Cryptocurrency
Introducing the Zama Confidential Blockchain Protocol
Ask anyone familiar with blockchain what the biggest drawbacks to the technology are: while some specific answers might vary here and there, you’ll likely find that security and privacy concerns are always high on the list, often accompanied by questions about the technology’s speed and the regulation around it.
Then why even use blockchain, if you can’t entirely trust it? After all, you’ve been managing things like finance, governance, and more without blockchain for a long time before this technology came along. What has certainly changed is the growing need for users and consumers, as well as companies and organizations, to receive adequate guarantees that the services they require are provided securely.
Transparency VS Confidentiality?
Blockchain networks are fundamentally transparent, and the fact that everything onchain is public is widely considered positive, especially when it comes to verify transactions. The downside, of course, is that all the key information about the transactions are also available, including data that you’d rather not disclose. This is where the ongoing dilemma plaguing a more widespread implementation of blockchain technology comes in: keeping transactions private prevents verifiability, but without the ability to verify the transactions the lack of transparency exposes users to uncomfortable scenarios.
The line between transparency and confidentiality becomes even more blurred when building decentralized applications (dapps). Today, all transaction details — including balances, transfer amounts, and contract states — are publicly visible onchain; this makes blockchain unusable for many institutional and consumer applications requiring privacy, which is the standard in the world of finance.
The lack of confidentiality is a big obstacle to the mass adoption of dapps, which is crucially the next frontier for blockchain. The past few years have seen a big focus on building stable infrastructures: now it’s time to build upon those infrastructures and create applications that can realise the full potential of blockchain. The key to unlocking this potential is a solution that combines the best of both worlds, shifting the conversation from “transparency VS confidentiality” to “transparency + confidentiality”, as the web did when moving from HTTP to HTTPS.
Solving the dilemma: the Zama Confidential Blockchain Protocol
Transparency, while foundational to consensus, comes at the cost of privacy. It is with the intention to overcome this problem that Zama’s team has been working tirelessly for the past couple of years. An open-source cryptography company building state-of-the-art FHE solutions for blockchain, Zama has long identified Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) – a technology that enables processing data without decrypting it – as the groundbreaking technique that can change the way users, businesses and organizations think about privacy.
From the start, blockchain seemed the perfect environment to dive into and develop the full potential of FHE, a long and complex exploration culminating with the launch of the Zama Confidential Blockchain Protocol.
The Zama Protocol resolves the longstanding tension between transparency and confidentiality onchain. Combining FHE coprocessors, threshold Multi-Party Computation (MPC), and Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs), the protocol enables private computation in public environments.
This is the most complete confidentiality protocol to date, allowing developers to code fully confidential smart contracts using familiar tools like Solidity without modifying the underlying blockchain by offering a few key elements:
- End-to-end encryption of transaction inputs and state
- Composability between confidential contracts, as well as with non-confidential ones
- Programmable privacy, with smart contracts defining who can decrypt what, making it easy to build dapps that comply with regulations globally
As outlined in the Zama Protocol Litepaper, the protocol introduces a novel cross-chain confidentiality layer that can operate on top of existing blockchains. With these characteristics, the Zama Protocol enables confidential smart contracts to run seamlessly across any Layer 1 or Layer 2 network, extending privacy guarantees without altering the underlying infrastructure.
Beyond FHE
The Zama Protocol heavily leverages the ability to securely compute directly on encrypted data. For this reason, FHE has long been considered the “holy grail” of cryptography, despite slow speed and limitations to ease of use: this is why Zama’s team has worked to deliver a technology that can support any type of application, using common programming languages such as Solidity and Python, while being over 100x faster than a few years ago.
With the goal to create a game-changing comprehensive protocol meeting all the requirements to deliver a fully confidential blockchain, the team worked outside the familiar confines of FHE. As the main component powering the protocol, Zama’s library FHEVM makes it possible to run confidential smart contracts on encrypted data: combining this with MPC to ensure secure collaboration and ZK for verifiability, Zama looks to overcome the main shortcomings of each individual solution.
Unlocking new possibilities
One of the main motivations behind Zama’s dedication to this project is the growing demand for privacy-preserving primitives in blockchain. Whilst there is an increasing interest for solutions from confidential token transfers to stablecoins, from private DeFi to privacy-preserving identity and compliance, none of these can currently be safely deployed on public chains without confidentiality guarantees.
- Finance & Banking: Secure transaction processing, risk modeling, and confidential onchain payments, making blockchain technology suitable for financial institutions.
- Confidential DeFi: Private smart contracts and dapps apps that fully protect user data.
- FHE State OS & Network States: Strong confidentiality for onchain communities and network states, supporting democratic governance while protecting sensitive information.
- End-to-End Encrypted Transactions & State: All data in transactions is encrypted and never exposed, ensuring complete confidentiality.
- Onchain Composability & Data Availability: Smart contract states are continuously updated while remaining fully encrypted, preserving both composability and privacy.
Thanks to this approach, adopters of the Zama Protocol can enjoy all the advantages of the different techniques without limitations: verifiability, decentralization, scalability, composability, security and, crucially, ease of use for developers.
To usher in what aims to be a revolution for onchain privacy with its protocol, Zama has launched a public testnet (read more about it on the official Zama Protocol documentation), providing developers with a ready-to-build foundation for privacy-preserving decentralized applications. This will allow anyone to deploy and test their confidential dapps, as well as enabling operators to coordinate and get used to the operations.
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TL;DR
- Analysts cite bullish chart patterns to envision potential price breakouts above $3 and even a new all-time high of over $4.
- A rising outflow of ADA from exchanges to self-custody wallets suggests strong holding behavior, while Grayscale’s proposed spot ETF (now awaiting SEC approval) could open the floodgates to mainstream investment if approved.
Time for Another Pump?
Cardano’s ADA has been underperforming over the past two weeks, with its price dropping by 5% during that period to the current $0.77 (according to CoinGecko’s data). Despite the downtrend, many market observers remain optimistic in their predictions.
Hardy, an X user with more than 70,000 followers, thinks ADA looks solid at its ongoing level. Furthermore, they argued that the asset’s “epic bull run” has not yet started.
$ADA looks solid here, hold above this purple box, we will continue higher.
If you’re in SPOT currently, you’re golden, the epic bull has not started for Cardano. pic.twitter.com/iqMe1aOzu8
— Hardy (@Degen_Hardy) July 31, 2025
X Finance Bull described ADA as “one of the biggest sleeper gains in crypto right now. The X user believes the valuation is poised to surpass $3, adding that a new all-time high is closer than some might think.
Smith also chipped in, spotting the formation of a “monstrous cup and handle” on ADA’s price chart. This is a bullish pattern that signals the potential for a major rally. Smith believes the valuation could explode above $4 once it exceeds the breakout target of $0.92.
Those interested in exploring additional price forecasts for Cardano’s native token can refer to our previous dedicated article here.
The Bullish Indicators
According to CoinGlass’s data, there has been a significant shift of ADA tokens from centralized exchanges toward self-custody methods in the past several months. This is considered bullish since it reduces the immediate selling pressure.
The potential launch of a spot ADA ETF can also positively impact the price. The leading digital asset manager, Grayscale, displayed its intentions to introduce such a product in the USA in February of this year. The decision is now in the hands of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Such an investment vehicle will give investors additional and simplified options to gain exposure to ADA. After all, buying a spot ETF is like purchasing regular stocks, all done via standard brokerage accounts. In the aftermath, Investors own shares, while the fund holds the actual cryptocurrency on their behalf.
According to Polymarket, the approval odds before the end of 2025 stand at 83%.
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Ethereum’s ten-year milestone has been marked not just by reflection but by a steady rally that has investors bracing for what could be the cryptocurrency’s next big breakout.
With ETH trading at $3,800 at press time, still 24% below its all-time high, pseudonymous CryptoQuant analyst CoinCare says its subdued futures funding rates and deep-pocketed accumulation suggest the uptick is far from over.
The Funding Rate Divergence
According to CoinCare, Ethereum’s ongoing four-month rally is quite similar in magnitude to a previous surge that happened between the start of Q4 2023 and the end of Q1 2024. However, unlike that run, where funding rates became overheated, today’s futures funding levels remain near pre-rally lows.
“In the current rally, there has been no overheating in funding rates,” wrote CoinCare. “In fact, the current funding rates are closer to the levels seen before the October 2023 rally began.”
CoinCare believes this is a sign that “a cooldown after a short-term surge is essential,” following which ETH could “enter a full-fledged rally” driven by renewed speculative interest.
Beyond derivatives, fundamental and on-chain forces also support Ethereum’s potential breakout. For instance, heavyweight Ethereum investors recently acquired 220,000 ETH, worth an estimated $850 million, in just 48 hours. This boosted their holdings to 23.5% of the asset’s supply, a record high that should lessen market liquidity and amplify an upward push.
At the same time, spot ETH ETFs have attracted roughly $5 billion in just 17 days, adding steady demand from regulated investment vehicles. Meanwhile, exchange balances have plunged to a near-decade low of 19 million ETH, with more than 1 million coins withdrawn in the past month alone, potentially reducing immediate sell-side pressure.
Price Momentum
Looking at the market, ETH has gained 1.7% in the past 24 hours, 7.9% in the last week, and 57% across 30 days. It is currently trading within a tight $3,708 to $3,874 range, with $4,000 as the next key resistance level and $3,500 providing critical short-term support.
Analyst Ali Martinez believes going above $4,100 could trigger “the real breakout” for ETH, marking a major psychological shift and potentially opening the door for a run towards its 2021 all-time high.
Despite short-term warning signals, such as an overbought RSI and a potential pullback toward $3,300 highlighted in CryptoPotato’s latest analysis, the bigger on-chain picture remains decisively bullish. If CoinCare’s funding-rate thesis proves accurate and institutional demand continues to grow, ETH’s next chapter could be written not with caution but with new highs.
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TL;DR
- FTX staked $79M ETH after withdrawing $75M, signaling renewed activity from major crypto players.
- BlackRock now holds 2.5% of all ETH, adding $375M more through its growing Ethereum ETF.
- Eleven new whale wallets added 722K ETH since July, with most already staked for the long term.
- Ethereum ETFs saw $5.41B in July inflows, beating combined gains from the last eleven months.
FTX Moves ETH From Bybit, Then Stakes It
On-chain data tracked by Lookonchain shows that FTX and Alameda Research staked 20,736 ETH, valued at around $79 million, within the past few hours. The move follows a previous withdrawal of 21,650 ETH from crypto exchange Bybit. That withdrawal, carried out between December 17, 2024, and January 9, 2025, totaled $75.3 million at an average price of $3,478 per ETH.
FTX/Alameda staked 20,736 $ETH($79M) an hour ago.
Between Dec 17, 2024, and Jan 9, 2025, FTX/Alameda withdrew 21,650 $ETH($75.3M) from #Bybit at an average price of $3,478.https://t.co/RBSW7DEx21 pic.twitter.com/5E0ku6WGni
— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) July 31, 2025
At the time of writing, ETH trades at $3,860. The price has increased 1% in the last 24 hours and 7% over the past seven days. These ETH transfers and staking actions add to a trend of growing market activity around the asset.
BlackRock and Other Firms Continue ETH Accumulation
BlackRock added $375 million in ETH to its holdings this week. The firm now controls about 2.5% of Ethereum’s total circulating supply, which translates to over $11.4 billion in ETH, based on current prices.
In addition, the iShares Ethereum ETF, launched in 2024, has now acquired more than 3 million ETH, according to Nate Geraci’s recent post. Since July 12 alone, it has added another 1 million ETH.
BLACKROCK BOUGHT $375M OF ETH THIS WEEK
THEY CURRENTLY HOLD 2.46% OF THE ETH SUPPLY WORTH $11.32B
THE LARGEST ASSET MANAGER IN THE WORLD IS BUYING $ETH pic.twitter.com/BksJOvUjdQ
— Arkham (@arkham) July 31, 2025
The Ether Machine, a company focused on ETH accumulation, bought 15,000 ETH this week for $56.9 million. This brings its total ETH holdings to over 334,000.
Meanwhile, it also confirmed that additional capital remains available for further ETH purchases. With this latest transaction, The Ether Machine now holds more ETH than the Ethereum Foundation.
SharpLink, a Nasdaq-listed company, made yet another purchase earlier today, adding 11,359 ETH, which brings its total to 449,276 (worth $1.73 billion). A significant portion of the newly acquired ETH has already been staked.
Whale Wallets Enter the Market With Billions in ETH
Eleven new wallets have acquired a total of 722,152 ETH, worth $2.77 billion, since July 9. Three of those wallets added 73,821 ETH, worth $283 million, in the past 24 hours. The data was tracked by Crypto Rover.
BREAKING:
WHALES KEEP BUYING MORE $ETH.
3 FRESH WALLETS JUST ACCUMULATED ANOTHER 73,821 $ETH ($283M).
SINCE JULY 9, A TOTAL OF 11 FRESH WALLETS HAVE ACCUMULATED 722,152 $ETH ($2.77B). pic.twitter.com/rnywoQdg07
— Crypto Rover (@rovercrc) July 31, 2025
Most of these new wallets are staking their ETH. This reduces the circulating supply and signals long-hold strategies. These new holders are joining a broader trend of long-term ETH accumulation by large entities.
ETF Inflows Surge in July
As we recently reported, Ethereum ETFs brought in $5.41 billion in net inflows during July. That figure is higher than the $4.21 billion combined inflows from the 11 previous months. Since their launch in July 2024, ETH ETFs have received $9.62 billion.
Earlier in the year, flows were more uneven. The first quarter of 2025 saw low inflows and a brief outflow in March. By contrast, November and December 2024 saw stronger interest, with inflows of $1.05 billion and $2.08 billion, respectively.
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