Cardano Founder Confirms Midnight Airdrop Could Reach 37 Million — Including XRP Holders

Cardano’s Midnight airdrop is targeting 37 million users across major blockchains—including XRP, ETH, BTC, SOL, and more—allowing users to interact without converting assets, thanks to a feature called chain abstraction.
Hoskinson says crypto’s entering its fourth generation, with privacy being the main focus. Midnight aims to lead that shift with two new tokens: NIGHT (for governance) and DUST (for private transactions).
Development on Midnight is accelerating, with testnet upgrades, new dev tools, and a partnership with OpenZeppelin to build a privacy-focused DeFi framework. The “Glacier Drop” airdrop is expected to kick off mass adoption.

Charles Hoskinson, the ever-outspoken founder of Cardano, just dropped another update on the upcoming Midnight airdrop—and yeah, it’s big. According to him, the distribution could potentially reach around 37 million users across a bunch of different blockchains. And yes, XRP holders are part of that mix.

This came straight from his keynote speech at Paris Blockchain Week 2025, where he didn’t just talk airdrops—he went deep on where crypto’s heading next.

Hoskinson Says the Fourth Generation of Crypto Is All About Privacy

Speaking on Day 2 of the event, Hoskinson outlined his take on how blockchain tech has evolved. He basically broke the industry into four “generations.”

First-gen? That was all about decentralization—Bitcoin set the tone there. Then came smart contracts in the second wave, with Ethereum grabbing the spotlight. The third phase, according to him, focused more on making blockchains talk to each other and scale better—interoperability and scalability were the big buzzwords.

But now? We’re entering the fourth generation, and it’s all about privacy. Not as some optional feature, Hoskinson emphasized, but something essential if we want decentralized tech to actually grow in the real world.

Midnight testnet is getting an upgrade. 🛠️
More efficient nodes, simpler setup, a faster proving system, and more.
If you’re a block producer or developer, you’ll need to know what’s new.
➡️ Details + next steps:https://t.co/c86sfRerg4
— Midnight (@MidnightNtwrk) April 8, 2025

Midnight Airdrop: More Than Just Cardano

This is where Midnight comes in—a privacy-focused sidechain being built under the Cardano ecosystem. It’s designed for secure and compliant data sharing using next-level cryptographic tools.

And the airdrop? Hoskinson confirmed it’s not just for ADA holders. Folks holding BTC, ETH, XRP, SOL, BNB, AVAX, and even MATIC are all on the list. The idea is to let users from all these networks interact with Midnight without needing to swap or bridge their assets. So if you’re holding XRP, for example, you’ll be able to use it on Midnight directly. This whole concept is called chain abstraction, and it’s a pretty big deal.

That “bromance” between the XRP and Cardano communities? It’s real. Ripple even included Cardano’s logo in one of its recent tokenization videos—not exactly subtle.

What’s in the Airdrop?

The upcoming drop—dubbed the “Glacier Drop”—will hand out two different tokens. There’s NIGHT, the main governance token, and DUST, a non-transferable token used for private, shielded transactions within the Midnight network.

NIGHT comes with a fixed supply and will be used to vote on proposals and manage the network. Meanwhile, DUST will handle the actual privacy part—think of it like the engine running behind the scenes to keep your data safe.

Midnight Is Picking Up Speed

The Midnight dev team hasn’t been standing still either. They’ve been rolling out updates on the testnet to make things smoother for devs and to prep the network for real-world action. There’s been talk of a major upgrade dropping soon, along with new tools like a compatibility matrix and overview pages to help builders navigate the ecosystem.

Also, the team has teamed up with OpenZeppelin to help craft a secure DeFi framework that fits into this privacy-first setup. So yeah—things are moving.