The first layer-2 ZK chain other than ZKsync Era, Cronos zkEVM, has gone live on mainnet, according to an announcement by Cronos Labs . More than 20 launch partners, including Cronos Labs, Matter Labs (one of the contributors of ZKsync), Crypto.com, VVS Finance, Fulcrom Finance, and Veno Finance, have joined together to launch the new network.

First Third-party ZK chain

Built on Ethereum and driven by ZKsync technology, Cronos zkEVM is a layer-2 blockchain. Since its introduction in December 2023 , its testnet has processed millions of transactions using over 3 million unique addresses. At this time, the network is on mainnet.

Along with Cronos EVM and Cronos POS, the Cronos zkEVM blockchain will exist. These three blockchains have a combined user assets of over $6 billion and have securely processed over 150 million transactions involving over 1 million users. With this new network, Cronos may now participate in the rapidly developing ecosystem of Ethereum layer-2 networks.

Although the gas token for Cronos zkEVM is $zkCRO, a liquid staked form of $CRO (Cronos), users are able to pay transaction fees with a variety of tokens or allow gasless transactions thanks to account abstraction.

Ken Timsit from Cronos Labs, commented:

“The Cronos team has a track record of leveraging the best blockchain technology to create compelling use cases, as well as contributing back to these open-source projects. Through the launch of Cronos zkEVM and our integration with ZKsync, we would like to help to realize the long term vision of Ethereum on a path towards infinite scalability and mainstream adoption.”

Anthony Rose, Chief Technology Officer at Matter Labs, commented:

“The ZKsync v24 protocol upgrade, deployed to mainnet back in June, was a major step forward for the ZKsync network. This upgrade paved the way for ZK Chains to join the Elastic Chain ecosystem. The Cronos team is extremely strong, and they have a proven track record in delivering technologies that people want to use. It has been a really rewarding collaboration, and I’m really excited that they’re hitting such a consequential milestone and have also done so as the first ZK Chain after Era to be live. I’m looking forward to the continued innovation as the broader network continues to mature.”

With an addressable user base of more than 100 million individuals, Cronos zkEVM takes use of the active user and developer ecosystem of the Cronos project, which is known as #CROFam. Many new launch partners have joined the ranks of the prominent Cronos app developers who have already declared their intention to join the new chain.

End-suers are enticed by the triple yield value proposition offered by Cronos’ DeFi ecosystem. Investors can put their crypto assets to work and earn three types of yield at the same time: the annual percentage rate (APR) of liquid staked cryptocurrencies like zkCRO, vETH, and vUSD; the yield produced by decentralized applications (DeFi); and the loyalty points users earn by completing ecosystem quests, which can be used to unlock additional rewards through the Pioneer Program.

A pre-launch deposit program dubbed Cronos zkEVM Passage received 100 million CRO in deposits, and thousands of early adopters have already acquired $zkCRO.

One component of Cronos zkEVM is a native Ethereum bridge. This bridge is shared with Era and other ZK chains and is secured by Ethereum smart contracts. Users who have relied on third-party controlled bridges to move cryptocurrency across layer-1 or layer-2 networks may now rest easy thanks to the improved security of this L1 <> L2 bridge, which radically changes the game.

Launch Partners

With the launch of Cronos zkEVM’s mainnet, dozens of launch partners have indicated their intentions to deploy their products on the network in the next weeks. Some of the supported self-custodial wallets include MetaMask, Rabby, and Crypto.com DeFi Wallet.

Cronos Labs and the technical teams at Crypto.com, VVS Finance, Fulcrom Finance, Veno Finance, and Matter Labs are among the launch partners that are core contributors to the network’s development.
H2 Finance, Fulcrom Finance, Ebisu’s Bay, Puush.fun, Wolfswap, Zerolend, Crolon Mars, Minted, Amply Finance, Securd, Reax, Cronos Safe, and Cronos Connect are among the decentralized apps being launched in the DeFi, NFT, and gaming area.

Developer tools platforms including NFTs2Me, Pyth, Band Protocol, Goldsky, Innerworks, Zyfi, and Cronos Explorer can be leveraged by application developers.

Cronos zkEVM offers an L1 <> L2 bridge with Ethereum for user onramp and offramp, and one of the top custodial exchanges in the world, Crypto.com, will support it. More third-party bridges, such as XY Finance, deBridge, RhinoFi, and others, will soon support it.

Pioneer Program

Loyalty programs like the Cronos zkEVM Pioneer Program ( https://zkevm.cronos.org/missions ) let users to earn points for doing eligible actions on the network, and then use those points to unlock rewards from participating applications.

The Cronos zkEVM Pioneer Program website has detailed specific quests, such as sending transactions, bridging funds, and utilizing eligible dApps. Users will be able to progressively claim the participating cryptocurrencies at the conclusion of the season when they see the potential worth of their points in each.

There will be a substantial prize pool for the Pioneer program. Included in these are over 5 million ZK tokens that Cronos zkEVM has already collected in the ZK Nation airdrop. The tokens of the participating projects and further token contributions to zkCRO will be disclosed at a later date.

What’s Next

The alpha mainnet phase of Cronos zkEVM is anticipated to conclude in September 2024. The network’s technical team will decide whether to enter beta after collecting user and developer input and monitoring the network’s performance throughout alpha.

Cronos’ progress towards scalability and widespread acceptance has reached a major milestone with the launch of Cronos zkEVM mainnet. By realizing Ethereum’s goal of infinite horizontal scalability via layered networks, it is beneficial to both the ZK chain and Ethereum ecosystems as a whole.