Zircuit Finance unveils institutional yield platform with Monarq, FalconX, and Forteus to restore trust in onchain finance. Zircuit, a zero-knowledge blockchain backed by YZiLabs, Dragonfly, and Pantera, today announced the launch of Zircuit Finance, a platform to address the credit and security risks in DeFi. With $3 billion in assets secured to date, Zircuit Finance is a secure platform for institutional-grade strategies, starting with a stablecoin vault offering up to 11% APY on USDC and USDT, with plans to expand to other assets like BTC and ETH. The launch follows a series of industry setbacks that have eroded confidence in DeFi, due to persistent gaps in transparency, risk management, and security. Credit events resulting in more than $90 million in aggregate losses exposed the risks of lending to unvetted counterparties. Meanwhile, security incidents in November 2025 revealed that even established protocols can be vulnerable to hacks, resulting in losses of over $100 million, despite adherence to industry best practices. Together, these events highlight the need for stronger safeguards and more dependable infrastructure. Zircuit Finance was created to be that safe haven for onchain finance. "The future of DeFi isn't about chasing the highest yields, it's about building the most secure foundation for capital to grow," said Dr. Martin Derka, Co-Founder of Zircuit. "Zircuit Finance is part of a broader shift to create a more stable, transparent, and trusted onchain economy where users and institutional allocators can deploy large sums of capital efficiently and safely." To mitigate credit risk, Zircuit Finance partners exclusively with tier-one asset managers with multi-year track records and strong balance sheets. Each counterparty operates under a legal framework enforcing creditor rights, collateralization standards, and default covenants. Zircuit mandates frequent exposure reporting to provide real-time visibility into how capital is allocated and managed. Within this framework, Zircuit vaults allocate capital across both regulated and decentralized venues. A portion of assets will be managed by Monarq Asset Management, a regulated fund specializing in arbitrage and delta-neutral strategies with a history of disciplined risk management. Additional integrations include Aave and Morpho, diversifying exposure across venues and enabling efficient withdrawals. Zircuit is also partnering with Forteus, the FCA-regulated asset management arm of Numeus Group, to develop alpha-centric investment strategies generating risk-adjusted returns in Ethereum and Bitcoin. These strategies complement Zircuit's delta-neutral yield foundation managed under institutional-grade oversight. On the infrastructure side, Zircuit is integrating with FalconX as its prime broker and execution partner. FalconX's global platform provides institutional-grade custody, trade execution, and risk management, supporting efficient capital deployment and compliance-aligned operations across multiple venues. "As liquidity flows into DeFi at scale, the platforms that will lead are those delivering both performance and safety while bringing institutional-grade strategies accessible onchain. Our collaboration with Zircuit Finance reflects Monarq's commitment to powering that next phase of growth, anchored in deep liquidity, disciplined risk, and operational transparency," said Shiliang Tang, Managing Partner of Monarq Asset Management. Zircuit Finance's security architecture provides the foundation for all its institutional partnerships and yield strategies. At the smart contract layer, funds cannot exit the Zircuit Finance vault ecosystem without a depositor's signature. The vault infrastructure, being audited by Quantstamp and Zenith, is partially insured against smart contract vulnerabilities through Chainproof and incorporates LayerZero's secure messaging system to enable authenticated cross-chain communication. Complementing these measures, Zircuit integrates its proprietary AI-powered Sequencer Level Security for vaults deployed on the Zircuit network. Sequencer Level Security proactively detects and quarantines malicious transactions before block inclusion, extending protection beyond the smart contract layer to deliver institutional-grade defense at the blockchain level. Zircuit Finance is now in early access. To join the Zircuit Finance waitlist and learn more, visit zircuit.com/waitlist. Zircuit is the first zero-knowledge blockchain with integrated Sequencer Level Security. Founded in 2022 by security experts from Quantstamp, Zircuit provides the Layer-2 infrastructure for Zircuit Finance. In addition to powering Zircuit Finance, Zircuit maintains independent operations as a general-purpose rollup, prioritizing high performance with unmatched security, securing up to $3 billion in Total Value Locked.

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