Railgun Advances Private DeFi Infrastructure on Ethereum - Crypto Economy

TL;DR

• Railgun is building a private DeFi infrastructure on Ethereum based on 0zk addresses that conceal balances and transactions from the public network.
• It allows users to interact with DeFi protocols using private balances without modifying smart contracts or liquidity pools and has already been tested on the CowSwap frontend.
• The system relies on Mechs and Zodiac Pilot to execute swaps, lending, and staking from private addresses and currently manages close to $100M in funds.

Railgun continues developing a confidential DeFi infrastructure on Ethereum built around private 0zk addresses. The project enables interaction with existing DeFi applications without exposing balances, capital movements, or transactions on the public ledger. The system uses zero-knowledge proofs and relies on Ethereum as its security layer.

The core of the rollout is Railgun_connect, a universal connector that allows DeFi protocols to be used from private balances without altering contracts or liquidity pools. The tool has already been tested on the CowSwap frontend, one of the most widely used DEX aggregators in the ecosystem. The goal is to integrate private address functionality directly into protocol frontends.


Railgun Tested Its System on CowSwap

Railgun_connect is designed to support swaps, borrowing, lending, stablecoin staking, liquid staking tokens, non-atomic transactions, and complex operations. Its architecture avoids the use of bridges or isolated execution environments and allows existing Ethereum capital to operate privately within the same ecosystem.

The architecture is built around two main components. The first is Mechs, NFTs that contain 0x addresses capable of holding tokens, executing smart contracts, and maintaining DeFi positions. When a Mech is transferred to a 0zk address, all interactions associated with that NFT become private. From the perspective of smart contracts, the Mech functions as a standard address.

The second component is Zodiac Pilot, a tool developed by Gnosis Guild. Zodiac Pilot connects the Mech to the protocol frontend, simulates on-chain calls, and executes the transaction. During the process, the wallet generates a ZK proof of ownership of the Mech NFT, and the RAILGUN Adapt Relay contract manages execution without exposing the balance of the private address.


Addressing DeFi Complexities

The system supports complex DeFi use cases, including collateral management and liquidations, by tracking positions through Mechs without revealing actual balances. Railgun maintains filters for flagged addresses, although the structure allows deposits to occur before exploits are detected.

As of January 2026, Railgun’s private system manages approximately $100M in funds, primarily in WETH, USDT, and USDC. The protocol operates on Ethereum and has expanded to BSC, Polygon, and Solana, focusing on chains with high DeFi liquidity.

The prototype is already live in Terminal Wallet through a CLI interface integrated with the project’s SDK. The tool remains in a testing phase ahead of full integration into DeFi protocol frontends