Cathie Wood has thrown her support behind LayerZero, but the more immediate test for ZRO may arrive before the protocol proves ARK Invest’s long-term revenue thesis.
The ARK Invest CEO said investors are underestimating LayerZero’s role in cross-chain messaging after ARK researcher Lorenzo Valente argued its interoperability business could eventually generate nine-figure annual recurring revenue. LayerZero handled roughly 44% of cross-chain volume during the first half of 2026, compared with about 41% for Circle’s CCTP, according to figures cited in the research.
ZRO has gained roughly 36% over the past month, but trades near $1.06 and remains far below its 2024 peak. More importantly, LayerZero has just changed how growing usage can translate into demand for the token.
LayerZero Has Started Charging More — and Buying ZRO
On Sept. 1, LayerZero introduced a fee of up to 2 basis points on OFT transfers made through Stargate, capped at $250 per transaction. It also increased the minimum LayerZero Labs Executor charge to $0.25 per transaction.
Under the new pricing model, excess Stargate revenue is directed toward ZRO purchases.
That matters because it creates a clearer link between cross-chain activity and the token itself.
LayerZero acquired Stargate in 2025 and has already been using bridge revenue for monthly ZRO purchases. Between September and November 2025, Stargate generated roughly $2.4 million in revenue, with $1.2 million used for open-market ZRO purchases. The company has said Stargate revenue will increasingly flow toward buybacks.
The strategy also builds on the earlier Stargate-to-ZRO consolidation, which eliminated hundreds of millions of remaining STG tokens.
A $25M Supply Test Arrives This Month
The catch is that buybacks are competing against token unlocks.
Around Sept. 19–20, approximately 23.6 million ZRO allocated to core contributors and strategic partners are scheduled to unlock. At current prices, that is worth roughly $25 million and represents about 6.7% of the circulating float, according to DefiLlama’s unlock data.
ZRO currently has roughly 353 million tokens circulating out of a maximum supply of 1 billion.
That makes Wood’s endorsement unusually well timed. Investors are not simply deciding whether LayerZero’s technology is valuable; they are about to see whether its emerging revenue-and-buyback model can absorb continuing token distribution.
LayerZero Still Has a Serious Interoperability Fight
ARK’s thesis also faces competition.
Chainlink’s CCIP has been winning notable migrations. Mantle recently moved its $2.5 billion-plus MNT cross-chain infrastructure from LayerZero to Chainlink, while Lombard shifted more than $1 billion in Bitcoin-backed assets after reviewing bridge security. Those moves followed scrutiny around the roughly $292 million KelpDAO exploit, although LayerZero maintained that its underlying protocol itself was not compromised.
Coinpaper’s KelpDAO analysis details that dispute, while the subsequent Lombard migration shows how aggressively Chainlink is competing for institutional cross-chain traffic.
ARK already has financial interests in both LayerZero Labs and ZRO, so Wood’s comments are not those of a neutral observer. ARK’s connection itself is also not new: its investment in LayerZero was disclosed earlier alongside backing from Citadel Securities and Tether, which drove a sharp ZRO rally.
Be the first to comment