Zilliqa

Market position

Zilliqa originated at the National University of Singapore and was among the first Singapore-based blockchain startups to reach a billion-dollar market capitalisation, doing so in May 2018, less than a year after its founding. It has been described as a scalable smart contract platform addressing blockchain congestion through sharding, with its sharding and Scilla work grounded in peer-reviewed academic research.

The company positions its academic origins as a differentiator: its sharding design and the Scilla smart contract language derive from peer-reviewed research vetted by computer science researchers, with Chief Scientific Advisor Prateek Saxena a co-author of "A Secure Sharding Protocol For Open Blockchains." Operationally, it differentiates on running compliance checks before settlement rather than reconciling afterwards, on identity-bound gating of every state transition, and on sovereign infrastructure: a settlement network across European financial hubs, state-backed by Telecom Liechtenstein, where LTIN issues verifiable identity and Zilliqa enforces it before settlement, described as having no CLOUD Act exposure.

Technology

A public, EVM-compatible layer-1 blockchain. The original protocol uses a sharded design with network and transaction sharding, Ethash proof-of-work for joining the network (with GPU support via OpenCL and CUDA), pBFT consensus, EC-Schnorr signatures, view change and node recovery mechanisms, a gossip broadcast protocol, and a smart contract layer executed via the Scilla language; the client is built from source on Ubuntu with cmake and vcpkg. Zilliqa 2.0 introduced proof-of-stake and EVM compatibility, preceded by the Aventurine proto-mainnet. Additional components include X-Bridge for cross-chain transfers (which replaced ZilBridge after Poly Network's closure) and zUSDC, a native USDC representation. The Mediation Layer applies identity-bound policy checks and verifiable credentials on-chain before state transitions.

Go-to-market

Two stated entry points: developers building credentialed applications on Zilliqa's infrastructure, and ZIL holders staking through standard or liquid staking to participate in network economics. The company publishes documentation and developer portals, standardised community progress updates, and pursues partner alignment across verticals; ecosystem integrations have included ElizaOS support for the Zilliqa blockchain, the GOAT framework for AI agents, and a partnership with Request Finance.

Institutional finance participants and regulated flows requiring compliance checks before settlement, alongside developers building credentialed applications and token holders staking ZIL to participate in network economics.

Geography

Headquartered in Singapore, where the company originated at the National University of Singapore. It describes a settlement network spanning European financial hubs, with state backing from Telecom Liechtenstein and a partner ecosystem hosted at ltin.li.

History

Founded out of research at the National University of Singapore, Zilliqa released the design document for its Scilla smart contract language in December 2017 and reached a billion-dollar market capitalisation in May 2018, under a year after founding. The mainnet client reached versions such as Zilliqa v9.2.3 with Scilla v0.13.3. In December 2024 the Aventurine proto-mainnet was deployed as a step toward Zilliqa 2.0, and ZilBridge was migrated to X-Bridge on 23 December 2024 following the closure of Poly Network. On 6 February 2025 an exploit was identified on X-Bridge stemming from a vulnerability in a recently introduced token manager contract. Following the departure of CEO Matt Dyer, Alexander Zahnd was appointed interim CEO. The Zilliqa 2.0 mainnet subsequently launched, with stakers required to migrate from the legacy Zillion staking platform. After a deliberately quieter period focused on strategic clarity, the company published a strategic roadmap developed in H2 2025 and repositioned around regulatory-ready, institutionally aligned infrastructure and the Mediation Layer. The original zq1 code repository was archived in August 2025.

Risks & controversies

On 6 February 2025 Zilliqa identified an exploit on X-Bridge that leveraged a vulnerability in one of the platform's recently introduced token manager contracts. The company has also experienced leadership turnover, with CEO Matt Dyer departing and Alexander Zahnd appointed interim CEO. Its predecessor bridge, ZilBridge, had to be migrated after the closure of Poly Network, and the original zq1 protocol repository was archived in August 2025.