Solana Privacy Rings are shielded pools that encrypt balances and transfer amounts while keeping execution and settlement on Solana’s mainnet. The default Ring hides the asset being sent and the amount, while wallet addresses remain visible. Custom Rings for businesses and institutions offer additional privacy and compliance controls.

The system uses zero-knowledge proofs, one of several approaches to blockchain privacy alongside trusted execution environments and fully homomorphic encryption.

Every transaction on Solana is public by default. Anyone can look up a wallet address and see its balance, what it has sent and received, and when. That transparency helps users verify activity on the network, but it can also expose the finances of businesses paying salaries, traders building positions and individuals who do not want their savings visible to strangers.

Solana Privacy Rings are designed to provide privacy without requiring users to move to a separate privacy network. Developed by Solana infrastructure firm Helius, the Rings launched on Solana’s mainnet on November 10, 2026.

Today, Solana changes forever

Introducing Solana Privacy Rings - encryption at the speed of Solana

Rings are programmable, onchain environments for encrypting money, markets, and finance - without ever leaving Solana

Now live on mainnet. pic.twitter.com/ezCIUCjcbI

— Helius (@Helius) November 10, 2026

What are Solana Privacy Rings?

Solana Privacy Rings are programmable shielded pools: shared pools on Solana that hold encrypted balances. Users deposit tokens into a Ring, send them privately to other Solana wallets and withdraw them to an ordinary public balance whenever they choose, according to the Solana Foundation.

Rings support SOL and other Solana-based assets, including SPL and Token-2022 tokens. Users retain custody of their funds because every transaction requires the owner’s signature.

The private balances exist on the same network as other Solana activity. Private transactions execute directly on Solana, and encrypted data is stored on the Solana ledger without a separate layer-2 network or sequencer. As a result, private balances can exist alongside the same stablecoins, tokenized assets and DeFi liquidity used by public accounts.

The Solana Foundation describes its approach as “public by default, private by choice,” allowing users and applications to choose the level of privacy they require.

How do Privacy Rings work?

Helius’ developer documentation distinguishes between confidentiality and anonymity. Confidentiality encrypts the asset and amount involved in a transfer. Anonymity also conceals the sender and recipient.

The default Ring provides confidentiality. In practical terms, the sender and recipient names remain visible, while the asset and amount are encrypted, similar to a bank statement that shows the parties to a payment but blacks out the amount.

Each private transfer includes a zero-knowledge proof. This cryptographic proof allows the network to verify that a transaction is valid—for example, that the sender had sufficient funds—without disclosing the underlying figures. Rings use Groth16 zk-SNARKs, a type of zero-knowledge proof that Helius says can be generated in tens of milliseconds either by a service provider or on the user’s device. Each private transfer settles in a single Solana transaction.

Users access their encrypted balances with a viewing key. They can decrypt a balance locally or allow a service provider to decrypt it and display it. They can also share a key for a single transaction with an auditor or counterparty without exposing the rest of their transaction history.

Moving funds from an ordinary public wallet into a Ring, or withdrawing them back to a public balance, remains visible onchain, including the asset and amount. However, Helius says users who move fiat currency directly into a private balance through a supported provider can keep the asset and amount hidden from the beginning.

Default Rings and Custom Rings

There are two types of Ring.

Default Ring: The Default Ring is live on mainnet and open to anyone. It provides confidentiality by encrypting the asset and amount of each transfer while leaving sender and recipient addresses public.

Custom Rings: Custom Rings are designed for businesses and institutions. Each operates as its own Solana program, with settings selected by the operator. A Custom Ring can provide confidentiality or full anonymity, which also hides the sender and recipient.

Operators can add compliance features including KYC allowlists, sanctions screening, auditor access, and the ability to freeze and recover funds. According to the Solana Foundation, Custom Rings were under audit and expected to reach mainnet in the coming weeks.

Custom Rings interoperate with the Default Ring. This allows regulated firms to keep their activity confidential from the broader market while continuing to use the same liquidity.

What can Privacy Rings be used for?

Private transfers are only one potential use. Solana programs can hold encrypted balances in private escrows and release them when specified conditions are met. Potential applications include:

• Private swaps that trade against public liquidity without revealing transaction size or price.
• Private lending, including posting collateral without publishing positions.
• Private staking and yield generation on encrypted balances.
• Conditional payments, such as payroll, vesting and multisig treasury releases.

At launch, Decrypt, mining and staking application ORE, and cross-chain service Aurora Intents were using the Default Ring. Backpack, DFlow, Jupiter, Squads and Titan were among the teams working on integrations. Those pending integrations, along with Custom Rings’ expected arrival on mainnet in the coming weeks, are the protocol’s near-term milestones to watch as it moves beyond launch day.

How safe are Privacy Rings?

Helius says security firms Certora, OtterSec and ZK Security audited the core programs and zero-knowledge circuits. Engineers from the Solana Foundation, Blueshift, Zcash and other teams participated in the “trusted setup,” a one-time ceremony that generates the parameters on which the proofs rely.

The code is open source and published on GitHub under the Apache 2.0 license, allowing anyone to inspect its operation.

Formal verification—a mathematical process for checking that circuits behave exactly as intended—was still underway and expected to be completed by the end of 2026. Solana’s documentation also describes Privacy Rings as being in beta.

Privacy tools raise compliance questions as well. The launch came days after another Solana privacy protocol, Privacy Cash, temporarily paused deposits following the October 2026 Binance hack. The protocol said it wanted to “make sure bad actors can’t use our product” while strengthening wallet screening. Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic reported that stolen funds from the hack had been deposited into Privacy Cash pools.

The Default Ring leaves addresses, deposits and withdrawals visible. Helius also works with blockchain analytics firms Range, Chainalysis and Elliptic on wallet screening. That structure leaves deposits and withdrawals—the pool’s entry and exit points—as the observable layer for analytics tools, while amounts transferred inside the Ring stay encrypted.

How do Privacy Rings compare with other privacy technologies?

Privacy Rings are one of three privacy tools listed by Solana. The others are Confidential Balances, a Token-2022 extension that encrypts token balances and transfer amounts while keeping accounts public, and Private Channels, which are private execution environments operated by an institution.

Across the broader blockchain industry, privacy technology generally falls into several categories.

Zero-knowledge proofs (zk-SNARKs): These proofs allow one party to demonstrate that a statement is true without disclosing the underlying data. Privacy coin Zcash uses zk-SNARKs for shielded transactions, as explained in Decrypt’s guide. Privacy Rings use compact Groth16 proofs to bring shielded pools to Solana rather than operating on a dedicated privacy chain.

Ring signatures: Privacy coin Monero uses ring signatures. A ring signature can be generated by any member of a group of keyholders without revealing which member actually signed. Monero combines a user’s real transaction output with others drawn from the blockchain to create a group of possible signers, according to the Monero Project’s Moneropedia. Despite the similar name, Solana Privacy Rings do not use ring signatures.

Trusted execution environments (TEEs): TEEs use secure areas of computer hardware, sometimes called enclaves, to process private data away from the rest of the system. They use the type of hardware also used to store biometric data on smartphones. TEEs can be efficient and run existing code, but they require users to trust the chip manufacturer and have been vulnerable to side-channel attacks, according to a primer from venture firm a16z.

Fully homomorphic encryption (FHE): FHE allows computers to perform calculations directly on encrypted data without decrypting it. This can enable smart contracts to operate on private inputs, but the technology remains computationally intensive, making it slower and more costly than other approaches for now.

Privacy Rings therefore take the zero-knowledge route, relying on mathematical proofs rather than trusted hardware. They hide transfer amounts rather than performing private computation in the manner targeted by FHE. Their main distinguishing feature is where they operate: on Solana’s mainnet itself, rather than on a separate privacy network.

Disclosure

Decrypt has partnered with Helius to offer confidential transfers in the Decrypt Money Account using Solana Privacy Rings.