Source: CentralResearch
Project Overview
zkSync Era is a Layer 2 scaling solution based on Ethereum, utilizing zero-knowledge proofs and Rollup architecture to provide a faster and more cost-effective transaction experience. By moving most activities to Layer 2 network, zkSync Era reduces network congestion and lowers transaction fees while maintaining the security and finality of the Ethereum mainnet. As the 2.0 version of zkSync, zkSync Era offers significant improvements in performance and functionality compared to the 1.0 version (zkSync Lite).
Highlights of zkSync Era include mainnet-level security without relying on third parties to ensure transaction reliability. It supports transfers of ETH and ERC20 tokens with instant confirmation on Layer 1 and completion within ten minutes. Transaction fees are significantly lower, with ERC20 token fees approximately one percent of the mainnet’s fees and ETH transfer fees around one-thirtieth of the mainnet’s fees. Users can receive funds without registration and send them to existing Ethereum addresses (including smart contracts). Additionally, zkSync Era supports multi-signature and permissionless smart contracts and can withdraw funds back to the mainnet in approximately ten minutes, providing an efficient and flexible user experience.
zkEVM
zkEVM is a technology that runs the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) as a smart contract engine on ZK Rollup. Its main goal is to retain the performance advantages of Rollup while fully replicating the Ethereum experience on Layer 2, providing users with a familiar development environment.
Account Abstraction
Account abstraction introduces a new account type by separating transaction verification and execution by viewing accounts as smart contracts. This allows each account to have its own logic, ensuring seamless compatibility, safeguarding user autonomy, and providing a more secure and smooth user experience.
zkPorter
zkPorter addresses the scalability limitations of zkRollup due to Ethereum block sizes by ensuring the availability of off-chain data. It breaks through scalability bottlenecks by not relying on data publication from the Ethereum base layer, enabling more efficient data processing and greater expansion space.
Team
Matter Labs is the German company behind zkSync, founded in 2018, with over 50 employees dedicated to developing efficient, low-cost, and secure Ethereum transaction solutions. Led by CEO Alex Gluchowski, who has over 15 years of development experience and a passion for personal freedom and decentralized technology, the team’s CTO and other core members drive zkSync’s innovation and development.
Funding
Since 2018, zkSync has completed five rounds of funding, raising a total of 4.58 billion USD, making it the most funded project in Layer 2 scaling solutions. The recent Series C funding round valued the project at 20 billion USD. These funds come from top investors and venture capital firms, including Binance, Aave, Curve, Coinbase Ventures, a16z Crypto, Dragonfly, and Blockchain Capital. In 2022, zkSync received a commitment of 200 million USD from BitDAO, further ensuring adequate funding for project development and infrastructure.
Token Economics
The native token of zkSync is $ZK, with a total supply of 21 billion tokens.
Distribution: Token Assembly 29.3%, Ecosystem Initiatives 19.9%, Airdrop 17.5%, Team 16.1%, Investors 17.2%.
Secondary Market Performance
The current price of $ZK token is approximately 0.25 USD, launched for claiming on June 11 and listed on multiple cryptocurrency exchanges including Binance. On June 17, the market cap of $ZK exceeded 900 million USD, with a fully diluted market cap of around 5.2 billion USD. According to CoinMarketCap, $ZK ranks 79th in the global cryptocurrency market and 7th among all Layer 2 projects, positioned between Starknet and Aevo.
Ecological Development
Since the zkSync mainnet launch on March 24, 2023, while maintaining a leading overall scale, user willingness and profit-capturing capability have significantly decreased. This phenomenon is closely related to the insufficient number of ecological projects and the lack of community emphasis.
As of June 17, 2024, according to L2 BEAT data, zkSync Era’s total locked value is 765 million USD, down from around 990 million USD on March 12.
Although the total locked value of zkSync ecological projects is high, the number and diversity of projects remain insufficient. According to zkSync-dappradar data, as of June 17, there are 205 ecological projects covering DeFi, gaming, trading markets, NFTs, social, wallets, and DEXs. However, DeFiLlama data shows that only 5 zkSync projects have TVL exceeding 10 million USD, accounting for 58.5% of the total locked value. Among the top 10 TVL projects, they are mainly concentrated in the DEX and lending tracks, with few well-known quality projects deployed on zkSync.
In terms of user numbers and fund size, as of June 17, zkSync Era has accumulated 3,434,121 users, with 2,382,454 bridged users and 3,878,944 ETH bridged, representing a growth of approximately 66.8% since the beginning of the year. However, the average bridged amount per wallet address is low at 1.031 ETH. In the past two months, zkSync on-chain activities have significantly decreased, with daily bridging transactions plummeting. For example, on June 16, there were only 160 bridging transactions, dropping to just a few dozen on the 12th to 15th. The daily number of zkSync users has also sharply declined, with 183 active users on June 16 for zkSync Era and 12 for Lite, totaling 195, compared to 15,320 on January 15, 2024, representing a decrease of approximately 98.73%.
Data Source: Dune @outputlayer
Data Source: Dune @sixdegree
Prior to the announcement of the aird
