The 2025 Ethereum zk rollup battlefield: Which of the 11 major projects are the true winners

Ethereum, as the world’s largest smart contract platform, has long been plagued by high transaction fees and network congestion. When the mainnet struggles to handle high concurrency transactions, the demand for scaling solutions grows stronger. At this critical moment, Layer 2 network technologies have emerged, among which Ethereum’s zk rollup solution has become the most关注ed scaling technology in the market due to its unique security and efficiency advantages.

Why zk rollup Became Ethereum’s Savior

There are various scaling solutions in the Ethereum Layer 2 ecosystem, but why does zk rollup stand out? This is inseparable from its adoption of zero-knowledge proof technology.

The working principle of zk rollup is relatively straightforward: hundreds of off-chain transactions are bundled into a concise cryptographic proof, which can prove the validity of this batch of transactions to the mainnet without revealing transaction details. This approach ensures security while significantly compressing on-chain data, enabling transaction throughput to increase dozens of times and reducing fees to a fraction.

Compared to optimistic rollups, zk rollup does not rely on the “trust, then verify” model. It uses zero-knowledge proofs with three core features—integrity, soundness, and zero-knowledge—which means each transaction is mathematically verified, eliminating dispute period risks. This is a decisive advantage for high-frequency trading applications requiring instant certainty.

zk rollup Technical Architecture: Off-Chain Processing, On-Chain Verification

Understanding how zk rollup works requires breaking down its four key steps:

Step 1: Off-Chain Virtual Machine Processing — Users’ transactions are not executed on the Ethereum mainnet but are processed in parallel virtual machines in batches. This design greatly reduces computational costs, leading to a qualitative leap in transaction speed and throughput.

Step 2: Zero-Knowledge Proof Generation — The platform generates a cryptographic proof for this batch of off-chain transactions. The proof process involves complex mathematical computations, but the final proof file is remarkably small.

Step 3: On-Chain Submission and Verification — This proof is submitted to a smart contract on the Ethereum mainnet, where verifiers validate its validity on-chain. The entire verification process takes only seconds.

Step 4: Final Transaction Confirmation — Once verified, the transaction status is recorded on-chain, and user asset security is guaranteed by Ethereum’s consensus mechanism.

The elegance of this architecture lies in its balance: the main chain only needs to store minimal data and verify the final proof, without re-executing transactions, thus ensuring both Ethereum’s scalability and security.

11 zk rollup Projects In-Depth Comparison

First Tier: Privacy and Cross-Chain Explorers

Manta Network (Circulating Market Cap $33.84M)

After launching its testnet in September 2023, Manta quickly became a hot topic. Its core selling point is providing complete privacy for DeFi transactions through zk-SNARK technology. Without any information leakage, users can perform asset transfers and trade exchanges, which is especially valuable in the current transparent blockchain world.

Its main attraction is that Manta is building privacy infrastructure for DeFi ecosystems across multiple blockchains, aiming to become a cross-ecosystem privacy solution layer.

ZetaChain (Circulating Market Cap $80.86M)

ZetaChain took a different approach: focusing on cross-chain interoperability. It innovated a “Universal Bridge” technology based on zk-SNARKs, capable of verifying cross-chain transactions without exposing private keys. This allows dApps on different blockchains to seamlessly call each other’s assets and data.

For developers wanting to support multi-chain ecosystems, ZetaChain’s “ZetaML” off-chain smart contract execution方案 offers new possibilities.

Second Tier: Generality and Developer Friendliness Competition

zkSync Era (Total Value Locked $555 million)

Developed by Matter Labs, zkSync Era has remained at the forefront of Ethereum Layer 2 since its launch. Its secret to success is simple: full EVM compatibility. Developers can deploy Ethereum smart contracts directly to zkSync Era without rewriting code.

This compatibility creates a huge network effect. Developer ecosystems expand rapidly, with increasing numbers of applications and locked assets.

Polygon zkEVM (Total Value Locked $115 million)

As part of the Polygon ecosystem, zkEVM inherits Polygon’s ecosystem advantages. It also offers an EVM-compatible zk rollup方案, backed by Polygon’s cross-chain ecosystem, giving it natural interoperability advantages. Teams already deploying applications on Polygon can migrate to zkEVM at relatively low cost.

Linea (Circulating Market Cap $107.26M)

Launched in August 2023, Linea is driven by the Ethereum Foundation’s backing and has attracted significant institutional attention. Its features include leading transaction throughput among similar products and faster transaction confirmation speeds.

Its native token LINEA has announced an airdrop plan, though specific use cases are not yet disclosed, market expectations for its future applications are high.

Third Tier: Differentiated Innovators

Starknet (Circulating Market Cap $396.03M)

Starknet adopts a different zero-knowledge proof scheme—STARKs (Scalable Transparent ARguments of Knowledge). Although this choice seems niche, it offers two major advantages: trustless setup and quantum resistance.

As a veteran Layer 2 launched in February 2022, Starknet has accumulated a substantial developer and user base. Its native token STRK is used for paying network fees, governance participation, and staking.

Scroll (Total Value Locked $63.46 million)

Scroll’s positioning is clear: a high-throughput, low-latency zk rollup friendly to DeFi. It uses zk-SNARKs to compress transactions and emphasizes full compatibility with the Ethereum Virtual Machine.

Currently, Scroll has not launched a native token, but its optimization of transaction fees and speed has shown initial results, making it a choice for high-frequency traders.

Aztec Protocol

Aztec innovatively proposes a “hybrid public-private” zk rollup model. Users can choose to execute contract logic publicly or privately; privacy is optional, not mandatory.

Its core tool, Noir, is a programming language for writing zero-knowledge circuits, significantly lowering the barrier for developers to use zk technology. The protocol plans to achieve full decentralization upon mainnet launch.

Fourth Tier: Application Layer Innovation

ZKFair

ZKFair focuses on solving the “front-running” problem faced by decentralized exchanges. Using zk rollup technology, it guarantees transaction order fairness, preventing miners or verifiers from manipulating transaction flow.

This unique selling point precisely meets the needs of users with high requirements for transaction integrity.

DeGate V1 (Token Market Cap $21.14 million)

DeGate positions itself as a “decentralized exchange friendly to large-volume trading.” Built on zk rollup, it provides a low-slippage, low-fee environment for bulk transactions. DG tokens are used for governance, staking, and fee payments.

The Final Innovator

Taiko (Testnet launching in January 2024)

Taiko introduces the latest innovation in zk rollup: a Layer 1-based ordering mechanism. Unlike other rollups relying on centralized sequencers, Taiko’s ordering is driven by the underlying Layer 1 blockchain, fundamentally solving the risks of censorship and single points of failure associated with centralized sequencers.

The company has raised $37 million in two funding rounds, and its alpha testnet has attracted many developers.

Technical Challenges and Practical Dilemmas

Although zk rollup solutions sound perfect, they still face multiple bottlenecks in the real world:

Cryptographic Complexity — Implementing and maintaining zk rollup requires deep cryptographic expertise, limiting the number of participants and increasing code audit costs.

Application Scenario Limitations — Certain types of transactions and contract logic are less efficient on zk rollup than on the main chain, which limits its applicability.

Proof Generation Cost — While verification proofs are fast, generating proofs requires substantial computational resources, potentially becoming an operational bottleneck.

User Education and Adoption — New technologies always take time to gain market acceptance; zk rollup also needs user trust and infrastructure support for large-scale adoption.

Fragmented Liquidity — Each zk rollup project has independent liquidity pools, with user assets dispersed across multiple chains, and cross-chain interaction costs and risks still exist.

Future Directions of the zk rollup Ecosystem

Despite challenges, the development direction of the zk rollup ecosystem is already clear:

Ongoing research and development are addressing technical complexity. The emergence of new proof systems accelerates proof generation speed, and multiple projects are exploring modular zk rollup architectures for better compatibility.

Cross-chain liquidity aggregation solutions are emerging, and standardized bridging protocols are advancing, which will help alleviate liquidity fragmentation.

Collaboration and integration are key to ecosystem development. The Ethereum Foundation is increasing support for Layer 2 solutions, and interoperability cooperation among major zk rollup projects is deepening. These developments suggest that zk rollup will evolve from isolated entities into an organic ecosystem whole.

Conclusion

zk rollup is not just a scaling technology; it represents the evolution of blockchain towards higher efficiency and security. By processing transactions off-chain efficiently and verifying them on-chain securely, zk rollup is building a high-throughput, low-cost, and secure new layer for Ethereum and the entire blockchain ecosystem.

The mature application of this technology is expected to clear technical barriers for large-scale blockchain adoption, empower more use cases, and redefine the future of finance and digital life.