ADI Chain: Sovereign-Grade zkEVM Built on ZKsync Stack
ADI Chain is the IHC-backed institutional Layer 2 that went live on December 9, 2025 — a ZKsync ZK Stack rollup using the Airbender prover and targeting 8,000 TPS, purpose-built for sovereign, regulated, and MENA-focused settlement on top of Ethereum.
ADI Chain is a December-2025 institutional zkEVM Layer 2 deployed on the ZKsync ZK Stack and secured by the Airbender prover, with a stated design target of 8,000 TPS and EVM-equivalent execution that lets any Solidity contract redeploy unchanged. Where Abstract optimizes the same stack for consumer apps and Starknet bets on Cairo, ADI Chain occupies a distinct lane: sovereign-grade, compliance-aware infrastructure stewarded by the ADI Foundation under the umbrella of Abu Dhabi's International Holding Company (IHC). It targets institutions, regulated fintechs, MENA financial corridors, and tokenized real-world-asset issuers that need Ethereum-grade settlement with a credible local entity behind the chain. For non-custodial cross-chain swap and bridging users, ADI Chain matters because it inherits Ethereum PoS security via validity proofs, accepts standard EVM wallets (MetaMask, WalletConnect, Rabby) at hex 0x-prefixed addresses, and slots into the broader zkEVM landscape — but with a regulatory posture that mainstream L2s have not historically prioritized.
About ADI
ADI Chain entered public testing on August 21, 2025 and launched mainnet alongside the ADI Utility Token on December 9, 2025, making it one of the youngest production zkEVM rollups in the Ethereum L2 stack — younger than Scroll (October 2023), Base (August 2023), and even Abstract (January 2025). The chain is stewarded by the ADI Foundation, an Abu Dhabi entity backed by International Holding Company (IHC), one of the Middle East's largest publicly listed conglomerates. That sponsorship is the defining feature of the chain: ADI Chain is not a venture-funded ecosystem play but an institutional and sovereign-aligned infrastructure project, positioned around regulated finance and MENA capital markets rather than mass-market DeFi.
Technically, ADI Chain is a zkEVM rollup built on the ZKsync ZK Stack, the same modular framework that powers ZKsync Era and Abstract. It uses the Airbender prover, a next-generation ZK proving system designed by Matter Labs to push throughput materially higher than first-generation Halo2-based zkEVMs. The advertised theoretical ceiling is 8,000 TPS, which is the Airbender design target rather than a sustained measured throughput — typical TPS and finality figures are not yet consistently published, a normal posture for a chain six months into mainnet. Block production parameters and prover cadence are still stabilizing publicly, so any benchmark claim should be treated as targets, not steady-state SLAs.
Economically, ADI is the native utility token of the network, used for transaction fees and ecosystem alignment. Because the chain follows the EVM-equivalent path of the ZK Stack, every contract that compiles to EVM bytecode — ERC-20, ERC-721, ERC-1155, AMMs, lending markets, RWA frameworks — can be redeployed without source modification. The chain inherits Ethereum's PoS finality through validity proofs: a transaction is canonical once its proof is posted and verified on L1, removing the multi-day optimistic challenge window that Arbitrum and Optimism still carry. This is the key structural advantage zkEVMs hold over optimistic rollups for institutional flows that require deterministic settlement.
Strategically, ADI Chain sits in a small but growing cohort of jurisdiction-anchored L2s — networks whose legitimacy comes partly from a recognizable regional sponsor rather than purely from open-source community. The IHC linkage gives the chain credibility for issuance of regulated assets, cross-border settlement pilots, and integration with Gulf-region financial infrastructure. Whether this translates into durable TVL and developer mindshare depends on execution over the next 12–24 months: ecosystem programs, RWA partnerships, and the quality of bridges and non-custodial cross-chain swap routes connecting ADI to the broader Ethereum L2 graph.
ADI technical parameters
ADI Chain's technical identity is defined by three choices: a zkEVM execution layer for full Solidity compatibility, the ZKsync ZK Stack for modular infrastructure, and the Airbender prover for next-generation proving throughput. Together they place ADI in the validity-rollup camp — the same architectural family as ZKsync Era, Abstract, Linea, and Scroll — but with different operator economics and a different go-to-market lane.
| Consensus | ZK rollup (ZKsync Airbender prover) inheriting Ethereum PoS |
|---|---|
| VM | zkEVM (ZKsync ZK Stack) |
| Block time | — |
| Finality | — |
| TPS | — typical / 8k max |
| Gas token | ADI |
| Launched | 2025-12-09 |
| Token standard | ERC-20 / ERC-721 / ERC-1155 |
| Address | hex (0x-prefixed, EVM) |
Consensus mechanism
ADI Chain does not run an independent consensus protocol the way Ethereum, Solana, or Aptos do. As a ZK rollup, it inherits security from Ethereum's PoS consensus: the sequencer batches L2 transactions, the Airbender prover generates a succinct zero-knowledge proof that those transactions executed correctly against the L2 state, and that proof is posted to Ethereum L1 where it is verified by a smart contract. Once verified, the L2 state root is canonical — no fraud window, no challenge period, no honest-minority assumption beyond Ethereum itself. This is the structural difference from optimistic rollups like Arbitrum and Optimism, which assume a transaction is valid for ~7 days unless someone proves otherwise. For ADI's institutional positioning, validity proofs are a much cleaner story to tell regulators and auditors: settlement is mathematically verified, not assumed. The trade-off is prover cost and latency — generating ZK proofs is computationally heavy, which is exactly the problem Airbender is designed to solve by parallelizing and accelerating the proving pipeline.
Performance context
The 8,000 TPS figure is the Airbender design target, not a measured sustained throughput, and ADI Chain has not yet published consistent block time or finality numbers. For context against benchmarked peers: Ethereum L1 sustains roughly 15 TPS, Base delivers around 1,500 TPS typical with a ~13-minute hard finality, and Abstract — built on the same ZK Stack with Airbender — advertises a 15,000 TPS ceiling but also has not published a measured typical figure. zkEVM finality in practice is gated by how often the sequencer posts proofs to L1, which today ranges from minutes to hours depending on the rollup. ADI's effective finality will sit in that band until the operator publishes a specific proof cadence. Treat the headline number as upper-bound design capacity, not a steady-state SLA.
ADI ecosystem map
ADI Chain is six months into mainnet and its on-chain ecosystem is still in its formation phase. Rather than recapping a list of protocols that does not yet exist at scale, the more honest framing is to describe the structural ecosystem that any EVM-equivalent zkEVM inherits on day one and the institutional surfaces the ADI Foundation is positioning around. Below are the load-bearing categories developers and users should evaluate.
Infrastructure
ADI Chain is built on the ZKsync ZK Stack with the Airbender prover, meaning it shares its core sequencer, prover, and tooling lineage with ZKsync Era and Abstract. This gives ADI immediate compatibility with the Matter Labs developer toolchain — Hardhat plugins, Foundry support, and standard EVM tracing tools work with minor configuration changes.
Wallet
Supported wallets at launch include MetaMask, WalletConnect, and Rabby. Because addresses are standard hex 0x-prefixed EVM accounts, any wallet that can add a custom RPC and chain ID can interact with ADI Chain — no new key format or signing scheme is required, which lowers the integration barrier for custodians and institutional wallet providers.
Bridge
As a ZKsync ZK Stack rollup, ADI Chain uses validity-proof-backed canonical bridging to and from Ethereum L1 — funds are locked on L1 and minted on L2 against a proof of correct execution. Third-party non-custodial cross-chain swap routes and intent-based aggregators are the practical path for moving liquidity between ADI and non-ZK-Stack chains until native interop with ZKsync Era and Abstract matures.
Token Standard
ADI Chain supports ERC-20, ERC-721, and ERC-1155 natively. Any existing Ethereum contract that compiles to EVM bytecode redeploys without source changes, which is the central reason institutions choose zkEVM over alt-VM L2s like Starknet (Cairo) — existing audits, libraries, and Solidity tooling carry over directly.
Compliance Layer
ADI Foundation has positioned the chain around MENA-region regulated finance and IHC-aligned use cases. While no specific compliance modules are publicly documented at the protocol level, the institutional posture differentiates ADI from consumer-focused zkEVMs and aligns it with tokenized real-world-asset and cross-border settlement narratives.
ADI vs peers
ADI Chain's category is recorded as 其他 (Other) because it does not slot neatly into the standard groupings, but architecturally it belongs in the EVM L2 zkEVM cohort alongside Abstract, Starknet, Scroll, and X Layer. Comparing it against those peers is the most honest way to position the chain for users and developers evaluating where to deploy.
Comparison insights
- Versus Abstract — Abstract launched January 27, 2025 on the same ZKsync ZK Stack with the same Airbender prover and EigenDA, with a 15,000 TPS theoretical ceiling and roughly $11.13M TVL. ADI Chain shares the prover and stack but targets institutions instead of consumer apps. Two siblings, same tech, different audiences.
- Versus Starknet — Starknet uses STARK proofs and the Cairo VM, runs at ~3 TPS typical with a 5,400-second finality window, and holds ~$184M TVL. ADI Chain's EVM-equivalent path means Solidity contracts redeploy unchanged, whereas Starknet requires rewriting in Cairo. ADI trades a more battle-tested proof system (STARKs) for developer ergonomics.
- Versus Scroll — Scroll is a bytecode-equivalent zkEVM that launched October 2023, runs ~30 TPS typical with a 3,600-second finality cadence, and holds ~$10.79M TVL. ADI Chain and Scroll both prioritize EVM equivalence, but ADI uses the newer Airbender prover lineage while Scroll moved from Halo2 to its OpenVM proof system. Different proving paths, similar developer experience.
- Versus X Layer — X Layer is a Polygon CDK validium launched April 2024 with OKB as gas, ~100 TPS typical, 5,000 TPS theoretical max, and ~$74M TVL. Both X Layer and ADI Chain are corporate-anchored L2s (OKX and IHC respectively). The key difference: X Layer uses data-availability validium for lower costs, while ADI Chain posts data to Ethereum for higher security — a relevant choice for institutional flows.
- Versus the wider EVM L2 cohort — Arbitrum ($1.24B TVL) and Base ($3.84B TVL) dominate the L2 market by a wide margin, both optimistic rollups with ~7-day exit windows. ADI Chain, like all zkEVMs, offers cryptographic finality instead of an honest-minority assumption — strictly better for regulated settlement, at the cost of being six months old with negligible TVL today.
ADI timeline
ADI Chain's public history is short and well-defined. On August 21, 2025 the ADI Chain testnet went live, opening the network to developers, integrators, and prospective institutional partners for stress-testing the ZKsync ZK Stack deployment and the Airbender prover pipeline. That testnet window — roughly four months — was used to validate sequencer behavior, prover throughput, EVM equivalence against existing Solidity contracts, and the bridging path back to Ethereum L1. On December 9, 2025 ADI Chain reached mainnet alongside the ADI Utility Token launch, formally beginning its production phase. As of June 2026 the chain is approximately six months into mainnet, which is the relevant context for any TVL, throughput, or ecosystem claim: ADI is in its formation period, not its steady state. Unlike older networks, ADI Chain has not experienced — or at least has not publicly disclosed — major incidents such as sequencer halts, prover failures, bridge exploits, or consensus outages. This is consistent with both its short operating history and the relatively battle-tested ZKsync ZK Stack codebase underneath it. The most useful historical reference points for understanding ADI's risk surface come from its parent stack: ZKsync Era has had documented sequencer downtime events in 2024 and 2025, and zkEVMs generally remain dependent on a small set of provers and sequencers during their early years. ADI Chain inherits both the maturity and the residual centralization risk of that lineage. The honest read: too young to claim a clean track record, too young to claim a problematic one — institutional users should evaluate the chain on its sponsorship, its stack, and its operator transparency rather than on a years-long incident history that simply does not exist yet.
- 2025-08-21milestoneADI Chain testnet launch
- 2025-12-09launchMainnet + ADI Utility Token launch
Developer reference
Developers integrating ADI Chain should treat it as a standard EVM-equivalent zkEVM target. Addresses are hex, 0x-prefixed, and identical in format to Ethereum and other EVM L2s — no new key derivation or signing scheme. Token standards are ERC-20, ERC-721, and ERC-1155, with full bytecode equivalence to Ethereum mainnet, meaning existing Solidity contracts and audits redeploy without source changes. Official documentation lives at docs.adi.foundation. As of June 2026 the chain has not yet published a single canonical RPC URL or a primary block explorer through this dataset; integrators should pull the latest endpoint and chain ID directly from the official documentation portal before wiring up. Wallet support at launch covers MetaMask, WalletConnect, and Rabby — any wallet capable of adding a custom EVM network will work. Because the underlying stack is the ZKsync ZK Stack with the Airbender prover, developer tooling overlaps substantially with ZKsync Era and Abstract: Hardhat, Foundry, viem, and ethers all function with standard configuration. For non-custodial cross-chain swap and bridge integrations, the canonical L1↔L2 bridge inherits the validity-proof security model of the ZK Stack; third-party intent-based routes provide the practical path between ADI and non-ZK-Stack chains.
Assets swappable on ADI
Grouped by category. Click any asset to open its swap page for a live quote.
Other
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ADI settle-time comparison
Shorter bars mean faster confirmations. Real settle time also depends on network congestion — figures are indicative.
ADI asset coverage comparison
Longer bars mean more assets are swappable on that chain.
ADI FAQ
01Is ADI Chain decentralized?
ADI Chain is a Layer 2 ZK rollup that inherits Ethereum's PoS decentralization for settlement — once a validity proof is verified on L1, the state is canonical without trusting any L2 actor. However, like every young rollup, the sequencer and prover are operated by a small set of parties (anchored by the ADI Foundation and the ZKsync ZK Stack lineage) rather than a permissionless validator set. This is the standard early-stage zkEVM trust profile, comparable to ZKsync Era, Abstract, and Scroll in their first years.
02What is ADI Chain's finality time?
ADI Chain has not yet publicly published a stable block time or proof-cadence figure as of June 2026. In zkEVMs, effective finality is gated by how often the sequencer posts validity proofs to Ethereum L1 — typically minutes to hours for current-generation rollups. Once a proof is verified on L1, finality is cryptographic and irreversible, with no challenge window. Treat any published TPS number (the 8,000 TPS Airbender design target) as theoretical capacity rather than a measured SLA.
03What consensus mechanism does ADI Chain use?
ADI Chain does not run its own consensus protocol. It is a ZK rollup built on the ZKsync ZK Stack with the Airbender prover, meaning it inherits security from Ethereum's PoS consensus (Gasper — Casper FFG plus LMD GHOST). The sequencer orders L2 transactions, Airbender generates a succinct zero-knowledge proof that execution was correct, and Ethereum L1 verifies that proof. This is structurally different from optimistic rollups, which assume validity unless challenged within a 7-day window.
04How does ADI Chain compare to Abstract and other ZKsync ZK Stack rollups?
ADI Chain and Abstract are siblings — both built on the ZKsync ZK Stack with the Airbender prover. Abstract launched January 27, 2025 and targets consumer applications with a 15,000 TPS theoretical ceiling. ADI Chain launched December 9, 2025 with an 8,000 TPS Airbender design target and targets institutional, regulated, and MENA-region use cases under ADI Foundation (IHC) sponsorship. Same tech foundation, different go-to-market lanes.
05Is ADI Chain EVM-compatible?
Yes — ADI Chain is EVM-equivalent, meaning Solidity contracts that compile to EVM bytecode redeploy without source modification. Standard token interfaces (ERC-20, ERC-721, ERC-1155) work natively, addresses are standard hex 0x-prefixed EVM accounts, and Hardhat/Foundry/viem/ethers tooling functions with normal configuration. This is the same approach taken by ZKsync Era, Abstract, Scroll, and X Layer, and it differs from Starknet, which uses the Cairo VM and requires contracts to be rewritten.