zk

At the "Build and Scale in 2026" themed forum held by ChainCatcher in Hong Kong, Michael, co-founder & CEO of the ZK verifiable computing platform Brevis, delivered a keynote speech on "The Infinite Computing Layer Where Everything Can Be Computed," sharing how ZK technology is driving a fundamental transformation in the blockchain computing paradigm.Michael pointed out that the current on-chain computing costs are high and the speed is slow. The "verifiable computing" paradigm proposed by Brevis can offload heavy computations to off-chain, requiring only low-cost verification on-chain, achieving decoupling of computation and verification while supporting privacy protection scenarios.The speech showcased the performance breakthroughs of Brevis's core product, Pico ZKVM: its latest generation, Pico Prism, can complete Ethereum block proofs in an average of 6.9 seconds, with 99.6% of blocks completed within 12 seconds, achieving real-time proof (RTP) for Ethereum for the first time. Currently, Pico ZKVM, as an "on-chain ZK data co-processor," has been applied in various scenarios such as privacy-preserving incentive distribution, high-performance DeFi, and trustless on-chain data computation, providing Rust programming support for developers with zero ZK development experience.Michael predicts that in the next 10 years, 99% of blockchain computing will occur off-chain, verified through ZK proofs. Brevis is driving this process through its verifiable computing infrastructure.

According to the token unlock data from the crypto asset data platform RootData, zkSync (ZK) will unlock approximately 17.314 million tokens at 00:00 Beijing time on February 17, worth about 3.81 million USD.

The Bitcoin ZK-rollup project Citrea, backed by Founders Fund and Galaxy Ventures, has officially launched its mainnet, introducing DeFi lending, structured products, and the native USD stablecoin ctUSD, which uses BTC as collateral, aiming to bring "idle Bitcoin" into a complete DeFi and payment system.Citrea stated that the active DeFi liquidity at the initial stage of the mainnet launch is expected to reach $50 million. ctUSD is issued by MoonPay, pegged 1:1 to cash and short-term U.S. Treasury bonds, and is not a cross-chain asset but is natively issued on Citrea to reduce bridging risks and avoid liquidity fragmentation. The project has also sparked controversy: as block subsidies decline, should Bitcoin miner fee income be supported through non-payment uses like DeFi and stablecoins? Supporters argue that this is a sustainable source of demand, while opponents emphasize that Bitcoin block space should focus on simple, censorship-resistant payments.It is noteworthy that during the Citrea testnet phase, data availability usage once accounted for nearly 10% of Bitcoin's monthly data bandwidth, indicating that Rollup could have a substantial impact on Bitcoin's block space.

According to market news, the Bitcoin Layer 2 project Citrea, supported by Founders Fund and Galaxy, has officially launched its mainnet and introduced the native stablecoin ctUSD backed by M0 infrastructure.Citrea uses zkEVM to process transactions and writes zero-knowledge proofs onto the Bitcoin main chain, supporting financial applications such as BTC collateralized lending and structured products, with the goal of building a native Bitcoin financial market.

According to Binance spot market data, the market has experienced significant fluctuations. SOMI has dropped by 19.87% in 24 hours, and ZKC has fallen by 27.27%, showing a "high and then low" state.At the same time, 0G has also shown a "high and then low" state, with a 24-hour drop of 9.14%; ENSO has decreased by 21.47%, also exhibiting a "high and then low" state. Among other tokens, SXP and KNC have both hit new lows today, with declines of 25.95% and 7.54%, respectively.However, MLN has performed relatively well, with a 24-hour increase of 5.41%, showing a "bottoming rebound" state.

Vitalik Buterin recently stated that he no longer fully agrees with the old view of blockchain as "only recording transaction order, not committing to state," and explained the reasons for his change in perspective.Vitalik pointed out that his early opposition to this idea was primarily based on the fact that if the chain does not commit to state, ordinary users must either fully verify all transactions from the genesis block or be forced to trust a single third-party service provider, both of which are not ideal options. In contrast, designs like Ethereum that commit to the state root in the block header allow for the verification of any state through Merkle proofs under the "majority honest" consensus assumption, which is much more feasible. He emphasized that the real game changer is the development of zero-knowledge technologies like ZK-SNARKs, which make it possible to verify the correctness on-chain without re-executing all transactions, thus "achieving both security and scalability."Additionally, Vitalik reflected on the uncertainties in the real world: network interruptions, service provider shutdowns, consensus centralization, and censorship risks can occur at any time. Therefore, the blockchain system must always retain a fallback that is "self-verifiable without relying on others." In his view, the "cabin in the woods" is not a model for everyone to live in daily, but rather a safety net in extreme situations, and it is also an important leverage against intermediaries and service providers. Maintaining such a minimally viable and autonomously usable path is an indispensable part of Ethereum's long-term evolution.

Vitalik Buterin stated that he is "significantly more inclined to support native rollups" compared to the past. Vitalik recalled that a major reason for opposing native rollups previously was that their precompiled solutions had to choose between ZK mode or Optimistic mode, and at that time, ZK-EVM was not mature. L2 often chose the latter, which involved "fast withdrawals but self-proving risks" versus "relying on Ethereum's security but needing to wait 2-7 days for withdrawals," thereby weakening Ethereum's composability and promoting the prevalence of multi-signature bridges and other solutions.Vitalik pointed out that the situation is changing: Ethereum's timeline for fully adopting ZK at the L1 level is gradually aligning with the realistic progress of introducing native rollup precompiles, and the aforementioned core obstacles are expected to be eliminated. He also mentioned that the community is increasingly viewing "synchronous composability" as one of the core values of L2 and is exploring the combination of rollup-based solutions with low-latency pre-confirmation mechanisms.In addition, Vitalik emphasized that the design of native rollup precompiles should not be rushed in its implementation. He expressed a hope that in the future, there would be a property such that if developers build a rollup that is "EVM plus a small amount of extended functionality," they could directly reuse the EVM part of the native rollup precompiles and only introduce a custom proof system for the new features, connecting the two in a standardized way.

Vitalik Buterin stated that he is "significantly more inclined to support native rollups" compared to the past. Vitalik reflected that a key reason for opposing native rollups previously was that their precompiled solutions had to choose between ZK mode or Optimistic mode, and at that time, ZK-EVM was not mature. L2 often chose the latter option, which involved "fast withdrawals but self-bear proof risks" versus "relying on Ethereum's security but needing to wait 2-7 days for withdrawals," thereby weakening Ethereum's composability and promoting the proliferation of multi-signature bridge solutions.Vitalik pointed out that the situation is changing: Ethereum's timeline for fully adopting ZK at the L1 level is gradually aligning with the realistic progress of introducing native rollup precompiles, and the aforementioned core obstacles are expected to be eliminated. He also mentioned that the community is increasingly viewing "synchronous composability" as one of the core values of L2 and is exploring the combination of rollup-based solutions with low-latency pre-confirmation mechanisms.Additionally, Vitalik emphasized that the design of native rollup precompiles should not be rushed in its specific implementation. He expressed a hope that in the future, there would be a property such that if developers build a rollup that is "EVM with a small amount of extended functionality," they can directly reuse the EVM part of the native rollup precompiles and only introduce a custom proof system for the new features, connecting the two in a standardized way.

According to Binance spot data, the market has experienced significant fluctuations. ZKP has dropped by 14.18% in the last 24 hours, while RONIN has increased by 18.62% and reached a new high for today.At the same time, KSM is in a "high and then low" state, with a 24-hour decline of 5.19%. Other tokens such as ASTER, AXS, and IMX have also reached new highs today, with increases ranging from 3.08% to 9.41%.

ZKsync releases the 2026 roadmap, focusing on three core directions:Prividium will expand the privacy engine into a "bank-grade stack," providing enterprises with a cryptographic infrastructure that has built-in privacy by default;ZK Stack will shift from a single-chain architecture to a "coordinated system," enabling application chains to operate seamlessly within this stack and natively integrate liquidity and shared infrastructure;Airbender will evolve from the "fastest zkVM" to a "universal standard," prioritizing security, formal rigor, and developer experience, with its service scope extending beyond ZKsync and the Ethereum ecosystem to a wider range of use case scenarios.

According to Binance spot data, the market has experienced significant fluctuations. GMT has risen by 15.01% in the last 24 hours and is in a state of rebound after hitting a low.At the same time, ZK and CELO have reached new highs today, with increases of 5.21% and 7.46%, respectively. On the other hand, ONT, RENDER, PENGU, and CGPT have all shown a "high and then low" trend, with declines of 6.33%, 5.51%, 6.18%, and 5.28%, respectively.The remaining tokens GUN and BIFI have increased by 6.82% and 3.18%, respectively, with BIFI showing a slight rise within 5 minutes.

According to token unlock data from the crypto asset data platform RootData, zkSync (ZK) will unlock approximately 17.314 million tokens at 00:00 Beijing time on January 17, worth about 5.91 million USD.

According to Binance spot data, the market has experienced significant fluctuations. ZKP has increased by 58.13% in 24 hours, Binance Life has risen by 46.7% in 24 hours, and there has been a sharp increase in 5 minutes.At the same time, AUCTION, OG, STRAX, AMP, and RPL have all shown a "high and then low" state, with declines of 7.34%, 7.41%, 9.72%, 6.65%, and 12.4%, respectively.

According to OnchainSchool monitoring, the suspected ZKP team transferred a total of approximately 30,000,000 ZKP tokens to Binance, worth 4,850,000 USD.

According to the official announcement, Binance will launch the Binance Life and ZKP savings products on January 7, 2026, at 14:00 (UTC). At the same time, users can purchase through the "Buy Crypto" page within one hour after the spot launch, and trade with zero fees in the instant exchange.In addition, Binance margin trading will add ZKP as a borrowable asset at the same time, and will open the ZKP/USDT and ZKP/USDC trading pairs.

According to official news, OKX will officially launch the ZKPUSDT perpetual contract on January 7, 2026, at 21:30, with a leverage range of 0.01 to 50 times, and trading will be available 24/7. Users can trade on the web, App, and API. For more details, please check the OKX application.

Binance will launch Binance Life (Binance Life) and zkPass (ZKP) on January 7, 2026, at 22:00 (Beijing time), and will open spot trading pairs for Binance Life/USDT, Binance Life/USDC, Binance Life/TRY, ZKP/USDT, ZKP/USDC, and ZKP/TRY.The announcement states that Binance Life and ZKP will be tagged with a seed label. The seed label represents innovative projects, which may exhibit higher volatility and risk compared to other listed tokens.

Binance will launch spot trading for Binance Life (BNL) and zkPass (ZKP) on January 7, 2026, at 22:00, and will open trading pairs: Binance Life / USDT, Binance Life / USDC, Binance Life / TRY, ZKP / USDT, ZKP / USDC, ZKP / TRY. The deposit channels will open one hour later, and withdrawals are expected to be available on January 7, 2026, at 20:30. Users should note that seed tags will apply to both tokens.