# Cardano Founder Predicts Midnight Will Outgrow Zcash

By Simon Yoon

Canonical URL: https://www.tokenpost.com/news/technology/24752
Published: 2026-09-28T05:54:12.000Z
Updated: 2026-09-28T05:54:12.000Z
Section: Technology

> Charles Hoskinson did not define how “bigger” should be measured or set a deadline. Midnight’s market capitalization was $415.71 million versus Zcash’s $26.91 billion on different UTC dates.

Cardano founder and Input Output CEO Charles Hoskinson predicted that Midnight will eventually become larger than Zcash, highlighting its privacy features, cross-chain finance tools and Cardano infrastructure.

Hoskinson referred to 2027 but did not define how “bigger” should be measured or set a deadline. His cited features included selective disclosure, private agents, abstraction with a DeFi Kernel for major chains, zero-knowledge technology, trusted execution environments, multiparty computation and Cardano’s Leios.

Midnight is a programmable-privacy blockchain whose genesis block was created March 17, 2026, at 3:17 a.m. UTC, or March 16 at 11:17 p.m. ET. Its 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. Stated applications include private trading, confidential lending, institutional execution, tokenized real-world assets and programmable compliance.

Using market capitalization as the comparison, Zcash (ZEC) had a historical market capitalization of $26.91 billion on Sept. 28, while Midnight (NIGHT) had $415.71 million on Sept. 26; both figures are based on UTC data. Because the figures come from different dates, they are not a same-time comparison. Midnight would need to grow roughly 65 times to match the Zcash figure.

Developer activity has also begun to take shape around the network. As of Sept. 21 at 2:44 p.m. ET (6:44 p.m. UTC), 37 builders had joined its first VIA Labs cross-chain sprint. Twelve moved USDM from Cardano to Midnight, while five shipped payment applications.