ZKasino has shut down
Closed April 2024 Custodial Last reviewed
- DARK
- T4 — Fully on-chain — Claimed by the operator, not yet confirmed by us. Fully on-chain
Independent index: scores are never for sale and every sponsored link is labelled. How we score
What happened to ZKasino?
Verdict: ClosedZKasino is in our graveyard. In April 2024 it converted roughly 10,500 ETH that users had bridged on a promise of getting it back into its own ZKAS token and staked the ETH on Lido (Rekt; Cointelegraph), and Dutch fiscal police (FIOD) arrested a 26-year-old man and seized over EUR 11.4 million in assets on suspicion of fraud, embezzlement and money laundering (FIOD, 3 May 2024). The only refund progress we found is the project founder's own claim in November 2025 that about 2,500 of 8,000 addresses had been repaid; we found no later public update and no court outcome.
Desk verdict, written from the sources listed on this page · Last reviewed
What happened
- Closed
- April 2024
- Last known tier
- T4
Cause
Alleged exit scam: in April 2024 it converted about 10,500 ETH that users had bridged on a promise of return into its own vesting ZKAS token and staked the ETH on Lido; Dutch FIOD arrested a suspect on 29 April 2024 and seized over EUR 11.4 million in assets.
What we take from it
- A bridge that promises your deposit back is only as good as the contract: FIOD said this one was set up as if the return was never intended.
- 'ZK', 'L2' and 'EigenDA' in a casino's marketing are claims; outside developers said this chain used none of the technology it named.
- Refunds announced by the people who took the money are not a recovery until someone independent confirms them.
- A live-looking domain is not a live operator: dead casinos' sites often stay up long after the money is gone.
We do not link out to a dark operator. The domain may no longer be under the same control, and there is nothing here to visit.
Seed score — our desk estimate from public information, not a deposit test. How this score is built
- The operator is dark, so survival is set to 0.
Why each number
- Payout proof 2/25
- Users who bridged ETH on a promise of getting it back saw it converted into the operator's own token without consent; the only refunds reported came a year and a half later, by the founder's own unverified account, and only in part.
- Transparency 3/25
- It marketed zero-knowledge and EigenDA technology that developers said its chain did not use, and Dutch investigators said its contract was set up as if the promised return was never intended.
- Survival 0/20
- Zero by the grid: a dark operator scores nothing on survival. The pre-cap seed value of 2 reflects a collapse within weeks of its own token launch.
- Freedom 10/15
- It advertised play without KYC, which was a real feature while it ran; this is the only sub-score not driven by the collapse.
- Value 2/15
- Users' ETH was swapped into a vesting token at a price the operator set; nothing here counts as value to a player.
ZKasino: key facts
Each row is a dated statement with its source, or says plainly that it is unknown.
| Company and licence | Unknown — not stated by the operator |
|---|---|
| Custody | Custodial Custodial: the operator holds your balance, so a withdrawal depends on it agreeing to pay. Our registry read |
| KYC | ZKasino advertised that no KYC details were required (TRM Labs, 15 May 2024). Its November 2025 refunds required identity checks for larger withdrawals, per the founder (crypto.news, 10 November 2025). KYC ("know your customer"): the identity checks an operator can ask for, often before a large withdrawal. Third party trmlabs.com (opens in a new tab) read |
| Withdrawals | Users were promised their bridged ETH back within 30 days, which did not happen; FIOD said the smart contract setup suggests the return was never intended (FIOD press release, 3 May 2024). Third party fiod.nl (opens in a new tab) read |
| Deposits and chains | Chains in our registry: ETH · ARB · POL Our registry read |
| Bonus (as stated) | Unknown — not stated by the operator |
| Provably fair | Unknown — not stated by the operator |
| Support | Unknown — not stated by the operator |
| Live dealer and sportsbook | Live dealer: No · Sportsbook: No Our registry read |
| Founded | Unknown — not stated by the operator |
| Official domain | zkasino.io On 2026-11-10 zkasino.io still served a marketing page (copyright 2024) with 'Play' links, wager statistics and no refund notice. We did not test whether it accepts bets. Do not send funds to it. |
| User reviews (unverified claims) | In August 2024 users told Cointelegraph they had sent their ZKAS to the refund sign-up contract and heard nothing since; one said he had deposited 'a year's salary' (Cointelegraph, 14 August 2024). Third party cointelegraph.com (opens in a new tab) read |
Verified by us vs claimed by the operator
Verified by us
Nothing verified yet.
The left column lists only work we have done ourselves: a deposit, a withdrawal with a hash we can publish, or a treasury address read on a public chain. Where it is empty, we have done none of these.
Claimed by the operator
- On-chain tier
- T4 — Fully on-chain — Claimed by the operator, not yet confirmed by us.
- Licence
- unknown
- Custody
- Custodial
- KYC
- None
- Provably-fair originals
- No
These are the operator's own statements as we read them. Recording a claim is not endorsing it.
ZKasino: questions
What happened to ZKasino?
Users bridged about 10,500 ETH (about USD 33 million) expecting it back; on about 20-21 April 2024 ZKasino instead converted it into its ZKAS token at USD 0.055 with a 15-month vesting schedule and staked the ETH on Lido (Cointelegraph; Rekt). Dutch FIOD investigators called it a possible rug pull and arrested a suspect on 29 April 2024.
Is ZKasino still open?
We treat it as closed. Its domain still showed a 2024 marketing page on 2026-11-10, but we found no evidence of genuine operation since the April 2024 conversion, and we advise against sending any funds to it.
Did ZKasino users get refunds?
Partly, by the founder's own account: in November 2025 he said about 2,500 of 8,000 affected addresses had been refunded in ETH on zkSync, with more to follow (crypto.news; CryptoPotato, 10 November 2025). We found no independent confirmation and no later update as of 2026-11-10.
Was anyone arrested over ZKasino?
Yes. FIOD arrested a 26-year-old man on 29 April 2024 on suspicion of fraud, embezzlement and money laundering, and seized over EUR 11.4 million in real estate, a luxury car and crypto (FIOD, 3 May 2024). We found no public court outcome.
What are alternatives to ZKasino?
See our alternatives page for on-chain casinos we track. None is a successor to ZKasino, and you should be wary of anything presenting itself as one.
What changed
Every change to this review, newest first.
-
Added to the graveyard: April 2024 ETH-to-ZKAS conversion, FIOD arrest and seizure, 2024-2025 refund history, all sourced and dated; conflicting figures shown side by side.
Sources
Numbered, with the date we read each one. User-review sites are unverified claims.
- FIOD press release: arrest and seizure in ZKasino investigation (3 May 2024) (opens in a new tab)
- TRM Labs: 11 million euros seized as FIOD arrest man on suspected casino exit scam (15 May 2024) (opens in a new tab)
- Rekt: ZKasino - Rekt (22 April 2024) (opens in a new tab)
- Cointelegraph: ZKasino sends $33M promised refunds to Lido (April 2024) (opens in a new tab)
- The Block: Dutch authorities arrest ZKasino team member (3 May 2024) (opens in a new tab)
- Cointelegraph: ZKasino three-day refund window (29 May 2024) (opens in a new tab)
- Cointelegraph: ZKasino still hasn't returned ETH, users claim (14 August 2024) (opens in a new tab)
- Cointelegraph: ZKasino scammer loses $27M in liquidation (7 April 2025) (opens in a new tab)
- DL News: ZKasino's year-long silence on refunds ends in a $27m liquidation (7 April 2025) (opens in a new tab)
- crypto.news: ZK Casino refund progress update (10 November 2025; its headline reports 35%, a figure we have not reconciled with the founder's 2,500 of 8,000 addresses) (opens in a new tab)
- CryptoPotato: ZKasino begins partial ETH refunds (10 November 2025) (opens in a new tab)
- zkasino.io (still serves a 2024 landing page, read 2026-11-10)
Where to look instead
Alternatives to ZKasino →None of these is a successor to the closed operator. Closed casinos' domains are often reused: type addresses yourself.
Overtime
Last reviewed
- T4 — Fully on-chain
- Non-custodial
- KYC: None
- OP · ARB · BASE
Verdict: UnverifiedOvertime is a real, operating on-chain sportsbook and casino protocol on Optimism, Arbitrum and Base: its documentation says users self-custody, games are smart contracts, and casino…
Same chain: Ethereum L2
JustBet (WINR)
Last reviewed
- T3 — On-chain settlement — Claimed by the operator, not yet confirmed by us.
- Non-custodial
- KYC: Risk-based
- ARB
Verdict: UnverifiedJustBet is a real, operating casino that settles deposits, withdrawals and balances in WINR on Arbitrum and states that player balances sit in an audited on-chain escrow; its terms say it…
Same chain: Ethereum L2
Thrill
Last reviewed
- T2 — Crypto-native
- Custodial
- KYC: Risk-based
- BTC · ETH · SOL +8
- Partner
Verdict: MixedThrill is a real, operating custodial crypto casino; its footer names Gravity Unleashed Limitada (Costa Rica) as operator and states an Anjouan licence. We have not checked that licence…
Same chain: Ethereum L2