Hoskinson: Ripple May Need Midnight

Charles Hoskinson believes that the next stage of XRP’s evolution could be closely tied to Midnight, Cardano’s privacy-focused sidechain currently under development.

According to the Cardano founder, Ripple has built one of the strongest payment networks in the cryptocurrency industry. However, he sees significant opportunities to expand XRP’s utility into decentralized finance (DeFi), real-world asset tokenization, and institutional financial services.

Hoskinson does not view Ripple as a competitor. On the contrary, he considers the company one of the leading projects successfully bridging traditional finance and the crypto sector. Alongside Ripple, he points to Tether, Circle, and Binance as key players driving this integration.

In his view, one of the main limitations of the XRP ecosystem is the lack of a robust smart contract environment. As a result, XRP holders have fewer opportunities to access DeFi applications, generate yield, or interact with tokenized assets.

This is where Midnight could play an important role. The project, being developed within the Cardano ecosystem, is designed to provide privacy features, interoperability, and support for real-world assets. Developers working on Midnight are already exploring solutions connected to XRP.

Hoskinson believes the future of the blockchain industry will be built on collaboration rather than competition. For this reason, Midnight is being designed to integrate with established blockchain ecosystems, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Cardano, and XRP.

In his vision, Ripple and Midnight could complement each other effectively. Ripple offers institutional market access and payment infrastructure, while Midnight provides privacy-focused tools, DeFi capabilities, and asset tokenization solutions.