TLDR
- Charles Hoskinson said Midnight could outperform Zcash by 2027.
- NIGHT rose over 20% in a week, drawing fresh market attention.
- Hoskinson cited private smart contracts, selective disclosure, and DeFi tools as growth drivers.
- Zcash still leads strongly with a far larger price and market cap.
- Midnight’s long-term case depends on adoption, development progress, and Cardano’s infrastructure.
Charles Hoskinson has said Midnight could become one of Cardano’s strongest privacy projects in 2027, as NIGHT gains attention after a recent price rise. The Cardano founder made the remarks after Weiss Crypto said NIGHT could become one of the stronger crypto investments over the next 24 months. The debate now centers on Midnight because the project sits at the core of Cardano’s privacy push and current market debate.
Midnight Draws Fresh 2027 Forecast
Hoskinson praised the analysis and said Midnight could grow larger than Zcash. He pointed to private agents, selective disclosure, private smart contracts, and cross-chain DeFi tools as parts of the project’s plan.
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
He also referred to Cardano’s steady network record and the planned Leios scaling upgrade. Recent related coverage noted Cardano’s x402 integration, which placed the network inside a wider push toward automated blockchain payments.
NIGHT Price Gains After Weekly Recovery
NIGHT recently moved from about $0.023 to $0.02775 within a week, a gain of more than 20%. The move brought new attention to Midnight, although the token remains far smaller than Zcash by market value.
Midnight had strong early demand after its December launch, when its market value crossed $1 billion. That figure later fell to about $440.39 million, leaving NIGHT ranked near the lower end of the top 100 cryptocurrencies. The gap shows that Hoskinson’s forecast depends on delivery, not only price action.
Zcash Rally Sets a Higher Benchmark
Zcash has remained one of the strongest privacy coins in the market. Recent related coverage showed Zcash’s ETP-led rally kept traders focused on the token after a sharp September move.
ZEC began 2025 near $56 and later moved toward $750. It then extended gains in 2026, touched $1,693 over the weekend, and traded near $1,552 before press time. Traders are still watching liquidity and volume.
Hoskinson has argued that Midnight can offer more than private transfers. He said the network aims to let developers build private applications through Compact, a programming language with a TypeScript-style design.
That plan would place Midnight in a wider Cardano roadmap, where Leios testing has also drawn market attention. For now, Zcash leads by price and market value, while Midnight’s 2027 case rests on adoption, development progress, and user demand.
