Hoskinson: Cardano’s Midnight Will Outgrow Zcash

Charles Hoskinson, the founder of Cardano, has predicted that the privacy-focused blockchain Midnight will eventually become larger than Zcash, the long-standing privacy coin. In a September 28 post on X, he cited features such as selective disclosure, private agents, and a DeFi kernel designed for all major chains, according to Cryptopotato. The claim comes as Midnight’s NIGHT token trades near $0.027, while Zcash changes hands around $1,600.

Key facts

• On September 28, Hoskinson posted on X that “Midnight will be bigger than ZCash,” citing selective disclosure, private agents, and a DeFi kernel for all major chains.
• NIGHT was trading near $0.027, up over 2% in 24 hours and more than 9% in the past week, according to Cryptopotato.
• Zcash traded around $1,600, down almost 7% in 24 hours, but up 93% over the past month and 2,660% year-over-year.
• Midnight’s market cap is approximately $443 million, while Zcash’s is around $26.2 billion, per AMBCrypto and U.Today.
• NIGHT plummeted over 43% on July 21 to a low near $0.016 after 290 million tokens were dumped following a Wanchain bridge withdrawal; the Midnight Foundation said the network was not hacked.

Two privacy networks, one big valuation gap

Hoskinson’s prediction, made in reply to a bullish post from Weiss Crypto labeling NIGHT a top play for the next 24 months, highlights the contrast between Midnight’s early-stage ambitions and Zcash’s established market position. Cryptopotato notes that NIGHT remains about 78% below its all-time high of nearly $0.12 set on December 9, 2025, while ZEC is roughly 51% under its own record of $3,191.

Midnight, developed by Input Output—the same team behind Cardano—went live in March as a specialized layer-1 partner chain, according to U.Today. It operates its own ledger and processes transactions independently, but maintains connections to Cardano. Hoskinson has described it as arguably the most exciting project Input Output is working on in 2026.

Investment attention has grown. Weiss Crypto had earlier suggested NIGHT has “a good chance of becoming one of the best plays of the next 24 months.” Hoskinson’s tweet also referenced zero-knowledge proofs, trusted execution environments, and multi-party computations, alongside Cardano’s 24/7 uptime and the Leios upgrade. He ended with “LFG 2027,” implying a long-term outlook.

Despite the bullish narrative, market data shows the two assets often move together. AMBCrypto reports that NIGHT’s 20-day correlation with Zcash stands at 0.87, meaning they have recently tended to rise and fall in tandem. At current valuations, NIGHT would need to grow roughly 59-fold to match Zcash’s market cap, assuming Zcash stands still.

Why it matters

For investors and privacy advocates, Hoskinson’s claim underscores a broader bet on Midnight’s differentiated approach: selective disclosure allows users to prove specific facts without revealing unnecessary data, a feature aimed at both compliance and privacy. If Midnight gains traction, it could challenge Zcash’s dominance in the privacy coin sector, which has seen renewed interest amid regulatory scrutiny. The correlation between NIGHT and ZEC suggests the market currently groups them together, but a major shift in adoption or technology could change that dynamic.

What to watch

NIGHT’s immediate price action hinges on whether it can break above $0.028, a level identified by AMBCrypto as key resistance. A successful breach could open the door to $0.030 and $0.033, while failure might see support at $0.025. Meanwhile, analyst Crypto Patel’s cup-and-handle pattern analysis suggests Zcash could face a local top between $1,600 and $2,000, with a potential drop below $500 in one to three years. Investors will also watch for further developments on Midnight’s cross-chain integrations and the Leios upgrade.

Sources: CryptoPotato, AMBCrypto, U.Today