But privacy is in the spotlight now. How can you take advantage of that? Here’s another cool privacy project. It’s up 82% in the last week. Pretty sweet right? And they are working hard to make crypto payments private. Who are they? Aleo. Let’s meet them and see what they are about.
What Is Aleo?
Aleo was built with 2 things in mind: payments and privacy.
And both are related to each other, even though most of us in crypto don’t think of it that way. In fact, if there is one advantage TradFi has over us right now, it is the relative privacy of payments.
I say relative because it’s not really private. Your bank or custodian has much more power and influence over your life than most of us would prefer. YET, it’s true that, unlike a public ledger such as a blockchain, the entire world doesn’t see every time you are buying a $10 coffee. Or you, spending money on your favorite baseball or EPL team. Or this transaction for $5.09 on Ethereum.
This is the one failing of payments in our industry. It’s too public. Aleo wants to change this. They want to use blockchain’s decentralization so we no longer need those middlemen. AND they want to preserve our privacy, too. Better than the relative privacy we have in Web 2.
5/5 History shows that unchecked surveillance erodes trust, freedom, and opportunity.
Aleo builds the infrastructure to make privacy the default, giving you control in a world built to track.
— Aleo (@AleoHQ) October 3, 2025
They are a Layer 1 blockchain with their own token $ALEO, which you need in order to process private transactions.
How Does Aleo Keep It Private?
Aleo uses the most common form of privacy in crypto. That’s zero-knowledge proofs.
But the way most of us interact with zk projects is through Ethereum Layer 2s. And the only thing they keep private is the transaction information between the layer 2 like Polygon and Ethereum. They do this with Polygon’s zkEVM and other L2s by doing off-chain computation before reporting to Ethereum for final settlement. That’s why it scales for Ethereum and brings down transaction costs so much for us.
But using it as a direct form of privacy so we can’t see that Alice sends Bob 1 ETH is different. That’s what Aleo is doing.
After all, Polygon still has a block explorer, and you can still see that Alice sent Bob 1 USDT on Polygon. Here is a transaction from Polygon for $1,187. And you see it’s public. The only privacy you get is between Polygon and Ethereum. Ethereum doesn’t see your transaction when Polygon batches them all together for finality. That’s it. But that’s not real privacy.
Real Privacy
Aleo does REAL privacy. With provers, they can prove they know something without revealing what it is. This is a key for accurate transaction accounting and consensus, as well as for privacy.
Aleo is your invisibility cloak online.
Hide what you want, reveal what you choose. pic.twitter.com/vNBPYdpVlR
— Aleo (@AleoHQ) October 2, 2025
Aleo then encrypts this data and does the same type of off-chain computation we see Polygon doing. Then, on-chain, they record the ZK proof to prove the transaction went through and is accurate. They call it decentralized private computation. And it works.
In fact, it works great. It means Aleo has “programmable privacy”. Privacy is the default setting. Then you can adjust it and customize it to your needs if you build a protocol on their chain. OR, as a user, you can decide how much of your data to share with others. It’s a great system.
Imagine private DeFi for borrowing or lending. OR your ability to not share a successful new trading strategy on a perp DEX so you can continue to profit from it. Or payroll, which you’ll hear more about in a second……
Recent News & Updates
Just last week, Aleo announced its privacy‑based stablecoin USAD launched with Paxos. This is a big deal. It’s both a stablecoin, which is a hot narrative and what we need for liquidity, and it is compliant. It’s compliant because Paxos is a compliant issuer of stablecoins already. That’s thanks to the Genius Act recently passed and Paxos’ history with Binance’s BUSD and Paypal’s PYUSD.
We’re excited to announce our partnership with @PaxosLabs to introduce USAD: a next-generation stablecoin that is both private, compliant, and a first of its kind. Together, we’re bringing a digital dollar that keeps your information safe and your transactions confidential.
The… pic.twitter.com/o0PmYnmGF0
— Aleo (@AleoHQ) October 1, 2025
So we have a private, compliant stablecoin coming. A big step forward for private payments on-chain.
Last month, they teamed up with crypto payroll leader Request Finance to make crypto payroll private. Again, Web2 has this, sort of, but we don’t. Anyone who knows the payment wallet of any project can see exactly how much they are paying out and to which wallet addresses every week or month.
As a new member of the Global Dollar Network, Aleo is making private payments a reality right now.
BIG news: Aleo is the first Layer 1 to join @Global_Dollar Network.
With programmable, private payments, we’re filling a critical gap in the stablecoin ecosystem and helping bring encrypted dollars to the world.
Building the future of finance and it feels good 💪 pic.twitter.com/PyFEngahkV
— Aleo (@AleoHQ) August 28, 2025
Just these 3 things alone are really big for the payments sector and retail, as well as for those of us who are paid in crypto for our work.
There are some other solid updates, like integration with DEX aggregator KyberSwap or updates to the SnarkOS operating system, that make updating private smart contracts easier. That’s for the developers. What it means is better, more responsive smart contracts for us to use that are now private.
Why Aleo Now?
Here are a couple of the recent events that tell us Aleo should be on your radar right now.
First, back in August, they got listed on Revolut. It means all UK and EU users can buy the $ALEO right from their Revolut accounts. That’s a great way to spark more retail demand for sure. And it’s working. $ALEO is up 75% since then. From 24c to 40c.
And the outreach to the retail community about $ALEO and the importance of blockchain privacy continues.
Binance Alpha Listing
A couple of weeks ago, they got listed with Binance Alpha. This means Binance ecosystem users can access $ALEO easily. And right now, the best volume and pricing is on BNB Chain leading DEX PancakeSwap.
$ALEO is now listed on Binance Alpha!
With 280M+ users across 100+ countries, this listing brings Aleo to one of the largest global communities in blockchain.
The future is private. pic.twitter.com/HI9Ea40kvY
— Aleo (@AleoHQ) September 14, 2025
It also means a Binance listing is likely soon. In 2024, we saw Virtual a 500% pump post Binance listing, so we know for sure that a Binance listing unlocks a ton of value for a token.
It’s a little less impactful now, but still important. It will mean most people in crypto who want it will be able to buy, sell, and trade it whenever they want. Definitely bullish.
So with Aleo, we have all the ingredients for a nice bull run to continue.
- •It’s in a hot narrative now that privacy is back in the public eye.
- •It’s a well‑run project offering something different that the industry really needs with private payments.
- •It’s been on a run already during this big privacy sector move. A good sign it can grow further from here.
- •Retail presence is growing and access to $ALEO in more places is coming with the Revolut and Binance Alpha news.
So if privacy is important to you, or you think it should be, then ZCash or Monero aren’t the only places to look to invest your money. Aleo is a solid mid‑cap privacy project at $222 million that could easily become a billion‑dollar project from here.
Multimedia
Disclaimer
The information discussed by Altcoin Buzz is not financial advice. This is for educational, entertainment and informational purposes only. Any information or strategies are thoughts and opinions relevant to accepted levels of risk tolerance of the writer/reviewers, and their risk tolerance may be different from yours.
We are not responsible for any losses that you may incur as a result of any investments directly or indirectly related to the information provided. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are high‑risk investments, so please do your due diligence. This article has been sponsored by Aleo.
Copyright Altcoin Buzz Pte Ltd.