zkSync developer Matter Labs CEO Alex Gluchowski confirmed layoffs in an X post on June 17, saying that since the company began building products for regulated financial institutions in 2024, it has now fully shifted its focus to Prividium and institutional on-chain privacy infrastructure business; as the business direction has progressed, the needs for skills and roles have changed, so the company made the layoff decision.
Statement from Alex Gluchowski’s X platform announcement
In the announcement, Gluchowski confirmed: “Today we reduced the size of the Matter Labs team. In 2024, we started building products for regulated financial institutions. That work evolved into Prividium, and the entire company is now committed to a single goal: building infrastructure that brings enterprises and regulated financial institutions onto the chain, with privacy at the core. As that work has advanced, we’ve learned a lot about where our customers need us to go. Meeting that direction requires a different combination of skills and roles than in the previous phase.”
The announcement also confirmed that Matter Labs has provided a voluntary talent list application form, and any institution that is currently recruiting can submit an access application.
Confirmed institutional partnership track record
Based on the confirmed figures cited in the article, the institutional deployments in the Prividium / ZKsync ecosystem include:
· Deutsche Bank has integrated Memento ZK Chain (a private permissioned L2 network built on top of the Prividium enterprise suite);
· The Tradable platform has deployed private credit assets totaling $1.7 billion, with institutional position returns ranging from 8% to 15.5%, across nearly 30 positions;
· Cari Network (founded by the former head of the U.S. Office of the Currency Regulator) plans to launch the next-quarter pilot, partnering with five regional banks, with combined deposit size of over $600 billion;
· In October 2024, the Buenos Aires city government migrated its entire digital identity system to zkSync Era, covering government credential documents for all 3.6 million residents.
Aave’s exit and the current state of the ZKsync Era network
Aave community voting decided to shut down its transaction market on zkSync Era, confirming the reason as a large disparity in fee revenue: zkSync Era’s 30-day fees were only $714, versus $300,000 for the Base chain in the same period, and $7.7 million for the Ethereum mainnet. zkSync Era’s current public DeFi locked value (TVL) is about $15 million.
The Ignite plan that previously incentivized DeFi protocols has been terminated. zkSync Lite (the original network launched in 2020) confirmed shutdown at the end of February 2026 (with signals released starting December 2025). L2Beat has classified zkSync Era as a Level 0 network, indicating that the safety committee can bypass a full DAO vote to directly pause or modify smart contracts.
FAQ
Did Matter Labs’ layoff announcement disclose the number of layoffs?
According to Alex Gluchowski’s announcement on X, he confirmed the fact of the layoffs and the direction of business focus, but did not disclose the specific number of layoffs. The announcement confirms that each departing employee has received financial support and has opened a public talent list application form.
How is Prividium different from regular zkSync?
According to the article description, Prividium is Matter Labs’ dedicated product suite for institutions, supporting private transactions, permission controls, and built-in compliance tools, with all transactions ultimately settled on the Ethereum mainnet. Memento ZK Chain integrated by Deutsche Bank is a private permissioned L2 network built based on Prividium, which differs from the zkSync Era architecture that targets ordinary retail users.
How is the current market performance of the ZK token?
The ZK token is currently quoted at about $0.01, down approximately 96% from its historical high of $0.3285 in June 2024. Based on the current token price, the zkSync cross-chain transaction fee (10 ZK per transaction) is about $0.1; at the historical high, the same fee was about $3.28.
