Privacy track momentum hasn't cooled in the past six months, with ZEC's independent price action energizing the entire sector. But to be honest, most newly launched privacy projects are fleeting — TGE is the endgame, while veteran players like Monero that overemphasize privacy have paid the price — many exchanges have directly delisted them.

It's an old-school privacy public chain that quietly staged a comeback last year — Dusk's performance in 2025 is definitely worth watching.

The core pivot is upgrading from single-chain to modular architecture, and this iteration particularly emphasizes the balance between privacy and compliance. Let's see what they've accomplished over the past year.

In January 2025, DuskDS mainnet officially launched, marking a critical milestone for the project's settlement layer. The significance lies in opening a new direction — privacy + compliance RWA and DeFi ecosystem.

Throughout the first half, the project team was busy, with the network undergoing multiple rounds of upgrades and iterations, gradually evolving into a truly modular design. They also introduced DuskEVM testnet, enabling developers to use standard Solidity tools while supporting optional privacy features. Additionally, Hedger Alpha version began public testing, creating something interesting — confidential transactions where user balances and transaction amounts are encrypted, but auditable on-chain, achieving both privacy and compliance.

Moving into mid-to-late year, the ecosystem accelerated. A staking platform was preparing for launch, providing opportunities for users without nodes. The community DEX also kept pace.

That December wave saw Sozu mainnet launch, becoming the foundational infrastructure for Dusk DeFi ecosystem. Users can now directly stake to earn rewards with relatively smooth experience.

Overall, Dusk's roadmap this year is very clear — not purely chasing privacy metrics, but finding a balance point between privacy and compliance while building out the ecosystem. From the technical iteration frequency, the project is truly getting down to business.