ZKsync creator Alex Gluchowski has proposed a significant revamp of the ZKsync (ZK) governance token, advocating for a shift towards prioritizing "economic utility". In a post on Tuesday, November 4, 2025, on the ZKsync forum, Gluchowski, who is also the co-founder and CEO of Matter Labs, the firm behind ZKsync, argued that while the ZK token effectively served its purpose in the project's early stages, the network has rapidly evolved, and it is now crucial for the token to capture network value and drive further ecosystem adoption.
Gluchowski emphasized the importance of funds flowing back into the "network's economy" to enable continuous infrastructure upgrades, security enhancements, public goods funding, and long-term independence. The core objective is to establish a self-reinforcing economic loop where increased adoption enhances network resources, which in turn benefits all participants.
The revamped ZK token would derive value on-chain from protocol-native fees generated from interoperability and other core settlement and messaging functions. Off-chain, value would be generated via licensing agreements for enterprise software components. While ZKsync's stack remains open-source and free to use, Gluchowski suggests that large enterprises adopting community-built infrastructure for complex uses, such as treasury integrations, should have agreements in place to provide value back to the ecosystem.
All generated value will be directed into a governance control system, which will be used for ZK buybacks, token burns, staking incentives, and ecosystem funding. The proposal aims to directly link network usage to the token's value, pushing ZKsync towards becoming a self-reinforcing and sustainable economic system. The move addresses the lack of tangible value in governance tokens.
According to a press release, the proposal will see value accrue to the ZK token via its on-chain interoperability fees and off-chain enterprise licensing income. These revenue sources will fund staking rewards, ecosystem funding, and a buyback and burn mechanism.
This proposal follows ZKsync's Atlas upgrade, which redefined how Ethereum-based Layer-2 networks exchange liquidity. Fees from licenses will feed back into the same governance-controlled system that manages on-chain revenues, maintaining a unified economic loop. In the proposed model, every transaction or service using the ZKsync network would generate value that flows back into a decentralized treasury governed by token holders. The treasury would then use the proceeds for buying back ZK from the market, distributing staking rewards to node operators, and funding ecosystem growth.
The market has responded positively to the announcement, with ZK jumping over 14% on the day. ZK is currently trading at around $0.05201, with a trading volume exceeding $300 million in the past 24 hours.
