Midnight Goes Live on Cardano — Here’s When Users Can Redeem 4.5B NIGHT Tokens

Following Midnight’s launch on Cardano, the Midnight Foundation has released the timeline for when eligible participants can begin redeeming their NIGHT tokens.

The Midnight Foundation announced the achievement on X, emphasizing that NIGHT’s debut on Cardano officially begins the countdown to redeeming 4.5 billion tokens.

These tokens were previously claimed during the project’s Glacier Drop and Scavenger Mine phases. The Glacier Drop allowed eligible users across eight blockchains to claim part of NIGHT’s supply, while the Scavenger Mine rewarded participants with free tokens for completing computational tasks.

The Glacier Drop, which ran from August 5 to October 20, 2025, saw more than 170,000 wallets claim 3.5 billion NIGHT. Meanwhile, the Scavenger Mine phase, held from October 30 to November 19, attracted roughly 8 million unique wallets, which claimed an additional 1 billion tokens, bringing the total claims to 4.5 billion

Timeline for NIGHT Redemption

According to the Midnight team, redemption windows, referred to as “thaws”, will open in structured phases starting at 00:00 UTC on December 10. Prior to this date, the Midnight Foundation will launch an official redemption portal that allows participants to preview their token allocations and review their personalized thawing schedules.

The foundation confirmed that it will release the 4.5 billion NIGHT tokens in four installments over the course of a year, beginning on December 10. During each thaw, eligible participants will unlock 25% of their total claimed tokens.

To avoid sudden supply shocks, the team will assign each participant a randomized first thaw date within the initial 90-day window, from December 10, 2025, to early March 2026

The remaining three unlocks will then follow every 90 days. Under this timeline, the thawing period will conclude on November 29, 2026, with an additional 90-day grace period anticipated before the redemption portal closes.

Next Step

The activation of NIGHT as a Cardano native token and the start of redemptions mark a pivotal chapter in the Midnight Network’s rollout. With the token now live on Cardano, the foundation expects multiple exchanges and wallet providers to announce support in the coming days.

In the meantime, the foundation has already distributed NIGHT tokens to selected exchanges, including Bitpanda, OKX, Kraken, and NBX. These platforms will handle distribution to their customers, which will be announced in the coming days

At the moment, Midnight is currently in its first phase, dubbed Hilo, which lays the foundation for community participation, liquidity, and future governance

The Midnight roadmap is set to advance through three major phases over the coming year. Each stage introduces new capabilities to expand the ecosystem and strengthen Midnight’s privacy-first vision

The next phase, Kūkolu, planned for Q1 2026, will mark the launch of the Genesis block and the activation of the first wave of privacy-enhancing decentralized applications on a fully stable mainnet.

In the third phase, Mōhalu, the foundation will broaden participation by introducing an incentivized testnet for SPOs. This will allow them to test the network while earning rewards. It is scheduled to launch in Q2 2026

Finally, the Hua phase, planned for Q3 2026, will focus on interoperability and paving the way for hybrid dApps and enabling developers to embed Midnight’s privacy technology into other blockchain networks