Cardano Founder Highlights Possible Bitcoin and XRP DeFi on Midnight Protocol for 2026

The founder of Cardano, Charles Hoskinson, has hinted that Bitcoin and XRP DeFi utility will be applied on its Midnight protocol pretty soon. This statement aligns with his earlier statement that they would put a focus on the interoperability of its platform.

Hoskinson Signals Bitcoin and XRP DeFi Expansion

During a recent discussion, Charles Hoskinson said the use cases in DeFi for Bitcoin and XRP are about reaching a practical stage. According to him, the protocol is going to be a bridging layer between various blockchains that integrates privacy within all levels of points of contact.

“We got Bitcoin DeFi coming, XRP DeFi coming, Midnight connects us to all of the other blockchains and we add privacy to all those connection points, so we have a lot to add and offer,” he said.

He further clarified that the architecture of the protocol makes it possible for the ass,ets of other networks to interact with smart contracts. This would be without providing any information about transactions. He added that with this, they can participate in the Bitcoin and XRP DeFi space, which has no privacy solutions.

Following the success that the airdrop program achieved the previous year, the Cardano founder expressed an interest in collaborating on a project with Ripple. Further, he announced that the altcoin would receive Lace Wallet support.

Midnight was launched in December 2025 and functions as a partnering chain for Cardano. It has the ability, through the power of zero-knowledge cryptography, to offer safe smart contracts.

Hoskinson’s plan is to have the altcoin wrapped on his platform for the implementation of the XRP DeFI plan. In this way, people will get to participate in loan and yield services without having to make their transactions public.

This could unlock a large pool of locked liquidity in the market. This is given that this currency can be applied in a variety of complex financial instruments. The fact that the public XRP Ledger is not providing a privacy utility for smart contracts might make this proposal a privacy solution for this sector.

Why is Midnight Key to Cardano’s Next Growth Phase?

The Cardano founder has recently described the project as the first case of a “fourth generation” cryptocurrency. This project represented a transition from the competition on a Layer-1 level to a infrastructure on a cross-chain level with possible benefits for early adopters in the future, according to him.

Moving beyond the Bitcoin and XRP DeFi project itself, Hoskinson specifically pointed out that this could help DeFi. This is particularly essential for the next generation of decentralized applications, including functionalities that entail privacy preservation.

He has also often spoken of Midnight’s approach in contrast to the more TradFi-driven efforts at tokenization. He cited projects like XRP are already operating at a scale way beyond initiatives currently in development.