Hoskinson Highlights Midnight as Gateway for Onboarding Bitcoin and XRP Users Into Cardano

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson has highlighted the success of Midnight’s Glacier Drop as a major driver of new user adoption for the Cardano ecosystem. 

In a recent commentary, Hoskinson described the Midnight project as a success story, pointing to the impact of its Glacier Drop campaign. Beyond distributing tokens to eligible participants across multiple blockchain ecosystems, he emphasized that the initiative introduced thousands of users from rival networks to Cardano’s infrastructure for the first time.

Glacier Drop Attracts Users From Multiple Blockchains: Hoskinson 

According to Hoskinson, the airdrop attracted holders from Bitcoin, XRP, and several other blockchain ecosystems. To claim their NIGHT tokens, eligible users had to interact directly with the Cardano network. Notably, many participants used Cardano wallets and decentralized applications for the first time to complete the redemption process.

Midnight is a privacy-focused partner chain designed to deliver programmable privacy features for enterprises and real-world applications while remaining connected to the broader Cardano ecosystem.

Through the Glacier Drop initiative, Midnight distributed NIGHT tokens to users across ecosystems such as the XRP Ledger, Bitcoin, and Solana instead of limiting eligibility to Cardano holders alone.

Users who held at least $100 worth of eligible native assets qualified for the airdrop and became eligible to receive a share of the NIGHT token allocation.

To complete the claim, participants had to:

• Visit the Glacier Drop portal.
• Sign a transaction using their wallet on the originating blockchain.
• Provide an unused Cardano address as the destination wallet.
• Receive their NIGHT tokens directly on the Cardano network.

Hoskinson Sees the Process as an Onboarding Engine

Hoskinson believes this redemption model will serve as a powerful onboarding mechanism for Cardano.

By requiring users from competing ecosystems to interact with Cardano infrastructure, the Glacier Drop encouraged them to explore Cardano wallets, decentralized applications, and transaction processes firsthand.

As users claim their rewards, some might become active participants in the Cardano ecosystem rather than passive recipients of an airdrop.

Midnight’s Popularity Surged After Launch

The Glacier Drop also played a major role in Midnight’s early momentum. NIGHT quickly became one of the most trending crypto assets globally for several weeks following its launch. The token also reached a market cap of $1 billion within weeks.

The initiative also generated significant activity on Cardano. Within just 42 days, Midnight-related activity recorded 354,000 transactions on the network.

Today, the ecosystem continues to expand, with Midnight recording 77,311 unique wallets and 929,540 transactions linked to the project. However, the market valuation of NIGHT has plummeted to $504 million at press time, translating to a unit price of $0.03035.