Cardano co‑founder Charles Hoskinson stirred the community with a short, cryptic post suggesting the privacy‑focused Midnight chain may be ready to launch. In a message to his more than one million followers on X, Hoskinson asked, “Who is ready for Midnight?” and attached a five‑minute clip of Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield’s 2013 International Space Station performance set to David Bowie’s “Space Oddity.”
The choice of song and footage framed themes of exploration and transition, and many interpreted the minimalist post as signaling a significant milestone for Midnight. While no official launch date has been announced, the Midnight mainnet is widely expected later this month.
Hoskinson’s post quickly went viral, drawing tens of thousands of views and more than a thousand likes. Members of the Cardano ecosystem, including Input Output Global, publicly signaled their readiness, adding momentum to expectations of an imminent rollout.
Midnight is being developed as a privacy‑first partner chain to Cardano’s smart contract platform. It aims to bring programmable privacy and regulatory compliance to decentralized applications by using zero‑knowledge proofs and a federated node model. The project has disclosed strategic ties with major platforms such as Google and Telegram, and named firms including Worldpay and Bullish as operators of federated nodes.
Midnight’s native token, NIGHT, is trading on major exchanges. In the 24 hours before publication it was around $0.04768. According to CoinGecko, NIGHT’s market capitalization has fallen from above $1 billion shortly after its December debut to roughly $789 million.