if sustained, could materially change Cardano’s throughput profile. What Is Cardano L2 Midgard? At a technical level, DiSarro’s note points to three pillars that matter for any rollup-style L2: settlement, commitments, and inclusion. “State settlement on the L1” refers to the process by which the L2’s canonical state is anchored to Cardano’s base layer, ensuring that, even though transactions execute off-chain, ultimate security and finality derive from the L1. “State commitment finalization” describes recording cryptographic commitments to L2 state so that disputes can be resolved and the correct state can be proven against the L1. The mention of a forthcoming “forced transaction inclusion mechanism” is equally significant, as such mechanisms are widely used in rollup ecosystems to mitigate sequencer censorship by giving users an escape hatch that compels inclusion via the base chain when necessary. DiSarro did not publish specs in this update, but these terms map cleanly to the rollup design goals Midgard has articulated publicly since its unveiling. Midgard’s positioning has consistently been that of a Cardano-native optimistic rollup that is “tokenless,” avoids cross-chain bridges, and aims to let developers redeploy existing dApps without rewriting for a new execution environment. The project’s X profile describes it as “a tokenless Layer 2 using optimistic rollups to bring throughput and efficiency to Cardano. No bridges. No chain switching. Just ADA, smart contracts, and …” a framing that aligns with the practical focus on developer ergonomics and minimizing surface area for trust. Beyond social updates, Midgard has been tracked through Cardano’s community treasury process. In Fund12 of Project Catalyst, Anastasia Labs secured ₳500,000 for an open-source build-out, publishing milestone plans that ranged from architecture specifications to an L2 node MVP. The public Catalyst page, last updated in mid-2025, lists the workstreams and partial disbursements and emphasizes isomorphism with Cardano’s eUTxO model —meaning dApps should be able to redeploy to Midgard using the same code and tooling. While a Catalyst milestone plan is not a launch schedule, it provides additional documentary evidence that Midgard’s engineering artifacts have been progressing under a transparent grant framework. At press time, ADA traded at $0.8759.
