Aztec Labs relaunched zk.money on Tuesday, reintroducing its privacy-focused stablecoin wallet on the Aztec Network, a privacy-first Ethereum layer-2. The self-custodial wallet allows users to send and receive stablecoins without broadcasting balances, amounts, or recipients.
Users claim personalized tags such as bob.zk.money through the Ethereum Name Service, or ENS, which resolve to deposit addresses. "Onchain transactions between two individuals shouldn't mean publishing your financial history to the world," said Aztec Labs CEO Joe Andrews.
How It Works
Private payments run on users' devices, which generate zero-knowledge proofs—cryptographic receipts that verify transactions without revealing their details. The wallet accepts USDC, USDT, and DAI from exchanges or Ethereum wallets.
Deposits from Ethereum remain publicly visible, though payments made within zk.money stay private. Early transaction limits cap individual transfers at $2,500, with a shared daily deposit ceiling of $50,000 across all users.
As a self-custodial wallet, Aztec says it cannot spend or freeze user funds, and no privileged administrator controls the system.
Background
The original zk.money launched in 2021 and accumulated more than 75,000 wallets and $100 million in volume before the team shut it down to build Aztec Network. Aztec raised $17 million in a Paradigm-led funding round in 2021 and previously expanded zk.money through Aztec Connect, a toolkit for integrating privacy technology into DeFi protocols.
The relaunch reflects growing focus on privacy solutions for Ethereum. Developers are considering proposals for an upcoming Hegotá upgrade that would allow privacy pools to pay transaction fees independently, while Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has discussed how zero-knowledge proofs could enable special-purpose applications to achieve strong privacy.
