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DeFi

Midnight Network unveils Nightmode, promising privacy without a bridge

Midnight Network has unveiled Nightmode, a cross-chain privacy feature built with @MidnightNtwrk and @Sig_Network. It is designed to extend Midnight's privacy tools to chains including Bitcoi

AnonymousCryptoCompass newsroom
October 20, 2026
3 min read
NEWS
Midnight Network unveils Nightmode, promising privacy without a bridge
CryptoCompass editorial visual for defi coverage.

Midnight Network has unveiled Nightmode, a cross-chain privacy feature built with @MidnightNtwrk and @Sig_Network. It is designed to extend Midnight's privacy tools to chains including Bitcoin ($BTC), Ethereum ($ETH), Solana ($SOL) and Tron ($TRX) without relying on a conventional bridge.

Nightmode is due to go live on mainnet with ledger v9, Midnight's next major network upgrade, later this year.

How Nightmode works

Users lock coins in vaults on their home chain and receive a matching private balance on Midnight, guarded by shared keys. According to Crypto Economy, the vaults are Multi-Party Computation (MPC) contracts, and the original assets stay on their native network rather than moving through a traditional bridge. The same report says a vault is governed by seven private cryptographic signatures, and that Midnight records each deposit and issues tokens representing the user's balance in a shielded pool.

Sig Network describes itself as a signing network. On its website, it says no single signer holds the key and that it signs only requests that come from a contract on Midnight. It also says Midnight contracts can hold accounts on Ethereum, so users can trade on Uniswap or lend on Aave while their identities stay shielded.

On apps such as Uniswap, trade amounts stay public but the user behind them stays hidden. KuCoin News reports that users can trade, swap or stake the shielded tokens, and that burning them redeems the original native assets. The same report says Nightmode supports selective disclosure based on zero-knowledge proofs, aimed at meeting compliance requirements.

Context: ledger v9 and Midnight's push into DeFi

Ledger v9 is also the upgrade tied to Midnight's planned Solana support. Hokanews reports that Midnight Foundation CTO Sebastien Guillemot said the Solana integration remains on testnet, with a mainnet rollout scheduled for later in 2026. Midnight's own roadmap says the project is extending NightMode to additional blockchains, giving users on those networks access to private transactions on Midnight and giving Midnight users access to the liquidity held there.

Crypto Economy notes that the design targets DeFi, payments and real-world asset settlement, and that it does not claim transaction detail becomes invisible. Trade values remain visible, while identity information stays unlinked.

Nightmode is still pending mainnet release, so its real-world performance and security remain to be tested. Users should watch for the ledger v9 launch date and any audits of the vault design.

Sources