NIGHT (Midnight Network) valuation logic breakdown: treating privacy public chain tokens as "priced assets"

December 17, 2025, according to Gate market data, NIGHT (Midnight Network) is currently priced at $0.06, roughly unchanged from yesterday. The intraday high once reached $0.063, and the low dropped to $0.053. The 24-hour trading volume is approximately $27 million. However, over the past week, NIGHT’s price has experienced significant fluctuations, with a peak at $0.1 and a trough at $0.039.

In the current crypto market, NIGHT is often simply categorized as a “privacy public chain token” or “governance token.” However, this label-based understanding makes it difficult to explain its price fluctuation structure and cannot answer a more core question: how should the reasonable valuation range for NIGHT be established? To provide a relatively rigorous answer to this question, one must start from the underlying economic structure of Midnight Network, rather than relying on traditional public chain Gas Token pricing paradigms.

Midnight Network employs a distinctly different dual-asset model from mainstream public chains. In this model, NIGHT does not directly serve as a transactional consumable but functions as a capital asset that continuously generates DUST through holding. DUST is the true network resource used for privacy transactions and smart contract execution, and this resource is non-transferable and consumable only. This design makes NIGHT’s economic attributes closer to a “network resource production right” rather than a purely usage token.

How the Dual-Asset Model Changes NIGHT’s Valuation Basis

Thanks to the existence of DUST, the value of NIGHT does not come from being “consumed,” but from “being held.” This means the market is not pricing based on current on-chain transaction volume or fee scale but is pre-pricing the future privacy computing demands, compliance verification needs, and enterprise-level use cases that Midnight Network might support.

This pricing approach is inherently forward-looking and inevitably involves higher uncertainty. Before the ecosystem fully unfolds, different capital sources will use entirely different assumptions to price NIGHT—some see it as a long-term resource asset, others still treat it as a short-term trading target. This is also a key reason for early-stage price volatility.

What Are the Core Valuation Variables for NIGHT?

From an investment research perspective, the valuation of NIGHT can be understood as a composite mapping of three variables. First is the long-term demand intensity for DUST within the Midnight Network—whether privacy transactions and privacy smart contracts will form a sustained, predictable consumption curve. Second is the actual lock-up ratio of NIGHT, which directly affects the effective circulating supply in the market. Third is the premium brought by governance rights themselves, which depends on whether Midnight can occupy an irreplaceable position in the privacy infrastructure.

In the early stages, because real usage demand has not yet fully materialized, NIGHT’s price more reflects expectations rather than realized value. At this point, valuation anchors are unstable, and the market tends to switch back and forth between “privacy narrative premium” and “token unlock pressure,” with price ranges frequently broken and rebuilt.

Transition from Expectation-Based Pricing to Usage-Based Pricing

As Midnight Network gradually enters the mid-term development phase, the valuation logic will undergo a significant change. Once privacy smart contracts begin to be called continuously, and DUST consumption becomes stable rather than sporadic, the foundation of NIGHT’s value will shift.

At this stage, holding NIGHT is no longer just a bet on the future but begins to have clear, tangible return expectations. Long-term holders gain control over the network’s ongoing resource generation capacity. This shift often drives the price center upward and reduces extreme volatility driven by market sentiment.

Pricing Logic of NIGHT in Different Development Stages

To better understand the valuation changes of NIGHT at different stages, it can be projected within various network development scenarios.

NIGHT’s Risk Structure and Downside Boundaries

From a risk perspective, NIGHT differs fundamentally from many tokens lacking endogenous demand. As long as the Midnight Network has real usage, DUST has a reason to be consumed, and as long as DUST is in demand, NIGHT as a resource-generating asset will not lose its valuation support entirely.

Therefore, the main risk for NIGHT is not model failure but the network adoption pace being slower than market optimistic expectations. If the rollout of privacy applications proceeds more slowly than anticipated, the price center may remain below sentiment peaks for a prolonged period, but the underlying logic remains valid.

Conclusion: What Is the Essence of NIGHT’s Valuation?

Ultimately, the price of NIGHT is not a simple reflection of short-term market enthusiasm but a discounted expression of market expectations for “verifiable privacy’s value in future digital economy.” As the market gradually shifts from sentiment-based pricing to usage-based valuation, NIGHT’s valuation model will transition from narrative-driven to structure-driven.

This transformation will not happen overnight, but it will determine NIGHT’s true valuation in future cycles.