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Horizen

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News

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The funding landscape for African startups fluctuated throughout 2025, with notable highs and lows across the quarters.
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Tando Nkube

Record Number of African Startups Secure Major Funding in 2025

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In 2025, nearly 500 African startups successfully raised significant funding, with 215 startups securing at least $1 million each, marking a 114% increase from 2024.
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Tando Nkube

African Startups Achieve Record $32 Billion in Funding for 2025

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African startups raised a record $32 billion in funding in 2025, marking a significant recovery and growth in the startup ecosystem.
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Nguyen Van Long

Sui Network Receives Boost with Wanchain Bridge Support

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The Sui network's liquidity and utility have significantly improved with the recent announcement of Wanchain adding support for the Sui bridge.
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What is Horizen?

Horizen (ZEN) offers developers the tools to create private or public blockchains.

Contents:

About Horizen (ZEN)

Horizen — a zero-knowledge blockchain network, based on the industry's largest node infrastructure. Blockchain interoperability is enabled by the Zendoo protocol, which uses SNARK verification and provides full flexibility in terms of sidechain type, consensus, speed and privacy. Cryptographic verification of network chains offers massive scale, and the network currently supports up to 10,000 side chains with a bandwidth limit of 10 million TPS.

Horizen's founders are:

  • Rob Viglione;
  • Rolf Versluis;

Horizen's native cryptocurrency, ZEN, is a mineable PoW coin, currently traded on major exchanges, including Coinbase, Bittrex and Binance. ZEN can be staked to participate in the full Horizen network of nearly 50,000 nodes.

Protocol uniqueness

Horizen — a fully decentralized zero-knowledge blockchain ecosystem that offers scalability and additional privacy features. Horizen uses Zendoo, a sidechain system that allows you to deploy thousands of independent side chains that interact with the main chain and with each other. Zendoo turns Horizen into an unlimited blockchain network. Developers can deploy their blockchains in the ecosystem, using various SDKs. The first SDK, Blaze and Latus, deploys blockchains, based on the provably secure IOHK Ouroboros proof-of-stake protocol.

The first set of SDK:

Blaze Offers high speed chains that announce their own certifiers and can run up to 1000 TPS.
Latus Uses SNARK recursive composition for complete decentralization.

The company's blockchain network provides a unique sidechain solution that allows developers to create their own scalable blockchains with the ability to support tens of thousands of transactions per second while maintaining true decentralization across tens of thousands of nodes. Horizen also offers unique additional privacy features.

Security of Horizen (ZEN)

The project uses zk-SNARK technology to provide communication between side chains and the main chain, while the main chain does not know the sidechain logic and internal structure. This approach completely separates the main chain from the logic of the secondary chain and allows the entire system to scale possible applications and global transaction throughput.

On the other hand, the use of zk-SNARKs on side chains allows developers to create applications that preserve user privacy, allowing a wide range of real-world use cases to be developed on their network. The blockchain platform uses a combination of Proof-of-Work on its main chain and Proof-of-Stake on its side chains. Each PoS sidechain, built on the Horizen network, is tied to the main chain and runs simultaneously. The main chain acts as the “engine of truth” for all blockchains, built on the network.

About the ZEN token

The protocol has one of the largest node networks with a layered node system. Operators receive 20% of the total subsidy per block, and a network of dispersed nodes provides a vast infrastructure to run the ecosystem of both apps and sidechains.

Horizen has a maximum supply of 21,000,000 coins. ZEN are available for trading on major cryptocurrency exchanges such as:

  • Coinbase;
  • Bittrex;
  • Huobi Global;
  • HitBTC;
  • Binance;

Tokens, allocated for liquidity management, are mostly locked.

Important disclaimer: The information presented on the Dapp.Expert portal is intended solely for informational purposes and does not constitute an investment recommendation or a guide to action in the field of cryptocurrencies. The Dapp.Expert team is not responsible for any potential losses or missed profits associated with the use of materials published on the site. Before making investment decisions in cryptocurrencies, we recommend consulting a qualified financial advisor.