diff --git a/cmd/demo/main.go b/cmd/demo/main.go
index db8929b6e..5c7e3e219 100644
--- a/cmd/demo/main.go
+++ b/cmd/demo/main.go
@@ -8,12 +8,13 @@ import (
 )
 
 const (
-	SUPPORTED_CAPABILITIES = "staking"
-	PRINT_DEBUG            = true
-	MEMORY_LIMIT           = 32  // MiB
-	CACHE_SIZE             = 100 // MiB
+	PRINT_DEBUG  = true
+	MEMORY_LIMIT = 32  // MiB
+	CACHE_SIZE   = 100 // MiB
 )
 
+var SUPPORTED_CAPABILITIES = []string{"staking"}
+
 // This is just a demo to ensure we can compile a static go binary
 func main() {
 	file := os.Args[1]
diff --git a/docs/MIGRATING.md b/docs/MIGRATING.md
index 4c24cf5d0..c423c4300 100644
--- a/docs/MIGRATING.md
+++ b/docs/MIGRATING.md
@@ -3,3 +3,5 @@
 ## 1.x -> 2.0
 
 - `VM.Create` was removed. Use `VM.StoreCode` instead.
+- The `supportedCapabilities` argument in `NewVM` changed from a comma separated
+  list to a list of type `[]string`.
diff --git a/internal/api/lib.go b/internal/api/lib.go
index ef8eb83c2..a0a222ed1 100644
--- a/internal/api/lib.go
+++ b/internal/api/lib.go
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ import "C"
 import (
 	"fmt"
 	"runtime"
+	"strings"
 	"syscall"
 
 	"github.com/CosmWasm/wasmvm/types"
@@ -36,9 +37,9 @@ type Cache struct {
 
 type Querier = types.Querier
 
-func InitCache(dataDir string, supportedCapabilities string, cacheSize uint32, instanceMemoryLimit uint32) (Cache, error) {
+func InitCache(dataDir string, supportedCapabilities []string, cacheSize uint32, instanceMemoryLimit uint32) (Cache, error) {
 	dataDirBytes := []byte(dataDir)
-	supportedCapabilitiesBytes := []byte(supportedCapabilities)
+	supportedCapabilitiesBytes := []byte(strings.Join(supportedCapabilities, ","))
 
 	d := makeView(dataDirBytes)
 	defer runtime.KeepAlive(dataDirBytes)
diff --git a/internal/api/lib_test.go b/internal/api/lib_test.go
index d635698ea..c08d9701d 100644
--- a/internal/api/lib_test.go
+++ b/internal/api/lib_test.go
@@ -18,13 +18,14 @@ import (
 )
 
 const (
-	TESTING_CAPABILITIES = "staking,stargate,iterator,cosmwasm_1_1,cosmwasm_1_2,cosmwasm_1_3"
 	TESTING_PRINT_DEBUG  = false
 	TESTING_GAS_LIMIT    = uint64(500_000_000_000) // ~0.5ms
 	TESTING_MEMORY_LIMIT = 32                      // MiB
 	TESTING_CACHE_SIZE   = 100                     // MiB
 )
 
+var TESTING_CAPABILITIES = []string{"staking", "stargate", "iterator", "cosmwasm_1_1", "cosmwasm_1_2", "cosmwasm_1_3"}
+
 func TestInitAndReleaseCache(t *testing.T) {
 	tmpdir, err := os.MkdirTemp("", "wasmvm-testing")
 	require.NoError(t, err)
@@ -61,7 +62,7 @@ func TestInitCacheEmptyCapabilities(t *testing.T) {
 	tmpdir, err := os.MkdirTemp("", "wasmvm-testing")
 	require.NoError(t, err)
 	defer os.RemoveAll(tmpdir)
-	cache, err := InitCache(tmpdir, "", TESTING_CACHE_SIZE, TESTING_MEMORY_LIMIT)
+	cache, err := InitCache(tmpdir, []string{}, TESTING_CACHE_SIZE, TESTING_MEMORY_LIMIT)
 	require.NoError(t, err)
 	ReleaseCache(cache)
 }
diff --git a/lib.go b/lib.go
index 3b1ef6fdf..0dfb1cd50 100644
--- a/lib.go
+++ b/lib.go
@@ -23,12 +23,12 @@ type VM struct {
 // NewVM creates a new VM.
 //
 // `dataDir` is a base directory for Wasm blobs and various caches.
-// `supportedCapabilities` is a comma separated list of capabilities suppored by the chain.
+// `supportedCapabilities` is a list of capabilities supported by the chain.
 // `memoryLimit` is the memory limit of each contract execution (in MiB)
 // `printDebug` is a flag to enable/disable printing debug logs from the contract to STDOUT. This should be false in production environments.
 // `cacheSize` sets the size in MiB of an in-memory cache for e.g. module caching. Set to 0 to disable.
 // `deserCost` sets the gas cost of deserializing one byte of data.
-func NewVM(dataDir string, supportedCapabilities string, memoryLimit uint32, printDebug bool, cacheSize uint32) (*VM, error) {
+func NewVM(dataDir string, supportedCapabilities []string, memoryLimit uint32, printDebug bool, cacheSize uint32) (*VM, error) {
 	cache, err := api.InitCache(dataDir, supportedCapabilities, cacheSize, memoryLimit)
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, err
diff --git a/lib_test.go b/lib_test.go
index d54592da3..9ab6daa04 100644
--- a/lib_test.go
+++ b/lib_test.go
@@ -15,13 +15,14 @@ import (
 )
 
 const (
-	TESTING_CAPABILITIES = "staking,stargate,iterator"
 	TESTING_PRINT_DEBUG  = false
 	TESTING_GAS_LIMIT    = uint64(500_000_000_000) // ~0.5ms
 	TESTING_MEMORY_LIMIT = 32                      // MiB
 	TESTING_CACHE_SIZE   = 100                     // MiB
 )
 
+var TESTING_CAPABILITIES = []string{"staking", "stargate", "iterator"}
+
 const (
 	CYBERPUNK_TEST_CONTRACT = "./testdata/cyberpunk.wasm"
 	HACKATOM_TEST_CONTRACT  = "./testdata/hackatom.wasm"