Aztec Labs launches Nyx privacy wallet on upgraded Aztec Network

Aztec Labs has brought back zk.money, the privacy-focused wallet it killed off in 2023, this time running on a significantly upgraded version of its zero-knowledge Layer 2 network.

The new wallet, called Nyx, is a self-custodial privacy tool with yield-earning capabilities. It launched alongside the Aztec Network’s Alpha V5 upgrade, which went live in July 2026 and brought major performance gains: private transaction proving speed improved by more than 2x, while costs dropped roughly 50%.

Why Aztec killed zk.money in the first place

The original zk.money and its companion product, Aztec Connect, were shut down in March 2023. Deposits were halted on March 21 of that year, though withdrawal support continued until approximately March 2024 to let users retrieve their funds.

The team’s reasoning was strategic: the existing infrastructure relied on centralized sequencers, which created a trust bottleneck that undermined the whole point of building privacy tools. Instead of patching a fundamentally compromised architecture, Aztec Labs chose to redirect all resources toward building a fully decentralized privacy platform from the ground up, developing client-side zero-knowledge proofs and centering the rebuild on Noir, a programming language Aztec created specifically for writing ZK circuits.

What the Alpha V5 upgrade actually changes

The Alpha V5 upgrade is the technical foundation that made the zk.money relaunch possible. The headline numbers, 2x faster proving and 50% cheaper transactions, matter because they directly address the two biggest complaints users have historically had with ZK-based privacy: it’s slow and it’s expensive.

V5 supports end-to-end private execution directly on user devices. When you make a transaction through Nyx, the proof that your transaction is valid gets generated on your phone or laptop. No intermediary server ever sees your transaction details. The network only verifies the mathematical proof, not the underlying data.

Nyx was the first application built on V5, serving as both a product launch and a proof of concept. The wallet’s yield-earning features suggest Aztec is targeting users who want to participate in DeFi without broadcasting their portfolio to the world.

The AZTEC token and network decentralization

The relaunch comes with a broader decentralization push anchored by the $AZTEC token, which provides governance rights and staking opportunities. The token sale concluded in December 2025, raising between $59 million and $61 million.

More than 17,000 bidders participated in the sale, and 96% of them contributed less than $10,000.

Aztec Network is currently on the second stage of decentralization, with community-operated nodes and sequencers being rolled out for user-facing applications.

What this means for Ethereum’s privacy landscape

Future development plans include private smart contract capabilities on Ethereum, which would allow entire DeFi protocols to operate with transaction privacy baked in. Cross-chain privacy integrations are also on the roadmap, which could let users move assets privately across different blockchain networks.