Aztec Labs has brought back zk.money, a self-custodial application designed for private digital asset transfers, three years after retiring the initial iteration.
The updated iteration operates on the Aztec Network, the developer’s privacy-centric Ethereum Layer 2. Contrary to a conventional Ethereum wallet, zk.money conceals account balances, transaction values, and involved parties from public visibility, according to statements made by Aztec on Tuesday.
This revival coincides with an increasing emphasis on privacy within the Ethereum ecosystem. The platform’s public development agenda aims to integrate privacy as a fundamental attribute of the network, while Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has warned against the dangers of exposing individual financial activities to public tracking.
“Onchain transactions between two individuals shouldn’t mean publishing your financial history to the world,” stated Joe Andrews, CEO of Aztec Labs. “zk.money is a self-custodial crypto wallet where your financial history stays yours.”
Why zk.money is returning
The initial version of zk.money debuted in 2021 and was eventually retired in 2023 as Aztec Labs redirected its resources toward constructing the Aztec Network. Aztec reported that the wallet previously attracted upwards of 75,000 distinct accounts and handled transaction volumes exceeding $100 million.
Andrews communicated to The Block that user demand was not the motivation behind the shutdown. Rather, the older architecture presented significant expansion challenges and lacked global scalability, he noted.
“We sunset in 2023, not because private payments were a failed thesis, but because they needed infrastructure that did not yet exist,” Andrews explained. “The system back then was very hard to add features and did not scale globally.”
Over the following three years, Aztec focused on developing the Aztec Network, a decentralized Layer 2 engineered to host private applications built on Ethereum, he added. Management of the network now falls under the purview of the non-profit Aztec Foundation, with Aztec Labs concentrating on building applications on top of it.
“Now that the network is live and stewarded via the non-profit Aztec Foundation, our team at Aztec Labs is back shipping open-source privacy products on top of it,” Andrews stated. He further noted that the modern framework provides developers with expanded capabilities to build features utilizing Noir, which serves as Aztec’s zero-knowledge programming language.
How the wallet works
Users have the ability to claim straightforward identifiers like bob.zk.money instead of utilizing lengthy public wallet addresses, Aztec explained. Payments can be sent or requested simply by sharing a hyperlink.
These identifiers leverage Ethereum Name Service infrastructure and maintain compatibility with applications that support ENS. Furthermore, users retain control over who is permitted to interact with their identifiers.
Individuals can transfer capital straight from Ethereum-centered exchanges into a zk.money handle. Additionally, Aztec intends to link the wallet with decentralized finance protocols operating on Ethereum. The enterprise disclosed that discussions with prospective collaborators are underway, with integrations slated for the fourth quarter, though specific names were withheld pending future disclosures.
Because the wallet operates on a non-custodial basis, Aztec Labs emphasized that it possesses no capability to access, transfer, or lock user funds.
Access to zk.money is available via web browsers or through local execution. A dedicated mobile application is likewise scheduled for the fourth quarter, although Aztec noted that an exact release date is not yet finalized.
This reintroduction follows an incident in June where two legacy Aztec smart contracts were compromised. Aztec clarified that those contracts belonged to obsolete products that had been decommissioned years prior and remained completely separate from the active Aztec Network. The newly deployed zk.money leverages the modern network architecture and suffered no impact, according to the firm.
To date, Aztec has secured $125 million in funding, including a $100 million Series B financing round supported by a16z crypto and Paradigm back in 2022.
Originally published at https://www.theblock.co/news/defi/2026-09-29-aztec-zk-money-privacy-wallet-ethereum-layer-2-417174.
