The NIGHT token outperformed the broader crypto market on Monday, Dec. 29 after Charles Hoskinson suggested it could help expand decentralized finance (DeFi) across blockchain ecosystems, including XRP.
A partner chain to Cardano, Midnight is a privacy-focused blockchain built for confidential transactions and private DeFi, with NIGHT serving as its native token. Hoskinson is a co-founder of Ethereum and the founder of Cardano.
NIGHT rose more than 11% over the past 24 hours, according to CoinGecko. The rally comes after Hoskinson said in a post on X that adding Midnight to XRP’s ecosystem would “blow the legacy banks out of the water.”
“Adding Midnight to Bitcoin gives the world Satoshi imagined possible,’ Hoskinson said in the same post. “Adding Midnight to Cardano supercharges our DeFi ecosystem and will 10x the MAUs, Transactions, and TVL as we are first to market with private DeFi at scale.”
NIGHT’s rally came as the broader market recorded a downturn today, with BTC currently down 1% on the day to $86,000. XRP also fell 0.6% over the past 24 hours to $1.85, while ADA, Cardano’s native token, dropped 3.4% to around $0.35.
Privacy is in Focus
The move in NIGHT also comes as privacy-focused crypto assets and infrastructure have been in the spotlight as of late. Tokens like Zcash have surged in recent months as traders rotated into assets that offer on-chain confidentiality.
Meanwhile, regulators and industry leaders have been increasingly vocal about confidentiality and how it’s key to wider crypto adoption. Earlier this month, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Commissioner Hester Peirce said privacy should be treated as a normal part of financial activity, not a sign of wrongdoing during an SEC crypto roundtable.
“Protecting one’s privacy should be the norm, not an indicator of criminal intent,” Peirce said in her speech. “Government should resist the temptation to force intermediation for the purpose of creating a regulatory beachhead or facilitating financial surveillance.”
Meanwhile, the Roman Storm case earlier this year highlighted the legal risks facing privacy-focused crypto developers after Storm was convicted of operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business tied to the mixer Tornado Cash.
