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Railgun

RAIL · Field entry
PrivacyDeFiPrivacyCaution flagNot on major US exchanges

A smart-contract privacy system that lets Ethereum users hold and use tokens privately

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$2.368.79%Snapshot · October 20, 2026 · updates live
Market cap
$141.46M
24h volume
$365,214
Rank
#227
Circulating
60.00M RAIL
Max supply
100.00M RAIL
All-time high
$5.66 November 7, 2025

RAIL price chart

7-day snapshot. Chart data from CoinGecko.

Read this first — caution flag. Railgun DAO is the defendant in a pending civil racketeering suit in which the clerk has entered a default (the claims are allegations, with no ruling on them as of October 2026); the FBI has linked the protocol to North Korean laundering; and RAIL has no major US exchange listing. How to evaluate a project.
Not on major US exchanges. As of October 2026 Coinbase says Railgun is not tradable on its platform, Kraken says it is not available there, and Binance does not list RAIL for spot trading; we found no major US exchange listing. How to buy crypto safely.

What is Railgun?

Railgun is a set of zero-knowledge smart contracts that adds a private balance to Ethereum and several other EVM chains. You move tokens into it, then send, swap or use them in DeFi without your activity showing up under your public address. RAIL is the governance and staking token; you do not need it to use the privacy features.

Utility Lens

What Railgun actually does

Lets people keep balances, payments and DeFi activity private on public EVM chains without moving to a separate blockchain.

Real-world usage
growingThe shielded pool has been in steady use since 2022 and is now being built into wallet tooling backed by the Ethereum Foundation.
Token necessity
optionalRailgun's own docs say holding RAIL is not needed to use the protocol; the token is for staking and voting on upgrades.
Decentralization
moderateNo operator holds a key to the pool and upgrades need a RAIL-staker vote followed by a seven-day delay, but a proposal needs 500,000 staked RAIL to reach a vote, so influence sits with larger holders.
Track record
provenThe current pool went live on Ethereum in May 2022; the FBI says North Korean hackers used it to launder stolen funds in early 2023, and in 2026 the research firm MigaLabs reported a since-fixed bug that could have let anyone freeze the DAO treasury's reward funds.

How we rate

What it’s used for

People use Railgun through independent wallets that integrate it, to keep payroll, donations, trading strategies or personal holdings out of public view. In 2026 the Ethereum Foundation's Kohaku privacy toolkit added support for Railgun so more wallets can offer it. RAIL holders stake to vote on protocol changes and receive the fees the contracts collect.

Role of the RAIL token:

governancestaking security

Evidence of real use

  • In May 2026 a wallet SDK from the Ethereum Foundation's Kohaku project added support for plugging shielded pools such as Railgun into wallets. Source
  • Railgun's optional Private Proofs of Innocence system checks new deposits against lists from providers including Elliptic and the Chainalysis Sanctions Oracle. Source
  • The FBI said North Korean hackers used Railgun in January 2023 to launder more than $60 million in ether stolen in the Harmony bridge hack. Source

Privacy: what’s hidden, what isn’t

Privacy model
app-level
What it hides
Inside the pool: the sender, recipient, token and amount of each transfer, and which deposit funded which withdrawal.
What stays visible
Every shield and unshield, including the public address, token and amount; the tokens and amounts used in DeFi calls routed through the adapter contract; and the timing of activity.
Reality check
Independent reviewers rate the pool's core privacy as strong, but timing and amount analysis can narrow links, and academic papers cited by L2BEAT have studied these weaknesses. The FBI has tied the protocol to North Korean laundering, and EU rules from July 2027 restrict service providers that offer anonymizing accounts.

Privacy coins, explained

How Railgun works

Railgun is smart-contract code rather than its own blockchain. You "shield" a token by sending it to the Railgun contract, which records it as an encrypted note tied to a private 0zk address. Inside that pool you can send to other Railgun users, swap or call DeFi apps, and zero-knowledge proofs show each spend is valid without exposing who sent what to whom. When you "unshield," tokens go back to an ordinary address. The project says it runs on Ethereum, BNB Smart Chain, Polygon and Arbitrum.

Privacy only covers what happens inside the pool. L2BEAT, which reviews privacy protocols, notes that the shield and unshield steps are public, including the address, token and amount, so timing and matching amounts can help an analyst narrow down links. Railgun relies on a trusted setup ceremony that it says finished in late 2022, and notes are protected by elliptic-curve cryptography, which a future quantum computer could in theory break.

To keep stolen funds out, Railgun added Private Proofs of Innocence, an optional system run alongside the core contracts. After you shield tokens there is a one-hour waiting period, and your wallet then creates a zero-knowledge proof that the deposit is not on lists supplied by screening firms. Exchanges can check that proof without learning anything else about you. The contracts charge 0.25% when you shield and again when you unshield, and that money flows to RAIL stakers.

Key moments

  1. 2022The current Railgun pool goes live on Ethereum in May, and the trusted setup ceremony wraps up in December.
  2. 2023The FBI says North Korea's Lazarus Group used Railgun in January to launder more than $60 million from the Harmony bridge hack.
  3. 2026In January, holders of court judgments against North Korea file a civil racketeering suit against Railgun DAO in Washington, D.C.; the docket shows a clerk's default entered in April and no ruling on the claims as of October.
  4. 2026The Ethereum Foundation's Kohaku wallet-privacy SDK adds support for Railgun.
  5. 2026A governance proposal executed on July 18 mints 2.5 million RAIL to the treasury and upgrades the staker rewards contract; MigaLabs later says the upgrade quietly fixed a bug it had reported that could freeze treasury reward funds.

Supply

L2BEAT reports about 60 million RAIL in existence, most of it staked for voting, but the token contract lets governance mint more up to a cap of 100 million, and a governance proposal executed in July 2026 minted 2.5 million RAIL into the treasury. Stakers are mainly paid from the 0.25% fees charged on shielding and unshielding, which the treasury and staking contracts pay out automatically.

Risks to understand

  • Shielding and unshielding are visible on-chain, so careless timing or exact amounts can reduce the privacy you expect.
  • The FBI has linked the protocol to North Korean money laundering. Separately, in a civil racketeering suit filed in January 2026 in federal court in Washington, D.C. (Kim et al. v. Railgun DAO, No. 1:26-cv-00179), survivors of torture and terrorism and their relatives who hold money judgments against North Korea allege that Railgun DAO laundered North Korean hacker funds. These are allegations, not court findings: according to the docket, the clerk entered a default against Railgun DAO in April 2026 after it did not respond, and as of the docket's October 2026 update the court had not ruled on the plaintiffs' motion for a default judgment or on a non-party's motion challenging how the suit was served. Some exchanges may also refuse or delay deposits that came from privacy tools.
  • From July 10, 2027, EU rules bar crypto service providers from offering accounts that allow transactions to be anonymized, which may limit how European platforms handle Railgun activity.
  • Upgrades are decided by RAIL stakers; a harmful upgrade would take effect after a seven-day delay, so users need to watch governance.
  • RAIL is not on the large US exchanges we checked, which can mean thinner liquidity.

Railgun FAQ

Do I need RAIL to use Railgun?

No. According to the project's docs, anyone can use the privacy features without holding RAIL; the token is for staking and governance.

Is Railgun a mixer?

It works differently. Railgun keeps tokens in an encrypted balance you can keep using for transfers and DeFi, rather than only pooling and paying out deposits, though both hide links between addresses.

What are Private Proofs of Innocence?

An optional add-on that proves, with zero-knowledge cryptography, that a deposit is not on lists of known illicit funds. It reveals nothing else about the user.

Sources

  1. What is RAILGUN? — RAILGUN Docs
  2. Private Proofs of Innocence — RAILGUN Docs
  3. Railgun privacy review and risks — L2BEAT
  4. FBI confirms Lazarus Group cyber actors responsible for Harmony's Horizon bridge currency theft — FBI
  5. Ethereum Foundation's Kohaku initiative launches SDK for wallet-level privacy integration — The Defiant
  6. Regulation (EU) 2024/1624 (Anti-Money Laundering Regulation) — EUR-Lex, Official Journal of the EU
  7. Kim et al. v. Railgun DAO, No. 1:26-cv-00179 (D.D.C.) docket — PacerMonitor (U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia records)
  8. Permissionless Permanent Freezing of the RailGun DAO Treasury — MigaLabs

Last reviewed October 20, 2026. Written by . Utility Lens ratings are editorial judgments, not investment advice. Market data from CoinGecko. Spot an error? Request a correction.

About the author

Dave McNaught has worked in IT since 1999 and founded All Business Technologies (ABT) in 2003, a Boston-area firm providing Managed IT, Cybersecurity, Managed AI, Web Design and App Development. He publishes The Crypto Guide.

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