Cardano Founder Expects Midnight Massive Growth in 2027

Charles Hoskinson, the founder of Cardano, has expressed strong optimism about Midnight (NIGHT), predicting that the blockchain project could grow in 2027 and also outperform Zcash.

NIGHT, the native token of Cardano’s privacy sidechain Midnight, has recently gained momentum, climbing from around $0.023 to $0.02775 in a week, representing a 20.65% increase.

The rally attracted attention from analytical platform Weiss Crypto, which suggested that NIGHT could become one of the best-performing crypto investments over the next 24 months. 

Night 2027 Growth as Midnight Will Outperform Zcash: Hoskinson 

In response, Hoskinson praised Weiss Crypto’s analysis before outlining several features that he believes could distinguish Midnight from existing privacy networks.

The Cardano founder emphasized that Midnight will become bigger than Zcash, citing several potential growth drivers. These include private agents, a decentralized finance (DeFi) kernel designed for major blockchains, selective disclosure, and a combination of zero-knowledge proofs (ZK), trusted execution environments (TEEs), and multiparty computation (MPC).

Weiss has stepped up its game lately. Midnight will be bigger than ZCash: selective disclosure, Private Agents, Abstraction with a DeFi Kernel for all major chains, ZK + TEE + MPC, and Cardano’s 24/7 uptime combined with the magic of Leios. LFG 2027 https://t.co/VbRHi6PrvG

— Charles Hoskinson (@IOHK_Charles) September 28, 2026

Additionally, Hoskinson highlighted Cardano’s continuous network operation and the anticipated benefits of its Leios scaling upgrade. He concluded his remarks with an enthusiastic reference to 2027, suggesting that he expects the year to be pivotal for Midnight’s growth.

Midnight Aims to Expand Beyond Zcash’s Privacy Features

Hoskinson’s latest comments build on his earlier explanation of how Midnight differs from established privacy-focused cryptocurrencies such as Zcash.

During a previous livestream, the Cardano founder argued that Midnight could offer substantially more functionality than Zcash by combining private transactions with programmable smart contracts.

He likened this development to Bitcoin’s evolution into Ethereum, which introduced smart contracts and enabled developers to build decentralized applications on the blockchain.

According to him, users will be able to transfer NIGHT and other assets on Midnight with privacy features comparable to those offered by Zcash. However, Midnight aims to go further by allowing developers to create and execute smart contracts privately.

The network’s Compact programming language is central to this vision. Using a TypeScript-style approach, Compact is designed to help developers build applications that protect sensitive information while supporting programmable blockchain interactions.

Zcash’s Rally Outpaces NIGHT’s Market Performance

While Hoskinson remains optimistic about NIGHT’s potential, Zcash has recorded a substantial rally from late 2025 through September 2026.

For context, ZEC began 2025 at around $56 before surging toward $750 later that year. The token has since extended those gains, climbing more than 100% in 2026 and reaching $1,693 over the weekend.

However, ZEC has since retraced slightly to around $1,552 in the hours leading up to press time. At that price, its market cap stands at $26.2 billion, making it the ninth-largest cryptocurrency.

Meanwhile, NIGHT initially attracted considerable attention following its December launch, with its market cap quickly surpassing $1 billion. However, the token has since lost momentum, with its market cap falling to $440.39 million. At a price of $0.2651, NIGHT ranks as the 96th-largest cryptocurrency globally.

Despite this difference in market performance, Hoskinson maintains that Midnight could eventually outperform Zcash, citing its combination of privacy-preserving technology, programmable smart contracts, cross-chain DeFi capabilities, and Cardano’s infrastructure.