Cardano Prepares To Go Parabolic As Charles Hoskinson Drops Launch Date For Privacy-Focused Midnight Chain

Midnight Network, a highly-awaited privacy and data protection blockchain with connections to Cardano, will launch next month, Input Output Global CEO Charles Hoskinson announced at the Consensus Hong Kong conference on Thursday.

Midnight Is Coming: Hoskinson Reveals March Mainnet Release

Midnight will serve as a partner chain to Cardano, providing privacy and regulatory support for decentralized applications. According to Hoskinson, he has teamed up with prominent tech companies to help run Midnight. “Google is one of them. Telegram is another. We are really excited, there’s more that will come” he revealed.

The Midnight Network uses zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs to allow for the selective disclosure of data securely, acting like a “smart curtain” for blockchain activity—users can reveal only what they choose while keeping everything else they do on-chain private. Functioning as a partner chain to Cardano’s smart contract platform, Midnight aims to deliver both privacy and regulatory compliance for decentralized applications.

The network is currently live on testnet. According to Hoskinson, the mainnet launch is set for the final week of March.

https://twitter.com/IOHK_Charles/status/2021465391315419254

Since its launch, Midnight’s NIGHT token has seen strong user adoption, helping it soar into the top 100 crypto assets within just 30 days. The project is currently ranked 73rd, with a market capitalization of $837.8 million.

Early trading was marked by sharp price movements fueled by privacy-related hype, including a 20% surge that briefly pushed NIGHT above $0.10. As of press time, Midnight is trading at $0.05033, up 4% over the past 24 hours, according to crypto data provider CoinGecko.

Hoskinson Unveils Midnight City Simulation Platform

Alongside the mainnet launch timeline, Hoskinson unveiled Midnight City Simulation, an interactive platform that demonstrates how Midnight delivers scalable privacy through selective disclosure. The system’s rational privacy model keeps transaction data private by default, while allowing specific details to be shared with authorized parties when necessary.

This approach strikes a balance between transparency and confidentiality on the blockchain, offering multiple disclosure levels—public, auditor, and god—each granting a different degree of access to transaction data.

The simulation, available at midnight.city, went live at 10:00 a.m. Hong Kong time on Thursday, though public access will remain limited until February 26, the press release said.

Cardano kicked off 2026 with increasing network activity and an expanding DeFi presence. Midnight introduces a crucial missing piece — a privacy and compliance layer — that could transform how value flows across the ecosystem, positioning it as a project to watch in the coming months.

Meanwhile, Cardano’s ADA is up 4.1% over the last 24 hours, trading at $0.2648. That mark is down 91.4% below its September 2021 all-time high of $3.09.