Binance Labs, the $10 billion venture capital and incubation arm of cryptocurrency exchange Binance, invested an undisclosed amount in Zircuit. Ethereum ETH
-3.69%
Layer 2 network developer.
Zircuit is a zero-knowledge rollup with “AI-enabled sequencer-level security,” Binance Labs said on Tuesday. The company added that this investment will help Zircuit grow and advance its network.
Binance Labs’ investment in Zircuit comes ahead of the network’s mainnet launch this summer. Both companies declined to disclose the size of their investment and other terms of the deal. According to X’s bio, Zircuit is backed by Pantera Capital and Dragonfly.
What is Zirkit?
Zircuit is an Ethereum virtual machine compatible ZK rollup comparable to similar projects such as ZKsync, Scroll, and Linea.
Zircuit’s key differentiator is sequencer-level security, Zircuit co-founder and former Quantstamp executive Martin Derka told The Block. Derka said that when another blockchain receives a transaction, the block proposer looks for the first block that can contain the transaction.
“In Zircuit, like any other rollup, it is the responsibility of the so-called ‘sequencer’ to organize transactions into blocks. However, Zircuit’s sequencer scrutinizes the effects of transactions before including them in a block,” he said. “Artificial intelligence is used to determine whether each transaction is hacked or not. Hacked transactions are not included in the block and are isolated.”
The main goal of sequencer-level security is to discover exploits and hacks and stop them before they actually happen, Derka explained. “In this way, Zircuit creates a safer environment for all participants, both developers and trading users,” he added.
Zircuit mainnet launch
Founded in mid-2022, Zircuit is currently in the testnet phase. Derka said the testnet was launched at the DevConnect 2023 event in Istanbul last November, and the mainnet will be launched in the coming months.
Zircuit claims to have already raised more than $3.5 billion in equity assets and said its “Build to Earn” program has received more than 1,100 applications. Ethena, Renzo, Ether.fi, KelpDAO, Elixir, Ambient, Pendle, and LayerZero are among the project launch partners, the project said.
“The Zircuit staking program collects pre-committed liquidity to go into the Zircuit ecosystem and DeFi when the mainnet goes live,” Derka said. These deposits are managed by smart contracts at Layer 1, allowing users to deposit and withdraw assets at any time. Once the mainnet is launched, users will be able to withdraw funds or transfer them to the Zircuit network using the bridge, he added.
There are currently about 30 employees working at Zircuit, and Derka plans to hire more applied cryptographers with Rust programming skills primarily in the engineering department.
Stay up to date on the latest cryptocurrency funding news and trends with The Funding, our bimonthly newsletter. It’s free. Sign up here!
Disclaimer: The Block is an independent media outlet delivering news, research and data. As of November 2023, Foresight Ventures is a majority investor in The Block. Foresight Ventures invests in other companies in the cryptocurrency space. Cryptocurrency exchange Bitget is an anchor LP of Foresight Ventures. The Block continues to operate independently to provide objective, impactful and timely information about the cryptocurrency industry. Below are our current financial disclosures.
© 2023 The Block. All rights reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not provided or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial or other advice.