Going to fry some French fries? Cardano founder appears at the summit wearing a McDonald's uniform, teasing a new project launching in March

Cardano Founder Appears at Conference Wearing McDonald’s Uniform, Humorously Responds to Crypto Market Slump. Announces Partnership with LayerZero to Introduce USDCx Stablecoin and Teases Midnight Privacy Sidechain Launching at End of March, Targeting Mainstream Market.

Cardano Founder Takes Stage at Consensus in McDonald’s Uniform

Input Output Global (IOG) CEO Charles Hoskinson unexpectedly took the stage at Hong Kong’s CoinDesk Consensus Summit dressed in a McDonald’s uniform, delivering a keynote speech.

His gesture is seen as a humorous response to the recent downturn in the cryptocurrency market, paying homage to the widely circulated internet meme in the crypto community: “When prices drop, go work at McDonald’s and fry some fries.”

Hoskinson also stated that the current sentiment in the crypto industry is low, and social platforms are filled with chaos, but he insists this is just a micro fluctuation. From a macro perspective, the crypto market remains bullish.

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Image Source: Pinterest The widely circulated meme in the crypto community: “When prices drop, go work at McDonald’s and fry some fries.”

Cardano Announces Collaboration with LayerZero to Bring USDCx

According to CoinDesk, Hoskinson officially announced at the Consensus Summit that they are partnering with LayerZero to integrate this blockchain focused on institutional-grade markets into the Cardano ecosystem.

This collaboration will bring the USD stablecoin USDCx, which emphasizes bank-level privacy, onto the Cardano blockchain, with the launch date already confirmed. It will be supported by a wide range of wallets and exchanges upon release.

Using zero-knowledge proof technology, USDx offers a stablecoin service with true privacy and immutability, marking a significant advancement for Cardano in institutional applications.

Midnight Privacy Sidechain Launches at End of March, Integrating Compliance and Selective Disclosure

In addition to cross-chain collaboration, Hoskinson also previewed the upcoming launch of IOG’s privacy sidechain project, Midnight.

He announced that the Midnight mainnet is expected to go live in the last week of March, functioning as a partner chain within the Cardano ecosystem.

Midnight’s main feature is utilizing zero-knowledge proof (ZK proofs) technology to achieve “selective disclosure,” allowing users to keep transaction details private by default and only share specific data with authorized parties (such as auditors or regulators) when necessary. This addresses the conflict between privacy protection and regulatory compliance on blockchain.

Hoskinson revealed that they are already collaborating with major companies like Google and Telegram to promote ecosystem development. To test network stability under high load, they have launched an interactive testing platform called Midnight City Simulation.

This platform generates random transaction flows via AI-driven agents to evaluate the performance of large-scale blockchain data generation and proof processing. According to official reports, the simulation was launched on Thursday and will be open for public testing on February 26.

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Midnight Does Not Compete with Monero, Focuses on Mainstream Market

In response to questions about whether Midnight will compete with established privacy coins like Monero or ZCash, Hoskinson stated at Consensus that Midnight does not aim to target existing user bases of these privacy-focused coins.

He pointed out that these highly privacy-conscious users belong to a different group. While they have a deep understanding of privacy technology and it is important, it is not Midnight’s primary target.

Hoskinson emphasized that Midnight aims to serve the billions of users who “don’t realize they need privacy,” by providing default privacy protections to a broader audience.

He believes privacy should not be a binary choice like flipping a light switch. That is, it shouldn’t be just “full privacy” or “full transparency,” but should offer more flexible options for compliance and disclosure. This is the key difference he sees between Midnight and traditional privacy coins.