ZetaChain Holders Approve Shutting Down Layer-1 Blockchain and Migrating ZETA Token to Solana
ZetaChain tokenholders have overwhelmingly approved a governance proposal to discontinue the project's Layer-1 blockchain and migrate its native ZETA token onto the Solana blockchain. The vote garnered 99.4% support with 58% participation, surpassing the required quorum. Under this plan, ZETA will become a Solana SPL token with a 1:1 conversion ratio while retaining its ticker and total supply, although the migration process will be gradual and not immediate.
Voting Outcome and Migration Details
On Sunday, ZetaChain tokenholders voted on governance proposal 68 regarding the shutdown of ZetaChain's Layer-1 blockchain and migration of the native ZETA token to Solana. The proposal passed with an overwhelming 99.4% approval and 58% turnout, well above the network’s 40% quorum requirement.
The vote does not trigger an immediate shutdown or migration. Core contributors will submit a follow-up proposal detailing the timelines and specifics for asset withdrawal windows across other blockchains, the snapshot block height, shutdown schedule, token claim procedures, and exchange conversion periods. Validators will continue operating and earning staking rewards during the transition.
Reasons for Migrating to Solana
The ZetaChain team cited that maintaining their own Cosmos SDK-based Layer-1 blockchain no longer aligns with their primary focus on Anuma, a privacy-centric AI application.
Migrating to Solana will allow ZetaChain to reallocate resources from blockchain maintenance toward developing Anuma and its Private Memory Layer, which enables users to carry encrypted context across AI models.
Background and Past Security Incidents
Founded in 2021, ZetaChain aimed to be an interoperability protocol connecting assets and data across different blockchains. In 2023, it raised $27 million from investors such as Blockchain.com, Jane Street Capital, Human Capital, and Sky9 Capital to build its Layer-1 network.
In April 2023, the project suffered a $334,000 exploit targeting its cross-chain gateway contract, draining funds from wallets across Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base, and BNB Smart Chain.
The team later acknowledged dismissing an early bug bounty report about the vulnerability as expected behavior, prompting a review and strengthening of their security processes.
Similar Moves by Other Crypto Projects
ZetaChain joins other projects winding down their standalone blockchains. In August, BounceBit shut down its blockchain following a $3 million token theft due to an authorization flaw and migrated its token to Binance Smart Chain with a 1:1 conversion.
On September 6, Harmony proposed shutting down its Layer-1 and migrating its native ONE token to Ethereum as an ERC-20, coinciding with a pivot towards an AI video project. This announcement came after a security exploit enabled unauthorized token minting and led Harmony to plan a rollback of over 109,000 transactions.
Why it matters
The decision by ZetaChain to shut down its independent Layer-1 blockchain and migrate its token to Solana highlights a growing trend in the crypto space where projects move away from maintaining their own chains in order to focus on core product development and optimize resource allocation. This reflects ZetaChain's shift toward prioritizing its AI-driven privacy application, Anuma, over blockchain infrastructure management. Additionally, similar moves by BounceBit and Harmony underscore how security vulnerabilities and exploits can prompt fundamental strategic pivots, including changing the underlying blockchain architecture. Monitoring these developments is crucial for understanding the evolving dynamics and security-driven transformations within major blockchain projects.
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