Midnight's NIGHT airdrop is closed to new claims, but two dates still matter. Redemption of claimed tokens ends on December 4, 2026, followed by a 90-day grace period. A Lost-and-Found phase of about 252 million NIGHT for eligible wallets that missed the windows is confirmed but has no date.

Backfill entry Midnight's claim windows ran in late 2025, well before this page. We track the airdrop because two deadlines still hang off it and because the redemption portal was paused in the summer of 2026.

Where it stands

Midnight, a privacy-focused Cardano partner chain, distributed NIGHT in three phases. The Glacier Drop ran from August 5 to October 20, 2025 and gave 3.547 billion NIGHT to snapshot-eligible holders, with more than 170,000 wallets participating. The Scavenger Mine ran from October 30 to November 19, 2025. It needed only a CPU and an internet connection, drew over 8 million unique addresses and had its pool raised to 1 billion NIGHT.

Eligibility came from self-custodying holdings of ADA, BTC, ETH, SOL, XRP, BNB, AVAX and BAT at a June 11, 2025 snapshot. Both windows are closed, and nothing reopens them.

The Scavenger Mine increase shrank the Lost-and-Found pool to about 252 million NIGHT, roughly 5 percent of the 4.8 billion across the three phases. It is meant for eligible participants who missed the windows and for exchanges claiming for their users. The official guide, last updated December 4, 2025, gives no start date. Midnight's seven most recent blog posts, through October 1, 2026, do not mention the phase either.

Figure 01The Midnight distribution arc from the official launch guide and Midnight Foundation posts. Two phases are closed, redemption ends on a fixed date, and the last phase has no date.
Figure 02How the roughly 4.8 billion NIGHT across the three distribution phases split, from the official launch guide. Lost-and-Found is the only slice still undistributed.

The pause and the deadline

On June 28, 2026 the Midnight Foundation suspended Glacier Drop redemptions after a security incident affecting some Cardano wallets linked to SecondFi, EMURGO's neo-financial platform. The foundation said the incident did not involve Midnight's own infrastructure. It paused anyway because some users held affected wallets. Redemptions resumed on July 9 at 17:00 UTC.

The pause did not change the schedule. NIGHT that thawed during it became redeemable on July 9, and the December 4 end date stands.

Redemption is well along. The Midnight Foundation said on X in mid-September that holders had redeemed 2 billion NIGHT since December 2025, The Crypto Basic reported on September 15, which leaves about 2.5 billion NIGHT to redeem before December 4. The fourth and last thaw period started on September 6.

Claimed NIGHT unlocks in four 25 percent installments over 360 days. Each destination address got a random first day between December 10, 2025 and early March 2026, and later installments follow every 90 days. The thawing period ends on December 4, 2026, and a 90-day grace period follows. CryptoTicker noted that Midnight has not announced the exact day the portal closes after that.

Redemption is manual. A holder needs the original destination address, a Cardano wallet and a little ADA for fees, and nothing unlocks on its own. Exodus's support pages walk holders through connecting a wallet to the portal.

What to do, and what to watch

If you claimed, redeem each installment as it thaws, on midnight.gd or in a supported wallet. Letting tokens sit unredeemed past the grace period turns a successful claim into nothing. That is why the deadline matters more than the undated phase.

If you missed the claim, wait and stay skeptical. An undated pool worth hundreds of millions of tokens, attached to a project whose eligibility net covered eight chains of wallets, is raw material for fake portals. Midnight itself urged users to watch for phishing after the SecondFi incident. Until midnight.gd or midnight.network announces a Lost-and-Found date, every page offering early access is a drainer. Our scam guide explains how to check a link.

We hold this entry at confirmed rather than ended because the Lost-and-Found phase is committed but undated. The pattern echoes OpenSea's SEA, where a confirmed token went months without a date. What to watch:

  • A Lost-and-Found start date on midnight.gd or midnight.network.
  • Any change to the December 4 end date, or an announced closing day for the grace period.
  • Further notices from the Midnight Foundation about the redemption portal.

How to position yourself

  1. If you claimed in the Glacier Drop or the Scavenger Mine, redeem each 25 percent installment at midnight.gd as it thaws. Redemption is manual and needs a small amount of ADA for fees.
  2. Do not leave NIGHT unredeemed. The thawing period ends on December 4, 2026, and a 90-day grace period follows.
  3. If you were eligible at the June 11, 2025 snapshot but missed the claim, wait. Lost-and-Found is confirmed at about 252 million NIGHT and has no date, so any page offering it today is a scam.
  4. Trust only midnight.gd and midnight.network. The real redemption portal never asks for a seed phrase.

Reality check None of these steps guarantee an allocation. Teams change criteria late, add anti-sybil filters, and sometimes never ship a token. Only spend time and gas you are fine writing off.