Midnight (NIGHT): Price and Market Data

This overview covers the network's dual-state architecture, funding milestones, the Glacier Drop release schedule, and current NIGHT token market availability.

What is Midnight (NIGHT)?

Midnight is a fourth-generation privacy blockchain built as a partner chain to the Cardano ecosystem. It uses zero-knowledge cryptography to offer "rational privacy," allowing decentralized apps to verify data without exposing sensitive underlying info. The network operates a unique dual-state design: a public UTXO ledger for transparent assets and a private account-based layer for shielded smart contracts. Currently, its native token, NIGHT, exists as a Cardano Native Asset before transitioning fully to the Midnight mainnet.

How does the dual-token system and NIGHT token total supply work?

It separates the network's capital from its operational fuel. NIGHT is the primary governance and staking token with a hard-capped supply of 24 billion. Holding NIGHT automatically generates DUST, a non-transferable, shielded resource used exclusively to pay for on-chain contract executions. This means developers can essentially self-fund their dApps by holding enough NIGHT to cover user transaction fees. It's worth noting that DUST eventually decays if unused, which smartly prevents users from hoarding network capacity.

Who funded the project's development?

Charles Hoskinson personally invested $200,000,000 in November 2024 to bootstrap the protocol. Instead of raising early-stage venture capital, the team at Shielded Technologies opted for this route to prioritize user privacy over short-term VC profit demands. Later on, Midnight established a "Founding Node Alliance" with major enterprise partners like Google Cloud, Blockdaemon, and MoneyGram. Here's the deal: these partners provide essential infrastructure for the initial federated mainnet rather than just acting as passive equity investors.

Are the Glacier Drop airdrop tokens fully unlocked?

Not immediately; they follow a strict 360-day "thawing" schedule. The 3.547 billion tokens distributed during the Glacier Drop unlock in four equal tranches of 25%. To prevent massive simultaneous sell pressure, each user gets a randomized start date within a 90-day window (the first began on December 10, 2025). Following that initial date, the remaining tranches unlock every 90 days. You'll need to manually claim these thawed on-chain allocations through the Redemption Portal using a Cardano wallet.

Where can you check the NIGHT token price and trade it?

You can trade it across major centralized platforms for both spot and futures trading, including Binance, OKX, Bybit, KuCoin, MEXC, and Kraken. The token had its major global rollout on Binance on March 11, 2026. Because NIGHT was minted on the Cardano blockchain, you've also got the option to trade it on decentralized exchanges like Minswap and SundaeSwap. Just keep in mind that Binance applies a "Seed Tag" to the asset, requiring you to pass a periodic quiz to trade it.