Alex Gluchowski is the co-founder and CEO of Matter Labs, the software company behind zkSync, one of Ethereum’s largest zero-knowledge Layer 2 networks. He has led Matter Labs since its founding in December 2018, building it from an early research project into infrastructure now used by regulated banks. In 2026, he steered the company toward Prividium, a privacy-focused blockchain built for institutional adoption.
Who Is Alex Gluchowski?
Alex Gluchowski is a software architect with more than 15 years of engineering and startup experience before he entered crypto. He earned a Master of Science in computer science from the Technische Universität Berlin, studying there from 2009 to 2011, after starting his career as a junior developer in Ukraine and later leading engineering at Clarity AG in Bad Homburg, Germany, from 2007 to 2009.
Before Matter Labs, he co-founded Somuchmore GmbH, a lifestyle networking platform later acquired by Rocket Internet, and PaulCamper, a camper van rental marketplace, where he served as CTO until 2017. In December 2018, Gluchowski, one of several builders profiled on UTB’s crypto personalities page, co-founded Matter Labs with Alexandr Vlasov who bet that zero-knowledge proofs would prove the more durable way to scale Ethereum.
Alex Gluchowski’s Career and Contributions
Matter Labs shipped zkSync Lite in 2020 as an early proof of concept, then launched zkSync Era in March 2023, the first EVM-compatible zk-rollup on Ethereum. In 2024 the company added the Elastic Chain, letting ZK-based chains move assets between each other without external bridges.
Gluchowski’s role has since shifted from protocol design toward steering the company at institutional customers. That pivot produced Prividium, a permissioned, privacy-preserving chain for banks and regulated institutions, and Airbender, a settlement proving engine. In March 2026, Matter Labs partnered with BitGo to combine institutional custody with Prividium for banks issuing tokenized deposits, according to CoinDesk.
Alex Gluchowski’s Views and Positions
Gluchowski has argued that Ethereum’s biggest institutional blocker was never regulation alone. Banks and asset managers, in his telling, cannot expose trade strategies or client data on a public ledger and stay competitive, which is why Prividium keeps transaction details private while still settling on Ethereum.
According to The Block‘s January 13, 2026 report on Matter Labs’ 2026 roadmap, Gluchowski wrote, “We made a deliberate decision to build for real-world constraints rather than industry shortcuts.” He has also said he expects ZKsync’s governance to add value accrual mechanisms to its token over time, rather than leaving it governance-only, as the network’s interoperable chains mature.
For readers newer to the ideas underneath all of this, our guide on how Bitcoin works is worth reading alongside this, since the same trust-minimization problem underpins the zero-knowledge proofs Gluchowski has built his career around.
Alex Gluchowski in the News
In March 2026, Matter Labs and BitGo announced combined institutional custody and Prividium infrastructure for banks issuing tokenized deposits, CoinDesk reported. The companies said the stack was already being tested with regulated financial institutions, with broader production rollout targeted for later in the year.
Gluchowski described tokenized deposits in a press release as how banks bring money onchain without leaving the regulatory system. The partnership followed the four-pillar roadmap Gluchowski published in January 2026, which named privacy, deterministic control, verifiable risk management, and native connectivity to global markets as Matter Labs’ standards for the year.
Frequently Asked Questions
Need a refresher on Alex Gluchowski? Here are the questions readers most often ask about him.
Who is Alex Gluchowski?
Alex Gluchowski is the co-founder and CEO of Matter Labs, the company behind the Ethereum Layer 2 network zkSync. He has led the company since its founding in December 2018.
What did Gluchowski found or invent?
Gluchowski co-founded Matter Labs and co-invented zkSync, an Ethereum Layer 2 network using zero-knowledge rollups. He also built Prividium, a privacy-focused chain for banks, and Airbender, a settlement proving engine.
Why is Matter Labs building for banks instead of the public crypto market?
Gluchowski has said public blockchains expose data banks cannot afford to disclose. Prividium keeps transaction details private between parties while still settling on Ethereum, which he argues removes the main blocker to institutional adoption.
Is Alex Gluchowski still the CEO of Matter Labs in 2026?
Yes. As of mid-2026, Gluchowski remains co-founder and CEO of Matter Labs, where he continues to lead the company’s push into institutional infrastructure through Prividium.
