Weiss Ratings Praises Cardano Team, Backs Midnight's Long-Term Potential

Independent crypto rating firm Weiss Ratings has praised the Cardano development team, emphasizing its strong research foundation and technical depth, particularly in building Midnight.

The statement reinforces Cardano’s identity as a research-first platform that prioritizes peer-reviewed studies and formal development methods. It also shows that despite criticism over slow adoption and limited applications, analysts continue to respect its technological architecture.

• Weiss Ratings praised Cardano’s development team, highlighting its strong academic foundation and technical precision.
• The agency emphasized the team’s ability to deliver advanced blockchain solutions within the growing Midnight ecosystem.
• Weiss stated that Midnight could become a rare long-term success in an industry where nearly all newly launched crypto projects fail.
• Midnight is set to officially launch next month as a Cardano partner chain.

In its commentary, Weiss acknowledged that Cardano often draws mixed reactions within the crypto community. However, it stressed that the project relies on world-class researchers, giving it a solid academic and technical backbone.

Moreover, the agency noted that the team demonstrates precision and competence when building advanced blockchain solutions, particularly those tied to Midnight.

Weiss’ remarks came days after IOG founder and CEO Charles Hoskinson announced that the highly anticipated launch of Midnight as a partner chain on Cardano will occur next month.

Previously, Weiss warned that more than 99% of new crypto projects fail to deliver lasting value. However, it suggested that Midnight could stand out from short-lived ventures.

Skepticism is essential in crypto. After all, 99.9% of new projects are junk.$NIGHT appears to be something completely different.

See why our senior analyst thinks this project has serious potential: https://t.co/hQionH3C0l

— Weiss Crypto (@WeissCrypto) February 9, 2026

During a recent livestream, Senior Analyst Juan Villaverde expressed confidence in Midnight’s long-term prospects. Although he criticized Cardano’s slow performance and weak user adoption, he maintained that its core architecture remains among the most advanced in the industry.

He argued that the same research-driven team now leads Midnight, a new layer-one network designed to enable fully private smart contracts through zero-knowledge proofs. According to Villaverde, Midnight offers Cardano developers a second opportunity to apply their academic expertise in a more practical and focused way.

Unlike earlier privacy solutions that centered on anonymous payments, Villaverde argues that Midnight embeds privacy directly into its programming language. Therefore, developers can build private smart contracts without deep expertise in cryptography or zero-knowledge mathematics, lowering barriers to adoption.

He believes this approach could position Midnight as the first truly functional private smart contract platform, filling a key gap in blockchain infrastructure. The analyst also highlighted Midnight’s distribution model, pointing to the absence of VC dominance and broader token access through exchanges, airdrops, and incentives.

Notably, he revealed that he initially purchased NIGHT tokens below $0.05 and would consider buying again at similar levels. However, while he avoided bold price predictions, he described his investment as a calculated test, similar to his earlier successful bet on ADA.