Hi everyone,
Below is an update on the proposal pipeline the Foundation has been focused on the past few months since the focus has shifted towards Prividium and institutional demand.
Excerpt of Recent Foundation Work
Over the past few months, the ZKsync Foundation has been focused on securing the deployment new ZKsync Chains in the ecosystem. A few examples include:
- Deutsche Bank’s Memento ZK Chain scales its TradFi RWA program: Memento launched its third TradFi RWA fund on Memento ZK Chain, further validating its model for tokenized institutional products.
- GRVT Funding Round and Traction: ZKSync Foundation co-led GRVT’s $19M Series A alongside EigenLayer, Further Ventures, and 500 Global, accelerating its vision to become the first privacy DEX unifying the trillion-dollar onchain market.
- Institutional pilots on Prividium: Completed a live demo showing private, atomic interop for intraday repo and cross-border payments. 35 financial institutions observed and provided feedback, including Banque de France, Deutsche Bundesbank, State Street, Deutsche Börse Group, Mastercard, Santander, and Ant Group.
- ADI Chain launch: In Q3, we welcomed ADI Chain to the Elastic Network – a ZK chain backed by leading UAE institutions First Abu Dhabi Bank, ADQ, and IHC, and set to be regulated by the Central Bank of the UAE. ADI is introducing the first Dirham-backed stablecoin and aims to 1bn users onchain by 2030 across the Middle East, Asia, and Africa.
- SANDchain Launch: In Q3, we welcomed SANDchain, backed by The Sandbox and its 8M+ users, to the Elastic Network – a new Creator Chain uniting creators, fans, and communities within an onchain ecosystem addressing the $250B creator economy.
Sustainable and Secure Protocol Development: Decentralizing Operations
The Foundation continues to support the long-term sustainability and resilience of the ZKsync protocol by supporting the shift to independent funding and accountability via the Token Assembly’s public governance process.
Earlier this year, the Foundation supported the development of TPP-5: ZKsync Security Council Bridge Funding, TPP-6: ZKsync Security Council v2 Funding and TPP-7: ZKsync Guardians Funding 2024-2026, which together lay the groundwork for a sustainable, independent funding model.
More recently, the Foundation supported the ZKsync Association’s development of TPP-11: ZKsync Governance System Infrastructure to ensure stable and secure governance infra through 2026.
Ecosystem Growth: Institutional Rails on Prividium & RWA Adoption
ZKsync’s Prividium solution brings enterprise‑grade, privacy‑first blockchains anchored to Ethereum, tailored for use cases with complex regulatory and compliance requirements. The launch of Atlas brings 15k+ TPS, 1-second ZK finality, and near-zero fees. On top of that, it enables extremely fast L2/L1 finality. This eliminates the need for a separate liquidity layer on L2, and institutions and RWA flows are able to rely on Ethereum as a real-time liquidity layer. This is a grounbreaking development for Privdium expansion, but for the L2 Ethereum ecosystem as a whole. Read more here.
Over the past few months, the Foundation has spearheaded strategic governance proposals to accelerate ZKsync adoption by submitting a series of ecosystem growth proposals that aim to incentivize Prividium growth and adoption. All three programs were approved by the Token Assembly and are currently live.
- TPP-8: ZKsync Community Activation Pilot: Fund key existing community initiatives and activate a competitive RFP process focused on ZKsync & Prividium global awareness, developer adoption, and education.
- TPP-9: ZKsync Prividium Prize: Reward the first 10 Prividium ZKsync Chains active on mainnet with 10M ZK.
- TPP-10: ZKsync Prividium Roadshow: Secures sponsorships, speaker opportunities, and institutional networking at priority events for key ZKsync representatives to bolster ZKsync & Prividium global awareness and reach potential institutional partners.
The Foundation is considering additional programs that would build on the momentum of the existing programs.
Tokenomics, Token Utility, and Governance Innovation
The Foundation continues to actively engaging in discussions on how to further expand the utility of the ZK token. Alex Gluchowski recently posted a plan to expand ZK token economic utility. It outlines a 2 pronged revenue flow model (interop fees & enterprise licensing), where all value would flow into a governance-controlled system that buys ZK and then directs it toward staking rewards, token burn, and ecosystem funding.
The Foundation has been excited to witness the development of several core components of the ZKnomics plan outlined in Alex’s post, in particular because they were community driven, forward-looking and clearly aligned with the growth, adoption and resilience of the ecosystem.
- TPP-12 ZKnomics Token Staking: The ZKsync Foundation work with Tally to develop a pilot Token Program for staking. The pilot is designed to create a seamless entry point into new token technical features - such as fee distribution - while strengthening governance participation.
- ZIP-14 Upgrade ZK Token Contract with Burn Function: This protocol upgrade introduces a burn function to the ZK token contract, enabling the community to “burn” minted ZK and return it to the total supply.
Please let us know if you have any questions here in the thread.