Cardano’s Midnight Project to Airdrop Tokens to 37 Million Users, Including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and More

Midnight airdrop to reach 37 million users across eight major blockchains

Plans for one of the most expansive token distributions in blockchain history were shared by Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson during his keynote at Paris Blockchain Week.

The upcoming airdrop for Cardano’s privacy-focused sidechain, Midnight, is expected to reach 37 million users spread across eight different blockchain ecosystems.

Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cardano, XRP, Solana, Binance Smart Chain, Avalanche, and Polygon are the networks targeted for the airdrop.

Hoskinson revealed that users won’t need to convert their tokens to access Midnight, thanks to what he called “chain abstraction”—a feature allowing direct interaction with the sidechain regardless of the token's origin.

New phase of blockchain focuses on privacy

Hoskinson also shared a broader vision for the future of blockchain during his address, breaking the technology’s evolution into four distinct eras.

He described the first phase, led by Bitcoin, as one of decentralisation.

The second, driven by Ethereum, introduced smart contracts—programs that execute automatically based on preset rules.

The third phase has been about scalability and interoperability, with blockchain projects increasingly focused on speeding up transactions and enabling networks to work together.

Now, according to Hoskinson, blockchain is entering its fourth phase.

He said to the audience in Paris,

“The fourth generation is about privacy. Privacy isn’t just an optional feature, it’s a necessary feature.”

He emphasised that users must be able to manage their own data and interact securely across decentralised networks.

Glacier Drop to distribute NIGHT and DUST tokens

The upcoming token distribution, named the “Glacier Drop”, will issue two types of assets: NIGHT, the governance token for Midnight, and DUST, which will be used to carry out private transactions on the network.

Unlike traditional airdrops that reward early backers or selected communities, Midnight’s approach is broader.

By targeting millions of users across multiple chains, the project is positioning itself as a unifying privacy layer for blockchain users worldwide.

Collaboration over competition in DeFi’s future

Midnight is being developed as a sidechain that uses zero-knowledge proofs, a technology that enables private verification of transactions without revealing sensitive data.

This positions Midnight at the centre of what Hoskinson views as the next evolution of blockchain networks.

Hoskinson believes that greater cooperation between blockchain projects, rather than competition, will be key to the long-term success of decentralised finance.

The fragmented nature of today’s blockchain landscape could be overcome through shared privacy infrastructure.

ADA and XRP featured in US digital asset stockpile

In a related development, both Cardano’s ADA and Ripple’s XRP, two of the chains included in the airdrop, were recently named as part of the US government’s digital asset reserves.

This followed an executive order from President Donald Trump on 6 March.

The news aligns with a recent Ripple promotional video that unexpectedly featured Cardano’s logo, hinting at potential synergies between the networks.

At the time of reporting, ADA was trading at $0.6283, down approximately 80% from its all-time high of $3.10 recorded on 2 September 2021, according to data from CoinMarketCap.