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

Source: CryptoNewsNet Original Title: Midnight Launches NIGHT Token as Cardano Native Asset Ahead of Mainnet Release Original Link: Midnight has taken an important step toward 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.

Key highlights:

• 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 strengthens Cardano’s privacy stack, with NIGHT and DUST enabling confidential transactions and private smart contracts.

Midnight’s Privacy Architecture

As Cardano’s upcoming privacy-focused Layer-2 network, Midnight is designed to bring confidential transactions and private smart contracts to the ecosystem. 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.

The development roadmap involves four phases: Hilo (current), Kūkolu, Mōhalu, and Hua, with each phase unlocking additional features for users and developers.

NIGHT and DUST: The Core Components

According to the Foundation, the NIGHT token is the native asset and core of the Midnight ecosystem. Specifically, NIGHT is used for governance, staking, and network operations, and it connects Cardano to the Midnight chain.

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

Cardano Price Outlook

As NIGHT goes live and the redemption window approaches, Midnight is entering its most critical phase, 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, 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. This could support earlier analyst forecasts, with ADA potentially reaching $2.5 by January 2026.