Cardano Launches Midnight for Private Smart Contracts

Cardano $ADA launched its long-anticipated sidechain, Midnight, focused on privacy-preserving smart contracts. Midnight uses zero-knowledge proofs to enable confidential transactions and compliance features. The project aims to attract enterprise adoption by addressing privacy concerns in public blockchains. ADA rose 6% after the announcement. Developers say Midnight will allow a mix of public and private smart contracts on one network. The move puts Cardano in competition with privacy coins like Monero (XMR) and Secret Network (SCRT), but with added regulatory compliance options.