Coin columns · ZKsync Era City
ZKsync (ZK): Governance Token of a Zero-Knowledge Ethereum Layer 2
Matter Labs’ zero-knowledge rollup and its ZK coin
ZK is the governance coin of ZKsync, a layer-2 network that runs on top of Ethereum. It uses zero-knowledge proofs, a mathematical way to verify batches of transactions, to ease the load on Ethereum.
1. A zero-knowledge rollup on top of Ethereum
ZKsync was built by Matter Labs, a Berlin-based developer led by Alex Gluchowski, as an Ethereum layer 2 (a network that processes transactions on Ethereum’s behalf). It began in 2020 as ZKsync Lite for payments; ZKsync Era, which runs smart contracts (self-executing programs), opened in 2023. The brand changed from zkSync to ZKsync in 2024.
ZK first appeared in June 2024 with an airdrop (a free distribution), and its initial total supply is 21 billion. It carries votes in ‘ZK Nation’, ZKsync’s governance system. On the Crypto Nation map, ZK is the city-hall tower of ZKsync Era City, because it is classed as this chain’s own token.
2. Proofs submitted to Ethereum
ZKsync executes transactions off Ethereum, compresses the results and posts them to Ethereum with a zero-knowledge proof, a mathematical certificate that the computation was correct and need not be repeated. Fees are paid in ETH, not ZK. Accounts are smart contracts from the start (‘account abstraction’), so apps can pay fees for users.
The ‘ZK Stack’ toolkit lets anyone build their own chain and link it to others. Matter Labs also built Airbender, a fast prover (software that generates proofs), and said in its Q1 2026 report that it stayed near the top of EthProofs, a public comparison of Ethereum block proofs. Proofs are a major cost, so cheaper proofs are the technical race.
3. A growing institutional focus
ZKsync Era hosts Ethereum apps such as exchanges, lending, NFTs and games at low fees. The recent direction is toward banks and other institutions, with ‘Prividium’, a private chain that hides transaction details but proves results on Ethereum. Matter Labs said in its Q1 2026 report that it had launched its own Prividium mainnet.
Key dates: ZKsync Lite in 2020, ZKsync Era in 2023, the ZK airdrop in June 2024; Lite’s shutdown date was set for 4 May 2026. The same report said Cari Network, a tokenized-deposit network of five US regional banks, chose Prividium, with production use planned in 2026. Proposals giving ZK uses beyond voting (‘From Governance to Utility’) and a staking pilot were also published.
4. Things to know
ZK is not used to pay fees, so its role is mostly governance, and how it connects to network usage is debated. As on most layer 2s, the developer runs the sequencer (the server that orders transactions) and a small security council holds key powers, so the system is not fully decentralized.
In April 2025 an airdrop admin account was compromised and ZK tokens were taken improperly. ZKsync said the protocol and user funds were not involved, and later announced a return agreement with the hacker. The technology is complex and new, so code errors remain a risk, and competition among layer 2s is intense.
Written from information public up to October 2026. It does not recommend or rate any coin and is not investment advice. If something is wrong, please tell us through the contact page.