According to the report from Messari looking at Aleo’s first quarter of 2025, the total amount of ALEO tokens being staked actually went up. It rose by 7.9% compared to the last quarter, climbing from 1.08 billion to 1.16 billion ALEO. This kind of growth shows the folks running the validators (those keeping the network running smoothly) are still committed. They’re participating in keeping the network secure, which is a good sign.
- Despite a significant drop in market value, the amount of ALEO tokens being staked increased, indicating validator confidence in the project.
- Aleo partnered with Google Cloud to advance privacy-focused infrastructure for Web3 and expanded into healthcare, gaming, and private payments.
- Aleo is built specifically for privacy using zero-knowledge proofs, allowing developers to build decentralized applications that protect user information.
But, and here’s where things get a bit less sunny, Aleo’s market value dropped quite a bit in the same period. It fell by 69.3% quarter-over-quarter. That just reflects the pressure the market was under, you know? Like when the whole street is having a bad day. Still, that increase in native staking, the 7.9% jump, really does signal that validators have confidence in the project itself, even when the price is doing its own thing.
Aleo also teamed up with Google Cloud. That’s a pretty big deal. They’re working together to push forward compliant, privacy-focused infrastructure for Web3 (the next version of the internet, basically). It shows Aleo is thinking about how this technology fits into the bigger picture, especially with rules and regulations.
Q1 wasn’t just about partnerships, though. The network started reaching into new areas. We saw expansion into healthcare, gaming, and solutions for private payments. It’s like they’re finding new rooms in the house to decorate.
Even with daily transactions dropping by 39.3%, which can feel a bit like the party thinning out early, Aleo shipped some major technical upgrades. These were aimed at making things better for developers building on the network and making the network itself stronger and more secure.
The need for privacy when you’re doing things on a blockchain (a digital ledger) has really grown. That’s why you see applications and blockchains focusing on privacy using fancy math tricks called cryptographic primitives.
Aleo is built specifically for privacy. It’s a Layer-1 blockchain (the base layer, like the foundation of a house) designed to be scalable and secure using zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs). Think of ZKPs like being able to prove you know a secret without actually telling anyone the secret. Aleo uses a mix of mechanisms called Coinbase Puzzle and AleoBFT to check these ZKPs and make sure transactions are valid. This lets the validators confirm transactions without needing to know the sensitive details inside them. These privacy parts give developers a real edge when they want to build decentralized applications (dApps) that keep user information private.
Now, about the price. ALEO, the native token, kept heading downwards in Q1 2025. This just mirrored the general weakness we saw in the broader altcoin market (cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin). ALEO finished the quarter at $0.21, which was down 73.4% from the quarter before.
Because of that price drop, Aleo’s circulating market value also fell. It declined by 69.3% quarter-over-quarter, landing at $73.9 million by the end of March.
Network fees, which are paid in ALEO, also took a hit, falling by 84.3% compared to the previous quarter. When you measure those fees in US dollars, the total money earned by stakers, validators, and provers (those who help with the ZKP math) went down. It’s a bit of a double whammy when the token price falls.
Despite these challenges, the rate at which new ALEO tokens were created (inflation) stayed pretty much as expected. The circulating supply grew in line with the planned emissions. In Q1, 66.9 million ALEO were given out as rewards.
The average price for ALEO over Q1 was $1.11. The average market value for the quarter was $228.3 million.
Total fees paid on the Aleo network in Q1 2025 added up to $2.32 million. That averages out to about $12,002 per day. The overall fee money went down compared to the previous quarter, mostly because the price of ALEO dropped.
Looking at the network activity itself, it slowed down quite a bit in Q1 2025. This kind of matched the general slowdown in the wider market. The average number of daily transactions fell by 39.3% quarter-over-quarter.
The average number of daily active addresses (wallets doing things on the network) also declined by 69.3% quarter-over-quarter, finishing the quarter at 13,922. It’s like fewer people were hanging out in the town square.
But even with fewer transactions and active addresses, Aleo’s core focus on being built specifically for zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) gives it a strong base for growing in the future. It’s built for this privacy stuff from the ground up.
Out of the 9.48 million total transactions processed on Aleo in Q1 2025, about 8.27% were private transactions. That’s a small but meaningful increase of 2.13 percentage points from the quarter before. The fact that a bigger share of activity is private shows that people are starting to use Aleo’s zero-knowledge features more. It’s a sign that the privacy tech is catching on.
The total amount of ALEO being staked went up by 7.9% in Q1, from 1.08 billion to 1.16 billion ALEO. This, as we said, means validators are sticking around and committed.
However, when you look at the value of that staked ALEO in US dollars, it dropped by a hefty 74.5%. Ouch.
This big difference between the increase in the number of tokens staked and the decrease in their dollar value really highlights how much Aleo’s economic security (how robust the staking system is) depends on the token’s price performance. It’s tied pretty tightly.
Aleo gave out a combined 66.9 million ALEO in rewards to validators and provers over Q1 2025.
On average, validators earned about 384,830 ALEO each day for creating blocks. Provers, who solve the puzzles related to ZKPs, captured about 358,982 ALEO daily in puzzle rewards. That’s a decent chunk of tokens, even if the dollar value wasn’t what it was before.
Aleo has a technical plan that shows how they want to improve their Layer-1 ZK platform. They are focusing on making it faster, easier for developers to use, and more decentralized (less controlled by one group).
For their development goals in 2025, Aleo is really focused on making their core infrastructure (the backbone of the network) and the developer experience stronger. Key goals include finishing the production version of AleoBFT, which is part of how they validate things. They want to add features like validator groups that can change and make sure everything stays in sync better. They also want to make it way faster, aiming for over 1,000 transactions per second (TPS). For developers, they’re making the Leo programming language (what you use to build on Aleo) bigger and better.
Looking further out, past 2025, Aleo wants to make it possible to build any kind of ZK application they can imagine and make it super scalable. This involves working on more advanced ways to create proofs and making it easier to handle fees.
Aleo kept pushing its lead in zero-knowledge (ZK) technology throughout Q1 2025. A big moment was the approval and putting into action of something called ARC-102, also known as the zPass Model. This allows complex, layered data to be turned into structures that you can verify using ZKPs.
The team at AleoHQ also showed off several ways they are using ZKPs to protect sensitive information.
zPass is a framework built by Aleo for verifying identity using zero-knowledge proofs. It lets users prove specific things about themselves without having to reveal the actual private data. Imagine proving you’re over 18 without showing your ID or birthday.
Five projects are already using zPass in their live applications. Playside / Play3 uses it to check age for games. World3 / Crystal Caves puts zPass in their game environments to keep player info private. Humine / zClinical™ uses zPass so patients can prove they qualify for medical studies without sharing their private health records. GeniiDAO is using it to verify academic credentials. And Three of Cups (3oC) uses zPass for private identity checks. It’s cool to see this tech getting used in real things.
Aleo’s wider ecosystem (all the projects and partners connected to it) grew a lot in Q1. They made strategic partnerships, upgraded their infrastructure, and new applications launched.
At a big crypto event called ETHDenver, Aleo announced their partnership with Google Cloud. Google Cloud will actually run a validator on Aleo and work with them to explore compliant and confidential Web3 payments. That’s a significant nod from a major tech player.
Some new products launched too. zMarket is an NFT marketplace powered by ZKPs. Pondo Protocol introduced a way to do liquid staking with pALEO (like getting a receipt token for your staked ALEO that you can use elsewhere). The Leo Wallet added support for moving tokens easily between public and private balances. And ANS (Aleo Name Service), which is like a human-readable address for your wallet, added pricing in regular money (fiat) and made token transfers more private.
On the infrastructure side, AleoBFT, part of the network’s engine, pushed its speed to over 20,000 transactions per second. Other updates to snarkOS, another piece of the tech, also made validators perform better.
Aleo kept focusing on helping developers and growing the community. They ran initiatives like Codesprint V2 to get people building on the network.
In February 2025, Aleo announced a partnership with Predicate. They plan to launch a secure bridge framework (a way to move assets between different blockchains) that’s built with privacy in mind. A key part of this is implementing something called ARC-100.
The first live version of this framework is called Verulink. It’s a bridge that uses Predicate’s system for doing calculations before a transaction happens and checking smart contracts.
This partnership gives Aleo a way to build more bridges in the future that are both scalable and secure.
Aleo also started looking at how its privacy technology could be used in real-world situations.
zPass found new uses in healthcare and social good. Working with Humine, zPass was used to protect patient data in clinical trials. In another case, AleoHQ partnered with @3oC_world to see if zPass could be used to help enhance women’s safety.
In gaming, Aleo kept exploring how to create child-safe environments using ZK-powered data protections. Meanwhile, Arcane Finance continued its work on building dark pool infrastructure (a place for large trades that don’t immediately affect the public market price).
Governance on Aleo made good progress in Q1. The Aleo Network Foundation took on a central role. The fact that ARC-102 (the zPass Model) was approved by everyone involved shows that the community is actively engaged.
When it comes to how the token works (tokenomics), ARC-0042 continued to shape how network incentives are given out. It reduced the rewards for staking and tried to make the rewards match sustainable growth for the network.
Aleo also made its standards for validators official by introducing ARC-101.
With the launch of the Pondo Protocol, Aleo’s staking system expanded to include liquid staking. This means people can stake their ALEO and still use a representation of it elsewhere, which adds flexibility.
As governments around the world keep looking closely at privacy in blockchain technology, Aleo’s design, which focuses on compliance, might offer a model for the rest of the industry.
The project working with Google Cloud on compliant Web3 payments suggests Aleo is actively getting ready for scrutiny from institutions and regulators.
Looking ahead, Aleo’s challenge will be to keep its core privacy principles intact while growing and operating within environments that are getting more and more regulated. It’s a tricky balance, isn’t it?