Zama Unveils ZAMA Token After Encrypting $121M on Ethereum

Zama’s token launch shows encrypted auctions can run on Ethereum while keeping bids private and rules publicly verifiable.

Open-source company Zama has launched and listed its native token after completing a public on-chain auction that encrypted more than $121 million on Ethereum. The rollout follows what the company describes as the first live use of fully homomorphic encryption on Ethereum mainnet at scale. Zama said the event shows that public crypto markets can support privacy while remaining open and verifiable.

ZAMA Begins Exchange Rollout Following On-Chain Token Sale

ZAMA is now trading, with listings being added in stages across centralized exchanges, including Coinbase and Binance. According to the protocol, the rollout follows rising demand for public blockchain markets that protect sensitive financial information.

Earlier in the year, Zama held an on-chain token sale that set a $55 million fully diluted valuation floor. The process ran on Ethereum using a sealed-bid Dutch auction built with CoinList. All tokens were available at claim, allowing holders to move or use them immediately. 

Chief executive Rand Hindi said the sale also acted as a live test of encrypted computation under real market conditions.

Moreover, Zama focuses on providing core infrastructure by offering tools that other teams can integrate to add encrypted computation across blockchains. Under this model, adoption is measured by the extent to which value remains confidential within its systems.

Encrypted Bidding Drives $121M in Shielded Value on Ethereum

Alongside the token release, Zama introduced Total Value Shielded (TVS), a metric focused on onchain confidentiality. TVS measures the amount of economic value processed in encrypted form at any given time. The company frames it as a privacy-based comparison to Total Value Locked in DeFi, shifting attention from idle capital to value actively handled without public exposure.

Zama’s sealed-bid auction ran between Jan. 21 and Jan. 25 and marked the first major test of its TVS metric. Over 11,000 wallets participated in the sale, placing bids totaling more than $121 million on Ethereum.

Interest far exceeded supply, with demand running 218% above the available allocation. Participants converted USDT to an encrypted form before submitting bids, so the TVS figure reflects the protected value.

By the final day, the auction contract had become the most active application on Ethereum by transaction volume. Zama said the surge showed strong interest in privacy features that still allow public verification. Allocation rules remained visible on-chain, while bid amounts and wallet connections stayed hidden from view.

Chief executive of Zama, Rand Hindi, said the auction challenged the idea that privacy and transparency cannot coexist. He noted that traditional private token sales often rely on off-chain negotiations or selective access. The company’s model kept the process public while shielding sensitive participant data, including bid size and strategy.

Zama also tied the auction and TVS metric to its broader “HTTPZ” vision. Similar to how HTTPS became standard for web traffic, the concept aims to make encrypted computation a standard feature of blockchain applications. According to the company, sealed-bid auctions and value shielding represent early steps toward that goal, with future use cases expected across on-chain markets.

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