On November 5th, 2025, Zama, a cryptography company behind the Zama Confidential Blockchain Protocol, announced its strategic acquisition of KKRT Labs, a research and development firm focused on scaling blockchains using Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs). This move strengthens Zama's technical expertise in ZK-rollups and aims to deliver high-performance confidentiality to public blockchains like Ethereum and Solana.
KKRT Labs, also known as Kakarot, brings deep expertise in designing high-performance proving architectures and modular rollup systems for Ethereum-equivalent environments. Backed by investors including Vitalik Buterin, Starkware, Lambda Class, and Stake Capital, Kakarot is recognized as one of the strongest ZK-rollup teams in the ecosystem. The acquisition targets achieving over 10,000 confidential transactions per second on public chains, enabling applications such as confidential stablecoin payments, DeFi, and on-chain asset management.
Rand Hindi, CEO of Zama, stated, "KKRT Labs has assembled one of the best ZK-rollup teams in the world. Together, we will scale faster and reach new levels of performance." Vitalik Buterin, an investor in KKRT Labs, commented on Kakarot's role in advancing cryptographic technologies for Ethereum, while Eli Ben Sasson, co-founder of ZCash and CEO of StarkWare, praised the team's achievements in scaling blockchains. Clément Walter, co-founder of KKRT Labs, emphasized that joining Zama will help address confidentiality challenges in blockchain.
Zama, founded by Dr. Pascal Paillier and Dr. Rand Hindi, has raised $150 million at a $1.2 billion valuation and focuses on Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) solutions. The integration will retain KKRT's key team members and align roadmaps to minimize disruption, accelerating the development of scalable, confidential on-chain finance.
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