Charles Hoskinson Says Midnight Is Key to Ripple’s Next Phase of XRP Growth

Charles Hoskinson Says Ripple Needs Midnight for XRP’s Next Growth Phase

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson believes Ripple may need Midnight, Cardano’s privacy-focused sidechain, to unlock the next phase of growth for the XRP ecosystem.

In a recent conversation with Wendy O, Hoskinson said that while Ripple has built one of the strongest payment networks in the crypto industry, there is still significant room to expand XRP’s role in decentralized finance (DeFi), asset tokenization, and institutional finance.

According to Hoskinson, the next stage of crypto adoption will be driven by privacy, blockchain interoperability, and real-world assets (RWAs). Midnight is designed to support all three trends.

“We think Ripple is going to be one of our biggest areas of growth,” Hoskinson said.

A Major Opportunity for XRP

One of the key points in Hoskinson’s argument is that he does not see Ripple as a competitor.

Instead, he places Ripple alongside companies such as Tether, Circle, and Binance as major players in the “Web 2.5” economy, blockchain ecosystems that bridge traditional finance and crypto.

Hoskinson argued that Ripple still lacks a mature native smart contract ecosystem. As a result, XRP holders have more limited access to DeFi services, yield-generating opportunities, and tokenized assets.

He believes Midnight could help fill that gap.

“We have Bitcoin DeFi. We’re going to do XRP DeFi,” Hoskinson said, adding that developers within the Midnight ecosystem are already exploring XRP-related applications.

Web 2.5 as a Collaboration Opportunity

Beyond XRP itself, Hoskinson sees a broader opportunity emerging. He believes institutions increasingly require privacy features, selective disclosure, regulatory compliance tools, and infrastructure for real-world assets.

Rather than forcing companies to migrate to a new blockchain, Midnight is being built to integrate with existing blockchain ecosystems.

According to Hoskinson, blockchain interactions should be seamless regardless of whether users are operating on Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Cardano, or XRP.

The long-term objective is to create an open system that connects blockchains instead of encouraging competition between them.

“Web 2.5 is our friend,” Hoskinson said.

In his view, the future is not about Ripple versus Cardano. Instead, XRP and Midnight can complement one another, with Ripple providing institutional access while Midnight delivers privacy, DeFi, and asset tokenization capabilities.