Loopring

Organization Name – Loopring

Category – Payment

Loopring is a high‑performance Ethereum layer‑2 trading and payment protocol engineered to enable secure, non‑custodial decentralized exchange functionality at dramatically lower cost and much h…igher throughput than Ethereum mainnet. Founded in 2017 by Daniel Wang (with Jay Zhou), the project launched via an ICO in August 2017, raising around $36 million initially and ultimately over $80 million in funding rounds across 2017–2019.

At its core Loopring uses zk‑Rollup technology to aggregate hundreds or thousands of user transactions off‑chain and periodically submit compressed proofs to Ethereum, reducing gas fees by up to an order of magnitude while preserving Ethereum‑level security

The protocol supports both order‑book and AMM‑style trading and allows ring‑matching of orders to boost liquidity and allow multi‑party trade rings rather than simple pairwise matches.

Trades are routed through relayers and ring‑miners which gather orders off‑chain and submit batched proofs for settlement on‑chain; the smart contracts validate and execute these atomic trades while enabling users to withdraw assets even if relayers go offline.

Loopring also powers a user‑facing DEX and the Loopring Wallet app, which offers zero‑gas minting, NFT handling, trading, and payments via the same L2 infrastructure.

At peak performance, Loopring can handle up to ~200 trades per second (or claims even higher peak throughput of hundreds to over two thousand TPS) while delivering cost per action in the cents or sub‑cent range.

Users retain custody of their assets at all times, eliminating counterparty risk from centralized custodial exchanges. Loopring’s architecture ensures funds remain in user control; even if relayers fail, users can reclaim assets via Merkle proof on Ethereum.

Its protocol is blockchain‑agnostic and deployable on any smart‑contract‑capable chain, though its principal deployment is on Ethereum.

The native token LRC was used for fee payments, staking, governance, and liquidity mining incentives, and governance integrated via token‑based votes for parameters like fees or exchange policies.

Loopring’s roadmap included upgrades through versions 1.0, 1.5, and major v3.0 which launched on Ethereum mainnet around August 2019, targeting throughput above 1000 TPS and better settlement and fee mechanics.

Throughout 2025, Loopring continued to deploy enhancements including launching Loopring DeFi features on the Base network, Portal UI/UX updates, leveraged trade tools, block trade modules, and yield products—though community sentiment has grown critical about lack of marketing and strategic clarity.

Some users express frustration over leadership changes (Daniel Wang left operationally in 2022), wallet deprecation, and unclear product direction, even as others remain hopeful that future partnerships or feature rollouts could revive momentum.

Despite criticism, Loopring remains among the earliest and most mature zk‑Rollup protocols. It powers a non‑custodial, scalable DEX and payment layer that bridges centralized‑style trading speed with decentralized control, facilitating low‑cost, fast, secure asset exchange and payments directly from user wallets. Its combination of ring‑order matching, zk‑Proof settlement, AMM/order‑book hybrid trading, and wallet integration has influenced how DeFi scaling and exchange design evolve. Read More