Aztec Labs has relaunched zk.money, the privacy wallet it shut down in 2023, under a new name — Nyx — running on the Alpha V5 upgrade of its zero-knowledge Layer 2 network, which went live in July 2026.

Nyx is a self-custodial privacy wallet with yield-earning capabilities, and it launched as the first application built on the upgraded Aztec Network. The relaunch follows a strategic rebuild that Aztec Labs undertook after killing the original product and its companion, Aztec Connect, in March 2023.

Why did Aztec kill zk.money in 2023?

The original shutdown was architectural, not commercial. Aztec Labs halted deposits on March 21, 2023, and kept withdrawal support open until roughly March 2024 so users could retrieve their funds.

The team's reasoning was strategic: the existing infrastructure relied on centralized sequencers, which created a trust bottleneck that undermined the entire premise of privacy tooling. Rather than patch a compromised design, Aztec Labs redirected all resources toward a fully decentralized privacy platform built 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 does the Alpha V5 upgrade change?

Alpha V5 is the technical foundation that made the relaunch viable. Private transaction proving speed improved by more than 2x, while transaction costs dropped roughly 50% — the two metrics that address the most persistent user complaints about ZK-based privacy: slowness and expense.

The upgrade supports end-to-end private execution directly on user devices. When a user transacts through Nyx, the proof that the transaction is valid is generated on their phone or laptop. No intermediary server sees transaction details; the network verifies only the mathematical proof, not the underlying data.

Nyx serves a dual role as both a product launch and a proof of concept for V5. The wallet's yield-earning features signal that Aztec is targeting users who want to participate in DeFi without publicly exposing their portfolios.

How does the $AZTEC token fit in?

The relaunch anchors a broader decentralization push built around the $AZTEC token, which carries governance rights and staking opportunities. The token sale concluded in December 2025, raising between $59 million and $61 million from more than 17,000 bidders — 96% of whom contributed less than $10,000, indicating a broadly distributed holder base rather than concentration among large buyers.

Aztec Network is currently in the second stage of its decentralization roadmap, with community-operated nodes and sequencers rolling out for user-facing applications.

What comes next for private DeFi?

The roadmap extends beyond the wallet itself. Aztec Labs plans to introduce private smart contract capabilities on Ethereum, which would allow entire DeFi protocols to operate with transaction privacy built in by default. Cross-chain privacy integrations are also planned, potentially letting users move assets privately across blockchain networks.

For now, the sequencing of milestones is clear: Alpha V5 shipped in July 2026, Nyx launched as its first application, and private smart contracts plus cross-chain integrations define the next development window for Aztec's privacy stack.