The Midnight Foundation launched on May 13, 2025, in Toronto, naming Fahmi Syed as its president1. Its mission, by its own account, is to foster a developer community, expand access to Midnight's privacy technology, and guide the network toward full decentralization. FF News reported the launch on May 14, 2025, with the same account of Syed's appointment2.
Two leadership moves at the Midnight Foundation on the record since 2023
Every move CryptoLately has verified there, by the day it became public
Moves: The Moves Ledger, CryptoLately's record of verified leadership moves, Oct. 3, 2016 to Oct. 2, 2026.
Read the chart as a table
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| March 27, 2023 | Barak became CEO, Midnight. Eran Barak was named Chief Executive Officer, Midnight of the Midnight Foundation |
| May 13, 2025 | Syed became President. Fahmi Syed was named President of the Midnight Foundation |
59 executive hires on the record in 2025, the most of any year
Executive hires CryptoLately has verified, by year; 2026 through Oct. 2, 2026
- 2025: 59
- 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2026
Moves: The Moves Ledger, CryptoLately's record of verified leadership moves, Oct. 3, 2016 to Oct. 2, 2026.
Read the chart as a table
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| 2019 | 11 |
| 2020 | 12 |
| 2021 | 27 |
| 2022 | 37 |
| 2023 | 20 |
| 2024 | 39 |
| 2025 | 59 |
| 2026 | 45 |
The move
Syed tied the job to its timing. “The Midnight Foundation has an extraordinary opportunity to shape the future of decentralized technology in a way that truly protects users' rights and privacy. I'm honored to lead this mission at such a critical time,” Syed said in the launch release1. He named a partner in the same statement. “Working alongside Shielded Technologies and its visionary CEO, Eran Barak, we are committed to building a thriving, global ecosystem that brings Midnight's transformative technology to life for developers, businesses, and communities everywhere,” Syed said.
The release set out what decentralization means in practice for Midnight. “As the network matures, control over protocol upgrades, treasury allocation, and ecosystem development will transition to NIGHT token holders through on-chain voting,” it said. "The Foundation will ensure this transition is secure, transparent, and community-driven"1.
Before and after at Midnight
Syed arrived with two decades of finance and operating roles outside Midnight. Most recently, he helped build Midnight at Input Output, known as IO, the release said1. Before that, he was chief financial officer at Parity Technologies, the team behind Polkadot and Kusama. There, the release said, he led finance work "during a period of rapid ecosystem expansion". Earlier still, Syed was chief operating officer at FIFTHDELTA, which the release called Europe's largest hedge fund launch of 2021. He also held senior roles at Marshall Wace, where the release said he helped grow the firm's assets to $45 billion.
The release named Midnight's engineering team as a separate group. Shielded Technologies, a spinout from IO, built the network's core, and keeps working alongside the Foundation, the release said1. FF News gave the same split: Shielded Technologies builds the tech, and the Foundation governs Midnight's path to decentralization2.
What came next
Syed was still president of the Midnight Foundation in May 2026, a year after its launch. Cryptopolitan, in an interview published May 8, 2026, described him as president of the Midnight Foundation when he spoke at the Consensus conference in Miami3. In that conversation he named JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Citigroup as banks building private blockchain systems. Those systems, in Cryptopolitan's account, may make dealing across banks harder.
Sources
- Midnight Foundation, "Midnight Foundation Launches to Support Growth of Secure and Decentralized Blockchain Network," PR Newswire, May 13, 2025, https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/midnight-foundation-launches-to-support-growth-of-secure-and-decentralized-blockchain-network-822794925.html
- FF News, "Midnight Foundation Launches to Support Growth of Privacy Network, Bringing Traditional Finance onto the Blockchain," May 14, 2025, https://ffnews.com/newsarticle/cryptocurrency/midnight-foundation-launches-to-support-growth-of-privacy-network-bringing-traditional-finance-onto-the-blockchain/
- Jai Hamid, "Exclusive: Fahmi Syed says Midnight can fix the problem JP Morgan, Goldman and Citi are creating," Cryptopolitan, May 8, 2026, https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMifkFVX3lxTE0wdGQybG5KTmVveWhIcUQ0RE83UUFXdnp6WjBZNFUwek1TSWxuYWZRWmdhYWpxblhFNDc1SzFIVzBBYVdVdURxZFZkSkJ1MWpiSi1iT20zc0VEMF9DV0c2cFc3NHNYMEtqWTZuckVHR3FmNThzM0t6U25GVWNLZw?oc=5