When Privacy Meets DeFi: Horizen’s ZEN Token Ditches Its Roots for Base 🕶️

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Oh, the audacity of it all! Horizen, that darling of decentralization, has officially dragged its native ZEN token from its cozy blockchain origins and plopped it onto Base, like a debutante trading her country cottage for a penthouse in the city. This marks the beginning of its grand metamorphosis into what they’re calling a “modular privacy-enabled decentralized finance appchain.” Modular, you say? How delightfully vague. 😌

  • Horizen has migrated ZEN to Base as an ERC-20 asset—because why not?
  • ZEN will now power a privacy-first DeFi appchain with Singularity integration (stealth mode incoming).
  • DAO-led governance and DeFi vaults herald the dawn of Horizen 2.0—cue dramatic music. 🎶

In a July 24 announcement, Horizen declared it had completed this great migration, transforming ZEN into a standard ERC-20 token. Why stop at one blockchain when you can conquer another, right? The move allows ZEN to flirt with decentralized exchanges such as Aerodrome (AERO) and Uniswap (UNI), expanding liquidity options while ceremoniously shutting down both its legacy UTXO mainchain and EON sidechain. Goodbye, old friends; hello, shiny new Base ecosystem! 👋

ZEN Powers Horizen 2.0 on Base: Privacy Goes Mainstream?

Ah, Horizen 2.0—a Layer 3 architecture built on Base, no less. Users can now claim their ERC-20 ZEN tokens and dive headfirst into DeFi strategies so cutting-edge they might cut themselves. Wallet-level privacy features are allegedly arriving soon via a partnership with Singularity, enabling stealth-enabled trades inside standard wallets. Imagine: your crypto being as incognito as a spy in a trench coat. 🕵️‍♂️

The circulating supply is now a modest 17.25 million ZEN, up from 16 million before the migration. Where did the extra million come from, you ask? Well, 750,000 went to the Horizen DAO, and 500,000 landed in the lap of the Horizen Foundation. Meanwhile, the max supply remains capped at 21 million—because even utopias need limits. 🚜

ZEN launched trading pairs across Aerodrome (ZEN/WETH, ZEN/cbBTC) and Uniswap (ZEN/USDC). And don’t worry, yield farmers—liquidity vaults and single-sided staking options are coming soon to support the ZEN ecosystem and capture AERO emissions. It’s almost enough to make you forget about the volatility. Almost. 🌾

Governance, Compliance, and Institutional Support: Because Grown-Ups Need Rules Too

This monumental migration was rubber-stamped by Horizen’s DAO under ZenIP 42405, with near-unanimous approval. Bravo, democracy in action! The DAO will now oversee treasury operations and a five-year developer grant program doling out up to 1 million ZEN. Generosity or bribery? You decide. 😉

Coinbase and Bybit played the role of supportive parents, automatically swapping user holdings to the new ERC-20 version. Security audits conducted by Halborn and Cantina found no glaring issues with the claim tools or migration contracts—though we all know how much faith we place in audits these days. 🤷‍♀️

Let’s not forget Horizen Labs, which raised $11 million between 2019 and 2021 from investors including DCG and Kenetic Capital. Even Grayscale’s Horizen Trust (OTC:HZEN) got in on the action, migrating its assets to Base. Will it stick around? That depends on adoption levels by December 2025. Talk about a cliffhanger! 📉

As of July 24, ZEN was trading at $8.28, down 13% on the day, with a market cap of $137.3 million. Ah, the sweet smell of progress tinged with mild depreciation. Truly, nothing says “innovation” quite like watching your investment dip slightly after a major upgrade. 💸

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2025-07-24 13:00