Aztec relaunches its zk.money privacy wallet — in alpha, capped at $2,500, and before a known critical bug is fixed

Aztec Labs has brought back zk.money, a self-custodial wallet for private stablecoin payments, roughly three years after pulling the original. The new version runs on Aztec Network — the company's privacy-focused Ethereum Layer 2 — and, unlike an ordinary Ethereum wallet, does not publish users' balances, payment amounts or counterparties on a public ledger, Aztec said. The relaunch was announced Tuesday, September 29, and reported the same day by The Block, CoinDesk and Decrypt.

The pitch is straightforward. "Onchain transactions between two individuals shouldn't mean publishing your financial history to the world," Aztec Labs CEO Joe Andrews said in a statement carried by both The Block and CoinDesk. "zk.money is a self-custodial crypto wallet where your financial history stays yours."

How it works

Instead of copying a long hexadecimal address, users claim a readable handle such as bob.zk.money and send or request funds by sharing a link, Aztec said. The handles are built on Ethereum Name Service technology, work with ENS-compatible apps, and let users choose who can interact with them. Funds can be sent from Ethereum-based exchanges straight to a handle.

The mechanics are more limited than the tagline suggests. Per CoinDesk, users deposit DAI, USDC or USDT from Ethereum, but USDC and USDT are converted to DAI on the way in, leaving DAI as the only currency used inside the wallet. Andrews told CoinDesk that Aztec chose DAI because it considers it "the most decentralized of the mass-market stablecoins used today on Ethereum," and that other assets could be added later.

Crucially, the privacy only applies once funds are inside Aztec Network. CoinDesk, citing Aztec's own documentation, reports that a deposit from Ethereum reveals the sender and the amount; only the recipient on Aztec stays private, and the deposit itself remains publicly traceable. Withdrawals back to Ethereum are likewise visible.

Because the wallet is non-custodial, Aztec Labs says it cannot spend, move or freeze user funds. But CoinDesk notes a "sealed server" co-signs operations inside zk.money — the documentation says that server cannot spend funds on its own — and that deposit and withdrawal addresses are screened against a sanctions policy.

The limits

This is an early "Alpha" release, and it is small. Per CoinDesk: every deposit, payment and withdrawal must be under $2,500, and all users share a single $50,000 daily deposit allowance that replenishes over time. The documentation frames the caps as a safeguard "while the system is new" and says raising them would require a new contract. Andrews said Aztec plans to lift them "as confidence grows and after a later version goes live."

Fees, per CoinDesk: 35 cents plus Ethereum gas per deposit, 20 cents per withdrawal. Users get 100 sponsored transactions a day, but payments stall if the contract covering network fees runs dry or can't cover the prevailing fee.

Access is via web or a local install now; a mobile app and DeFi integrations are slated for Q4, with partners unnamed "ahead of future announcements," Aztec told The Block.

Key facts

• Product: zk.money, self-custodial privacy wallet, relaunched on Aztec Network (a privacy-focused Ethereum L2). Announced Sept. 29, 2026. (The Block, CoinDesk)
• Original run: Launched 2021; shut down in 2023 per The Block, or 2024 per CoinDesk — the two disagree (see below). Aztec says it reached 75,000+ unique wallets and $100M+ in volume — figures from Aztec, not independently verified. (The Block, CoinDesk)
• Assets: Deposit DAI, USDC or USDT; USDC/USDT auto-converted to DAI. (CoinDesk)
• Alpha caps: Under $2,500 per deposit/payment/withdrawal; $50,000 shared daily deposit allowance. (CoinDesk)
• Fees: 35¢ + gas per deposit, 20¢ per withdrawal; 100 sponsored tx/day. (CoinDesk)
• Security: Software not fully audited; a critical flaw in the V5 proof system was disclosed in August, with a fix planned for V6. Andrews confirmed zk.money launches before that fix. (CoinDesk)
• Screening: Deposit/withdrawal addresses screened under a sanctions policy; a sealed server co-signs in-app operations. (CoinDesk)
• Funding: Aztec has raised $125M to date, including a $100M Series B from a16z crypto and Paradigm in 2022. (The Block)
• Governance: Aztec Network is overseen by the nonprofit Aztec Foundation; Aztec Labs builds products on top, using its Noir language. (The Block)

The real-world read

Strip the "your financial history stays yours" line and look at what actually ships.

A privacy product launching before a known critical bug is fixed. Per CoinDesk, contributors disclosed a critical flaw in Aztec's V5 proof system in August, with a fix slated for V6 — and Andrews confirmed zk.money will launch anyway. The stated mitigation is a separate system called Oxide that "checks payments for errors caused by bugs," with users able to migrate once V6 lands. CoinDesk notes the release doesn't spell out what safeguards apply to the wallet after that finding. For any product this is aggressive; for one whose entire value proposition is cryptographic privacy over people's money, shipping on unaudited software with a live critical proving bug is the fact the announcement doesn't lead with.

"Private" is doing a lot of work. By Aztec's own documentation, the on-ramp reveals the sender and amount, deposits stay publicly traceable, addresses are screened against a sanctions list, and a sealed server co-signs operations. CoinDesk floats the "business paying suppliers" use case — but with a $2,500 per-transaction ceiling and a $50,000 daily allowance shared across all users, that's not a business-payments tool yet. It's a demo with privacy in the middle and daylight at both ends.

The metrics come from the vendor. The 75,000 wallets and $100M in volume are Aztec's own figures for a product that ran years ago; neither outlet verified them independently. Treat them as marketing, not audited history.

The shutdown gets reframed. Andrews told The Block the original wasn't sunset because "private payments were a failed thesis" but because the infrastructure "did not yet exist." That's a reasonable engineering story — and also exactly what a founder relaunching the same product would say. Worth noting the two accounts don't even agree on when it closed: The Block says 2023, CoinDesk says 2024.

Distancing from June. The Block reports two older Aztec contracts were exploited in June; Aztec says they belonged to separate, long-shuttered products (its earlier Aztec Connect bridge) and that the new zk.money is unaffected. Plausible — but it's the company's characterization, not an independent post-mortem.

A coordinated rollout. All three reports landed the same day, two of them stamped 16:00 UTC, and CoinDesk's URL still carries an "embargo-12-et" tag — an Aztec-timed, embargoed launch. The news is real; the simultaneity is PR choreography, and the framing across pieces leans on Aztec's quotes.

Opinion, and whose

• Aztec Labs (Joe Andrews): that financial privacy is a right, that DAI is "the most decentralized of the mass-market stablecoins," and that the sub-$2,500 caps are temporary and will rise "as confidence grows." All are the vendor's positions, and the DAI ranking is an assertion, not a measured fact.
• Ethereum's roadmap / Vitalik Buterin: Ethereum's public roadmap calls for making privacy a "first-class property," and Buterin has warned about the risks of publicly traceable finance (The Block). Separately, Decrypt reports Buterin's view that the 2027 "Hegota" fork (spelled "Hegotá" by CoinDesk) is likely Ethereum's "last 'normal' fork" before a shift to recursive STARKs, formal verification and quantum-safety. CoinDesk notes that upgrade's 66 proposals include privacy changes that could let apps like zk.money handle approvals and fees with less outside help — a forecast about proposals still under consideration, not a shipped feature.

Sources

• The Block (Tier 2, secondary), "Aztec relaunches zk.money privacy wallet on its Ethereum Layer 2," Sept. 29 — relaunch details, Andrews interview on the shutdown/relaunch, June exploit context, funding history, ENS handles. Carried Aztec's own usage figures and CEO quotes; those are interested-party claims.
• CoinDesk (Tier 2, secondary), "Ethereum users get another way to pay privately as zk.money returns after three years," Sept. 29 — the mechanics: DAI conversion, transaction/daily caps, fees, sanctions screening, sealed co-signing server, and the unfixed V5 critical flaw and Oxide mitigation. Also carried Aztec quotes; URL indicates an embargoed, company-timed release.
• Decrypt (Tier 2, secondary), Sept. 29 — primarily a summary of Vitalik Buterin's "cryptographic world computer" post and the Hegota fork; only tangential to zk.money, used here for Ethereum's privacy roadmap context.

No independent audit, on-chain verification, or primary Aztec filing was available to confirm the usage figures or the security claims; all rest on the company's statements and its own documentation as relayed by the outlets above.

This is news reporting, not financial or security advice. Nothing here is a recommendation to use, buy or sell anything.