Tracking Zero-Knowledge Rollups on Ethereum

ZkSync has seen the most amount of activity since deploying on Ethereum

article-image

wacomka/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

share

Zero-knowledge rollup technology projects have been making headlines lately.

Polygon launched its zkEVM (zero-knowledge Ethereum virtual machine) technology on the Ethereum mainnet just three days after ZkSync Era entered the public eye. Other projects such as Scroll, a zk-rollup technology focused on scaling Ethereum and Starknet, are also gaining traction. 

All of these projects, despite their complicated terms, have the same goal — to scale the Ethereum blockchain.

Rollup technology is built on top of an existing blockchain. It is designed to batch or bundle transactions and execute them off chain, ultimately reducing the amount of block space required to make a transaction. This means cheaper gas fees as fixed costs are now shared between the batched user transactions.

Unlike optimistic rollup technology that assumes information in a transaction is accurate, developers have designed zk-rollups so that the technology itself can determine if the information is executed accurately without disclosing the information on the mainnet.

How are the rollups tracking?

Zk-rollup technology is still very much in its infancy, and iterations are still being made to the tech although it is now publicly available to users.

Arbitrum and Optimism still hold the majority of user funds, and their ecosystems boast the two most popular optimistic rollups. Arbitrum secures almost 67% of the market share and Optimism secures a little over 20%, information on L2Beat shows. 

Of the different zk-rollup technologies, zkSync has seen the most adoption, with an estimated $244 million bridged onto the layer-2. Of this, roughly $117 million has been deployed onto DeFi contracts on the layer-2, according to information from DeFiLlama. 

By comparison, its competitors Starknet and Polygon’s zkEVm have seen roughly $37 million and almost $5 million bridged, respectively. 

ZkSync Era now has 22 protocols deployed on-chain, and Polygon’s zkEVM has 10 — its latest being the decentralized exchange Uniswap.

Zk-rollup technology is still very new, and ongoing audits and iterations to ensure the safety and security of these layer-2s are still being made. Blockworks Research recently published a research report offering a deep dive into the future of zk-rollup technology and how it may impact Ethereum moving forward.


Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. Subscribe to the Empire newsletter.

Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. Subscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter.

Get alpha directly in your inbox with the 0xResearch newsletter — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.

The Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. Subscribe to daily Solana news from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.

Tags

Upcoming Events

Javits Center North | 445 11th Ave

Tues - Thurs, March 18 - 20, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

recent research

Research Report Templates.png

Research

An overview of the Base Ecosystem, with a focus on market leaders.

article-image

Although bitcoin hitting $120k by year’s end is looking unlikely

article-image

About 270 million HYPE has been claimed, valued around $7.6 billion

article-image

Stanford professors David Mazières and Dan Boneh will lead the lab alongside a cohort of graduate student researchers

article-image

With more companies holding BTC, bitcoin yielding strategies could become “a new corporate finance norm,” CoinShares posed

article-image

The proposal comes after Polygon governance considered a controversial use of bridged liquidity for yield

article-image

Can the community balance its decentralized ethos with the need for inclusivity and constructive debate?