LayerZero's Day Trading Computer Strategy: From Cross-Chain Bridges to Wall Street Settlement Hub

On February 10th, LayerZero launched its new public chain Zero in New York. This is not just a product upgrade but a complete reshaping of its overall business positioning. Rather than calling it a new public chain, it’s better described as a high-frequency trading computer designed specifically for institutional-grade financial transactions—aimed directly at Wall Street’s clearing and settlement layers.

On that day, various Wall Street capital players stepped forward. Citadel Securities directly purchased ZRO tokens for strategic investment; ARK Invest bought both equity and tokens, with founder Cathie Wood joining the project advisory board; Tether announced a strategic investment. More importantly, the three major financial infrastructure entities—DTCC, ICE, and Google Cloud—signed a joint exploration agreement with LayerZero. This scene reveals that a project originating from cross-chain tools has, in a single day, garnered collective backing from trading platforms, clearinghouses, market makers, asset managers, stablecoin issuers, and cloud service providers. ZRO’s price surged over 20% at one point that day.

The Deep Logic Behind Wall Street Institutions’ Collective Support

Behind what seems like simple funding news lies a genuine demand from traditional finance to embrace on-chain trading.

Citadel Securities handles about one-third of retail stock orders in the US annually. Previously, this institution rarely bought crypto tokens directly, and the anomaly of this move indicates more than just optimism about LayerZero—it signals confidence that Zero can solve key problems. Similarly, DTCC clears securities transactions worth hundreds of trillions of dollars each year; their primary concern is whether clearing speed can be further reduced in cost. ICE controls the NYSE; with stock markets limited by trading hours, they want a 24/7 trading window.

These joint signals from institutions indicate they are no longer supporting a mere crypto project but are voting for an infrastructure capable of supporting production-level financial workflows. LayerZero CEO Bryan Pellegrino plainly stated in an interview: “It’s not that existing systems are inadequate; it’s that scenarios requiring 2 million transactions per second belong to the future global economy.” The core competitive advantage of this high-frequency trading computer is precisely such ultra-high throughput capacity.

The Evolution from Cross-Chain Bridges to High-Throughput Computing Systems

LayerZero’s core business over the past three years has been clear: enabling tokens to move from one chain to another. Its cross-chain protocol now connects 165 blockchains, and Tether’s cross-chain version, launched less than a year ago, has handled over $70 billion in cross-chain transfers. But this is also the problem—cross-chain is fundamentally a tool-based approach; whoever is cheaper and faster wins, leading to fierce competition and a clear ceiling. As overall crypto market trading volume declines, the pseudo-demand for cross-chain features becomes more apparent.

The launch of Zero signifies LayerZero’s shift from a tool to an infrastructure layer. Unlike traditional monolithic public chains, Zero adopts an innovative multi-core design—splitting blockchains into multiple independently operating partitions called Zones. Each Zone can be optimized for different scenarios without interference, embodying the elegant architecture of a high-frequency trading computer.

The Three Application Zones of Zero and Precise Addressing of Institutional Pain Points

At launch, Zero opened three Zones: an EVM-compatible environment, a privacy payment system, and a trading matching environment.

Universal EVM Environment reduces migration costs for existing crypto ecosystems, allowing assets and contracts on Ethereum to be directly transferred. But this is more of a transitional solution; the real highlights are in the other two.

Privacy Payment System addresses a longstanding pain point for institutions trading on Ethereum. On public chains, counterparties can see your positions and strategies; large funds are reluctant to “trade naked.” This is especially deadly in high-frequency trading—any pre-identified trading intent can be front-run, sharply increasing costs.

Trading Matching Zone is the real explosive point. It’s designed specifically for pairing and settlement after securities tokenization. When institutional products like BlackRock’s BUIDL fund or JPMorgan’s Onyx platform go on-chain, what they need isn’t a place to run NFTs but a high-efficiency matching system like NYSE and a fast clearing system like DTCC. Zero claims to reach 2 million TPS, precisely targeting the needs of Wall Street’s production-level systems.

The ZRO Token: From Governance to Value Capture

Originally, ZRO was just LayerZero’s governance token for the cross-chain protocol, with a single purpose. After Zero’s launch, ZRO became the native token of the new public chain, anchoring network governance and security, rewriting its valuation logic.

The shift is from “how much transaction volume this protocol handles” to “how much assets are running on this chain”—a difference that expands the imagination space by several orders of magnitude.

However, the real variables influencing token price are two key moments.

Supply-side pressure is a short-term concern. Currently, ZRO’s circulating supply is just over 200 million, about 20% of the total supply. Data shows that on February 20 alone, 25.71 million ZRO tokens were unlocked, worth roughly $50 million, accounting for 2.6%. The entire unlocking cycle extends until 2027, with each unlock adding downward pressure.

Demand-side breakthrough hinges on fee mechanisms. ZRO currently lacks a direct value capture mechanism. In December last year, a governance proposal was made to charge fees on each cross-chain message, using revenue to buy back and burn ZRO, but it failed due to low voter turnout. The next vote is scheduled for June. If approved, ZRO will gain a burn mechanism similar to Ethereum—each transaction reduces circulating supply, creating endogenous demand. Failure to pass would mean ZRO’s governance rights are only nominal, lacking cash flow support.

Critical upcoming moments include: the June fee toggle vote (deciding on endogenous demand), the fall launch of Zero mainnet, and each unlock cycle before 2027. Under the crypto bear market, the combined effects of these timelines will directly influence ZRO’s price trajectory.

Currently, ZRO trades at $1.69, with a 24-hour change of +0.35%, and a circulating supply of 202,629,028 tokens.

Wall Street’s “Small Bet” Strategy and LayerZero’s “Entry Ticket”

It’s worth noting that institutional official statements all carry a tone of caution. Citadel talks about “evaluating how the architecture supports high-throughput workflows,” DTCC mentions “exploring tokenization and collateral scalability”—in other words, “this might be useful, but no final decision yet.”

This reflects Wall Street’s rational approach. They will bet on multiple projects simultaneously, waiting to see which one ultimately succeeds. Therefore, LayerZero’s current position is better described as an “entry ticket”—a chance to participate in future on-chain financial competition, whether as an interview or as actual production collaboration.

The narrative has shifted; the target audience has changed. From DeFi developers to meme traders, and now to Wall Street institutions—the concept of a high-frequency trading computer is moving the most efficient financial transactions from traditional markets onto the blockchain.