In a world rapidly reshaped by artificial intelligence, decentralized finance, and digital coordination, the most fundamental missing primitive is trust. Today, we’re proud to announce that Zeru has secured strategic support and angel investments to build zScore – the universal, decentralized reputation layer designed for the agentic era.

Zeru was originally conceived to solve a clear problem: credit inefficiency in the onchain economy. DeFi protocols demand significant overcollateralization from users because there has never been a verifiable way to assess a wallet's reputation. That limitation has left over $18 billion in collateral idle, while excluding millions of users from meaningful participation.

But as we began addressing the credit problem, it became evident that the core issue was broader. Creditworthiness is not a standalone metric; it is one dimension of reputation. And reputation is the foundation of trust.

To tackle this, Zeru set out to build a system that could evaluate and attest to reputation in a verifiable, privacy-preserving way. zScore combines onchain behavioral analysis with the ability to prove offchain credentials onchain using zero-knowledge proofs. It doesn’t rely on identity, capital, or social signaling—it captures what users actually do, and enables that proof to travel across networks, protocols, and applications.

Today’s digital environment is defined by uncertainty. The proliferation of AI-generated content makes it increasingly difficult to distinguish between authentic and synthetic actors. Deepfakes, bots, and autonomous agents are becoming indistinguishable from real users. Centralized systems are struggling to respond, as evidenced by recent breaches at organizations such as VFS Global and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics that underscore just how fragile traditional identity systems have become.

Rising identity theft and the growing complexity of digital interactions underscore a simple truth: we need new systems for establishing trust. This is especially urgent in DeFi, where Sybil attacks skew governance outcomes, distort incentive programs, and undermine the legitimacy of core distribution mechanisms.

Reputation is emerging as a strategic frontier. Andreessen Horowitz has cited proof of personhood and reputation as key theses for the next era of crypto. Google’s investments in zero-knowledge technologies show that even centralized giants recognize the need for verifiable privacy-preserving systems. The market is responding. Analysts project the decentralized identity and reputation sector to exceed $100 billion in market size by 2032. This is not a niche trend—it’s a foundational shift.

To realize this vision, Zeru has secured support from several leading blockchain ecosystems and investors. We are proud to have received a grant from the EigenLayer Foundation, supporting zScore’s deployment as an Autonomous Verifiable Service. We were also selected for Berachain’s RFA program, accepted into Sentient’s inaugural Builder Program, and are being supported by the IMUA Foundation through their Ignite accelerator.

In addition, Zeru completed an angel round that valued the company at $15 million. This round included founders and core contributors from Covalent, OpenLedger, JokeRace, Router Protocol, SelfChain, and Othentic, among others. Their conviction reflects a shared belief in the importance of creating a foundational layer for reputation—one that can power coordination across DeFi, AI, and institutional applications.

On June 7th, we are releasing the zScore API, allowing protocols, platforms, and developers to integrate reputation as a service. These tools will enable more intelligent airdrop targeting, credit-based access to undercollateralized lending, and dynamic scoring systems for DeFi users, traders, and onchain agents.

Zeru will also open its seed round to institutional investors and angels who share our vision: that the future of AI and crypto will depend on verifiable trust—earned through behavior, secured by cryptography, and preserved by design.

Reputation is not a layer on top of crypto. It is the layer that enables it to scale—to real users, real coordination, and real-world trust.

If you're building a future where agents act autonomously, capital flows permissionlessly, and identity is fluid but verifiable, zScore is the missing link.

The age of trustless systems is giving way to the age of verifiable trust.

Zeru is building the infrastructure to support it.