NIGHT

Midnight

Privacy

Cardano's privacy partner chain: live since March, smart contracts open since October, token still −64% from ATH.

Early privacy bet v1.1 · as of 2026-10-21 · framework v1.13 Coinsight · all analyses
Bottom line

Midnight is a zero-knowledge smart-contract chain incubated by Input Output, with a federated mainnet since late March 2026 and permissionless contract deployment only since early October. NIGHT is down −55% since its December 2025 launch and fell −85% from peak to the August low, helped down by a $9–13M exploit of a third-party bridge in July; it has since rebounded about +148%. The token design keeps fees off NIGHT (holders generate a separate fee resource, DUST), so there is no burn and value depends on demand to hold NIGHT. Real usage is still too new to measure.

Scorecard (1–5)
Project
Token performance
Tokenomics
Price
$0.0422
+8.9% 24h · +74% 30d · CoinGecko 21 Oct
Market cap
$701.0M
rank #95 · FDV $1.01B
24h volume
$17.6M
2.5% of market cap
From ATH
−64%
ATH $0.1185, Dec 2025
2026 YTD
−52%
$0.0889 → $0.0422
Circulating
69%
16.6B of 24B NIGHT

The last 12 months

$0.05$0.1$0.15Oct 25NovDecJan 26FebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecJan 272025-12-22: $0.1109$0.111 peak2026-07-21: $0.0183$0.0182026-08-19: $0.017$0.017 low2026-10-06: $0.0521$0.0522026-10-21: $0.0422$0.0421NIGHT launches, thaw starts2Cycle high at $0.1113Mainnet date confirmed4Federated mainnet live5Wanchain bridge exploit6Year low at $0.0177Permissionless contracts live8Final thaw tranche9v9 composability upgrade10Mōhalu: SPOs and staking
TokenomicsMarketGovernanceTechProductUpcoming

Daily closes from CoinGecko, 9 Dec 2025 (first trading day) to 21 Oct 2026.

Key events
  1. 1
    08 Dec 25 NIGHT launches, thaw starts. Claims and trading open; airdropped tokens thaw in four 25% tranches every 90 days from 10 Dec.
  2. 2
    22 Dec 25 Cycle high at $0.111. Daily close of $0.111 two weeks after launch, close to the $0.1185 intraday ATH.
  3. 3
    12 Feb 26 Mainnet date confirmed. Hoskinson tells Consensus Hong Kong that mainnet goes live in the last week of March.
  4. 4
    30 Mar 26 Federated mainnet live. Kūkolu phase starts with partner-run nodes, including Google Cloud and Blockdaemon.
  5. 5
    21 Jul 26 Wanchain bridge exploit. About 515M NIGHT drained from a third-party Cardano–BNB bridge; price drops ~31% in a day.
  6. 6
    19 Aug 26 Year low at $0.017. Slide continues after the exploit to a $0.017 daily close, −85% from the December high.
  7. 7
    02 Oct 26 Permissionless contracts live. v8 lets any developer deploy contracts on mainnet; NIGHT nearly doubles in a week.
  8. 8
    ~Dec Final thaw tranche. Last 25% of airdrop claims becomes redeemable; redemption window closes around 4 Dec.
  9. 9
    Q4 26 v9 composability upgrade. Targeted before year-end to let contracts call each other; no firm date.
  10. 10
    Soon Mōhalu: SPOs and staking. Cardano stake pool operators start producing blocks and staking rewards begin; timing not announced.

How a private transaction runs on Midnight

User
Holds NIGHT

NIGHT in a Midnight wallet steadily generates DUST, up to a cap.

Wallet
Builds the transaction

Calls a Compact smart contract; private inputs stay on the device.

Prover
Creates a ZK proof

Proves the contract rules were followed without revealing the data.

Fee
Pays in DUST

Shielded DUST is consumed as the fee; no NIGHT is spent.

Block producers
Verify and include

Federated nodes check the proof and update public state.

Counterparty
Sees what is disclosed

Only the selected facts are revealed, for example to an auditor.

Where NIGHT comes in: holding it generates the DUST that pays fees, and it pays block rewards from the Reserve. NIGHT itself is never burned or spent on fees, so usage creates demand to hold NIGHT rather than a burn.

Usage and adoption

NIGHT, millions: burned by usage vs supply still reaching the market
Burned by fees (12m)
0
One thaw tranche (est.)
~1.4B
Not yet circulating
~7.4B

Fees on Midnight are paid in DUST, so no NIGHT is burned. Not yet circulating = 24B total minus 16.6B circulating (CoinGecko), mostly the block-reward Reserve. One thaw tranche is an estimate: 25% of ~4.55B Glacier Drop claims plus the 1B Scavenger Mine pool; the final tranche is due around early Dec 2026. CoinGecko may already count thawing tokens as circulating, so treat the tranche figure as an upper bound on new float.

  • weak signal
    Fees in NIGHT
    None

    Fees use DUST generated by holding NIGHT; no burn, so no fee revenue to measure.

  • medium signal
    Smart contracts
    Open since ~2 Oct 2026

    Permissionless deployment (v8) only weeks old; private-contract and composability (v9) upgrades still to come.

  • weak signal
    TVL / dApps
    Not tracked

    No DefiLlama or official TVL or fee figures found as of Oct 2026.

  • medium signal
    Block producers
    Federated

    Partner nodes incl. Google Cloud and Blockdaemon; 180+ Cardano SPOs ran testnet nodes but are not yet on mainnet.

  • weak signal
    Trading liquidity
    $17.6M / day

    2.5% of market cap; price-driven, not usage.

Midnight has no measurable paid usage yet: contracts only opened in October and fees never touch NIGHT. The signals to watch are dApp launches, DUST consumption and SPO onboarding, not price.

Project

What it is
A privacy-focused smart-contract chain built as a Cardano partner chain. Contracts use zero-knowledge proofs so apps can keep data private and disclose selectively (for example, prove compliance without revealing balances).
Team
Incubated by Input Output (IOG), the Cardano developer led by Charles Hoskinson; run by the Midnight Foundation (CEO Fahmi Syed). Hoskinson is its main public promoter.
Technology
ZK smart contracts with a dual-token model: NIGHT is the public, unshielded token; holding it generates DUST, a shielded, non-transferable resource that pays fees. Hoskinson's 'Night Frame' adds MPC and TEEs.
Traction
Federated mainnet since ~30 Mar 2026; permissionless contract deployment only since ~2 Oct 2026, so there are few dApps and no public TVL or fee data yet. Benzinga (Oct 2026) notes it has not lived up to expectations so far.
Competitors
Zcash for private payments; Aztec, Aleo and Secret for private smart contracts; Railgun-style privacy layers on Ethereum.
Key risks
Federated validator set; very early usage; NIGHT does not capture fees directly; July 2026 Wanchain bridge exploit (515M NIGHT drained) showed bridge risk; dependence on IOG and Hoskinson.
Roadmap
v9 composability upgrade targeted before end-2026 (not confirmed); Mōhalu phase onboards Cardano stake pool operators as block producers and adds staking rewards, then Hua (full decentralization). Dates are estimates.

Token performance

1-year return (9 Dec 2025 → 21 Oct 2026, CoinGecko)
NIGHT
-55%
BTC
-22%
ETH
-35%

NIGHT only began trading on 8–9 Dec 2025, so the CoinGecko 1-year window starts at its first day and no 3-year return exists. For reference, the standard 3-year benchmarks are BTC ~+179% (from ~$29.7k) and ETH ~+53% (from ~$1.6k); NIGHT has no history over that period (checked by hand).

Range 2026
$0.017 low (19 Aug) to $0.093 high (4 Jan), daily closes; now $0.042
12-month drawdown
−85%, from $0.111 (22 Dec 2025) to $0.017 (19 Aug 2026)
Liquidity
$17.6M traded in 24h, 2.5% of market cap; rank #95
Relative strength
+74% in 30 days and ~+148% from the August low, but −55% since launch vs BTC −22% and ETH −35%
ATH check ATH check passed. The $0.1185 ATH came on launch day (9 Dec 2025), but price closed at $0.111 on 22 Dec and stayed above half the ATH into early March 2026, so it is not a one-day launch spike. It is the only cycle high, so it is used as the reference.

Tokenomics

Supply
Fixed 24B NIGHT, minted on Cardano as a native asset and mirrored on Midnight. ~16.6B (69%) circulating; FDV $1.01B.
Emissions
No inflation beyond the 24B cap. Block producers are paid from a protocol-managed Reserve, so circulating supply grows as rewards are paid; the exact reward rate could not be confirmed.
Unlocks / thaw
Glacier Drop and Scavenger Mine claims thaw in four 25% tranches, 90 days apart, from 10 Dec 2025; the last tranche lands around early Dec 2026 (redemption window to ~4 Dec 2026).
Utility
Holding NIGHT generates DUST for fees; NIGHT is the governance and future staking token, but governance was not live at launch and staking rewards arrive with Mōhalu.
Distribution
Broad airdrop to holders of ADA, BTC, ETH and other chains (Glacier Drop), plus a 1B Scavenger Mine; treasury and reserve allocations were partly redirected to the launch. Foundation and IOG holdings are not clearly disclosed.
Sinks
None in NIGHT: fees are paid in DUST, which decays, so nothing is burned. Demand has to come from holding NIGHT to generate DUST, staking (not live) and governance.

Bull case

Permissionless contracts and the v9 composability upgrade bring real private dApps and cross-chain users who must hold NIGHT to generate DUST; SPO onboarding decentralizes the chain and adds staking demand. NIGHT holds above $0.035 and retakes the $0.052 October high, opening a path back toward $0.09–0.11.

Bear case

Usage stays thin, so NIGHT trades on Hoskinson headlines and the October rally fades; the final thaw tranche in early December and Reserve emissions add supply with no burn to offset it. Price falls back below $0.03 and retests the $0.017 August low.

Watch before the next re-run

  • v9 composability release and first dApps with real users
  • Mōhalu: Cardano SPOs producing blocks and staking rewards
  • Final thaw tranche (~early Dec 2026) and exchange inflows
  • $0.035 support and $0.052 October high

Where to trade

Krakenlisted

NIGHT against EUR · USD

24h $2.70M · ±2% depth $466.9k

OKXlisted

NIGHT against EUR · USDT · USDC · TRY

24h $2.27M · ±2% depth $718.5k

Largest exchanges

Exchange24h vol±2% depth
BinanceNIGHT/USDT$2.80M$781.2k
KrakenNIGHT/USD$2.48M$485.4k
OKXNIGHT/USDT$2.20M$645.5k
GateNIGHT/USDT$2.03M$639.8k
BybitNIGHT/USDT$1.53M$814.3k

Deepest DEX pools

Pool24h vol±2% depth
MinswapNIGHT/ADA · Cardano$283.4k$66.0k
MinswapNIGHT/USDC · Cardano$40.1k$9.75k
Uniswap V3CLNIGHT/USDT · BSC$59.9k$699

Pool size (TVL), fee tier and fee APR are not in yet: they need DefiLlama, which this setup cannot reach so far. CL = concentrated liquidity (higher fees, more impermanent-loss risk).

On-chain share of all NIGHT volume: 2.3%.

As of 21 Oct 2026 · CoinGecko tickers (24h volume, ±2% depth). ±2% depth is the money it takes to move the price 2% either way: the real size of a market. Exchanges ranked by volume among well-known venues; pools by depth. Not investment advice.

Where to follow

Official
People on X
Code and governance
Data
Media