ZRO, the native token of the omnichain interpretability protocol LayerZero, has soared over 40% over the past day following the announcement of its new Layer-1 (L1) blockchain backed by major institutional players.
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LayerZero Unveils Zero Blockchain
On Tuesday, LayerZero Labs announced a new L1 blockchain, Zero, aimed at institutional financial markets. According to the announcement, it is scheduled to launch in fall 2026, with three initial “zones” described as permissionless environments that are fully owned and governed by the underlying network.
Additionally, ZRO will serve as the network’s native token, ensuring interoperability between zones and between the 165+ blockchains it connects.
Designed to “eliminate long-standing scalability challenges of decentralized networks,” Zero is expected to process 2 million transactions per second (TPS) per zone and charge near-zero fees by targeting four key bottlenecks.
“By leveraging Zero-Knowledge (ZK) proofs to decouple execution from verification, Zero moves the network from redundant replication to a heterogeneous architecture,” LayerZero Labs explained on X.
“This structural change allows for two distinct classes of validators: lightweight block validators capable of running on low-end consumer hardware and more capable optional block producers,” he continues.
Bryan Pellegrino, CEO of LayerZero Labs, claimed that Zero’s architecture advances the industry roadmap by at least a decade. “We believe we can actually bring the entire global economy online with this technology. Our mission is to build permissionless infrastructure for a better world – this is the start of that world,” he added.
Zero receives major institutional support
The deployment was supported by key institutional players including Citadel Securities, The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), ARK Invest, Google Cloud and Intercontinental Exchange (ICE).
In particular, Citadel Securities is collaborating to evaluate how its technology could apply to trading, clearing and settlement flows. Additionally, it made a strategic investment in ZRO.
ARK Invest becomes a shareholder of LayerZero equity and ZRO. Meanwhile, Cathie Wood, the company’s CEO and CIO, has joined LayerZero’s new advisory board alongside Michael Blaugrund, vice president of strategic initiatives at ICE, and Caroline Butler, former head of digital assets at BNY Mellon.
“This is a historic opportunity at the intersection of finance and the Internet. I am excited to join the LayerZero Advisory Board and help accelerate the adoption of Zero by the world’s largest markets and enterprises,” Wood said in a statement.
DTCC will study Zero blockchain architecture to improve DTC tokenization service scalability and collateral management, while ICE will examine it for 24/7 trading and tokenized collateral.
Additionally, Google Cloud has partnered to explore how to enable AI agents to make micropayments and exchange resources instantly. Tether also announced a separate strategic investment in LayerZero Labs on Tuesday.
ZRO Price Skyrockets
Following this news, ZRO soared more than 40% in the past 24 hours, hitting a four-month high of $2.59 on Wednesday morning. The cryptocurrency has traded between $1.50 and $2.00 over the past few weeks, hitting a local low of $1.35 during last week’s crash.
Today, recent momentum has pushed LayerZero above the $2.00 area and towards a major resistance zone. The cryptocurrency has failed to reclaim the $2.60 mark since June, being rejected from this zone after each retest.
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If ZRO recovers $2.60, it could target the next major resistance, located around $3.00. Crypto analyst Tony claimed that if the cryptocurrency breaks this level, “we will be good for $3.30. Wave 3 begins.”
At the time of writing, ZRO is trading at $2.45, an increase of 36.5% on the weekly time frame.
Featured image from Unsplash.com, chart from TradingView.com
