2025 was a year of focus for Mina. While timelines shifted and priorities evolved, the work never stopped. The ecosystem stayed heads down in development shipping consistently.
Let’s take a look back at what the Mina community accomplished together.
Zooming Out
Despite organizational changes, the community builders drove meaningful on-chain activity, and the protocol continued to mature through steady iteration.
By the numbers:
- 53K+ zkApp Transactions
- 26K+ New Accounts Created
- 18 Protocol Releases
- 4 On-chain Votes Passed
Quiet progress, shipped consistently, added up to a strong groundwork for what comes next.
Mesa Testnet: Launched Nov 29th
In December, the Mina community unanimously approved four protocol optimizations via on-chain vote—clearing the path for the Mesa Upgrade coming to mainnet in 2026.
Mesa will deliver:
- Faster transactions through reduced slot times
- 4× more on-chain state for zkApps
- Expanded limits for events, actions, and account updates
The Mesa Testnet launched on November 29, giving validators and developers early access to these improvements. A series of scheduled Go/No-Go decisions will continue to keep the community informed as the upgrade progresses.
Ecosystem Highlights
In 2025, independent teams across the Mina ecosystem shipped, experimented, and pushed the boundaries of what’s possible—here are some of the standout moments.
🌉 Mina Bridge in Testnet
Nori launched a one-way ETH→Mina bridge testnet in October, which brought in over 100 users and 34 locked ETH. They are now integrating Aligned Layer’s Mina→ETH bridge, unlocking true cross-chain liquidity and composability for developers and users alike.
⚡ Zeko Protocol, the L2 Powerhouse in Testnet
The Zeko Boom Testnet, which concluded in December, processed 500K transactions and achieved 100x faster slot times compared to current Mina, 50x faster than post-Mesa Mina. The Zeko team also launched a native Telegram wallet with instant ZK payments and established the Zeko Foundation to support builders.
💸 The First zkDEX built with Lumina SDK in Testnet
Solis is the first zkDEX built using Lumina’s SDK. They turned on swapping of MINA and tZEKO during the Zeko Boom testnet, enabling DeFi to our privacy-first ecosystem.
🎮 zkNoid Gaming Revolution
zkNoid’s zkLottery hit mainnet with 300+ tickets sold, 3K+ MINA in the pot, and 183 unique participants in the first round alone. They are also creating more games like Orbirium and Wizard Battle with fun elements like heroes, maps, and anti-cheat systems proving that verifiable gameplay is real.
☁️ Silvana Processed 1 Million Proofs
Silvana, formerly known as zkCloudWorker, is currently in testnet and has processed over 1 million proof generations and created 1K Zeko NFTs. This is the infrastructure that powers zkApps getting more robust and widely used.
Key Developer Updates
Alongside ecosystem growth, foundational protocol updates, tooling, and standards were also released to make building with Mina more powerful.
- Mina Web Node opened testing for in-browser block production
- Mina Attestations library launched, enabling private credentials
- NFT Standard & Token Launchpad entered mainnet beta
- Mesa Testnet opened for validator and developer testing
Consistent Shipping: 30 Releases in 2025
Behind the scenes, o1Labs maintained a steady release cadence throughout the year:
- 18 Mina Protocol releases
- 12 o1js releases
Each release delivered performance improvements, bug fixes, and new developer capabilities—quiet work that compounds over time.
New Developer Grants Program
The Mina Builders Grants Program launched to support professional developers and teams solving real-world problems with Mina.
It’s a selective program with funding matched to project stage—whether you’re just getting started or scaling production infrastructure, there’s a clear path forward.
👉 Apply to the Mina Builders Grants Program.
Mina on the Global Stage
The Mina community showed up worldwide, most recently at India Blockchain Week and Devconnect Argentina. At Devconnect, o1Labs launched TouchGrass, a proof-of-concept app that verifies real-world photos on-chain using ZK. During the event, 119 photos were verified.
What’s Next
Mesa on mainnet will arrive in 2026. The groundwork laid in 2025—restructuring, steady releases, and renewed community focus—was all in service of this next phase.
On the Mina Foundation side, the initial decentralized treasury rollout is still underway. Head to MinaResearch for more info!
Thanks for building with us!
About Mina Protocol
Mina is the world’s lightest blockchain, powered by participants. Rather than apply brute computing force, Mina uses advanced cryptography and recursive zk-SNARKs to design an entire blockchain that is about 22kb, the size of a couple of tweets. It is the first layer-1 to enable efficient implementation and easy programmability of zero knowledge smart contracts (zkApps). With its unique privacy features and ability to connect to any website, Mina is building a private gateway between the real world and crypto—and the secure, democratic future we all deserve.
