Zama Protocol: status and timeline · The Techno Optimist

Zama Protocol

Make public blockchains usable for salaries, trades and business payments that must stay private, without giving up the shared, verifiable ledger.

DeployStage 4 of 5

Live on Ethereum since Dec 2025 with 18 operators; confidential swap venue in beta since Jul 2026.

Updated 3 Aug 2026Checked 11 Oct0 updates this week

Milestones

Next · Confidential RFQ swaps open to the public

Protocol announced with $57M Series B25 Jun 2025Complete.
Mainnet on Ethereum; first confidential USDT transfer30 Dec 2025Complete.
Staking live with 18 operators19 Jan 2026Complete.
Encrypted public token auction24 Jan 2026Complete.
1,040 confidential transfers per second on one GPU serverAug 2026Complete.
Confidential RFQ swaps open to the publicTarget 2026Not yet reached.

Most important updates

Upcoming

2026Confidential RFQ swaps open to the public (next)

Current obstacles

Throughput on the live networkThe protocol ran about 20 transactions per second per chain at launch; GPU nodes must reach the 1,000-level lab results in production.
Trust in the key holdersPrivacy depends on the 13 key operators not colluding, so the operator set and its rules are a security assumption.
Compliance for institutionsBanks need auditors and screening tools to see what they must; Zama added delegated decryption and Elliptic screening in 2026.

Physics limits

Encryption adds noise that must be cleanedFHE ciphertexts carry random noise that grows with each operation. A costly step called bootstrapping resets it, which is why FHE runs far slower than ordinary computing.
Encrypted data is much largerAn encrypted number takes far more space than the number itself, so storing and moving encrypted state costs more bandwidth and storage on every chain.
Someone must hold a decryption keyResults are useless unless they can eventually be decrypted. Splitting the key reduces trust in any one party but cannot remove the need to trust a group.

How it works

4 parts

Wrap

Ordinary tokens made confidential

USDT, USDC and others are wrapped into tokens like cUSDT, whose balances and transfer amounts are stored only in encrypted form.

Compute

Contracts run on ciphertext

A contract on Ethereum asks for an encrypted operation; coprocessors compute the encrypted result off-chain and post it back.

Decrypt

Shared key, public requests

To reveal a value to its owner or an auditor, a threshold of 13 key holders must sign off; every request is visible on-chain.

Apps

Payroll, auctions, private swaps

Built on top: a confidential payroll run in USDT, Zama's own sealed-bid token auction, and an RFQ venue that hides trade size and direction.

Spec sheet

Spec	Zama Protocol
Network operators	18 (5 FHE, 13 key)^R (reported)
Transfers/s on one 8x H100 node	1,040^R (reported)
Compute cost per confidential transfer	under $0.00005^R (reported)
Gas for first cUSDT transfer	about $0.13^R (reported)
Initial yearly staking emission	5%^R (reported)

^R reported by the company

Update log

5 updates

About Zama

The team behind Zama Protocol

Zama

FHE encryption for blockchains

Zama is a French cryptography company built on fully homomorphic encryption (FHE), which lets computers work on data while it stays encrypted. Its Zama Protocol, live on Ethereum since Dec 2025, lets smart contracts keep balances and amounts secret.

First confidential stablecoin transfer on Ethereum mainnet on 30 Dec 2025, for about $0.13 in fees.
Sold 880M ZAMA tokens in an encrypted auction in Jan 2026; 11,103 bidders, 218% oversubscribed.
Reached 1,040 confidential transfers per second on one 8-GPU server in Aug 2026.

zama.org (opens zama.org)Company profile →

Founded: 20206 yrs
Headquarters: France
Status: Private
Valuation: $1BprivateJun 2025
Raised: $130M2 rounds
Last round: Series B · $57M25 Jun 2025$1B post
Works in: CryptoRollups & ZK proofs
Coverage: 1 program · 5 updateslatest 3 Aug 2026checked 11 Oct
Lead investors: Pantera CapitalBlockchangeMulticoin CapitalProtocol Labs
Partners: Fireblocks (opens zama.org)Elliptic (opens zama.org)
Investors: Pantera Capital (opens zama.org)
People: Rand Hindi (opens zama.org)Co-founder & CEOPascal PaillierCo-founder & CTO

Spec

Zama Protocol

Network operators

18 (5 FHE, 13 key)^R (reported)

Transfers/s on one 8x H100 node

1,040^R (reported)

Compute cost per confidential transfer

under $0.00005^R (reported)

Gas for first cUSDT transfer

about $0.13^R (reported)

Initial yearly staking emission

5%^R (reported)

Zama Protocol

Milestones

Most important updates

Upcoming

Current obstacles

Physics limits

How it works

Ordinary tokens made confidential

Contracts run on ciphertext

Shared key, public requests

Payroll, auctions, private swaps

Spec sheet

Update log

Mon 3 Aug

Thu 23 Jul

Sat 24 Jan

Tue 30 Dec 2025

Wed 25 Jun 2025

About Zama

Current obstacles

Physics limits

How it works

Ordinary tokens made confidential

Contracts run on ciphertext

Shared key, public requests

Payroll, auctions, private swaps

Spec sheet

Update log

Mon 3 Aug

Thu 23 Jul

Sat 24 Jan

Tue 30 Dec 2025

Wed 25 Jun 2025

About Zama