Aztec Labs has relaunched zk.money, bringing back its private payments wallet after a three-year absence and returning one of the earliest brand names in Ethereum privacy to an active product with a new network underneath it.
The company announced the relaunch on Sep. 29, saying users can access the wallet through the zk.money website or through a frontend run on their own device. A mobile app is planned, and the website is already open for users to claim a personal handle.
## What the new zk.money actually does
According to Aztec Labs, the relaunched wallet keeps balances, transfer amounts, and the parties to a transaction off the public ledger. On Ethereum’s base layer, anyone can look up an address and see its full history and holdings. zk.money is built to give account holders a way to pay and get paid without publishing those details.
“Onchain transactions between two individuals shouldn’t mean publishing your financial history to the world,” Joe Andrews, CEO of Aztec Labs, said in the announcement. He described zk.money as a wallet where users retain control of their financial history.
The wallet replaces long hexadecimal Ethereum addresses with readable names such as bob.zk.money. Users can send or request funds by sharing a link, and the tags are built on Ethereum Name Service technology that resolves wherever ENS CCIP is supported. Users also control who can interact with their tag, the company said.
Aztec Labs added that people can send funds to zk.money tags directly from exchanges on Ethereum, though the announcement did not name participating exchanges or specify which assets are supported. For a user holding crypto on an exchange, the feature offers a route into a private wallet if their platform supports sending to the tag format.
## Self-custody by design
The company emphasized that zk.money uses self-custodial wallets and immutable smart contracts, with no privileged administrator role that can move or freeze user funds. The distinction matters for anyone transferring assets from an exchange: once the transfer is complete, control of the funds rests entirely with the wallet holder.
The release describes future connections with Ethereum decentralized finance protocols, but no specific integration was announced. For now, the stated payment options are payment links, zk.money tags, and transfers from Ethereum exchanges.
## A brand with history
The original zk.money launched in 2021 and served more than 75,000 unique wallets, processing roughly 100 million USD in transaction volume before Aztec Labs retired it in 2023 to focus on building a general-purpose private network. The returning wallet runs on that network — the privacy-focused Aztec Network, an Ethereum layer-2 — rather than the infrastructure behind the original product.
That underlying network has been under active development this year. In July, Aztec shipped its v5 alpha release, which introduced a system allowing applications to use private and public data within the same layer-2 environment. The design performs private computations on a user’s device and submits cryptographic proofs for verification without revealing the underlying transaction details, opening the door to private smart contracts that can still interact with public blockchain activity.
In May, the company also acquired ZKPassport’s identity tools and committed to keeping the app and code open source. ZKPassport lets users prove selected details from an identity document without disclosing the entire document, and its tools were used for sanctions checks during Aztec’s December 2025 token sale. No ZKPassport feature has been announced in the relaunched wallet.
## Old contracts, old incidents
The relaunch follows a summer of security investigations involving deprecated Aztec products. In June, Aztec Labs investigated a roughly 2 million USD transfer from an immutable contract tied to a discontinued payments product launched in 2021. The Aztec Foundation said at the time that the affected product had no links to the current network’s smart contracts or the AZTEC token, and Aztec Labs said it held no administrator keys for the old system and could not pause or upgrade it.
Days earlier, an attacker drained about 2.1 million USD from Aztec Connect, a separate retired product. Aztec Labs said users and assets on the current network were unaffected, and both exploited contracts belonged to deprecated products with no connection to the network that now hosts zk.money.
For the new wallet, the absence of a privileged administrator is presented as a core feature rather than a limitation. The trade-off is the same one that defines self-custody everywhere: the user is the only line of defense for their funds.
## Market context
The relaunch lands amid steady if unspectacular market conditions. At the time of writing, Bitcoin trades near 83,614 USD, Ethereum near 2,689 USD, and Solana near 119 USD, per Binance spot data. Ethereum layer-2 activity has increasingly split between generalized rollups competing on fees and purpose-built networks like Aztec competing on privacy — and zk.money is the company’s clearest attempt yet to put a consumer-facing product on that second track.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice.
the original did 75k wallets before they shelved it. brand recognition alone gets this relaunch further than a no-name privacy wallet would
send to a tag straight from an exchange is the detail that decides adoption. if its two small venues this stays a niche wallet
coinbase alone would change everything here. agree its all down to which venues actually wire up tag withdrawals
no admin keys and immutable contracts is the whole pitch for me. original zk.money did 100M in volume back in 2021 before they killed it, glad the name is back
came back with no admin keys this time which is the real difference. the 2021 version still had training wheels
same, self custody with no privileged role to freeze funds is rare. just wish they named which exchanges actually support sending to the tags
The unnamed exchange list is doing a lot of work here. If it turns out to be two small venues, direct tag withdrawals are a niche feature and not real adoption.
fair on the venues but even if its two small exchanges, withdrawing straight to a readable tag is a ux win no matter who lists it first
readable tags withdrawing straight from a venue is the part regulators will hate the most, which means its the best feature
no admin keys is the headline honestly. means nobody can freeze or pull funds even if aztec gets pressured
swapping hex addresses for real names while keeping amounts hidden, thats the actual trick here. joe andrews quote about financial history holds up
No admin keys cuts both ways. There is no support desk if you fumble your handle. That is the price of real self custody.
Fair point, but the same tradeoff exists with any self custody wallet. At least a lost handle costs you the name and not the funds.
a support desk with admin keys is just a multisig with extra steps. losing a handle and keeping the funds is the right trade
claiming a bob.zk.money style handle now. if ENS CCIP resolves these tags everywhere this is the first readable privacy address that might actually catch on
grabbed a handle too lol. feels like 2021 ENS squatting all over again
Claimed my handle already. Readable names on a private wallet was the missing piece from the first zk.money back in the day.
the Joe Andrews quote about not publishing your financial history is right, but regulators have been circling privacy tools since Tornado Cash. curious how frictionless the exchange on-ramps stay
the tornado cash precedent is exactly why the no admin keys design matters now. nothing to sanction or freeze if the pressure comes
unless they go after the frontend domains instead, like they did with tornado cash web hosts. no admin keys doesnt save the ux if the site gets seized
frontend seizure only kills the default url tho, they said you can run the frontend on your own device. that plus no admin keys is about as seizure resistant as this gets in 2026
thats why the self hosted frontend matters more than people realize. run it on your own device and a domain seizure is a nothingburger, your keys and your ui both stay yours
claimed three handles the minute it opened lol. if tags resolve anywhere ENS CCIP works the squatting market is back and bob.zk.money gonna cost someone
original zk.money shut down right when i finally understood how it worked lol. claimed my handle this time before the mobile app even ships
three years off and they come back right as privacy wallets are getting squeezed everywhere else. timing is either great or cursed