Charles Hoskinson Pitches Midnight as Privacy Layer for Bitcoin and XRP

Charles Hoskinson just pitched a new play—and it's aimed squarely at the crypto establishment's biggest names.

Privacy's Next Frontier

Forget niche chains. The founder of Cardano is targeting the heavyweights, positioning his new project, Midnight, as a universal privacy layer. The vision? Let Bitcoin and XRP users transact in the dark without leaving their home networks.

It's a bold solution to crypto's dirty little secret: most major blockchains are painfully transparent ledgers. Every transaction, every wallet balance is an open book for anyone with a block explorer. Midnight proposes to flip that script, offering selective disclosure—prove what you need to, hide the rest.

The Tech Pitch vs. The Market Reality

The tech argument is compelling. A dedicated privacy layer could solve regulatory headaches for institutions while giving everyday users back their financial dignity. But the market might not be buying what Hoskinson's selling. Bitcoin maximalists have their own roadmap, and XRP's enterprise-focused ecosystem marches to a different beat.

It's the classic crypto conundrum: brilliant tech in search of a problem that the existing giants even acknowledge they have. After all, when your token is already trading like a speculative asset, who's really clamoring for transactional privacy? Sometimes the most innovative solutions are pitched to an audience that's perfectly happy with the old, broken system—as long as the numbers on the screen keep going up.

TLDR

• Hoskinson pitches Midnight as a cross-chain privacy solution for Bitcoin and XRP.
• Midnight could boost Cardano’s DeFi ecosystem and challenge legacy banks.
• Midnight’s privacy layer targets $10 trillion real-world asset tokenization market.
• The Midnight token, NIGHT, faces high volatility, yet draws growing interest.

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson has introduced Midnight Protocol as a cross-chain privacy layer designed to bring enhanced privacy features to various blockchains, particularly Bitcoin and the XRP Ledger. In a recent post, Hoskinson emphasized that Midnight would not only benefit Cardano but could also significantly improve privacy for Bitcoin and XRP, rivaling existing privacy solutions.

Just getting started. First CNA to trend above bitcoin and Ethereum. Midnight makes what it touches better. Adding Midnight to XRP DeFi is going to blow the legacy banks out of the water. Adding Midnight to Bitcoin gives the world Satoshi imagined possible. Adding Midnight to… https://t.co/TKO7scSNlM

— Charles Hoskinson (@IOHK_Charles) December 26, 2025

The integration of Midnight with the XRP Ledger WOULD enable private, compliant decentralized finance (DeFi), offering a challenge to traditional banking systems. For Bitcoin, Hoskinson believes that Midnight’s zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) technology could bring the privacy features originally envisioned by its creator, Satoshi Nakamoto.

Midnight’s Potential for Cardano and Other Blockchains

Hoskinson also highlighted the potential benefits Midnight could bring to Cardano’s ecosystem. He believes that integrating Midnight will enhance Cardano’s DeFi capabilities, significantly increasing the number of monthly active users (MAUs), transactions, and total value locked (TVL). “Adding Midnight to Cardano supercharges our DeFi ecosystem,” he stated, pointing to the advantage of being first to market with privacy-focused DeFi at scale.

The protocol’s programmability is seen as a major advantage, offering more privacy and compliance options for decentralized applications. This move also marks a shift in Hoskinson’s approach, extending the cardano ecosystem’s reach beyond its native chain. By bringing Midnight to other networks like Bitcoin and XRP, Hoskinson hopes to drive liquidity and user adoption beyond Cardano’s traditional borders.

Real-World Asset Tokenization and Institutional Adoption

Beyond blockchain interoperability, Hoskinson also discussed Midnight’s potential role in the tokenization of real-world assets (RWAs). He estimates that the RWA market could be worth $10 trillion, and that Midnight’s privacy-preserving design could unlock significant institutional use cases in this space. Traditional finance and permissioned blockchain solutions like the Canton Network have been criticized for failing to offer the comprehensive privacy required by institutional players.

“There are no half measures or half technologies,” Hoskinson commented, suggesting that Midnight provides an end-to-end privacy solution that can cater to large-scale institutional demands. This statement is aimed at positioning Midnight as a more robust alternative to permissioned blockchains, which he believes are not suited to institutional requirements.

Speculative Interest and Volatility of NIGHT Token

As Hoskinson pushes Midnight into the spotlight, the native token of the protocol, NIGHT, has garnered increasing speculative interest. Recent data shows that the token has surged in search volume on platforms like CoinGecko, even surpassing Bitcoin and ethereum in popularity. However, NIGHT has seen significant price volatility since its launch, with its value dropping over 80% to $0.08.

Despite this volatility, there is growing enthusiasm around Midnight’s potential, as the protocol offers unique privacy solutions that could reshape the landscape of decentralized finance and real-world asset tokenization. Investors and industry experts are closely watching the token’s performance as the project develops.