Odaily reported that Solana infrastructure company Helius has announced the acquisition of Light Protocol. Following the deal, the Light Protocol team will refocus on the development of privacy solutions for Solana, returning to the direction that defined its original mission. The acquisition centers on on-chain privacy infrastructure, with Helius aiming to combine Light’s cryptographic capabilities with its own strengths in infrastructure and distribution.
Light Protocol Returns to Its Privacy Mission
Light Protocol was founded in 2021 and initially focused on Solana privacy tools based on zero-knowledge proofs. The team later shifted toward the joint development of ZK Compression with Helius, moving from privacy tooling into infrastructure designed around on-chain data compression. ZK Compression went live in 2024 and was built to reduce the cost of storing data on Solana through zero-knowledge proofs, supporting large-scale consumer and enterprise applications.
After the acquisition by Helius, Light will return to its original mission and continue building privacy infrastructure for Solana. The work will focus on ZK privacy protocols designed for use cases including private payments and private DeFi. Helius plans to open the related privacy infrastructure to developers in the coming months, allowing builders in the Solana ecosystem to access these privacy capabilities.
From ZK Compression to ZK Privacy Protocols
The transaction comes as consolidation in the crypto industry accelerates and the funding environment tightens. It also aligns with a renewed rise in demand for on-chain privacy. For Helius, the acquisition of Light Protocol extends the previous collaboration between the two teams on ZK Compression and redirects zero-knowledge proof capabilities toward the construction of Solana-focused privacy protocols.
Helius founder Mert Mumtaz said privacy will become an important foundation for blockchain scalability, in the same way HTTPS became essential for the internet. Based on Helius’ stated direction, the Light team’s next phase will focus on Solana on-chain privacy tools and protocol-level capabilities, with the relevant infrastructure set to be made available to developers over the next several months.