Ethereum Layer 2 scaling solution ZKsync has announced an ambitious 2026 roadmap focused on aggressive expansion into real-world, institutional use cases. Matter Labs Co-founder and CEO Alex Gluchowski detailed the plan on X, prioritizing the adoption by banks, asset managers, and large enterprises.
The strategy is built on four "non-negotiable" standards for ZKsync's products: privacy by default, deterministic control, verifiable risk management, and native connectivity to global markets. Gluchowski emphasized that these principles form the foundation of what he calls "Incorruptible Financial Infrastructure," where trust is anchored in cryptography rather than human intermediaries.
A core pillar of the 2026 plan is the expansion of Prividium, ZKsync's privacy-focused blockchain platform, into an established tool for financial institutions. The platform is designed to integrate privacy directly into enterprise workflows for access management, transaction approvals, reporting, and auditing.
Furthermore, the ZK Stack toolkit will evolve into a one-stop shop for building application-specific blockchains (appchains) with easy access to liquidity and shared services. This follows the October 2025 rollout of the Atlas upgrade, which improved transaction speed and flexibility for institutional users.
Gluchowski also highlighted Airbender, ZKsync's settlement proving engine, with the goal of it becoming a universal standard for zero-knowledge virtual machines. He stated that enterprise adoption has been blocked not just by regulation, but by missing infrastructure, a block ZKsync aims to remove.
"2026 is the year ZKsync moves from foundational deployments to visible scale," Gluchowski wrote. "We expect multiple regulated financial institutions, market infrastructure providers, and large enterprises to launch production systems on ZKsync, serving end users measured in the tens of millions rather than thousands."
