Buterin Unveils Kohaku for Ethereum Wallet Privacy at ECC2
Ethereum privacy took center stage at Ethereum Cypherpunk Congress 2 on November 16, 2025, when Vitalik Buterin presented Kohaku: a new framework to simplify private transactions at the wallet layer. Buterin highlighted a decade of investment in Ethereum’s privacy stack—elliptic-curve precompiles (EC-add, EC-mul, EC-pairing), zkSNARK tooling from the Privacy & Scaling Explorations team, and protocols like Tornado Cash (TORN) and Railgun (RAIL). He praised the mature base-layer technology, noting proofs generate in under one second on laptops and two seconds on phones, but pointed out that wallet UX remains a bottleneck: users need separate seed phrases, lack multi-sig options, and face fragile broadcasting requiring VPNs. Kohaku aims to embed secure, private transaction primitives directly into wallets, minimizing trusted third parties. Buterin framed privacy as “freedom, order, and progress,” and stressed “risk-based access control,” on-chain UI versioning, and enhanced account recovery. At press time, ETH traded at $3,194, holding above its 100-week EMA. Kohaku marks a push to “level up the last mile” in Ethereum privacy and security.
Neutral
While Kohaku’s wallet privacy enhancements strengthen Ethereum’s infrastructure and could boost long-term adoption, they lack an immediate price catalyst. Historically, protocol upgrades like Zcash’s privacy improvements had minimal short-term impact on token prices, yet improved developer confidence and user security over time. Traders may see neutral short-term reaction but view enhanced privacy tools as a positive for Ethereum’s fundamentals and growth trajectory.