ZKsync announced on Sunday that it will phase out ZKsync Lite, the original zero-knowledge rollup launched on Ethereum in 2020, at some point next year.

The team said this is a planned and orderly shutdown for a system that has fulfilled its purpose, and clarified that the deprecation will not affect any other ZKsync products. Detailed timelines and migration guidance will be released in the coming year.

Launched in June 2020 as ZKsync 1.0, ZKsync Lite was designed as a payments-focused Layer 2, supporting token transfers, atomic swaps, and NFT minting, but lacking smart contract capabilities—limiting its usefulness compared to later rollup designs.

Despite that limitation, the protocol played a key role as an early proving ground for zero-knowledge technology on Ethereum. The team said ZKsync Lite demonstrated foundational ideas for building production-ready ZK systems and helped pave the way for the next generation.

According to L2BEAT, about $50 million in user funds remain bridged to ZKsync Lite, although the network now processes fewer than 200 daily operations. ZKsync emphasized that funds remain safe and withdrawals to Layer 1 will continue to function throughout the shutdown process.

Matter Labs—developer of ZKsync—halted development of Lite in March 2023 when it launched ZKsync Era, a full-featured zkEVM capable of running arbitrary smart contracts. At the time, The Block described Era as Ethereum’s “Holy Grail of scaling,” enabling developers to port existing applications without compromising security.

ZKsync stressed that the deprecation of Lite does not impact its broader ecosystem: “The next steps belong to systems built with the ZK Stack, Prividiums, and the wider ZKsync network.”

The announcement comes during a challenging period for ZKsync, following the sunset of its Ignite liquidity rewards program due to bearish market conditions, while the Aave DAO is considering deprecating its deployment on ZKsync Era because of low revenue.