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ZKsync developer Matter Labs has outlined a security-hardening program for chains running its EraVM execution environment, which will be retired within six months, according to a September 4 announcement on the project blog. The company said funds held in ordinary externally owned accounts require no action, while assets in smart contracts will need steps and dates that will be published in the coming weeks.

Five Security Measures The post lists five changes. ZKsync recommends that public EraVM chains raise their execution delay from three hours to 24 hours, giving teams more time to detect and respond to an exploit before finalization, with an onchain proposal expected in the coming days. It is also working with every active EraVM chain to run an independent second node that confirms each executed batch, so an attacker would need to compromise two separately hosted infrastructures at once.

Matter Labs will publish covered Era protocol code three months after an upgrade ships, instead of immediately, to avoid handing attackers an advantage on frozen code, while independent auditors keep continuous access. On 24 August the Token Assembly approved GAP-5, which renames Emergency Upgrades to Instant Upgrades and requires a notice on the ZK Nation forums after each one. The company is also developing EraBender, an Airbender-based prover that would run alongside Boojum, so a flaw would have to exist in two independently built proving systems.

Why EraVM Is Retiring The company said artificial intelligence has changed the threat landscape, and that the public, permissionless nature of blockchains makes them attractive targets for autonomous exploit discovery. ZKsync introduced EraVM in 2023 as the first production zkEVM, but its successor, the Atlas upgrade, runs EVM natively and is where new protocol development will take place.

EraVM chains will keep settling value through the transition, but new protocol capabilities will ship on Atlas. The retirement does not apply to chains already running Atlas, and permissioned chains such as GRVT will communicate steps to their users directly.

What Comes Next ZKsync framed the work as ongoing rather than one-time, adding new monitoring layers, internal security reviews, and tooling to assert safety properties. The company said technical details may be temporarily withheld where disclosure creates a material security risk. The move builds on the project’s earlier protocol upgrade as it consolidates development around Atlas.

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REAL launches a confidential execution layer using ZKsync's Prividium tech, letting banks and funds manage tokenized assets onchain with privacy controls and Ethereum settlement.

REAL, a blockchain infrastructure provider focused on tokenized real-world assets, has rolled out a confidential execution layer aimed at regulated financial firms that want to operate onchain without broadcasting every move.

The new layer runs parallel to REAL's public Layer 1 network and uses ZKsync's Prividium technology, which gives banks, asset managers, and funds privacy controls over positions, allocations, and counterparty data. Settlement still happens on Ethereum, so institutions retain access to public liquidity even while keeping sensitive activity off the open network.

For years, regulated firms have faced a structural tradeoff. Public blockchains offer global reach, near-instant settlement, and composability, but they also expose treasury strategies, portfolio positions, and trading relationships to anyone watching the chain. That visibility has kept many of the largest potential participants out of the tokenized real-world asset market, even as issuance volumes climbed.

REAL is positioning the confidential layer as a direct response to that gap. The architecture lets firms keep privacy and public settlement together, with the confidential chain handling sensitive activity while the public chain provides access to onchain liquidity.

"Institutions shouldn't have to choose between public liquidity and operational privacy. We're building infrastructure that delivers both," said Ivo Georgiev, CEO of Real Finance. 

The company's view is that issuance volumes alone will not define the next phase of tokenization. What matters is whether institutions can run their daily operations on these systems.

The new layer is designed around workflows where confidentiality is a baseline requirement: wealth and asset management mandates, balance sheet operations, tokenized deposit structures, and selective disclosure to auditors, compliance officers, and regulators when a review calls for it. Firms still get blockchain-native settlement and distribution, but their portfolio activity does not sit in plain view.

The release extends REAL's broader pitch around the lifecycle of tokenized real-world assets, which spans issuance, risk assessment, insurance, trading, and institutional execution under one compliance-aware architecture. The company has been building toward an environment where regulated capital can move onchain without forcing operators to rebuild reporting and oversight processes from scratch.

"This is about giving institutions a practical path into onchain finance," Georgiev added. "Real-world assets onchain require infrastructure that reflects how regulated finance actually operates. That's what we're building."

Tokenized real-world assets have drawn growing interest from major banks, asset managers, and other regulated firms over the past two years. The pitch is straightforward: blockchains can move money and assets faster and at lower cost than legacy rails. The friction has come from infrastructure that does not match how institutional desks actually operate, especially around confidentiality of positions and counterparties.

REAL is built on Cosmos Tendermint and uses a dual-validator model that includes both technical validators and business validators such as tokenizers, risk scorers, insurers, and credit agencies. Prividium, the underlying privacy infrastructure for the new layer, is ZKsync's product for regulated entities seeking configurable confidentiality and Ethereum settlement.

The company is headquartered in Sofia, Bulgaria.

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