Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson has predicted that the privacy-focused blockchain Midnight will eventually become bigger than Zcash, citing a combination of selective disclosure, private AI agents, cross-chain finance, and Cardano's infrastructure. In a post, he framed the forecast around '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,' adding 'LFG 2027.'
Hoskinson did not specify whether 'bigger' refers to market capitalization, usage, or application count. At the time, Midnight's NIGHT token had a market cap of about $437 million, ranking 122nd, while Zcash's ZEC was valued at roughly $26.4 billion. Midnight launched its mainnet in March as a specialized layer-1 partner chain alongside Cardano, maintaining its own ledger while processing transactions independently.
Cross-chain expansion is central to the prediction. In August, VIA Labs deployed its universal cross-chain messaging system on Midnight, connecting it with more than 130 public and private networks. Hoskinson has argued that Midnight's economics are designed around cooperation rather than competition, with its capacity exchange accepting assets such as Bitcoin, Ether, Solana, Avalanche, and BNB. He described Midnight as effectively becoming a privacy layer available across the cryptocurrency industry.
The Cardano founder also noted that AI progress in mathematics has exceeded expectations, explaining why private agents are included among the capabilities behind his forecast. Still, adoption and application growth across connected networks will be the main test of whether Midnight can eventually surpass Zcash.
