Citadel Securities and ARK Invest have thrown their financial muscle behind LayerZero Lab’s launch of Zero

Citadel Securities and ARK Invest have thrown their weight behind LayerZero Lab’s launch of Zero, a heterogeneous blockchain architecture designed to power traditional finance. ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood will join the project’s advisory board, with LayerZero Labs CEO Bryan Pellegrino claiming Zero could bring the entire global finance on-chain.

Pellegrino also announced that the launch of the L1 blockchain Zero secured strategic backing from Google Cloud and the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC). The collaboration with Google Cloud aims to combine blockchain infrastructure with cloud services, while DTCC’s collaboration will enhance Zero’s security, scalability, and interoperability for tokenized markets. Intercontinental Exchange will join the mix with plans to evaluate how the Zero chain could support around-the-clock trading. 

Meanwhile, LayerZero also noted that while Citadel Securities has previously invested in crypto-related companies like Kraken and Ripple, directly buying tokens is not a common practice for the firm. Citadel and ARK strategically bought the protocol’s ZRO token, with Citadel framing the relationship as a way to explore how Zero’s technology fits into core market workflow. However, only ARK became a shareholder in LayerZero’s equity. 

Wood calls it a historic opportunity for finance and the internet

ARK’s Cathie Wood has publicly stated that the joint venture is a historic opportunity at the intersection of finance and the internet. She also added that she was committed to accelerating the adoption of Zero by the world’s largest companies and markets as part of LayerZero’s advisory board, emphasizing her long-term relationship with LayerZero’s CEO, Bryan. Michael Blaugrund, the VP of strategic initiatives at Intercontinental Exchange, and Caroline Butler, the former head of digital assets at BNY Mellon, will be joining Wood on the advisory board. 

Meanwhile, LayerZero’s Bryan Pellegrino says the Zero initiative aims to extend blockchain infrastructure to a much broader range of economic activities. ICE executive Blaugrund echoes Bryan’s sentiment, claiming that his company’s exploration of Zero’s blockchain aims to evaluate how on-chain technology could unlock new opportunities and use cases across trading, clearing, settlement, and capital formation. 

On the other hand, Richard Widmann, the head of Web3 strategy at Google Cloud, says his company’s collaboration with LayerZero aims to explore how to expand the definition of the internet to include value. He emphasizes that LayerZero is rethinking how blockchains work from the ground up, adding that a convergence between cloud computing and blockchain is now happening.

LayerZero claims Zero’s performance far exceeds Ethereum and Solana

LayerZero’s Bryan recently threw shade at Ethereum and Solana, claiming that his company’s new protocol will far outperform both chains. The company says its Zero heterogeneous architecture is designed to significantly improve throughput. 

According to LayerZero, the protocol is scalable to 2 million transactions per second and offers up to 100,000x the performance and throughput of Ethereum, and approximately 500x that of Solana. These performance targets are meant to support demanding use cases across trading, settlement, and other on-chain applications. 

Meanwhile, Tether’s earlier investment in LayerZero, as part of its interoperability-focused infrastructure, reflects LayerZero’s effort to evolve from its role in cross-chain messaging to operating a Layer 1 blockchain that connects traditional finance players, tokenization, and cloud services within a single infrastructure stack. Zero will be permissionless to validate, build, and transact on, according to LayerZero.

LayerZero also stresses that its Zero protocol reinvents what is possible on-chain: from a general-purpose EVM environment compatible with any solidity contract, to a canonical environment for trading across all asset classes and markets, to a privacy-focused payments infrastructure. ZRO, the network’s native token and LayerZero, will provide interoperability between the three initial “zones” and across over 165 connecting blockchains. Zero is expected to roll out in the fall of 2026.

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