zkLink’s Next Leap: Building the Peer-to-Peer AI Agent Trading Network

Since its inception, zkLink has pursued a singular vision — to build the most advanced and scalable trading infrastructure powered by zero-knowledge (ZK) technology. What began as an initiative to aggregate fragmented liquidity across blockchains is now evolving into a new chapter: an open, decentralized network designed for autonomous AI agents to trade, collaborate, and thrive.

Today, we’re proud to unveil our ambitious roadmap toward building a permissionless P2P AI Agent Trading Network. This is not just an extension of our previous work — it’s a transformation rooted in years of research, ZK innovation, and real-world deployment.

From zk Infrastructure to AI-Native Trading Protocols

zkLink was established to address a key challenge in the blockchain space: the fragmentation of liquidity across various networks. To tackle this, zkLink developed a unified trading infrastructure utilizing zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) technology, enabling seamless asset movement and interaction across multiple Layer 1 and Layer 2 blockchains.

To showcase this infrastructure in action, zkLink launched zkLink X, a cross-chain trading layer powering high-performance order book DEXs like ApeX Omni, one of the leading orderbook exchanges in the market. Built on zkLink’s omni-chain ZK scaling engine tailored for advanced trading applications, ApeX Omni has attracted over 10,000 users and surpassed $70 billion in trading volume, proving the scalability and robustness of zkLink’s technology in live trading environments.

Building on these foundations, zkLink unveiled zkLink Nova in March 2024. zkLink Nova is the industry's first aggregated Layer 3 zkEVM rollup network, built atop Ethereum and its Layer 2 rollups. It offers developers an EVM-compatible platform to deploy smart contracts, while users benefit from simplified asset transfers and access to a broad range of decentralized applications (dApps) without the need for multiple deployments or complex bridging processes.As of now, zkLink Nova has surpassed $78 million in TVL and onboarded over 1.3 million unique wallets.

Building upon this foundation, zkLink is now pioneering the development of a Peer-to-Peer (P2P) AI Agent Trading Network. This next-generation infrastructure is designed to support autonomous AI agents that can trade, negotiate, and collaborate without human intervention.

Why AI Agents Need a New Trading Network

AI agents don’t operate like humans. They act continuously, at high frequency, and across multiple domains — not just trading, but also price negotiation, data sharing, strategy coordination, and more. Legacy blockchains and centralized systems introduce latency, fees, and constraints incompatible with agent autonomy.

The new zkLink P2P Agent Network is designed to address this paradigm shift by enabling:

• Permissionless access: Any AI agent can join and interact freely, without whitelisting or KYC.
• Zero protocol fees by default: Agents pay only for essential costs like gas or hardware resources.
• Pluggable, modular protocols: Support for HTLC, 0x, TEE-secured swaps, and future agent-native protocols.
• Scalable pub/sub communication layer: Optimized for real-time discovery, encrypted routing, and Pub/Sub messaging among thousands of agents.
• Cross-ecosystem compatibility: Agents can interact across Ethereum, Solana, BNB Chain, and emerging appchains via service gateways.

This isn’t just a vision. This is the infrastructure we’re building, and it’s already in motion.

2025–2026: Building the Infrastructure for Machine-Driven Markets

📅 2025: Core Research and Infrastructure Development

Q2 2025

1. Finalize Technical Whitepaper: Complete detailed specifications of the layered architecture and provide mathematical proofs.
2. Cross-Chain Protocol Proof-of-Concept (PoC) Validation: Test the feasibility of atomic swaps using HTLC and TEE protocols within a private blockchain environment.

Q3-Q4 2025

Protocol Layer Reference Implementation:

• Release modular design specifications for the protocol layer, including communication layer and protocol layer interface standards.
• Open-source the foundational codebase of the communication layer on GitHub.
• Complete unit testing for HTLC v1.0 and the 0x order book protocol.

Protocol Layer Reference Implementation:

• Establish Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) for technical cooperation with three major public blockchains (e.g., Polygon, Avalanche).
• Build an early developer community with over 500 members on platforms like Discord and Telegram.

🧪 2026: Phased Testnet Validation

Q1–Q2 2026

Alpha Testnet (Closed Beta):

• Invite 50 institutional nodes to participate.
• Validate core functionalities of the communication layer, including node discovery, message routing, and encrypted transmission.
• Conduct stress testing to simulate the efficiency of DHT indexing under 10,000 nodes.

Protocol Iteration:

• Release HTLC v2.0, supporting dynamic cross-chain fee negotiation.
• Develop a pluggable protocol loader to enable sandboxed execution of third-party protocols.

Q3–Q4 2026

Beta Testnet (Public Beta):

• Open node registration with a target of 5,000 global nodes.
• Launch foundational protocols, including HTLC, 0x order book, and TEE hardware verification.
• Validate the economic model by simulating a service fee market for indexing nodes.

Expand Developer Ecosystem:

• Host the first global hackathon.
• Publish protocol development guides and auditing standards.

The Long-Term Vision: Enabling the Machine Economy

We believe the next phase of crypto will not be human-centric and instead will revolve around agents.

Just as zkLink played a role in unifying liquidity in the fragmented DeFi landscape, we’re now setting our sights on unifying autonomous agents across blockchains, apps, and domains. This goes beyond basic interoperability. We’re now building the backbone for agent-driven economies to run freely and efficiently.

In this P2P AI Agent Network, AI agents can:

• Trade in milliseconds.
• Discover and negotiate P2P deals without central matchmakers.
• Share computing power and data.
• Cooperate across chains, contracts, and consensus.

This is the first step towards a global, composable, decentralized machine economy.

Join the Future of Agent-Native Infrastructure

As AI agents become the new users of blockchain, zkLink is committed to building the rails they will run on.

If you’re an AI developer, DeFi builder, infrastructure provider, or just crypto-curious — now’s the time to get involved.

Let’s pioneer the infrastructure for agents, by agents — and unlock the next phase of decentralized evolution.

To support this vision, zkLink has secured multiple rounds of financing, with participation from leading investors including Coinbase Ventures, OKX Ventures, Crypto.com Ventures, Republic Crypto, SIG, Arrington Capital, BigBrain Holdings, and others.

To date, zkLink has successfully raised $23.1 million. This capital has been instrumental in accelerating the development of our ZK-powered infrastructure, expanding our team, and driving ecosystem growth.

The zkLink token, $ZKL, is currently listed on major exchanges such as Bybit, Gate.io, Bitget, Hashkey Global, Coinone, etc.

For more information and updates, visit our official website at zk.link and follow us on X (formerly Twitter).