Horizen has completed the migration of its native ZEN token from its original blockchain to Base, signaling the beginning of its transformation into a modular, privacy-enabled DeFi appchain.
In a July 24 announcement, Horizen confirmed that ZEN is now live on Base as a standard ERC-20 token. This shift allows for seamless integration with decentralized exchanges like Aerodrome (AERO) and Uniswap (UNI), enhances liquidity opportunities, and officially retires both its legacy UTXO-based mainchain and the EON sidechain.
ZEN powers Horizen 2.0 on Base
Horizen 2.0 unveils a privacy-first Layer 3 architecture built on Base, allowing users to claim their ERC-20 ZEN and explore new DeFi opportunities. In the coming days, wallet-level privacy features—enabled through a partnership with Singularity—will go live, supporting stealth-enabled trades directly within standard wallets.
Following the migration, ZEN’s circulating supply has increased to 17.25 million, up from 16 million. Of the newly added tokens, 750,000 were allocated to the Horizen DAO and 500,000 to the Horizen Foundation. The maximum supply remains unchanged at 21 million.
Trading for ZEN has launched on Aerodrome with ZEN/WETH and ZEN/cbBTC pairs, and on Uniswap with a ZEN/USDC pair. Vault-based yield strategies are also on the way, including liquidity vaults and single-sided staking, aimed at strengthening the ZEN ecosystem and tapping into AERO emissions.
Governance, compliance, and institutional support
The migration was approved by Horizen’s DAO through ZenIP 42405, receiving near-unanimous backing. The DAO will now manage treasury operations and oversee a five-year developer grant program that will distribute up to 1 million ZEN.
Major exchanges Coinbase and Bybit supported the transition by automatically converting user holdings to the new ERC-20 version. Security audits conducted by Halborn and Cantina found no critical issues with the claim tools or migration contracts.
Horizen Labs previously secured $11 million in funding between 2019 and 2021 from investors including DCG and Kenetic Capital. Grayscale’s Horizen Trust (OTC: HZEN) has also migrated its assets to Base and will reassess its continued support based on adoption metrics by December 2025.
As of July 24, ZEN was trading at $8.28, down 13% on the day, with a market capitalization of $137.3 million.
