Zilliqa is a public Layer 1 blockchain, and ZIL is its native token. It began in 2017 as a research project at the National University of Singapore. Its mainnet launched on 31 January 2019 with a sharded proof-of-work design. Zilliqa 2.0 replaced that design with proof-of-stake consensus and EVM compatibility. The biggest recent change came in July 2026. After a signing flaw in the Zilliqa Ledger app was exploited, the team halted native ("legacy", zil1...) transactions and moved the whole chain onto Zilliqa EVM (0x... addresses). As of the team's 24 September 2026 guide, legacy balances have to be migrated to an EVM address before they can be used.
The latest: the Ledger app flaw and the move to EVM-only
What went wrong
The Block reported on 22 July 2026 that Zilliqa had suspended native transactions over a bug in its Ledger app, which had existed since 2019. The bug was in Zilliqa's own app, not in Ledger's hardware, firmware or software. When it produced Schnorr signatures for native transactions, the signing routine "copied the wrong 32 bytes from a 40-byte value". That left the top 64 bits of every nonce fixed at zero. With about five or more signatures made this way, an attacker could rebuild the private key from public on-chain data. Zilliqa's incident hub puts the risk point lower, at accounts that signed at least four such transactions. EVM transactions and the Zilliqa SDKs were not affected.
Zilliqa's incident hub gives this timeline (UTC): the first proven theft on 4 March, containment on 20 July, a recovery and transition plan on 31 July, and a post-mortem on 20 August. By the hub's account, the exploitation ran for about four and a half months before an outside party spotted it.
How large the losses are
The incident hub says 683,130,969.66 ZIL was stolen in 66 transactions. It counts 6,772 exposed accounts, of which 51 were drained. Zilliqa calls these minimum confirmed figures, and they come from the project itself.
Where the migration stands
- Exchange-held ZIL: On 2 September 2026, a hard fork moved legacy balances to Zilliqa EVM addresses for a first batch of ten exchange partners, with no action needed from users. Zilliqa planned a second batch for mid-September.
- Self-custody holders: Zilliqa published a ZKP (zero-knowledge proof) Migration App and a step-by-step guide on 24 September 2026. The app runs on 64-bit Linux, or on Windows through Ubuntu on WSL. The guide asks users to check the download's SHA-256 checksum and to enter the seed phrase offline. Users select "LEDGER" or "OTHERS" so the app uses the right derivation path. They then send the legacy balance, minus about 0.5 ZIL for gas, to an escrow contract and submit the generated calldata. Zilliqa says the seed phrase never leaves the user's machine.
- Staking: According to the incident hub, ZIL staked on the EVM side is unaffected, while legacy staking is paused and needs the recovery path.
- Corrected Ledger app: Being prepared with Ledger. The hub says it protects new accounts but does not fix exposed ones.
Compensation
In its 2 September post, Zilliqa said legal recovery is "slow and uncertain". It said it was preparing a community vote on a tokenomics change that would mint new tokens to compensate affected users. Because a mint would dilute every holder, the team said the decision would go to a vote on gov.zilliqa.com. The post gave no amounts or eligibility rules.
What holders should do
- Find out which kind of address holds your ZIL:
zil1...is legacy,0x...is EVM. - If an exchange holds it, ask that exchange whether it was in a migration batch.
- If you hold a legacy wallet yourself, use only the official release of the ZKP Migration App and follow Zilliqa's guide.
- Zilliqa says its team "will never contact you first." Never share a seed phrase or private key, and ignore unsolicited messages offering help.
How Zilliqa 2.0 changed the network
Consensus and finality
Zilliqa's developer documentation says Zilliqa 2.0 "uses Proof-of-Stake based on Pipelined Fast-Hotstuff as a consensus algorithm" and that "mining is no longer necessary." Zilliqa's consensus page says this replaced the pBFT algorithm used in the earlier network. Blocks are not final straight away. In the common case they need two confirmations, and with an average block time of around 2 seconds that comes to roughly 5 seconds per block.
Architecture
The documentation says there are "no DS epochs" any more. It also says a typical Zilliqa 2.0 mainnet "can be operated efficiently and securely by 32 validator nodes", far fewer nodes than Zilliqa 1.0 needed. Validator Stakin describes the old two-layer design, made of Directory Service (DS) nodes and shard nodes, as removed. It dates the start of the 1.0-to-2.0 migration to 23 June 2025. By 7 July 2025, Zilliqa's own blog was publishing staking guides for the live 2.0 network.
Smart contracts
The 2.0 network was built to run both EVM contracts and Scilla contracts. One detail from the docs: EVM transactions require a minimum gas price of 4761.9048 Gwei. In 2.0, balances are stored in Wei and scaled down by 1,000,000 to report Qa in non-EVM APIs.
Strategy
In a 20 January 2026 strategic update, Zilliqa said it was moving closer to the Liechtenstein Trust Integrity Network (LTIN). It also named five focus areas, including on-chain identity with vLEI (Verifiable Legal Entity Identifiers) and regulatory-ready environments for enterprises and on-chain funds. In later posts the team calls its direction "a mediation layer for institutional finance", meaning compliance checks that happen before settlement rather than after.
Where does your ZIL stand after the move to EVM?
Answer a few questions about where your ZIL is held to see which step Zilliqa's guidance gives you.
What kind of address holds your ZIL?
- It starts with zil1 (legacy) → next question
- It starts with 0x (EVM) → EVM address: no migration step
- I am not sure → Check the address prefix first
Who holds that legacy balance?
- An exchange holds it for me → Ask your exchange about the migration batches
- I hold it in my own wallet → next question
Is that legacy ZIL staked?
- Yes, it is staked on the legacy side → Legacy staking is paused
- No, it is not staked → next question
Which wallet created the legacy account?
- A Ledger device → Migrate with the official ZKP app and select LEDGER
- Another wallet → Migrate with the official ZKP app and select OTHERS
Zilliqa's incident hub says EVM transactions were not affected and that ZIL staked on the EVM side is unaffected. Never share a seed phrase or private key. Zilliqa says its team will never contact you first.
An address that starts with zil1 is legacy, and one that starts with 0x is on Zilliqa EVM. Find out which one you have before you do anything, and ignore unsolicited messages offering help.
On 2 September 2026, a hard fork moved legacy balances to EVM addresses for a first batch of ten exchange partners, with no action needed from users. Zilliqa planned a second batch for mid-September. Ask your exchange whether it was in a batch.
Zilliqa's incident hub says legacy staking is paused and needs the recovery path. Follow only Zilliqa's official guidance and ignore unsolicited offers of help.
Use only the official release of the ZKP Migration App, which runs on 64-bit Linux or on Windows through Ubuntu on WSL. Check the SHA-256 checksum, enter the seed phrase offline and select LEDGER. Then send the legacy balance, minus about 0.5 ZIL for gas, to the escrow contract and submit the generated calldata. The hub counts accounts that signed at least four native Ledger transactions as at risk.
Use only the official release of the ZKP Migration App and follow Zilliqa's 24 September 2026 guide. Check the SHA-256 checksum, enter the seed phrase offline and select OTHERS so the app uses the right derivation path. Then send the legacy balance, minus about 0.5 ZIL for gas, to the escrow contract and submit the generated calldata.
This only points you to the steps in Zilliqa's published guidance. It cannot tell whether your account was exposed or drained, and it does not cover compensation, for which Zilliqa has given no amounts or eligibility rules.
The original design (2019 to 2025)
Zilliqa 1.0 split its mining network into smaller groups, or shards, that processed transactions in parallel. Testnet V3, released before mainnet, added network, transaction and smart-contract sharding. Nodes went through proof-of-work mining, and blocks were finalised with pBFT. Zilliqa 2.0 replaced both.
Zilliqa Research was set up in June 2017. Founders included Xinshu Dong as CEO and Amrit Kumar as chief scientific officer, and Kumar later became president.
Scilla
Scilla (Smart Contract Intermediate-Level Language) is the contract language Zilliqa built for its network. The OOPSLA 2019 paper on Scilla describes a language that keeps pure computation, state changes and communication separate. It is deliberately not Turing-complete, and it gets type-soundness guarantees from System F. Scilla was developed alongside a formalisation of its semantics in the Coq proof assistant, so properties of contracts can be proved. Zilliqa showed this on a crowdfunding-style contract.
This does not mean every Scilla contract is proven correct. Formal proofs are something developers can choose to write. They are not automatic. In its 2 September 2026 post, Zilliqa said it is retiring the legacy, non-EVM transaction infrastructure entirely.
The ZIL token
- Supply cap: 21 billion ZIL, according to Zilliqa's April 2024 staking post. The proposed compensation mint would change the tokenomics if holders approve it.
- Uses: Paying gas, staking with validators through the staking portal, and governance discussion on gov.zilliqa.com.
- Wallets: Zilliqa publishes guides for connecting a Ledger device to ZilPay and to MetaMask, both dated 7 July 2025. Anyone with an old
zil1...Ledger account should read the incident guidance first.
