Aztec Launches Decentralized and Private Ethereum L2 on Mainnet, Almost

Why It Matters

Aztec’s launch demonstrates a rare fully decentralized L2 architecture, reducing reliance on centralized operators and potentially setting a new governance model for rollups, while its token sale and staking mechanisms aim to bootstrap liquidity and community participation, influencing the broader Ethereum scaling ecosystem.

Summary

Ethereum layer‑2 Aztec launched its "Ignition" mainnet on Wednesday, delivering a fully decentralized consensus chain that can produce blocks but currently lacks the smart‑contract execution layer. The network is the first community‑launched L2, with the Aztec Foundation, core team and investors barred from running nodes, staking, or governing for the next 12 months, and ownership of the rollup contract already renounced. Staking opened simultaneously, with 107.2 million AZTEC tokens staked by community members at a minimum of 200,000 AZTEC per stake, while the ongoing whitelisted token sale has raised $2.77 million from 2,209 bidders and will close on Dec. 1 before a public sale. The sale will allocate 1.547 billion tokens (14.95% of supply) at a $0.03 floor price, valuing the project at roughly $310 million, and a Uniswap liquidity pool is slated to launch on Dec. 6.