Behind the Stake #4: The Security Powering Kalypso’s ZK layer

What’s securing the next generation of zero-knowledge proofs? Not just math and compute, but the stake that stands behind every successful attestation.

In this episode of Behind the Stake, we explore how Kalypso, a TEE-powered proving marketplace developed by Marlin Protocol, is transforming the economics of ZK proofs, and how Inception stakers are helping secure its trustless infrastructure layer.

Whether it’s private inputs for AI agents, cost-efficient L2 proofs, or composable zkApps, Kalypso proves that confidentiality and scalability don’t need to come at the cost of decentralization.

TL;DR

• Kalypso is a permissionless marketplace for ZK proof generation, built around TEE-powered confidentiality and orderbook-style bidding
• The network is secured by over $115M in staked capital and actively shares revenue with delegators
• Operators run live infrastructure with locked stake per job, aligning economic incentives with proof delivery
• Inception enables users to stake and support Kalypso’s secure proving environment while remaining liquid in DeFi

Kalypso at a Glance

• $115M in economic security staked through Symbiotic
• 11 active vaults, curated by 10 entities wstETH (84.1%) and WBTC (10.9%) are top collaterals; wstETH vaults are currently fully utilized.
• TEE enclaves power private input handling without exposing data on-chain
• Actively locked stake ensures slashing can be triggered per proof request failure

Collateral Utilization & Distribution (Source)

Kalypso has been delivering in terms of decentralization and cost-efficiency, being able to reduce ZK gas costs by nearly 200× (from ~75M to ~300K gas), and doing so via a competitive, onchain market that rewards execution.

Operator and Curator Distribution

Kalypso has achieved solid early participation in terms of security, with 20 of 29 opted-in operators (69%) actively securing the network.

• The top 3 operators hold 62.9% of all delegated capital
• The top 5 account for 84.8%
• The operator Gini Index is 0.67, indicating a skew toward larger validators

Stake Distribution across Operators (Source)

From the curator side:

• Top 3 curators manage 79% of vault capital
• The Gini Index for vault caps is 0.57, showing some unevenness in deposit permissions
• The most permissive vault can accept 12.6× more than the least

Stake Distribution across Curators (Source)

These numbers highlight an active but maturing network. As Kalypso scales, rebalancing stake distribution and vault capacity will play a key role in further decentralization.

The ZK Orderbook Engine

Kalypso isn’t just infrastructure, it’s an onchain economy. Users post proof jobs to circuit-specific marketplaces. Operators compete on delivery time and price. A TEE-based engine (Oyster) selects the best bid.

Kalypso’s mechanism-agnostic ZK proof marketplace (Source)

If the proof is submitted on time, payment is released atomically. If not, stake gets slashed.

This model:

• Reduces friction for ZK developers and L2s
• Aligns operator incentives through per-request stake locking
• Makes confidentiality and cost-efficiency accessible at scale

Kalypso supports any proving system, from Groth16 to Halo2, and allows circuit creators to launch new markets permissionlessly.

Supporting Kalypso Through Inception

Inception lets users back Kalypso by delegating staking collaterals into Symbiotic vaults that secure the network. In return, they receive a liquid restaked token, maintaining DeFi composability while contributing to infrastructure.

• Kalypso actively shares revenue with delegators, making yield more sustainable than point-based models alone
• While slashing is not yet live, the enforcement model is built into the job-level economics
• The network launched in January 2025, and is currently managed via multisig (structure unverified)

Kalypso’s use of TEE enclaves for private input support, coupled with permissionless market design and per-job accountability, makes it one of the most ambitious ZK infrastructure layers live today.

Track the Network

Want to see how Kalypso’s ecosystem is evolving? Head to the Restaking Explorer by Inception for real-time metrics, operator stats, and vault performance data.

Inception's Restaking Explorer (Source)

With privacy-preserving infrastructure becoming a critical part of decentralized systems, especially in AI, DeFi, and cross-chain messaging, Kalypso is showing what it means to scale ZK credibly.

Stake behind trust. Secure confidential proofs. And stay liquid while doing it, all through Inception.