Charles Hoskinson Unveils Glacier Drop: 37M Wallet Airdrop, No VCs Allowed

Cardano’s Midnight sidechain will reward users across eight major blockchains—excluding venture capitalists entirely.

At Consensus 2025, Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson unveiled an ambitious new initiative: the Glacier Drop, a massive airdrop tied to the upcoming launch of Midnight, Cardano’s privacy-focused sidechain.

The Glacier Drop will distribute Midnight’s tokens—NIGHT and DUST—to 37 million wallets across eight major blockchain ecosystems: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cardano, XRP, Solana, Binance Smart Chain, Avalanche, and Polygon.

Airdrop for the People, Not the Powerful

However, the twist lies in who isn’t on the receiving end. According to Hoskinson, there will be no venture capitalists included in the Glacier Drop.

“No VCs, just the people,” he stated during his Consensus speech, highlighting a stark contrast to the common industry practice of rewarding insiders and institutional investors.

Instead, all tokens—both NIGHT for governance and DUST for privacy-focused applications—will go directly to retail users. Participants will have the flexibility to sell, trade, or simply ignore the tokens as they deem appropriate.

The Midnight mainnet is expected to launch sometime in 2025, and the airdrop is envisioned as a large-scale onboarding event. This move is part of Hoskinson’s broader goal to decentralize control and return crypto to its community-driven essence.

Describing it as “a principled approach” to building adoption, Hoskinson mentioned that they are putting privacy, decentralization, and user empowerment at the forefront over corporate influence.