In 2026, the narrative focus of the crypto market has shifted towards RWA and compliance, and Dusk Network, an emerging modular Layer 1, is perfectly positioned at the forefront.

The mainnet officially launched in early 2026, marking the project's complete upgrade from a test version to a production-grade network. Dusk's positioning is quite interesting—bringing real-world assets onto the chain while balancing privacy and regulatory requirements. It sounds like walking a tightrope, but their technical architecture indeed has some tricks: the core consensus layer combines ZK and FHE technologies to ensure transactions are fast, private, and verifiable.

A key design philosophy here is "compliant privacy." Many privacy chains on the market conflate privacy with concealment, but Dusk is different. Their idea is to enable regulatory authorities to audit necessary information while properly protecting the core data of enterprise users. For institutions that need to access on-chain markets but have significant concerns, this balanced approach is indeed more practical.

In terms of technical progress, in 2025, DuskDS was upgraded (to improve data availability) and the Rusk testnet was reconstructed. The DuskEVM mainnet is expected to launch in Q1, compatible with EVM toolchains, making it easy for Ethereum developers to migrate dApps with minimal learning curve. Imagine building a money market fund on Dusk: issuing tokenized securities, integrating oracles for real-time pricing, settling trades within seconds, all while enjoying privacy protection—this is highly attractive for institutional applications.

It is worth noting that their collaboration with NPEX is deepening. They plan to launch the DuskTrade platform, supporting the tokenization of assets worth 30 billion euros, covering the entire chain from issuance and trading to settlement. This indicates that Dusk is not only theoretically feasible in the RWA track but also actively advancing real-world applications.