Aztec Labs is relaunching zk.money, a self-custodial wallet that uses the Aztec Network to conceal payment amounts, balances and recipients while allowing transfers through readable names or links. According to reports from CoinDesk, the wallet allows users to deposit DAI, USDC or USDT from Ethereum, though USDC and USDT are converted to DAI, and deposits remain publicly traceable even as subsequent activity is private. The wallet is designed to be self-custodial, meaning its operators cannot spend or freeze the funds held in it. In a September 29 announcement, Aztec Labs confirmed that users can access the relaunched wallet through the zk.money website or a frontend run on their own device, with a mobile app planned for the future. As CEO Joe Andrews stated, "Onchain transactions between two individuals shouldn't mean publishing your financial history to the world." For this relaunch, Andrews told Gizmodo that "On the assets: it's actually stablecoins from the beginning," with the specific stablecoin being DAI for its more decentralized nature compared to USDC and USDT.
On Ethereum, anyone who knows a person's wallet address can see its balance and trace past transfers, potentially exposing business payments to suppliers or individual spending history. As reported by CoinDesk, zk.money moves payments onto the Aztec Network, which is connected to Ethereum but hides balances, amounts and the people involved in transfers. Users can request payments by sharing links or send money to readable names such as bob.zk.money, rather than copying long wallet addresses. The early Alpha release caps each deposit, payment and withdrawal below $2,500, with all users sharing a $50,000 daily deposit allowance that replenishes over time. According to the latest announcement, users control who can interact with their tags, and the wallet uses Ethereum Name Service (ENS) technology that resolves wherever ENS CCIP is supported. A deposit costs 35 cents plus Ethereum fees, and a withdrawal costs 20 cents, with users receiving 100 sponsored transactions a day inside zk.money. The wallet's technical docs specify that the daily deposit ceiling is $50,000 across the whole system, not per account, with limits written into the portal contract that would require a new portal and user migration to raise them.
According to CoinDesk reports, the wallet screens Ethereum addresses used for deposits and withdrawals against a sanctions policy, while a sealed server co-signs operations inside zk.money. However, Aztec's documentation warns that its software has not been fully audited and that critical bugs are possible. Contributors disclosed a critical flaw in its V5 proof system in August and said a fix was planned for V6. The zk.money release does not specify what safeguards apply to the relaunched wallet following this finding. The wallet uses self-custodial wallets and immutable smart contracts, with no privileged administrator role that can move or freeze a user's funds, ensuring that control of funds rests with the wallet holder after transfers from exchange accounts. Andrews noted that the limits are in place as the system is new and experimental cryptography, with plans to raise them as confidence grows and after a later version goes live.
The legal entity named in zk.money's terms and conditions is Obsidion Labs Limited, not Aztec Labs, with the wallet's terms specifically stating that Obsidion is not a party to transfers and does not operate or profit from relayers. The wallet's terms require users to be 18 years old and prohibit anyone located or domiciled in the United Kingdom or New York, along with the usual sanctioned countries. As reported by Gizmodo, whether a wallet like this is allowed to exist does not appear to be a settled question, at least in the United States. The design effectively tries to keep the builder off the money-transmission hook while still selling anonymous payments, though these sorts of restrictions on crypto apps are often trivially circumvented via VPN usage. The original version of zk.money drew more than 75,000 unique wallets and more than $100 million in volume in its first year, according to the company's FAQ. However, as noted in recent analysis, this historical figure is not evidence of current adoption, with the relaunch giving ETH a fresh privacy catalyst but requiring sustained usage to translate into actual demand for Ethereum settlement and gas.
