Midnight Launches NIGHT Token as Cardano Native Asset Ahead of Mainnet Release

• Midnight’s NIGHT token is now live on Cardano, triggering the redemption of more than 4.5 billion tokens and moving the network closer to mainnet.
• The launch further strengthens Cardano’s privacy stack, with NIGHT and DUST enabling confidential transactions and private smart contracts.

Midnight has taken an important step toward to launching its privacy-focused network by activating the NIGHT token on Cardano. The Midnight Foundation confirmed that NIGHT is now live on-chain, marking the first time the asset becomes accessible to the public after years of development.

As Cardano’s upcoming privacy-focused Layer-2 network, Midnight is designed not only to bring confidential transactions but also for private smart contracts to the ecosystem. On top of that, it uses advanced zero-knowledge technology to let users protect sensitive data while still meeting regulatory requirements, making it suitable for businesses, developers, and privacy-focused DeFi applications. To explore deeper into the Midnight token, one can look at Paul’s visual chart on X, which shares detailed visualized insights on the launch.

As we nevertheless, previously explained in more details in our last coverage on Midnight Roadmap, it involves into four phases include Hilo (current), Kūkolu, Mōhalu, and Hua, with each of the phase unlocking additional features for the users, and developers.

NIGHT and DUST Supporting Combination

According to the Foundation, the NIGHT token, as the native asset, is the core of the Midnight ecosystem. Specifically, NIGHT is used for governance, staking, and network operations, and it also connects Cardano to the Midnight chain. As stated in the Midnight official site,

Together with DUST, the network’s renewable execution resource, NIGHT powers Midnight’s privacy-first architecture as the project moves toward its mainnet launch. DUST fuels shielded transactions and confidential smart contract operations, providing predictable execution capacity while maintaining verifiable privacy. Earlier reports confirm that Midnight minted a total supply of 24 billion NIGHT on Cardano, establishing the asset base for its dual-chain approach.

Cardano Price Outlook

Importantly, as NIGHT goes live and the redemption window approaches, Midnight is entering its most critical phase yet, transitioning from development to real-world use as Cardano’s privacy layer prepares to open to developers and the broader community.

With Midnight introducing privacy layers and the new NIGHT token on Cardano, hence, investors may revisit ADA as the foundational network token. If adoption and development accelerate, demand for ADA could rise, creating upward pressure on its price.

As of now, Cardano (ADA) is trading at US $0.4401, down 2.42% in the past 24 hours but up 3.54% over the past week. Hence, this could support the Cardano price target suggested by earlier analyst forecasts, with ADA potentially reaching $2.5 by January 2026. See the ADA price chart below.