Midnight Aims to Outgrow Zcash, Says Cardano Founder Hoskinson

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson has made a prediction about Midnight, a programmable-privacy blockchain. He believes that Midnight will eventually become larger than Zcash, highlighting its features such as selective disclosure and zero-knowledge technology.

Hoskinson pointed out that Midnight's dual-state ledger allows applications to disclose selected information without exposing the underlying data. The network separates NIGHT, its utility and governance token, from DUST, the resource used to power transactions.

The current market capitalization of Zcash is $26.91 billion, while Midnight has a market capitalization of $415.71 million, which would mean that Midnight needs to grow roughly 65 times to match the Zcash figure. Developer activity around the network is also increasing, with 37 builders joining its first VIA Labs cross-chain sprint.

Hoskinson made his prediction in relation to 2027, but did not specify how 'bigger' should be measured or set a deadline. Midnight's genesis block was created on March 17, 2026, at 3:17 a.m. UTC, or March 16 at 11:17 p.m. ET.

The network has several stated applications, including private trading, confidential lending, institutional execution, tokenized real-world assets, and programmable compliance. Twelve builders have moved USDM from Cardano to Midnight, while five shipped payment applications.