Haciyev Reşit 
A surprising development has taken place in the crypto markets. LayerZero Labs, together with the LayerZero (ZRO) ecosystem behind it, officially announced a new Layer-1 blockchain called “Zero.” Simultaneously with the announcement, it was revealed that the company secured strategic investments from financial giants Citadel Securities and ARK Invest, while also forming partnerships with DTCC and Google Cloud. Despite all these positive developments, an unexpected pullback in the price of ZRO drew investors’ attention.
Strategic Investment from Citadel and ARK Invest
According to the announcement, both Citadel Securities and ARK Invest purchased LayerZero’s native token, ZRO. Citadel’s direct token investment is particularly notable, considering the firm’s historical investment strategies.
Together with LayerZero, Citadel Securities will evaluate how the Zero blockchain can be utilized in areas such as:
- Trading infrastructure
- Clearing and settlement processes
- Market structure optimization
On the ARK Invest side, Cathie Wood not only acquired ZRO tokens but also took a direct equity stake in LayerZero Labs, describing the development as “a historic opportunity at the intersection of finance and the internet.”
Related: What Is LayerZero?
Another key highlight of LayerZero’s announcement was the strategic partnerships formed with two globally leading institutions in technology and financial infrastructure.
Google Cloud aims to explore next-generation use cases alongside LayerZero, including blockchain-based micropayments, data sharing, and resource trading for AI agents. This collaboration is seen as an important step toward integrating machine economies and autonomous digital actors into financial systems.
Meanwhile, DTCC plans to examine Zero’s blockchain infrastructure for the tokenization of highly liquid traditional financial assets such as equities, ETFs, and U.S. Treasury bonds. In addition, Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) announced it will evaluate whether Zero can meet institutional market requirements, including 24/7 continuous trading, tokenized collateral, and other enterprise-level demands.
These developments stand out as major steps reinforcing Zero’s ambition to bridge traditional finance and blockchain technology.
What Is LayerZero’s “Zero” Blockchain?
Introduced by LayerZero Labs, Zero is positioned as a next-generation Layer-1 blockchain designed for institutional-grade financial markets. The project uses a heterogeneous architecture and zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) to separate transaction execution from verification.
According to the company’s claims, Zero:
- Can reach approximately 2 million transactions per second
- Can reduce transaction fees to as low as one-millionth of a dollar
- Offers theoretically unlimited block space
LayerZero also asserts that, in terms of performance, Zero delivers roughly 100,000 times the throughput of Ethereum and 500 times that of Solana.
Evaluation
By bringing together major institutions such as Citadel, ARK Invest, DTCC, and Google Cloud under the Zero blockchain initiative, LayerZero has taken what many view as a historic step toward institutional blockchain adoption. Although short-term volatility has been observed in the price of ZRO, these developments indicate that, in the long term, the LayerZero ecosystem could play a significant role in institutional financial infrastructure.
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