Risks in zkSync Era’s 2026 Elastic Chain hyperbridge expansion

Governance centralization and account abstraction vulnerabilities

Matter Labs transitioned $ZK from governance to utility-driven value through interoperability fees and enterprise licensing. This 2026 shift directs revenue into the Token Assembly for buybacks, staking rewards, and ecosystem development. This centralization of value accrual clashes with the native account abstraction design. The current account abstraction design allows a contract to act as a top-level account to pay fees, but the system faces a massive DoS threat if millions of transactions with failed verification steps flood the mempool. In account abstraction, the result of a transaction validation can change because of the execution of a previous one, so the validation and execution steps must be done sequentially for the currently forming block. You should remember that nonces in transactions can interfere with shared contracts like Uniswap or Tornado Cash. Because current mempool rules use nonces to sort or override transactions, privacy-preserving applications cannot work conveniently. In a previous audit, researchers found a high-risk vulnerability where the MsgValueSimulator could bypass the onlySelf check when receiving a non-zero msg.value. This bypass allows a contract to call its own functions with manipulated registers. The vulnerability uses the EfficientCall.rawCall function to simulate system_call_byref opcodes, which writes to the r3-r5 registers. If the to address is the MsgValueSimulator address, it will reenter itself with a changed register, allowing a contract to send a different or greater value to a different address. The combination of centralized tokenomics and account abstraction flaws makes the 2026 expansion highly unstable.

Sequencer revenue opacity and on-ramp friction

Matter Labs controls the sequencer and manages the revenue generated from Prividium enterprise deployments. While the 2026 roadmap links Prividium revenue to ecosystem growth, the exact flow of sequencer fees remains opaque to outside observers. This lack of transparency contrasts with the difficulties users face when attempting to use Stripe for crypto on-ramps. Stripe integration requires specific account approvals and regional access before a product can launch. An embedded flow starts on the server, where the product creates a session and supplies the client with data to render the Stripe component. Developers must build test cases for expired quotes, unsupported banks, and pending identity checks. If a quote grows old, the developer must design a visible refresh state and require confirmation of the new amount. Matter Labs previously faced backlash when it applied to trademark the term "ZK" on February 27, 2024. Competitors like StarkWare and Polygon called it a transparent attempt to claim ownership over a public good. Industry figures, including two co-inventors of ZK proofs, signed a statement on Github accusing the firm of violating the ethos of crypto and academia. Matter Labs claimed the trademark would ensure "the term ‘ZK’ can be used freely in the context of ‘ZK Sync’, ‘ZK Stack’ and other related names."

Elastic Network expansion and hyperbridge stability

The Elastic Network uses the ZK Stack to allow multiple chains to share liquidity through hyperbridges. ADI Chain joined this network using Airbender technology to deliver Ethereum block proofs in 35 seconds using a single GPU. This high-speed, open-source RISC-V prover supports the Ethereum Virtual Machine, EraVM, and WebAssembly. The Atlas upgrade enabled the protocol to process 15,000 transactions per second with one-second finality. The upcoming Fusaka upgrade aims to double throughput to 30,000 transactions per second.

The integration of new chains depends on the stability of the ZK Stack and the centralized control of the $ZK token ecosystem. ADI Chain launched its testnet on August 21, and it will host the UAE dirham-backed stablecoin being developed by Abu Dhabi institutions like ADQ, IHC, and First Abu Dhabi Bank. The move to prioritize wallet users over protocol users in the account abstraction design creates friction for decentralized applications. This decision specifically targets the experience of multisig users over protocol users to prevent nonce interference. Can the Elastic Network maintain liquidity across diverse chains if the underlying governance remains concentrated in Matter Labs?