At the beginning of 2026, the sectors of asset tokenization and compliant DeFi suddenly gained popularity. Dusk, as a privacy-focused Layer 1 blockchain, is perfectly positioned at this crest.

Since its establishment in 2018, Dusk has been dedicated to building on-chain infrastructure for traditional finance. Their approach is clear: to integrate privacy, auditability, and institutional compatibility through a modular architecture. In simple terms, to make banks comfortable with on-chain operations.

In the second week of January this year, DuskEVM mainnet officially launched, marking a watershed moment. Essentially, developers can now deploy applications directly using the familiar Solidity tools, while also benefiting from Dusk’s underlying privacy protections. What were the previous issues? When institutions develop RWA or DeFi products on public chains, either privacy is insufficient, revealing transaction details, or the lack of compliance mechanisms prevents passing regulatory scrutiny.

Dusk addresses this dilemma with the Hedger protocol: integrating zero-knowledge proofs and homomorphic encryption within EVM, making transaction content private by default, while regulators can verify KYC/AML compliance as needed. It sounds simple, but this is the design philosophy of "privacy and compliance coexist"—precisely meeting the needs of banks, asset management firms, and exchanges.

Looking ahead to 2026, DuskTrade, a major application, is set to launch, seen as a critical step for Dusk in the RWA field.