Cardano Creator Dubs ‘New ADA,’ Midnight, A ‘Manhattan Project’

Charles Hoskinson just gave Cardano’s privacy spinoff a major label, telling X that Midnight is set to become the “Manhattan Project” of privacy-enhanced transactions (PET), chain abstraction and smart compliance.

He is not framing this as a weekend brainstorm. According to Hoskinson, he is writing 80-100 pages a day of technical documents in preparation for internal workshops in January, fueled by coffee, remixed Eurodance and what he calls “some serious effort.” Then came the punchline: “2026’s body is not ready.”

On CoinMarketCap, NIGHT is priced at $0.07676, marking a +19.57% increase over the week. It boasts a market cap of $1.27 billion, with a 24-hour trading volume of $589.1 million following a period of consolidation.

The one-week chart reflects this: a rapid rise earlier in the week, a drop back into the $0.07 area and then sideways movement as traders decide whether the tweets are just narrative fuel or a sign of real delivery pressure.

January workshops as next checkpoint for “new ADA”

The “smart compliance” wording is the giveaway. Privacy projects often market the rebel angle, but Hoskinson is selling a version that can coexist the with rules instead of fighting them. This is exactly the kind of framing that will get institutions and developers to at least open the documents.

The Cardano creator does not only write specifications. In the replies, Hoskinson confirmed that he is also working on a nontechnical PET book called “The Land of PET,” aimed at Midnight Ambassadors and the broader community. This seems to be narrative packaging for a bigger rollout.

If the January workshops result in a concrete roadmap, the “New ADA” concept could cease to be a mere idea and begin to resemble a 2026 development plan.