ZK Casino has resurfaced with an unexpected update after months of silence surrounding the collapsed project.
Summary
- 35% of affected users have now received refunds.
- A new wave of payouts could bring that to 75% next week.
- Full recovery remains unclear after more than a year of litigation.
ZK Casino is moving forward with slow, partial refunds in one of the most protracted disputes over crypto’s collapse. The update was shared on November 10 on X by the project’s anonymous founder known as Derivatives Monke.
The founder said that about 35% of addresses that connected Ethereum (ETH) to the platform have now received refunds on zkSync Lite or zkSync Era, with more batches expected next week. The amounts are still being adjusted and some users may receive additional interest depending on how the final balance is calculated.
Larger withdrawals require identity checks, which the founder says is due to legal requirements.
The scam that unfolded
ZK Casino launched in April 2024 with the intention that users could bridge ETH to the layer 2 chain, earn yield, and withdraw their original ETH at any time. Instead of processing refunds, the project converted these deposits into established ZKAS tokens and listed the ETH on Lido.
More than 10,000 users were affected and losses were estimated at approximately $33 million. The project came under heavy criticism from across the crypto community, including from Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin, who disputed claims that it used zero-knowledge technology at all.
On-chain investigators later linked the team to previous scams, and Dutch authorities made multiple arrests during the initial fallout, although only a small portion of the funds were recovered at that point.
The refund process now
Current reimbursement progress provides some relief, but does not indicate a complete solution. Only about a third of users have received their funds so far, and the founder said the team is working with multiple parties to complete the remaining payouts. The update suggested that another 40% of refunds could be processed next week, which would bring total payouts to around 75% of all affected wallets.
However, the timeline remains uncertain and the final recovery may depend on liquidity conditions, legal pressures and how remaining assets in the chain are handled. Many affected users remain skeptical, pointing to the long delays and lack of third-party monitoring.
