Privacy-focused Midnight blockchain to go live next month, says Cardano's Charles Hoskinson

Markets Share Share this article Copy link X icon X (Twitter) LinkedIn Facebook Email Privacy-focused Midnight blockchain to go live next month, says Cardano's Charles Hoskinson Input Output Global's Founder Charles Hoskinson said Midnight, the long-awaited privacy-focused blockchain, will launch in the final week of March as a partner chain to Cardano. By Omkar Godbole | Edited by Nikhilesh De Feb 12, 2026, 2:23 a.m. Make us preferred on Google Charles Hoskinson speaking at CoinDesk's Consensus Hong Kong 2026. (David Paul Morris/Consensus) What to know : Input Output Global founder Charles Hoskinson said Midnight, a long-awaited privacy-focused blockchain, will launch in the final week of March as a partner chain to Cardano. Midnight allows users to keep transactions private by default while sharing specific data with authorized parties when required. A new Midnight City Simulation, opening to the public on Feb. 26, is designed to test the blockchain’s ability to generate and process proofs at scale under real-world-like transaction loads. Input Output Global (IOG) founder Charles Hoskinson announced Thursday that Midnight, the company's long-awaited privacy-focused blockchain, will officially launch during the final week of March. The announcement came during Hoskinson's keynote speech at Consensus Hong Kong, marking a major step forward in IOG's efforts to bring data protection and regulatory compliance to decentralized systems. STORY CONTINUES BELOW Don't miss another story. Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today . See all newsletters Sign me up By signing up, you will receive emails about CoinDesk products and you agree to our terms & conditions and privacy policy . "We have some great collaborations to help us run it," he said. "Google is one of them. Telegram is another. We're really excited, there's more that will come." Midnight uses zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs to enable selective disclosure. Think of it as a smart curtain for blockchain data, letting users share only what they choose while keeping the rest private. It works as a partner chain to the smart contract platform Cardano and provides privacy and regulatory compliance for decentralized applications. Alongside the mainnet timeline, Hoskinson unveiled Midnight City Simulation, an interactive platform offering a glimpse of how Midnight's delivers scalable privacy through selective disclosure. The so-called rational privacy ensures that transaction data remains private by default, while specific information can be shared with authorized parties when required. This flexibility balances transparency and confidentiality on the blockchain through multiple disclosure views, categorized as public, auditor, and god, each with a different access level. The simulation, hosted at midnight.city, became operational at 10:00 a.m. Hong Kong time Thursday, although public access to the simulation remains restricted until Feb. 26, according to a press release. The simulation, which runs on the Midnight network and recruits AI-driven agents that interact unpredictably to create a steady flow of transactions, shows how well the blockchain can handle real-world demand and scales accordingly. IOG said this test demonstrates the network’s ability to keep generating and processing proofs at scale — an important step in proving it’s ready for real-world use. Cardano Consensus Hong Kong 2026 More For You BlackRock exec says 1% crypto allocation in Asia could unlock $2 trillion in new flows By Helene Braun | Edited by Jesse Hamilton 6 hours ago During a panel discussion at Consensus in Hong Kong, Peach pointed to massive capital pools in traditional finance as ETF adoption spreads across Asia. What to know : Even a 1% crypto allocation in standard portfolios across Asia could translate into nearly $2 trillion of inflows, highlighting how modest shifts in asset allocation could transform the digital asset market, according to the head of APAC iShares at BlackRock, Nicholas Peach. BlackRock's iShares unit, whose U.S.-listed spot Bitcoin ETF IBIT has rapidly grown to about $53 billion in assets, is seeing strong demand from Asian investors as ETF adoption accelerates across the region. Regulators in markets such as Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea are moving toward broader crypto ETF offerings, but industry leaders say investor education and portfolio strategy will be critical to channeling traditional finance capital into digital assets. 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