As the Rollup narrative dominates Ethereum, the Bitcoin Layer2 ecosystem is undergoing significant structural development.
In September 2025, BitcoinZK announced that its native governance token, ZYRA, would be officially listed on Gate. This is not merely a listing eventâit is the projectâs first constitutional invitation to the market under its vision of a âBitcoin Constitutional System.â
At this moment, BitcoinZK is seeking to broaden the definition of Bitcoin Layer2 from a scaling solution to a governance-enabled framework that integrates Bitcoin nativity, ZK verification, and institutional governance tools
ZK Rollup Ă Sovereign Design: ZK as the Only Viable Path for Bitcoin Layer2
As BitcoinZK CMO Brian Lau noted, Bitcoinâs scripting system cannot natively support smart contractâbased Rollup verification. This means all L2 scaling designs inevitably introduce trust assumptions.
BitcoinZKâs core design proposes â100% ZK proof generation Ă 100% public verificationâ:
- All user actions and L1âL2 cross-chain activities are validated by ZK-SNARKs to guarantee their correctness
- The verification process is fully open and can be audited by any third party
With foundational support from zkBridge and Threshold Network, BitcoinZK brings BTC assets into the EVM environment, enabling a fusion of BTC Gas and EVM smart contracts, laying the groundwork for programmable Bitcoin in DeFi and asset issuance.
ZYRA: Not a Gas Token, but a âDigital Constitutionâ
Unlike many âutility tokens,â ZYRA is not designed for paymentsâit exists for governance.
According to the official governance model:
- ZYRA grants holders the rights to propose, vote, allocate treasury, and select Sequencers
- Governance is executed entirely on-chain, with voting outcomes automatically triggered by smart contracts
- The total supply is 1 billion tokens, with 50% distributed via device mining, and 80% of cross-chain fees and Gas charges allocated to buyback and burn
Therefore, ZYRA functions primarily as a governance credential within Bitcoin Layer2âfocused on decision-making and treasury allocation, rather than payments.
Gate Listing: Token as Institution, Market as Consensus
The listing of ZYRA on Gate marks the first direct connection between the BitcoinZK ecosystem and mainstream markets. Prior to this, ZYRAâs narrative lived primarily within developer communities, technical whitepapers, and offline scenes across Asian markets.
This collision between a âsovereign governance tokenâ and a speculative marketplace will serve as a stress testâand may become the inflection point where the narrative gains broader acceptance.
CMO Brian Lau emphasized that the listing is intended as the starting point for global community governanceânot the end. Following this, the ecosystem will expand into more on-chain governance experiments, DeFi construction, and RWA bridging mechanisms centered around ZYRA.
Beyond Layer2: A Governance Testbed
BitcoinZKâs global strategy has long evolved beyond technical development into scenario-driven collaboration:
- Strategic partnerships with infrastructure leaders such as Crust Network, Protocol Labs, and ARO Network
- Community building, technical evangelism, and offline hackathons launched in cities like Hong Kong, Seoul, and Dubai
The Gate listing of ZYRA is merely the beginning of the constitutional system. BitcoinZKâs medium- to long-term roadmap includes:
- Introducing ZK verification to RWA scenariosâenhancing asset cleanliness, bridge integrity, and privacy
- Launching incentive models for on-chain governance, enabling âcode-driven execution of consensus outcomesâ
- Expanding zkBridgeâs external verifiability to become the foundational bridge layer from BTC to global DeFi
A Real-World Experiment in Next-Generation Bitcoin Governance
If Ethereumâs Layer2 is built for performance, then BitcoinZKâs Layer2 is about reconstructing a full institutional framework:
- Verification logic (ZK)
- Execution pathway (EVM)
- Governance model (ZYRA)
Within this architecture, ZYRA is not just a listed tokenâit is a vote-bearing governance credential, a publicly priced institutional atomic unit.
BitcoinZK is attempting to answer a single question:
Whether introducing a governance system can enable Bitcoin Layer2 to become more programmable, governable, and verifiable?
The Gate listing simply marks the moment this question began to be asked by the global market.