Dusk Network is shaking up regulated finance with a privacy-focused approach. It lets institutions tokenize securities and still tick all the compliance boxes for global standards like MiCA and GDPR. The heart of it is the Confidential Security Contract (XSC) standard, which lets you create tokenized assets that stay private but can still be audited. Auditors get what they need through zero-knowledge proofs, so sensitive info stays locked down.
The team kicked things off in Amsterdam back in 2018. Their two-layer architecture splits asset handling from smart contract execution, so things run smoother for treasury and asset management. Developers get access to the Rusk VM for confidential computing, and with Citadel’s ZK-KYC framework, users can prove they’re legit without spilling all their personal details. Onboarding gets a whole lot easier.
And this isn’t just pitch deck talk—there are real numbers behind it. Dusk has 464 million tokens in circulation out of a billion, with a market cap around $115 million and daily trading volume close to $100 million. They’ve teamed up with partners like Quantoz to bring the MiCA-approved EURQ stablecoin on-chain, making euro settlements simple and compliant. For DeFi pros, this means they can finally work with tokenized bonds and equities that actually protect privacy and don’t come with endless regulatory headaches. It’s a big step forward for institutions who want real innovation, not just hype.
