Polyhedra opts for 'ZKJ' ticker across exchanges amid clash with zkSync

Polyhedra Network, the developer of the zero-knowledge interoperability protocol zkBridge, announced today that it will go with the ticker “ZKJ” for its Friday listing on crypto exchange HashKey Global and current listings across exchanges in response to the week-long clash with zkSync over its old “ZK” ticker.

Polyhedra told The Block on Thursday that the project is renaming its ticker to ZKJ, which symbolizes “ZK Join,” a united and open ZK community.

Also on Thursday, Polyhedra, Polygon and StarkWare published a joint statement signed by Polygon Co-founders Sandeep Nailwal, Brendan Farmer, Polyhedra Co-founder Tiancheng Xie, StarkWare CEO Eli Ben-Sasson and StarkWare Scientific Advisor Shafi Goldwasser. While Polyhedra has decided to rename its ticker, the group said in the joint statement that ZK “should remain a public good.”

“It shouldn’t be a trademark of a corporation: it should rather be accessible to all,” the group added. “Today, we call on the community to demand that Matter Labs withdraw all trademark applications and the use of ‘ZK’ ticker.”

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“zkSync has repeatedly acted contrary to the Web3 ethos, despite consistently signalling those same values. We believe that if we do not publicly address this behavior, it will persist and potentially worsen,” said Nailwal.

The Block was first to report last Tuesday that zkSync wanted to use ZK as its ticker ahead of its token launch and airdrop but faced issues as Polyhedra had already claimed the ticker. Bybit then announced last Thursday that it would make adjustments to Polyhedra’s ticker and list zkSync on its spot trading platform under the ZK ticker. 

Polyhedra publicly denounced zkSync’s ticker choice in an X post on Friday. “It’s unbelievable that, here in 2024, even with the approval of the ETH ETF, there are still projects that offer benefits to various parties and rob others of their rightful ticker name,” Polyhedra said.