Sony-backed S.BLOX lists NIGHT and ADA with 14,000 yen campaign

Sony Group's S.BLOX listed NIGHT and ADA on Aug. 24, the first privacy-focused token on a Japan-registered exchange, offering up to 14,000 yen in rewards.

Charles Hoskinson, founder of Cardano and Midnight, called the listing a "monumental milestone," saying that token listings in Japan require rigorous approval from the Financial Services Agency and that relatively few tokens clear that bar.

NIGHT trades at $0.01949, down 4.35 percent over 24 hours, with a market cap of $323.76 million and 24-hour volume of $19.21 million, according to CoinMarketCap data as of Aug. 24. The token has a fixed supply of 24 billion, with roughly 16.6 billion in circulation. S.BLOX supports cNIGHT, the Cardano-network version, rather than the native Midnight-chain asset.

S.BLOX launched NIGHT/JPY and ADA/JPY pairs with no trading fees, a minimum order of one NIGHT, and a maximum order size of 250,000 NIGHT. The exchange runs promotional campaigns through Sept. 30, offering eligible users up to 14,000 yen (approximately $88) in NIGHT and up to 10,000 yen (approximately $63) in ADA.

Midnight, launched in 2022 by Hoskinson, uses zero-knowledge proof technology to reconcile data confidentiality with regulatory compliance. In a February interview, Hoskinson said Japanese intellectual property holders in fields such as anime face data disclosure hurdles when entering Web3, and that Midnight could serve as the foundation to address this.

NIGHT already trades on Binance, Bybit, OKX, Kraken, Gate.io, KuCoin, Bitget, LBank, and MEXC, mostly against USDT. The S.BLOX listing marks its first regulated availability in Japan.

Japan operates one of the strictest crypto registration systems globally. Every exchange must register with a regional finance bureau under the FSA, and listing new tokens requires notification to the relevant bureau. Privacy coins have faced heightened scrutiny due to their anonymity features, and domestic listing cases have been limited. Midnight's design, which embeds regulatory compliance into its zero-knowledge proof architecture, is seen as the key factor enabling its listing on a registered exchange.

The listing gives Midnight a regulated entry point into Japan's retail base, a market where privacy coins have historically faced strict scrutiny. Midnight's roadmap points to the Mōhalu phase later this year, which would let Cardano stake pool operators join as block producers and activate a marketplace for trading DUST capacity.

The listing also strengthens Cardano's presence in Japan, pairing NIGHT with ADA on the same exchange and reinforcing the technical link between Midnight and its parent chain. For a project still in its early network phases, a regulated, mainstream distribution channel in one of the world's most tightly controlled crypto markets carries more weight than a single day of trading volume.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.