The Midnight Foundation is expanding the project’s institutional operator base ahead of its planned mainnet launch at the end of March. The Midnight Foundation today said MoneyGram, Pairpoint by Vodafone and eToro will operate three of the 10 founding federated nodes on its privacy-focused blockchain network.
The additions would bring the named operator group to seven, alongside previously announced participants Google Cloud, Blockdaemon, Shielded Technologies and AlphaTON Capital, which Midnight has described as part of its early federated launch structure before a later transition toward community-run block production. Midnight’s mainnet launch is expected by late March 2026 and that launch will begin a federated phase designed to prioritize operational stability.
Midnight is positioning that structure as a bridge between enterprise-grade uptime and longer-term decentralization. In a February blog post, the project said federated node operators would run the protocol under explicit participation and coordination rules during the network’s early phase, while the Foundation “stewards” the path to fuller decentralization.
The latest operator additions matter less for raw node count than for sector mix. MoneyGram represents cross-border payments infrastructure; Pairpoint brings a telecom and machine-to-machine commerce angle; and eToro adds a publicly listed retail brokerage and crypto platform. That combination suggests privacy-preserving blockchain infrastructure is increasingly being framed as a compliance and operational requirement for mainstream use cases, not just a crypto-native feature set.
Midnight has described its architecture as “rational privacy,” centered on selective disclosure and zero-knowledge proofs, a design pitch aimed at institutions that need confidentiality and auditability at the same time. The Foundation has repeatedly tied that message to regulated-market adoption, including in its recent Consensus Hong Kong recap and node-operator materials.
“The organisations stepping up to operate the network reflect the standard we’re setting as we approach mainnet,” Fahmi Syed, president of the Midnight Foundation, said in a statement shared with AlexaBlockchain. “In a network’s early stages, operational reliability matters as much as protocol design.”
MoneyGram’s role extends beyond infrastructure participation. The payments company is also exploring how legacy payment rails could move onto blockchain-based systems while preserving user privacy and regulatory controls, according to the announcement. That fits with MoneyGram’s broader push into blockchain-enabled settlement and digital-asset-linked payment flows over recent years.
MoneyGram operates in more than 200 countries and territories, and the company previously announced a partnership with the Stellar Development Foundation and Circle to support USDC-based settlement and cash conversion.
“Working with Midnight and running blockchain nodes fits naturally into this strategy,” MoneyGram Chief Product and Technology Officer Luke Tuttle said in the announcement, adding that the company wants privacy, compliance and reliability embedded “from day one.”
Pairpoint’s inclusion is also notable because it broadens the use case beyond payments and trading into what Vodafone has branded the “Economy of Things” — networks where connected devices transact autonomously. Vodafone has previously described Pairpoint as a platform owned by Vodafone and Sumitomo Corporation that combines digital identity, trust and blockchain-based transaction rails for machine commerce.
Pairpoint is a joint venture between Vodafone Group and Sumitomo, focused on digital integrity for IoT networks.
Pairpoint said it is evaluating Midnight’s zero-knowledge architecture for device identity and authentication, with the aim of enabling private machine-to-machine transactions at scale.
eToro’s participation adds a regulated fintech operator with public-market visibility. eToro, which went public on Nasdaq in 2025, posted stronger-than-expected quarterly profit as trading activity remained robust across asset classes. eToro has over 35 million registered users across 100+ countries.
“At eToro we have been following and contributing to the Cardano ecosystem since the Shelley-era,” Omri Ross, eToro’s chief blockchain officer, said in the announcement, pointing to Midnight’s selective disclosure model as a potential building block for next-generation blockchain infrastructure.
The operator lineup is part of a broader push by Midnight to show the network can support enterprise deployment conditions before opening up block production more fully. Midnight’s earlier node-operator disclosures highlighted Google Cloud’s infrastructure role and Mandiant threat monitoring support, while also emphasizing Blockdaemon’s institutional node-operating track record.
For the broader market, it signals that some institutions are now willing to run infrastructure on privacy-enhancing chains as compliance expectations around on-chain finance continue to rise.
The article “MoneyGram, Pairpoint and eToro Back Midnight’s Privacy Blockchain Before Mainnet” was first published on AlexaBlockchain. Read the complete article here: https://alexablockchain.com/MoneyGram-Pairpoint-eToro-Back-Midnight-Privacy-Blockchain/
Disclaimer: The information provided on AlexaBlockchain is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Read complete disclaimer here.
Image Credits: Midnight Foundation, Shutterstock, Canva, Wiki Commons