Zilliqa
ZIL
Evaluation Score
Overall rating on a scale of 0-10
Dimension Breakdown
AI Analysis
Comprehensive evaluation of the token
Zilliqa (ZIL) demonstrates ongoing core engineering execution, highlighted by the delivery of Zilliqa 2.0 mainnet in mid-2025 and continued protocol maintenance through 2026. The academic background of the founding team remains a core asset despite executive turnover. However, the project faces multiple headwinds across other dimensions: community governance engagement is largely dormant, ecosystem TVL and dApp adoption remain modest against stiff Layer-1 competition, and token price has experienced severe long-term drawdown. From a security standpoint, recent disclosures regarding a multi-year Ledger application cryptographic vulnerability and an undisclosed theft from an exchange partner's cold wallet in July 2026 present notable risk, though the team initiated coordinated pauses and remediation. No qualifying red-flag event with established loss thresholds (> $1M) or formal regulatory enforcement was confirmed in the data.
Development Activity
Code updates and developer engagement
Community Support
Social media presence and community engagement
Tokenomics
Supply, distribution, and utility
Market & Use Case
Value proposition and competitive landscape
Team & Governance
Team background and project governance
Security & Audits
Security history and audit status
About Zilliqa (ZIL)
Zilliqa (ZIL) is the native utility and gas token of Zilliqa, a sharded Layer-1 blockchain established in 2017 by an academic research team originating from the National University of Singapore. Designed to achieve high throughput and scalability, Zilliqa utilizes its proprietary smart contract language, Scilla. The network launched its Zilliqa 2.0 mainnet upgrade in June 2025 to optimize execution and introduce a zero net-inflation model targeting fee burns against staking rewards. The ZIL token has a maximum supply capped at 21 billion, with the vast majority currently in circulation.
The project has experienced governance and market challenges over time. While governance historically involved a separate gZIL token and community voting processes, forum and governance participation have become largely dormant, leading to centralization around the core team. The leadership has also undergone executive turnover, including the appointment of an interim CEO in May 2025. In the broader market, Zilliqa faces strong competition from competing Layer-1 and Layer-2 networks, maintaining modest total value locked (TVL) and dApp adoption alongside an unrecovered long-term price drawdown exceeding 50%, with the token trading near 1% of its historical peak.
Zilliqa has also documented several security incidents. In February 2025, the team published a post-mortem addressing an exploit involving its X-Bridge. Later, the project disclosed a multi-year cryptographic flaw dating back to 2019 in its Ledger application, which generated weakened ephemeral nonces that exposed private keys to recovery if a user signed five or more native transactions. This required temporary halts to native network transactions and exchange deposits/withdrawals while remediation was coordinated. Furthermore, in July 2026, Zilliqa confirmed an undisclosed theft of ZIL from an exchange partner's cold wallet, for which specific loss amounts and the affected entity were not published.