Zero Knowledge Proofs for Identity Patents: Leaders & Trends 2026
Zero Knowledge Proofs for Identity: Patents, Leaders and Where Claim Space Is Still Open
Concentrated at the top. The top 5 assignees hold 560 of 1,021 records in scope (54.8%), and the top 10 hold 67.2% — this is a field with a small set of entrenched filers, not a fragmented one. Filing rose sharply to a peak of 310 records in 2018, then settled into a lower, still-active band. Using only complete years, filings fell from 74 in 2021 to 56 in 2024 — a 24% decline. 2025 and 2026 figures will rise as publications catch up with filing dates.
- 1ADVANCED NEW TECHNOLOGIES CO LTD365
- 2ANTCHAIN TECHNOLOGY PTE LTD55
- 3NCHAIN LICENSING AG50
- 4ANALOG DEVICES INC46
- 5INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINE CORPORATION44
See the full zero knowledge proofs for identity analysis in Eureka
- The complete ranking, not just the top five
- Every IPC branch with its share of the corpus
- The most-cited records, and where claim space is still thin
Common questions on this landscape
Who holds the most patents on zero knowledge proofs for identity?
One assignee leads clearly with 365 of the 1,021 records in scope, well ahead of the fifth-ranked filer at 44 records. The top 5 assignees together hold 560 records, or 54.8% of the field, and the top 10 extend that to 67.2%. This is a concentrated field: a small group of blockchain-infrastructure and payments-network companies controls most of the claim space, and any new entrant should expect to file around, not into, their existing positions.
Is patent filing for zero-knowledge identity technology growing or slowing?
Filing peaked in 2018 at 310 records and has come down since, with complete-year data showing a drop from 74 records in 2021 to 56 in 2024 — a 24% decline. That said, publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so the 2025-2026 figures in any dataset will understate real activity and should not yet be read as a continued slowdown. The honest read is that filing has cooled from its peak but remains active, not that it has stopped.
What patent classes cover zero-knowledge identity proofs?
The largest class is H04L, digital information transmission, covering 68.3% of the 1,021 records, followed by G06Q (business and commerce data processing) at 36.3% and G06F (electric digital data processing) at 30.6%. Dedicated cryptography classes like G09C (ciphering and secret communication) cover only 1.9% of records. Because a single record can carry several IPC classes, these shares add up to more than 100% and should each be read against the full record count, not against each other.
Disclaimer. This analysis is based on Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent records and is provided for general information and reference only. Patent data carries inherent limitations — recent filings are under-counted because of publication lag, counts may be on a record or family basis, classification and applicant-name data may contain errors or duplicates, and the underlying search query defines the scope shown — so the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing here is an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Verify independently and review with qualified patent and legal professionals before acting on it.
Method: Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on Zero Knowledge Proofs for Identity covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish. Every share divides by all records in scope. Data: Patsnap Eureka. See the full landscape report.