Charles Hoskinson, the founder of Cardano, has announced the official distribution and trading date for NIGHT, the native token of Cardano’s privacy-focused sidechain, Midnight.
Speaking at the Midnight Summit, which began yesterday, he confirmed that the highly anticipated NIGHT token will launch on December 8, 2025. On that date, the Midnight team will distribute NIGHT to eligible recipients. At the same time, multiple exchanges will list the token, with trading commencing immediately.
NIGHT Token Distribution
The announcement comes a few months after the Glacier Drop’s launch. This airdrop was open to 34 million users across eight blockchains, including Cardano, XRP Ledger, Ethereum, Solana, and Bitcoin, to claim a share of the NIGHT token. Eligibility was based on users holding $100 worth of their native assets at the time of the snapshot.
While claims opened on August 5, the actual NIGHT token distribution will begin on December 8, just weeks from now. Once distribution starts, trading will go live immediately on multiple exchanges.
For context, eligible beneficiaries will only receive a portion of their claimed NIGHT tokens on December 8, 2025. The remainder will be distributed gradually over the next 12 months in four equal 25% tranches, unlocked every 90 days to promote long-term network engagement.
In the meantime, the Midnight airdrop is currently in the Scavenger Mine phase, which requires users to earn a share of NIGHT tokens for completing computational tasks. This phase will end tomorrow, on November 19. The team has already minted all 24 billion NIGHT supply in anticipation of the distribution and trading.
Midnight Roadmap
Meanwhile, Hoskinson outlined Midnight’s broader rollout plan. Once NIGHT trading starts in December, the next phase of Midnight’s launch will begin in the first quarter of 2026 with the introduction of a federated mainnet.
He disclosed that this early mainnet will operate in a hybrid model. Specifically, Cardano’s development arm, Input Output Global (IOG), will manage some nodes, while others will be run by major corporate partners, including one unnamed Fortune 500 company.
During this federated era, more than 100 ecosystem partners already building on the Midnight testnet will be able to deploy their dApps and begin using the network in real production environments.
Furthermore, the Cardano founder disclosed that after the launch of Midnight’s federated mainnet, the team will roll out the project’s incentivized testnet. According to him, this incentivized testnet could go live in the second quarter of next year.
This phase will onboard Cardano stake pool operators (SPOs) who intend to run Midnight nodes under real network conditions. Through this program, SPOs will test performance and prepare for Midnight’s transition to its final form, which Hoskinson referred to as a “hard-forked network for the final consensus algorithm from the mainnet.”
🚨 BREAKING: The @MidnightNtwrk countdown is ON. $NIGHT launches in December, followed by its federated mainnet in Q1 of 2026! With 100+ partners & a Fortune 5 powerhouse locked in. After that, the #Cardano SPO incentivized testnet, then GO LIVE! 📈🚀 @IOHK_Charles @midnightfdn pic.twitter.com/TvkoXxsySX
— Dapp Central (@dapp_central) November 17, 2025