Overview
Moonlight Bridge is a crypto bridge that lets you move tokens from Cardano to Midnight and back again. You deposit a supported token, such as ADA, from a Cardano wallet, and the bridge gives you a matching stand-in token on Midnight that you can hold1 or trade there2. Moonlight Bridge is built by Pulse1, the team behind a yield trading app on Cardano3.
Pulse describes Moonlight as the bridge that brings Cardano assets onto Midnight, where the Pulse app runs a token-swapping exchange, or DEX, that keeps users' balances hidden from public view2.
Key Features
- Bring familiar Cardano tokens across. Moonlight Bridge supports ADA, NIGHT, the stablecoin USDCx4, and the SNEK meme token5, each with its own deposit and withdrawal limits1.
- Choose private or public on arrival. A deposit can arrive on Midnight as a shielded token, meaning its balance is hidden from public view, or as an unshielded token that anyone can see1.
- A simple two-way process. Depositing locks your token in a Pulse contract on Cardano and creates a matching token on Midnight. Withdrawing destroys, or "burns," that Midnight token and releases the original back on Cardano1.
- Fees published up front. Moonlight Bridge charges the same flat deposit fee, paid in ADA, for every supported Cardano token, and lists each token's withdrawal fee and minimum amounts in its documentation1.
- A gateway anyone can check. Cardano deposits and withdrawals run through one Pulse gateway contract, a program that holds the deposited tokens1, and its address is published so anyone can review its activity on a block explorer6.
What to Expect
You land on a single bridge screen on the Pulse website. You connect a Cardano wallet, pick a token, type an amount, and the screen shows the bridge fee before you confirm7. A history table on the same page lists deposits and withdrawals with their status7.
Each token has a minimum deposit and a minimum withdrawal, so very small amounts cannot be moved1. Coming back works in reverse: the bridge burns the matching Midnight token, and the original is released to Cardano after the withdrawal fee, which is taken in the token you are moving1.
Moonlight Bridge is also a way into Pulse's other apps on Midnight. Bridged tokens can be swapped on the Pulse exchange, which tracks balances privately using zero-knowledge cryptography, a method that proves a transaction is valid without revealing its details28.
Developers can find Pulse's open-source code on GitHub, including a software kit for working with the Pulse contract9.
