Woofun AI reports that Aligned, a ZK infrastructure initiative backed by LambdaClass, has ceased operations of its core Proof Verification Layer just one month prior to its Token Generation Event (TGE), signaling a decisive strategic pivot toward an aggregation service model.

The logistical execution of the token launch commenced on August 20, when the native token ALIGN became eligible for spot trading on major exchanges including Coinbase, Bitget, and KuCoin. While Coinbase has already generated deposit addresses for the asset, no definitive trading timeline has been established.

Concurrently, Aligned activated its official airdrop check page, ensuring that the distribution mechanism would synchronize with the token's live status, thereby aligning user engagement with market entry.

To contextualize this move, one must examine LambdaClass, the engineering entity behind Aligned. Founded in 2014 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, LambdaClass maintains its headquarters there while distributing its workforce across Buenos Aires, Montevideo, and Barcelona. As part of the Ergodic Group, the firm employs over 100 engineers specializing in formal verification, cryptography, distributed systems, and high-performance software. Their technical stack relies on Lean 4 for formal verification, Rust for secure high-performance systems, and Erlang/Elixir for distributed fault tolerance, driven by the philosophy to 'observe, iterate, simplify' to achieve production-grade quality rather than academic prototypes.

Lambda's production track record in Ethereum infrastructure is substantial, with its software reportedly serving approximately 40% of Ethereum validators, primarily through projects like Commit-Boost. This infrastructure manages assets worth billions of dollars, demonstrating that Lambda is not a nascent startup but an established engineering team with proven capabilities in the Ethereum layer. Their expertise spans formal verification, cryptography, and distributed systems, providing a robust foundation for their ZK initiatives.

Aligned originated from Lambda's accumulated expertise in the ZK sector, where founders have contributed to open-source cryptographic libraries and ZK infrastructure since 2013. They were deeply involved in the development of Starknet, zkSync, and Polygon Miden, and open-sourced EthRex and Lambdaworks. Observing that organizations building verifiable applications faced high integration costs and messy security boundaries due to dealing with dozens of suppliers, the team launched Aligned in 2024 to bundle these capabilities. The project initially operated as an EigenLayer AVS, verifying over 136,000 proofs with more than 50 operators at its peak.

The fundraising trajectory for Aligned was rapid and substantial. In April 2024, the project secured $2.6 million in a seed round led by Lemniscap and Bankless Ventures. Later that month, Hack VC led a $20 million Series A, followed by investments from dao5, L2 Iterative, Nomad Capital, Finality Capital, Symbolic Capital, and Theta Capital, bringing total institutional funding to approximately $22.6 million. In early 2025, Aligned completed a community round raising over $4 million via CoinList and Echo, solidifying its financial backing before the strategic shift.

The strategic pivot became evident as the roadmap evolved from the Proof Verification Layer to a Proof Aggregation Service. Launched on testnet in Q1 2025, the aggregation service entered mainnet alpha by Q1 2026, alongside a Wallet-as-a-Service MVP based on EIP-7702. On July 21, 2026, the team officially announced the abandonment of the Proof Verification Layer, citing matured ZK technology, native Ethereum ZK support, and market preference for Ethereum-level security over low latency. Consequently, operator counts dropped from over 50 to 26, with restaking volume settling at $119 million, while other services like RaaS, LambdaVM (developed with 3MI Labs), and interoperability protocols remain in development.

The mechanics of the new Proof Aggregation Service rely on recursive aggregation to compress multiple proofs into a single on-chain verification, claiming a 90% cost reduction. This model shifts security reliance from EigenLayer's restaking to Ethereum's finality. Partnerships include Sovra, which boasts over 8 million users, and Loom Finance, with a marketplace valued at 1.2 billion Euro.

Additionally, verification data from ZK Arcade illustrates the service's operational scope, though the scale and demand for payments remain limited compared to the previous verification layer.

Woofun AI data shows that the total supply of ALIGN is fixed at 10 billion tokens, with a distribution updated in April 2026: team 23.50%, investors 19.71%, ecosystem 18.00%, future reserves 16.61%, foundation 11.40%, airdrops 8.74%, and community sales 2.04%. Approximately 16% of the supply was unlocked at TGE. Team and investor tokens feature a 12-month cliff, with 40% unlocking then and the remaining 18% released linearly, preventing immediate selling pressure. Airdrop recipients saw 44.36% of their allocation (3.

88% of total supply) unlock at TGE, with those holding over 10,000 tokens having the remainder released linearly over 12 months. Outstanding contributors, including Protocol Guild (1.5%), L2BEAT (0.2%), ZachXBT (0.2%), and ZK Podcast (0.2%), received 2.10% total, with 2.08% unlocking at TGE and the rest over 47 months. Polymarket predictions indicate a 96% probability of an FDV exceeding $50 million at launch, with lower probabilities for higher valuations: $100 million (89%-91%), $200 million (61%-69%), $300 million (45%), $500 million (20%), $800 million (4%), and $1 billion (2%).

The leadership team, comprising Federico Carrone (co-founder), Roberto Catalán (CEO), Diego Kingston (research), and Mauro Toscano (CTO), all hail from LambdaClass, reinforcing the project's technical pedigree.

However, the abrupt shutdown of the core product before TGE introduces significant risk, as the new aggregation service lacks the established revenue streams of the verification layer. With RaaS and LambdaVM still in development, the project's valuation hinges on the rapid adoption of its new model, marking a critical test of whether the pivot from component manufacturer to integrated assembler can sustain a viable business model under market scrutiny.