LayerZero Courts Wall Street Capital in a Single Day — As the Cross-Chain Giant Pitches a “Wall Street Blockchain” Narrative

On February 10, LayerZero unveiled Zero in New York.

This proprietary Layer 1 blockchain is engineered to support institutional-grade trading and clearing for financial markets.

LayerZero describes it as a “decentralized multicore world computer”—in essence, a chain purpose-built for Wall Street.

Simultaneously, major Wall Street institutions began to openly endorse the project, with some offering direct financial backing.

Citadel Securities made a strategic investment in ZRO tokens.

Citadel handles roughly one-third of US retail stock orders. CoinDesk emphasized in its coverage that direct crypto token purchases are highly atypical for traditional Wall Street firms such as Citadel.

ARK Invest acquired both equity and tokens in LayerZero, while Cathie Wood joined the advisory board. Tether also announced a strategic investment in LayerZero Labs on the same day, though the amount was not disclosed.

Beyond token and equity investments, there’s a subtler signal.

DTCC (the central clearinghouse for US equities), ICE (parent company of the NYSE), and Google Cloud have all signed joint exploration agreements with LayerZero.

As LayerZero transitions from a cross-chain bridge project, it has secured endorsements from clearinghouses, exchanges, market makers, asset managers, stablecoin providers, and cloud computing companies across the industry.

Traditional institutions are making another move in building on-chain financial infrastructure.

Following the announcement, ZRO surged over 20% intraday and is currently trading near $2.3.

Moving from bridges to pipelines?

LayerZero’s business over the past three years has been straightforward:

Facilitating token transfers across blockchains. Its cross-chain protocol now connects more than 165 blockchains. USDt0, Tether’s cross-chain stablecoin, has processed over $70 billion in transfers in less than a year since launch.

This is a mature business, but its limitations are clear.

Cross-chain bridges are tools—users choose whichever is cheapest or fastest. As the crypto market contracts and trading volumes decline, true demand for cross-chain solutions has diminished. LayerZero’s decision to pivot is understandable.

It has the resources to do so. a16z and Sequoia have led funding rounds, with total financing exceeding $300 million and a prior valuation of $3 billion.

Their investment portfolios effectively serve as Wall Street’s contact list. Now, Citadel and DTCC are willing to publicly back LayerZero, likely influenced by its investors.

LayerZero’s new L1, Zero, is clearly not built for DeFi enthusiasts or meme traders.

Zero’s architecture diverges from existing blockchains. Most chains operate as a single road for all traffic; Zero divides its chain into multiple independently operating partitions, termed Zones by LayerZero.

Each Zone is independently optimized for specific use cases.

At launch, three Zones were activated: a general environment compatible with Ethereum smart contracts, a privacy payment system, and a dedicated trading matching environment.

These three Zones target distinct client segments.

The general EVM environment retains current crypto developers with minimal migration costs. Privacy payments address a persistent institutional challenge: on Ethereum, counterparties can view positions and strategies, deterring large funds from full transparency.

The trading-specific Zone is more direct, focused on matching and settlement for tokenized securities.

The client roster clarifies the strategy. DTCC clears trillions in securities annually and is interested in faster clearing. ICE operates the NYSE, which is open only on weekdays, and wants to experiment with 24/7 trading. Citadel processes massive order flows, and every improvement in post-trade speed translates to increased revenue.

Collectively, these are not crypto industry needs—they’re Wall Street pain points.

LayerZero CEO Bryan Pellegrino was candid in a public interview:

“It’s not that current solutions aren’t good enough—it’s that scenarios requiring 2 million transactions per second belong to the future global economy.”

Zero claims to achieve 2 million TPS in test environments, meeting traditional finance’s production-level requirements. However, blockchain performance narratives have become routine; exceptionally high throughput is no longer a surprise.

The story remains, but the audience has shifted—this time, it’s legacy financial institutions.

Wall Street wants to move trading on-chain, but Ethereum isn’t ready

Institutional interest in LayerZero isn’t driven by a crypto bull market—it’s Wall Street’s push for tokenization.

BlackRock’s BUIDL fund launched on Ethereum last year, exceeding $500 million in assets. JPMorgan’s Onyx platform, built on Ethereum technology, has processed trillions in repo transactions.

Wall Street used Ethereum for proof of concept, demonstrating tokenization’s viability. The next step is finding a platform capable of handling production workloads.

Zero’s three Zones directly address this gap. EVM compatibility allows Ethereum assets and contracts to migrate seamlessly.

This may mark the true divergence between LayerZero and Ethereum.

Ethereum is adopting standards like ERC-8004 to assert definitional authority—issuing on-chain IDs for AI agents and establishing rules for the future blockchain economy…

LayerZero’s strategy is to bypass definitions, build infrastructure, and tell institutions their trades can run here.

One writes the rulebook; the other lays the pipes. Their bets differ.

Ethereum bets on its irreplaceability as the trust layer, supported by TVL, security audits, and institutional credibility. LayerZero bets on the need for alternatives at the execution layer—Wall Street requires speed, privacy, and throughput, and will adopt whoever delivers first.

Whether these paths converge remains uncertain, but capital flows are already signaling a direction.

What does this mean for $ZRO?

ZRO was initially positioned as the governance token for LayerZero’s cross-chain protocol. Its total supply is 1 billion, used exclusively for voting and staking.

With Zero’s launch, the token’s narrative has shifted.

ZRO is now the native token of the Zero chain, anchoring network governance and security. If Zero evolves into institutional-grade financial infrastructure, ZRO’s valuation logic moves from “cross-chain transaction volume” to “asset value running on the chain.”

Two valuation anchors—everyone understands the difference in scale. Yet, several concrete factors will determine ZRO’s trajectory.

Supply side: 80% of tokens remain locked.

Currently, about 200 million ZRO are in circulation, just over 20% of total supply. According to CoinGecko, approximately 25.71 million ZRO will unlock on February 20, valued at about $50 million, or 2.6% of total supply, allocated to core contributors and strategic partners. The full unlocking cycle continues until 2027.

The February 20 unlock is the first supply shock post-launch—whether the market absorbs it will test short-term sentiment.

Demand side: The fee switch remains inactive.

ZRO currently lacks a direct value capture mechanism. In December, a governance vote proposed charging for each cross-chain message, with proceeds used to buy back and burn ZRO. The proposal failed due to insufficient turnout. The next vote is scheduled for June.

If passed, ZRO would gain a burn mechanism similar to ETH, reducing circulating supply with each transaction. If it fails again, ZRO’s “governance rights” remain voting rights only, lacking cash flow support.

For those interested in ZRO, monitor these three milestones:

1. June: Second vote on the fee switch. The outcome will directly determine whether ZRO has intrinsic demand.

2. Fall: Zero mainnet launch.

3. Through 2027: Full ZRO token unlock. Until then, each unlock creates pressure. In a crypto bear market, positive news alone may not drive ZRO’s price.

Finally, LayerZero’s description of Zero as a “decentralized multicore world computer” clearly references Ethereum’s world computer concept, aiming for a more prominent role in the settlement layer—especially financial settlement—while moving beyond the cross-chain bridge narrative.

Several partner statements are notable.

Citadel describes its role as “evaluating how the architecture supports high-throughput workflows.” DTCC references “exploring scalability in tokenization and collateral.”

In other words, they see potential but have not committed.

Wall Street capital is strategic—placing multiple small bets to see which pays off. When a project attracts high-profile institutions, it’s not full commitment, but rather a catalyst for short-term positive sentiment.

LayerZero may have secured a ticket to enter the game—or it may just be an interview opportunity.

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