Matter Labs confirms the 2026 retirement of its inaugural scaling solution, ZKsync Lite, marking the end of the first production-grade ZK-rollup on Ethereum as the developer definitively shifts focus to its modernized “Era” infrastructure. The move signals a maturation point for the Layer 2 ecosystem, where experimental non-EVM protocols are yielding to standardized, fully programmable environments.
The ‘Orderly Sunset’ of ZKsync Lite
The development team formally announced the deprecation via official channels on Sunday, establishing a long-lead timeline to minimize disruption for early adopters.
“In 2026, we plan to deprecate ZKsync Lite (aka ZKsync 1.0), the original ZK-rollup we launched on Ethereum,” the official ZKsync account stated.
The protocol emphasized the controlled nature of the shutdown: “This is a planned, orderly sunset for a system that has served its purpose and does not affect any other ZKsync systems.”
ZKsync Lite, launched in June 2020, was instrumental in proving the efficacy of Zero-Knowledge proofs for scaling payments. However, its architecture lacked native compatibility with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), limiting its utility in the complex DeFi landscape that emerged subsequently.
Validating the ZKsync Era
The retirement validates the industry-wide pivot toward EVM equivalence. ZKsync Era, the successor to Lite, allows developers to deploy standard Ethereum smart contracts without modification, a critical feature for institutional adoption.
Matter Labs characterized Lite’s lifecycle as a mission accomplished rather than a product failure. “ZKsync Lite was a groundbreaking proof-of-concept and validated critical ideas related to building production ZK systems,” the team noted. “It did its job: prove what’s possible and pave the way for the next generation.”
By retiring the legacy chain, Matter Labs aims to eliminate liquidity fragmentation and focus resources on the “ZK Stack,” a modular framework for building custom chains that interoperate with the Era mainnet.
Migration Mandate
While operations remain normal for now, the announcement serves as a notice for the protocol’s remaining user base, which holds approximately $50 million in Total Value Locked (TVL).
Matter Labs promised to release specific cutoff dates and tools in the near future. “We’ll share concrete details, dates, and migration guidance soon,” the announcement read. “For now, this is just a heads-up: ZKsync Lite will be deprecated in 2026, and the future is firmly focused on the ZKsync network.”
Chain Street’s Take
Retiring ZKsync Lite shows the ecosystem is getting healthier, not weaker. Matter Labs is cutting a legacy chain that split liquidity and didn’t fit the EVM-based world developers rely on. The move concentrates users, tooling, and security on ZKsync Era, creating a single, stronger liquidity base. It’s a hard edit, but a necessary one for any network aiming to look credible to institutions.
