Stanford-backed Hinkal debuts ‘Invisible Wallet’ using zero-knowledge proofs to hide transaction history

Blockchain privacy startup Hinkal launched its ‘Invisible Wallet’ on Nov. 5, offering users a way to hide transaction histories on Ethereum and layer-2 networks as crypto thefts linked to public wallet exposure surpassed $2.17 billion in the first half of 2025.

The company said in a press release that the Hinkal crypto wallet employs a combination of zero-knowledge proofs, stealth addresses, and trusted execution environments (TEE) to achieve full-scale transaction privacy. This enables users to interact with decentralized applications (dApps) while remaining anonymous as a feature largely absent in most existing crypto wallets.

“We believe that privacy is a fundamental right. Consumers wouldn’t share their bank statements with a stranger, and there’s absolutely no reason that digital transactions should be vulnerable to comparable scrutiny,” — Georgi Koreli, co-founder and CEO of Hinkal, said in the announcement.

Currently compatible with Ethereum, Arbitrum, Polygon, Base, and Optimism, the Hinkal crypto wallet plans to expand across more EVM-based networks in 2025. The wallet is accessible via a secure browser extension, offering users a seamless bridge between privacy and usability in decentralized finance (DeFi).

Tackling a growing privacy crisis in blockchain

The launch of the Hinkal crypto wallet comes amid intensifying debate over user privacy in the blockchain ecosystem. While transparency remains one of crypto’s foundational principles, it also exposes users to significant risks. Every transaction recorded on public blockchains is traceable, leaving financial footprints visible to anyone with basic blockchain analysis tools.

According to Chainalysis, over $2.17 billion in crypto assets were stolen in the first half of 2025, much of it linked to public wallet exposure and social engineering attacks targeting visible on-chain wealth.

“Public ledgers, while secure, create unintended vulnerabilities,” said Dr. Lina Morris, blockchain privacy researcher at MIT’s Digital Currency Initiative. “Tools like the Hinkal crypto wallet could help reduce these risks by giving users the power to decide what data is shared and when.”

Privacy advocates argue that the need for digital confidentiality has reached a critical point, especially as governments and analytics firms expand blockchain surveillance capabilities. By integrating privacy-first solutions like Hinkal’s Invisible Wallet, users can retain control over their financial identities without sacrificing access to decentralized ecosystems.

Advanced privacy tech behind Hinkal crypto wallet

The Hinkal crypto wallet uses zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) which is a cryptographic method allowing users to prove the validity of a transaction without revealing any details about it. This approach, popularized by privacy coins like Zcash, ensures that transactions remain verifiable on public networks while concealing participants and amounts.

Additionally, Hinkal employs stealth addresses, which generate unique, one-time wallet addresses for every transaction, preventing the tracing of user activity. Combined with trusted execution environments, the wallet executes sensitive computations in isolated hardware areas, ensuring user data cannot be accessed even by external validators.

“The combination of ZKPs and stealth technology makes the Hinkal crypto wallet one of the most advanced privacy solutions in Web3,” said Koreli, noting that the company’s mission is to make privacy an “invisible but integral layer” of all digital finance.

By embedding such mechanisms directly into its wallet infrastructure, Hinkal positions itself at the intersection of compliance and confidentiality providing regulatory-friendly privacy rather than total anonymity.

Shifting tides: from transparency to selective visibility

The emergence of privacy-enhancing technologies like the Hinkal crypto wallet signals a shift in blockchain culture from radical transparency to selective visibility, where users can control the scope of their public footprint.

Market analysts predict growing demand for privacy wallets as more individuals and enterprises engage in blockchain-based finance.

“Institutional adoption depends on secure, private transactions that comply with legal standards,” said Andrew Peters, DeFi strategist at Deloitte Blockchain Labs. “Hinkal’s innovation could help bridge the gap between financial privacy and regulatory transparency.”

With its blend of academic research and practical security design, the Hinkal crypto wallet may set new standards for responsible privacy in decentralized systems. Its arrival underscores the industry’s ongoing evolution from open visibility toward a model where discretion is not a luxury but a fundamental right.