Ethereum News Today: Reshaping Blockchain Privacy: Zama and Kakarot Merge to Enable 10,000+ Confidential TPS

Paris, France - Zama, a cryptography company specializing in Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) solutions for blockchain, has acquired KKRT Labs, a zero-knowledge (ZK) research firm, to accelerate scalability and confidentiality on public blockchains. The strategic move, announced on November 5, 2025, aims to combine Zama's FHE expertise with KKRT's ZK rollup technology to enable 10,000+ confidential transactions per second (TPS) on chains like Ethereum and Solana, according to a Blockchain Magazine report.

KKRT Labs, also known as "Kakarot," brings deep experience in high-performance proving architectures and modular rollup systems. The firm, backed by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, StarkWare, and Lambda Class, has developed scalable ZK engines for Ethereum-equivalent environments. Zama CEO Rand Hindi emphasized that the acquisition "strengthens our technical depth in ZK rollups while accelerating high-performance confidentiality," positioning the merged entity to lead in confidential on-chain finance applications such as stablecoin payments and DeFi, according to a press release from The Block.

The integration will retain KKRT's core team and align its roadmap with Zama's broader product goals. Both companies share a philosophy of open-source innovation and confidentiality-first infrastructure. Vitalik Buterin praised Kakarot's contributions to Ethereum's cryptographic advancements, including ZK-EVMs and privacy-preserving client-side proving, as covered by Blockchain Magazine. Eli Ben Sasson, co-founder of ZCash and CEO of StarkWare, highlighted Kakarot's ability to transform proof-of-concept ideas into scalable solutions, calling the acquisition a "pivotal support" for Zama's ambitions, as noted in The Block's reporting.

Zama's flagship protocol adds a confidentiality layer to existing blockchains, leveraging FHE to enable secure data processing without decryption. The company, valued at $1.2 billion after a $150 million funding round, aims to expand its research team and integrate KKRT's modular systems into its infrastructure. Clément Walter, co-founder of KKRT Labs, noted that the partnership will "make high-throughput, low-latency confidential on-chain finance a reality," addressing a critical barrier to blockchain adoption, a point also highlighted by Blockchain Magazine.

The acquisition underscores growing demand for privacy-preserving technologies in decentralized finance. As Zama and KKRT Labs merge their expertise, they position themselves to tackle scalability and confidentiality challenges, potentially reshaping the landscape of public blockchain ecosystems.