Hoskinson hails NIGHT launch as Cardano’s biggest DEX-volume milestone amid extreme volatility
Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson praised the Midnight (NIGHT) token launch as a landmark for the Cardano ecosystem after NIGHT secured day-one listings on major centralized exchanges including Binance (Alpha), OKX and Kraken. The token briefly reached multi-dollar highs on some venues and had a reported fully diluted valuation near $1.5 billion, but then suffered extreme volatility — correcting about 96% from peak levels to roughly $0.06–$0.07. On-chain metrics showed unusually strong DEX activity for Cardano: Cardano DRep Jaromir Tesar reported roughly $6.7 million in 24‑hour DEX volume, a rare spike for Cardano liquidity, while centralized 24‑hour volume spiked above $1 billion at peak before cooling to around $534 million. Hoskinson defended the launch mechanics and distribution (Glacier Drop, retail-heavy allocation), calling 48–72 hours of severe volatility normal for such listings, and highlighted Midnight as a privacy-focused partner chain and a potential multi-billion-dollar ecosystem growth wedge for Cardano DApps. For traders: expect continued high volatility, rapid volume shifts between centralized exchanges and Cardano DEXs, and elevated execution and liquidity risk in the short term despite the event’s longer-term implications for Cardano ecosystem maturation.
Neutral
The news mixes bullish and bearish signals for the NIGHT token. Bullish elements: wide day‑one exchange listings (Binance Alpha, OKX, Kraken), unusually high DEX activity on Cardano, and Hoskinson’s framing of Midnight as a significant ecosystem asset — all support long‑term adoption narrative and potential for future demand. Bearish/short‑term risks: the token experienced extreme price collapse (around 96% from peak), massive centralized trading volume driven by listings and early sell pressure, retail-heavy distribution and technical listing frictions that produced large immediate sell-offs. For traders this implies high short‑term execution and liquidity risk with the potential for sharp rebounds or further dumps driven by concentrated holders and market‑maker behavior. Therefore the immediate price impact is best categorized as neutral — the event does not guarantee sustained upward price pressure for NIGHT despite positive ecosystem signals, but it does increase tradability and speculative interest. Traders should expect continued volatile price action over the next days to weeks and manage position sizing, stop levels, and liquidity exposure accordingly.