ZKsync’s native ZK token witnessed a sharp 50% price surge on Saturday, climbing from $0.03 to $0.045 within hours after Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin publicly endorsed the project on X (formerly Twitter).
Buterin’s comment came in response to a ZKsync post that described Ethereum as “incorruptible,” a statement that resonated strongly across the crypto community.
The endorsement immediately reignited investor enthusiasm around ZKsync, the Layer-2 scaling solution developed by Matter Labs and its latest infrastructure enhancement, the Atlas upgrade.
Atlas Upgrade: A Leap Toward Institutional-Grade Infrastructure
ZKsync’s Atlas upgrade marks a significant milestone in the project’s evolution. It introduces a new high-performance sequencer capable of processing up to 30,000 transactions per second (TPS) while maintaining full Ethereum compatibility.
One of the most notable innovations is Airbender, a system designed for instant confirmations and rapid cross-chain settlement. Together, these advancements position ZKsync as a robust platform for enterprises, institutions and real-world asset (RWA) tokenisation, a growing sector in blockchain finance.
According to Matter Labs, the Atlas upgrade isn’t just about scaling numbers. It’s about creating an architecture that seamlessly merges privacy, interoperability and liquidity, enabling financial systems to operate on Ethereum with greater efficiency and lower latency.
Revolutionising Liquidity: Ethereum as the Capital Hub
Before Atlas, most Layer-2 (L2) ecosystems were forced to create independent liquidity hubs, isolated pools of capital that fragmented liquidity across rollups such as Arbitrum, Base and ZKsync Era itself.
This approach often led to inefficiencies and required replication of liquidity for each L2 environment.
Atlas completely reverses this model. It allows chains built on ZKsync’s ZK Stack to tap directly into Ethereum’s liquidity in real time.
For the first time, L2s can rely on Ethereum itself as a real-time liquidity hub for institutional capital. This innovation effectively transforms Ethereum into the central settlement layer for all ZKsync-based chains, unlocking cross-chain interoperability at near-instant speeds, reportedly as fast as one second.
Eliminating the Liquidity Moat Between L1 and L2
The Atlas upgrade bridges a long-standing gap between Layer-1 (L1) Ethereum and its Layer-2 extensions. With L2-to-L2 interop at around one second and L1-to-L2 latency dropping below the finality time of an Ethereum block, institutional capital can now move seamlessly across layers without waiting for lengthy settlement times.
This advancement effectively eliminates the “liquidity moat” that previously separated Ethereum and its L2 ecosystems.
For institutional players handling large-scale asset settlements or cross-border payments, this represents a transformative step toward using Ethereum as a unified financial backbone.
Buterin’s Endorsement: A Signal for the Future of ZK Tech
Vitalik Buterin’s recognition of ZKsync’s work comes amid rising competition among Layer-2 networks leveraging zero-knowledge (ZK) rollup technology.
In his comment, Buterin praised the team for doing “a lot of underrated and valuable work” for the Ethereum ecosystem, highlighting the importance of projects focused on scalability, privacy and interoperability.
Analysts note that such endorsements from Ethereum’s co-founder often act as strong sentiment drivers in the market and this instance was no exception.
The ZK token’s immediate 50% rally underscores investor confidence in ZKsync’s long-term role within Ethereum’s evolving Layer-2 landscape.
Looking Ahead: Institutional Adoption on the Horizon
With Atlas, ZKsync is positioning itself as the go-to Layer-2 solution for institutional-grade finance. Its architecture enables real-time settlement, decentralised liquidity access and compliance-ready frameworks, making it appealing to enterprises exploring blockchain integration.
As Ethereum cements its position as the global liquidity hub and ZKsync builds scalable, interconnected chains around it, the ZK token’s recent rally could mark the beginning of a broader revaluation of ZK-based ecosystems within the crypto sector.
