Charles Hoskinson: Midnight to Airdrop Tokens to 37M Users With Zero Going to VCs

Key Takeaways

• Cardano’s Midnight airdrop will exclude venture capital allocations and focus entirely on users.
• The airdrop will distribute two tokens across 37 million users on eight major blockchains.
• First announced at Paris Blockchain Week in April, the “Glacier Drop” aims to fairly seed the Midnight ecosystem.

Input Output (IO) is taking a different approach with its upcoming Midnight airdrop.

Instead of rewarding insiders or venture capital firms, the project will focus entirely on users, distributing tokens across a wide spectrum of blockchain communities, from Bitcoin (BTC) to Solana (SOL).

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson made the announcement , confirming that the upcoming “Glacier Drop” would deliberately exclude VCs, opting instead for a broad, user-centric distribution of two tokens: NIGHT, a governance token, and DUST, a privacy transaction token.

No VCs, Just Users

Unlike many blockchain projects that carve out early allocations for private investors, Midnight is bucking the trend.

Hoskinson made it clear that the Midnight airdrop will be for users only, a move likely intended to bolster decentralization and community ownership from the outset.

The tokens will be distributed to users across eight major networks: Bitcoin, Ethereum (ETH), Cardano (ADA), Solana, Cosmos (ATOM), Polkadot (DOT), Avalanche (AVAX), and Algorand (ALGO). In total, 37 million users are expected to qualify for the airdrop.

ADA holders will also receive a portion of NIGHT tokens, rewarding long-time contributors to the Cardano ecosystem.

The goal, Hoskinson said, is to seed a privacy-first network through genuine user engagement rather than speculative VC positioning.

What is Midnight?

Midnight is a privacy-focused sidechain being developed by IO, the parent company behind Cardano.

First unveiled in late 2023, the project is designed to enable secure, compliant interactions between users and organizations on-chain, without sacrificing privacy.

Currently in testnet, the Midnight blockchain is expected to go live on the mainnet by the end of 2025.

It will use zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) and other advanced cryptographic techniques to protect user data, allowing parties to verify transactions and identities without revealing sensitive information.

The dual-token system, NIGHT for governance and DUST for private transactions, will underpin a privacy-preserving ecosystem designed for both individuals and enterprises.

With no venture capital participation, multi-chain distribution, and a privacy-first design, the Glacier Drop positions Midnight as a serious contender in the next generation of blockchain infrastructure.

If the testnet delivers and user adoption takes hold, IO’s Midnight could emerge as a key model for cross-chain privacy and user-owned DeFi in a post-VC crypto landscape.