ZKasino Users Plead for Refunds as $33M of Bridged Ether Sent to Lido

• More than 10,000 users deposited $33 million worth of ether to earn ZKAS, ZKasino’s native token.
• Despite initially saying that the bridged ether would be returned, ZKasino said it had converted the ether for ZKAS.
• Blockchain data shows that the ether has been deposited to Lido.

Cryptocurrency casino ZKasino went live over the weekend, but the launch was met with dismay from investors, who are calling foul on the company for sending $33 million worth of user deposits to staking platform Lido.

ZKasino is an on-chain gambling platform that uses zkSync and EigenDA as well as Chainlink and Randomizer’s Verifiable Random Functions to ensure fairness. In March, it raised $26.2 million at a $350 million valuation.

In the lead-up to going live, ZKasino opened up a token bridge that allowed investors to deposit ether ETH$3,015.16 to earn ZKAS, the platform’s native token. Originally, the website said that bridged ether would be “returned” once the bridging period was over, that wording has since been removed.

In a blog post on April 20, ZKasino wrote that “all bridged ethereum has been converted to our native gas token, ZKAS, at a discounted rate of $0.055.”

“This conversion was done as a favor to our users who have bridged to participate in the ecosystem,” it added.

The $33 million worth of ether that was deposited by more than 10,000 users was subsequently sent by ZKasino to staking platform Lido, blockchain data shows.

ZKasino is yet to respond to a wave of criticism from depositors, who are vocally requesting a refund on social media platform X.

ZKasino did not immediately respond to CoinDesk’s request for comment.