Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson declared on Sept. 28 that the privacy-focused Midnight network will eventually become larger than Zcash, pointing to cross-chain privacy features despite the network's NIGHT token trading 77.5% below its all-time high.
Hoskinson cited a rating from Weiss Crypto calling NIGHT "one of the best plays of the next 24 months." Developed by Input Output, Midnight incorporates selective disclosure, Private Agents, and a DeFi Kernel designed for cross-chain compatibility. The privacy architecture relies on zero-knowledge proofs, trusted execution environments, and multi-party computations, while integrating with Cardano's network uptime and upcoming Leios upgrade.
Market Performance and Valuation Gap
Despite Hoskinson's outlook, market metrics reflect a massive valuation gap between the two privacy projects:
- NIGHT Price & Volume: NIGHT was trading near $0.027, up over 2% in 24 hours, 30% over two weeks, and 36% in 30 days. Its 24-hour trading volume surged 43% to $14 million.
- NIGHT All-Time High: The token remains down 77.5% from its record high near $0.12 set on Dec. 9, 2025. It previously collapsed 43% to $0.016 on July 21 after 290 million tokens were dumped following a Wanchain bridge contract withdrawal.
- Zcash Performance: ZEC traded around $1,600, down 7% over 24 hours but up 93% over 30 days and 2,660% year-over-year. Daily volume reached $1 billion.
- Zcash Technicals: ZEC remains 51% below its peak of $3,191. Technical analyst Crypto Patel noted a cup-and-handle pattern suggesting $1,600 to $2,000 could form a local top.
Why It Matters
Hoskinson is positioning Midnight as a next-generation privacy infrastructure that surpasses legacy solutions like Zcash by offering programmable privacy across multi-chain DeFi ecosystems. However, Midnight faces significant uphill adoption hurdles given Zcash's dominant $1 billion daily liquidity footprint compared to NIGHT's $14 million. Until Midnight's cross-chain DeFi kernel delivers substantial transaction volume, Zcash will likely maintain its status as the premier privacy asset as traders evaluate broader altcoin momentum ahead of October.
