ZKJ experienced a token price and market cap increase of ~11.2% QoQ. This can be attributed to the first true quarter of the EXPchain testnet being live.
ZkPyTorch went live in March 2025, enabling developers to import ONNX and PyTorch code directly into ZK circuits. This marks a significant advancement in making zkML technology accessible to AI developers without specialized cryptography expertise.
EXPchain’s testnet upgrade (Exphoria) occurred in March 2025, dropping average block times from 12s to 3s.
Polyhedra expanded its reach in Q1 2025 through a wave of new partnerships focused on AI, cross-chain interoperability, and real-world use cases. Including collaborations with Pika for AI video creation, launch of ZKJ on Revolut, and hosted events with Google Cloud & Chinese Young Entrepreneurs Association in Hong Kong.
Primer
Polyhedra Network (ZKJ) is spearheaded by a team of accomplished engineers, developers, and researchers from institutions such as UC Berkeley, Tsinghua University, and Stanford University. Their deep expertise in cryptography, distributed systems, and blockchain technology underpins the development of Polyhedra’s technical solutions, which have consistently pushed the boundaries of what's possible with ZK technology, from zkML to cross-chain verification, and privacy-preserving computing. The protocol has raised a total of $75 million, with its most recent $20 million round closing in March 2024. Notable investors have included Animoca Brands, Binance Labs, Hashkey Capital, KuCoin Ventures, NGC Ventures, OKX Ventures, and Polychain Capital.
Polyhedra has advanced beyond its initial research and development phase and is live with the EXPchain testnet, designed for scalable, verifiable, and privacy-preserving AI applications. The EXPchain is the culmination of Polyhedra’s technology innovations as it integrates (i) zkBridge, a trustless and efficient cross-chain bridge powered by zk-SNARKs, which has completed tens of millions of cross-chain transactions and generated over 40 million zk proofs on over twenty blockchain integrations, and (ii) Expander, which is used as the proof generation system.
The protocol's product ecosystem also includes zkPyTorch, which was released in March 2025, enabling developers to import ONNX and PyTorch code directly into ZK circuits without specialized cryptography expertise. Additionally, Proof Cloud is in beta stage, integrating with Google Cloud to allow other projects to use ZK technology in a user-friendly and scalable manner.
The EXPchain testnet was launched on December 9, 2024, creating an “everything chain for AI.” EXPchain creates a foundation for developing verifiable, responsible, privacy-preserving, and scalable AI applications. It addresses many challenges in the AI industry by leveraging advanced zkML and a Proof of Intelligence (PoI) framework.
EXPchain devnet went live on February 4, 2025, and the testnet was upgraded and reset on March 12, 2025. This upgrade, known as Exphoria, brought four main changes:
Faster block times, dropping from an average of 12s to 3s.
ETH Upgrade Sync for alignment with Ethereum’s latest upgrade and preparation for the Prague fork.
Optimized Expander Proofs that boost the verification mechanism, laying the groundwork for zkML proof precompilation.
Removal of outdated forks for a more stable and efficient system.
EXPchain leverages most of the technology built by the Polyhedra team. At its core, there are three key technologies:
Expander Proof System: Expander is designed to improve the efficiency and scalability of zk proof systems. This technology is used for maintaining privacy and security in blockchain transactions, including those involving AI computations.
zkPyTorch: zkPyTorch is a compiler that connects deep learning frameworks with blockchain technology by converting PyTorch code into ZK circuits. This allows AI models to be integrated into blockchain applications, creating opportunities for verifiable machine learning on the blockchain.
Expanded Proof-of-Stake (ExPoS): ExPoS, the consensus used on the L1, supports a cross-chain staking mechanism that utilizes zkBridge technology. This has the potential to enhance interoperability between different blockchain networks and address challenges within the cryptocurrency ecosystem, which is especially important for AI applications that may need to function across multiple blockchains.
EXPchain Roadmap
Expander Benchmarks
As of December 2024, the Expander Proof System has been able to achieve:
2.2 seconds/image for VGG-16 on a single-thread CPU.
150 seconds/token for Llama-3.1 8B on a single-thread CPU.
4 orders of magnitude faster than any number previously reported.
In accordance with Polyhedra’s roadmap, the Expander Proof System is actively being developed to continuously improve and reach the goal of real-time proving.
Other notable events related to Expander in Q1:
On January 20, 2025, the Explore Expander Bootcamp was launched in collaboration with the Ethereum Foundation, Worldcoin, and Google. This six-week boot camp provided the opportunity to learn how to build with zk, Expander, and GKR. Participants received a certificate of completion and could win grants and pitch investors.
ZKJ’s token price QoQ to $2.3. Polyhedra’s first true quarter of the EXPchain testnet being live and upgraded contributed to the increase in the metric.
Staking
The number of staked ZKJ tokens has decreased by 10.1% QoQ from 10.6 million in Q4 2024 to 9.5 million in Q1 2025. The USD value of staked ZKJ in Q1 2025 was $21.3 million, supported by 3,115+ individuals (29% QoQ increase). This marks a 1.3% QoQ decrease from $21.6 million in Q4 2024.
In Q1, the average transaction fee increased to $0.0001, with temporary spikes up to $0.0058 and $.0031 on two occasions. These two outliers drag the quarterly average up. Without these two days, the average transaction fee for Q1 was $0.000005. EXPchain has produced $4,867.6 in total transaction fees since launch, with 90.7% occurring across four days.
Ecosystem Analysis
Usage
EXPchain saw steady growth in daily transactions, peaking on March 13, 2025, at 3.7 million transactions in a single day. The average daily transactions were 686,928 in Q1, with the quarter’s overall number of transactions landing around 64.8 million.
EXPchain testnet added an average of 1,965 new accounts per day, reaching a total of 173,611 accounts before the testnet was reset in March 2025. The most significant spike in new accounts occurred after the testnet reset when 35,768 accounts were created in a single day.
EXPchain testnet had a daily active user rate of 31.3%, signaling that users are returning to use the network more frequently. This metric will be a key indicator of EXPchain usage, which is worth watching over the next few quarters as it normalizes.
The Polyhedra Network currently has 145+ ecosystem participants and counting.
Notable Q1 2025 partnership announcements:
ZKJ was listed on Revolut, providing access to their millions of customers.
Polyhedra released an AI marketplace for EXPchain where developers can access certain applications like Pika to create AI-generated videos through API’s.
Polyhedra announced a collaboration with Bima, which created USBD, a Bitcoin-backed stablecoin that will use Polyhedra’s ZK technology to move across EVM chains and Bitcoin L2s.
Polyhedra announced a collaboration with Umy, a Web3-powered travel platform, on March 10, 2025.
“REXistentialism” (Chief Meme Officer at Polyhedra) went live on March 9, 2025.
Polyhedra announced a collaboration with Coinfy, a payment processing and crypto platform, which will allow their user base access to ZKJ.
After the Exphoria upgrade was announced, Curve Finance deployed onto EXPchain.
A collaboration with Allora Network, a decentralized intelligence network, was announced on February 26, 2025.
A collaboration with Irys, an onchain data storage provider, was announced on February 25, 2025.
A collaboration with Mind Network, an FHE infrastructure company, was announced on February 17, 2025.
A collaboration with Privasea, a confidential AI network, will allow users to secure their human presence without compromising personal details.
A collaboration with Lemonade Events, an onchain events platform, was announced on January 29, 2025.
A collaboration with Dynamic, a wallet SDK provider, will allow users to connect to EXPchain with their crypto wallet or an existing social login like Google.
Polyhedra Network’s native token, ZKJ (which stands for “ZK Joint AI”), was launched in March 2024 on Ethereum and BNB Chain. ZKJ plays a central role in all of Polyhedra’s zkML technology, helping to form a foundation of trust in AI applications.
The ZKJ token will be distributed over six years, with tokens for community activities, ecosystem incentives, and foundation reserves set to unlock gradually over 36 months, with no initial cliff. Pre-token generation event (TGE) purchasers will have a one-month cliff followed by a 24-month unlock period, while private sale purchasers face a 24-month cliff and a 24-month unlock period. Core contributors are on the longest timeline, with a 24-month cliff and a 48-month unlock period.
Token Purchasers: Received 2.5 million ZKJ (5.4% of the unlocks) in Q1.
Foundation Reserves: Received 10.8 million ZKJ (23.3% of the unlocks) in Q1.
Ecosystem and Network Incentives: Received 25.4 million ZKJ (54.6% of the unlocks) in Q1.
Community, airdrop, and other activities: Received 7.8 million ZKJ (16.8% of the unlocks) in Q1.
Token Functions
The ZKJ token serves three key functions in Polyhedra’s ecosystem:
Fees: Developers and applications utilize ZKJ to pay for Polyhedra’s zk proof services and zkBridge cross-chain transaction fees. This includes fees for LayerZero zkBridge Oracle/DVN transactions.ZKJ is also used as the gas token on EXPchain.
Staking: Users can stake ZKJ to participate in transaction verification and other network activities to earn rewards and ecosystem incentives.
Governance: Staking ZKJ allows users to vote on network governance proposals.
Governance
Polyhedra Network’s governance is housed on Snapshot, where Network Expansion Proposals (NEPs) are discussed and voted on. In Q1, one proposal was voted on:
Integrate Plume Network with Polyhedra zkBridge (NEP-11): Passed with 99.2% of the “Yes” votes, NEP-11 will integrate zkBridge with Plume Network to enhance interoperability across Plume’s rapidly expanding RWA and DeFi ecosystem. This integration strengthens zkBridge’s utility in high-growth, onchain environments and unlocks new composability opportunities for tokenized assets. With over 10 million unique addresses, 280+ million transactions, 180+ protocols, and 3+ million native crypto users, Plume’s global, permissionless, and DeFi-ready infrastructure brings network value and community alignment to Polyhedra’s omnichain vision.
Roadmap
Polyhedra’s roadmap is broken into four eras: (i) Expansion Era, (ii) Enhancement Era, (iii) Innovation Era, and (iv) Future Era.
On March 26, 2025, zkPyTorch, a zkML development framework to unlock basic zkML use cases, went live. This advancement allows for verifiable inference for real models to occur on and offchain with no cryptography required by the end user.
Of the Expansion Era (Q1’25) goals, six continue to be in development, including:
Virgo++: Prover enhancements to unlock a faster prover.
Optimized Verifier: Verifier enhancements to unlock smaller proof sizes.
zkCuda: Circuit language to unlock log space uniform circuits.
Onchain App: To be Announced.
ExPoS: Omni-chain staking (not under development yet).
Proof of Intelligence: Adding ML to the EXPchain.
Scale Developer Ecosystem: Creating a friendly developer toolchain to expand the ecosystem.
Closing Summary
Q1 2025 was a big quarter for Polyhedra Network, highlighted by technological advancements, ecosystem expansion, and early traction for EXPchain. The Exphoria upgrade in March improved EXPchain’s performance, reducing average block times from 12s to 3s and aligning with Ethereum’s latest updates. zkPyTorch was released, enabling verifiable AI inference, and Expander v1.0.0 was launched. The network saw a peak of 3.7 million transactions on March 13, 2025, and reached 64.8 million total transactions with a 31.33% daily active user rate throughout the quarter. Staking remained steady at 9.5 million ZKJ, while the ZKJ token price rose 11.2% QoQ to $2.3, with a circulating market cap of $623.8 million.
The Polyhedra ecosystem broadened through over 20 new partnerships, including collaborations with Revolut, Coinfy, Bima, Umy, and notable AI and Web3 projects like Pika, Aleda, zkAGI, and Mind Network. The EXPchain devnet launch and integration of diverse projects, from AI gaming to decentralized lending, signaled expanding use cases. Governance also progressed with the passing of NEP-11 to integrate Plume Network via zkBridge. Looking ahead, six of the eight Expansion Era roadmap goals remain in development, underscoring Polyhedra’s focus on scalability, developer tools, and zkML-driven infrastructure. Together, these milestones position Polyhedra at the forefront of verifiable AI and cross-chain blockchain innovation.
This report was commissioned by the Polyhedra Network. All content was produced independently by the author(s) and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of Messari, Inc. or the organization that requested the report. The commissioning organization may have input on the content of the report, but Messari maintains editorial control over the final report to retain data accuracy and objectivity. Author(s) may hold cryptocurrencies named in this report. This report is meant for informational purposes only. It is not meant to serve as investment advice. You should conduct your own research and consult an independent financial, tax, or legal advisor before making any investment decisions. Past performance of any asset is not indicative of future results. Please see our Terms of Service for more information.
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Jeremy is a research analyst at Messari with interests in Infra, DeFi, and Enterprise adoption. Prior to joining Messari, Jeremy worked as an analyst at Fidelity Digital Assets.
Jeremy is a research analyst at Messari with interests in Infra, DeFi, and Enterprise adoption. Prior to joining Messari, Jeremy worked as an analyst at Fidelity Digital Assets.
