@Dusk Network started in late 2018, with its early development phase following the ICO that raised roughly $8 million at a token price of $0.0404 per DUSK. Since then, it has been building steadily as a privacy-first Layer 1 blockchain with a very specific focus on regulated finance rather than broad retail DeFi hype. The project gained early visibility when DUSK was listed on Binance in July 2019, which helped establish liquidity and awareness at an early stage.
Like most altcoins, DUSK has gone through full market cycles. It reached a peak near $1.16 during the 2021 bull run, fell sharply during the bear market to levels below $0.02, and is now trading around the $0.13–$0.14 range. Market cap generally sits between $68 million and $80 million depending on price movement, while daily trading volume has been relatively active, often landing in the $30–$50 million range and occasionally spiking higher around RWA or partnership news.
What makes Dusk different is its attempt to combine strong on-chain privacy with regulatory compliance. Zero-knowledge proofs are built directly into the protocol, allowing transactions and smart contracts to remain confidential while still being auditable when required by regulators or institutions. This design avoids relying on external privacy layers and makes the network suitable for compliant DeFi, private securities, and tokenized real-world assets. Its Segregated Byzantine Agreement consensus adds another layer of security and scalability tailored for institutional use cases.
The ecosystem itself is still relatively niche, with TVL much smaller than large Ethereum-based platforms, but growth is focused and deliberate. Dusk has been onboarding regulated players and exploring tokenized asset trading in partnership with licensed exchanges, aiming to bring real financial products on-chain without exposing sensitive data. Early backers and private sale participants make up a significant part of the token distribution, structured with long-term alignment in mind rather than short-term speculation.
Overall, Dusk isn’t positioning itself as a hype-driven privacy coin. It’s quietly building infrastructure for institutions that need both confidentiality and compliance, especially in RWAs and regulated DeFi. That focus on real utility over noise is what gives the project a chance to remain relevant across market cycles.
