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Aleo

A layer 1 blockchain, live since September 2024, whose programs run on the user's device and are checked with zero-knowledge proofs, keeping balances in encrypted records unless they are made public.

LivePrivacy blockchain

Aleo's mainnet has run since its genesis block of 4 September 2024, announced on 18 September 2024; the USDCx and USAD stablecoins are live on it, and Provable's Shield Swap has been in early access since 17 August 2026.

Launched
4 Sep 2024
Token
ALEO
Chains
Aleo

Checked on 23 Oct 2026. Information only, not investment advice.

How it works

Aleo is a layer 1 blockchain for private applications, built on the Zexe design for private computation, published in 2018 to extend the model of Zerocash, the protocol behind Zcash, to smart contracts; Zexe's co-author Howard Wu founded the company behind Aleo in 2020. Programs, written in the Leo language or Aleo instructions, are run off chain by the user: the user's device executes a function and produces a zero-knowledge proof, which the network checks without running the function again. Private state is held in records, units of encrypted data owned by one address that only the owner, or someone holding the owner's view key, can decrypt, and spending a record publishes a serial number that marks it as spent without revealing which record it was. Public state is held in mappings, which anyone can read and which are updated on chain. Each input and output of a function can be public or private, so one program can mix both, and the native token, ALEO, can be held either in private records or as a public balance.

The network runs on AleoBFT, a proof-of-stake consensus designed with the help of a16z crypto's research team, in which validators backed by staked ALEO produce blocks, while provers earn rewards by solving a puzzle with their hardware without staking: Aleo said more than 100,000 GPUs were doing so at launch. The genesis block is dated 4 September 2024, and Aleo announced mainnet on 18 September 2024 with 350 applications deployed. Since early 2026 the network's focus has been private stablecoins: USDCx, backed one to one by USDC locked in Circle's xReserve contract on Ethereum, and USAD, issued by Paxos Labs and backed by USDG, both live on mainnet, with support in Utila's institutional wallets from July 2026 and in the Ledger Wallet app from October 2026, and Provable's Shield Swap exchange in early access since August 2026.

Some things stay visible. Each transition names the program and function it calls, so an observer can see what kind of action was taken even when its inputs are private, and Aleo's documentation says that giving functions random names only obscures this. Public balances, mappings and every public input and output can be read by anyone, and moving ALEO or tokens between public and private form shows the amount at that boundary; Utila's wallets, for example, keep a separate public USDCx balance for deposits to exchanges. Applications choose what to expose: Provable's Shield Swap keeps trade amounts, prices and timing public. An Aleo research newsletter reported that every USDCx transaction includes a compliance record that Circle can access for regulatory or law enforcement requests.

TVL and market cap

Aleo has no chart on this site. It is not in the protocol list, whose TVL figures come from DefiLlama, and its token, ALEO, is not in the privacy-coin basket, whose market caps come from Coin Metrics, so PriFi.info holds no daily series for it. The value held in private balances on a privacy network is encrypted, so it cannot be measured from public data; the Watchlist explains why such networks are not counted in the site's figures.

What it hides and what it does not

What it hides

  • The contents of records, such as balances and the amounts of private transfers, which only the owner or a holder of the owner's view key can read.
  • Which record a transaction spends, since spending publishes only a serial number.
  • The private inputs and outputs of a function, and the address of the user calling it.

What it does not hide

  • Which program and function each transition calls.
  • Public balances, mappings and every public input or output, which anyone can read.
  • The amount whenever ALEO or tokens move between public and private form.
  • Whatever an application makes public: Provable's Shield Swap keeps trade amounts, prices and timing public.
  • Records, to anyone the owner gives a view key, and for USDCx a compliance record that Circle can access, according to an Aleo research newsletter.

Drawn from how it works, above; the sources are listed at the end of the page. Where privacy still leaks explains the patterns, such as timing and amounts, that can give users of any design away.

Audits

Five security reviews, oldest first, with what each covered and found. Dates are when each report was issued, unless the entry says otherwise.

DateFirmScope and findings
Trail of Bits

Review of snarkVM, Aleo's virtual machine and proof system library; 29 issues, 2 medium, 6 low and 21 informational.

Sources: snarkVM security review Trail of Bits; Aleo Systems snarkVM security review (report) GitHub (Trail of Bits publications)
Trail of Bits

The synthesizer and finalize logic of snarkVM and the inter-node communication and Bullshark consensus implementation of snarkOS, Aleo's node software; 31 issues, 1 medium, 4 low, 23 informational and 3 undetermined, including a consensus function that almost always returned false. Aleo said it resolved them, although several were marked won't fix or nothing to fix.

Sources: Aleo security review (snarkVM, snarkOS, Bullshark BFT) Trail of Bits; Aleo completes security audits of snarkOS and snarkVM Aleo, 29 Dec 2023
zkSecurity

The snarkVM synthesizer and, separately, the snarkOS consensus (its Narwhal and Bullshark implementation, consensus logic and ledger service), with a week-long review of the fixes on 19 February 2024 that found them satisfactory; Aleo said 8 issues were resolved.

Sources: Audit of Aleo's consensus zkSecurity, 30 Oct 2023; Audit of Aleo's synthesizer zkSecurity; Aleo completes security audits of snarkOS and snarkVM Aleo, 29 Dec 2023
NCC Group

Implementation review of snarkVM, covering the synthesizer, algorithms and ledger: 17 findings, of which 15 were fixed at retest, one medium-severity finding was accepted as a risk and one informational finding was not fixed.

Sources: Public Report: Aleo snarkVM Implementation Review NCC Group, 13 Dec 2023; Aleo completes security audits of snarkOS and snarkVM Aleo, 29 Dec 2023
NCC Group

Review of snarkOS and its consensus mechanism, based on a partially synchronous version of the Bullshark protocol, carried out in November 2023 and retested in January 2024; 7 findings.

Source: Public Report: Aleo snarkOS Implementation and Consensus Mechanism Review NCC Group, 8 Feb 2024

Incidents

None found when this profile was checked on 23 Oct 2026.

Milestones

11 milestones, oldest first.

  1. Aleo announced a $200 million Series B led by Kora Management and SoftBank Vision Fund 2, valuing it at $1.45 billion and bringing its total funding to $228 million, ahead of a mainnet then planned for later in 2022.

    Sources: Aleo Raises $200M in Series B to Expand Products and Services Built on Private by Default Blockchain Based Platform Business Wire, 7 Feb 2022; Privacy-minded Blockchain Aleo Raises $200M Prior to Mainnet Launch Blockworks

  2. Aleo said 18 weeks of audits of snarkOS and snarkVM by Trail of Bits, NCC Group and zkSecurity were complete and that it was ready for mainnet.

    Source: Aleo completes security audits of snarkOS and snarkVM Aleo, 29 Dec 2023

  3. The Aleo mainnet genesis block was produced.

    Source: Aleo mainnet block 0 Provable explorer API, 4 Sep 2024

  4. Aleo announced that mainnet was live, with 350 applications deployed and more than 100,000 GPUs solving the prover puzzle.

    Sources: Aleo Mainnet is Here Aleo, 18 Sep 2024; Aleo Mainnet: Everything you need to know Aleo, 17 Sep 2024

  5. Immunefi's bug bounty for Aleo added snarkVM and snarkOS to its scope, with a total network shutdown among the critical impacts it rewards.

    Source: Aleo bug bounty scope Immunefi

  6. Aleo and Circle launched USDCx on the Aleo testnet through Circle's xReserve.

    Sources: Aleo to Launch USDCx, a Private and Programmable Stablecoin Built for Real World Use Business Wire, 9 Dec 2025; USDCx on Aleo testnet via Circle xReserve Circle

  7. USDCx went live on Aleo mainnet, aimed first at institutional users, according to an Aleo research newsletter; Aleo's own USDCx page gives no launch date.

    Sources: Aleo: programmable privacy Alea Research; Aleo and Circle Launch USDCx Aleo

  8. Paxos Labs and the Aleo Network Foundation announced that USAD, a stablecoin backed one to one by USDG, was live on Aleo mainnet.

    Sources: Paxos Labs, Aleo Network Foundation Announce USAD Stablecoin Live on Aleo Mainnet Business Wire, 11 Feb 2026; USAD on Aleo Aleo

  9. Utila's institutional wallets added Aleo's private stablecoins, USDCx and USAD, with private and public balances and shielding and unshielding fees sponsored by Utila.

    Source: Aleo Partners with Utila to Bring Privacy-Preserving Stablecoins to Institutional Wallets Aleo, 28 Jul 2026

  10. Provable opened early access to Shield Swap, a confidential exchange on Aleo, which has its own profile on this site.

    Sources: Provable Opens Early Access to Shield Swap, a Confidential Trading Venue Built for Compliance Provable, 17 Aug 2026; Shield Swap docs: Confidentiality model Provable

  11. USDCx on Aleo became available in the Ledger Wallet app, after Ledger added Aleo's native assets on 13 May 2026.

    Source: USDCx on Aleo is now live in Ledger Aleo, 1 Oct 2026

Funding

Two sources of funding, oldest first. Amounts are in US dollars; a dash means the sources give no US dollar figure.

DateRoundAmountInvestors

Series A, led by a16z (reported by ForkLog, quoting Aleo's announcement)

Source: Privacy-focused Aleo project raises $28 million from a16z, Galaxy Digital and Polychain Capital ForkLog, 20 Apr 2021

 $28M a16z, Placeholder, Coinbase Ventures, Galaxy Digital, Polychain Capital, Scalar Capital, Slow Ventures, Variant Capital, Balaji Srinivasan, Ethereal Ventures

Series B, led by Kora Management and SoftBank Vision Fund 2, at a $1.45 billion valuation, bringing total funding to $228 million

Sources: Aleo Raises $200M in Series B to Expand Products and Services Built on Private by Default Blockchain Based Platform Business Wire, 7 Feb 2022; Privacy-focused blockchain project Aleo raises $200 million from SoftBank, Tiger, and others The Block

 $200M Kora Management, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Tiger Global, Sea Capital, Samsung Next, Slow Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz

Risks

Aleo's privacy depends on how each program is written and on users holding value in private records: public balances and mappings are fully visible, moving value between public and private form reveals the amount, and every transition shows which program and function it called. Stablecoins on Aleo are issued by companies that keep their own controls, and an Aleo research newsletter reported that each USDCx transaction carries a compliance record that Circle can access. The network is young, its proofs rely on parameters from a trusted setup ceremony, and a large share of the token supply went to early backers (34%) and to the Aleo Network Foundation and Provable (16%), so control of staking and governance can be concentrated. Applications built on Aleo can expose more than the chain does: Provable's Shield Swap, for example, publishes trade amounts, prices and timing.

Sources

The documents this profile rests on. Each audit, incident, milestone and funding round above also links its own sources.

Checked on 23 Oct 2026. Confidence: confirmed. Information only, not investment, legal or tax advice.

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