Lombard

Citadel

bullish

LayerZero

Mantle

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 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&nbsp;nine-figure annual recurring revenue. LayerZero handled roughly&nbsp;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.&nbsp;
 <a href="https://coincodex.com/crypto/layerzero/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">ZRO has gained roughly&nbsp;36%</a> 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&nbsp;2 basis points&nbsp;on OFT transfers made through Stargate, capped at $250 per transaction. It also increased the minimum LayerZero Labs Executor charge to&nbsp;$0.25 per transaction.
 Under the new&nbsp;<a href="https://www.layerzero.org/blog/pricing-updates" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">pricing model</a>, excess Stargate revenue is directed toward ZRO purchases.&nbsp;
 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&nbsp;$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.&nbsp;
 The strategy also builds on the earlier&nbsp;<a href="https://coinpaper.com/15005/layer-zero-price-prediction-jumps-8-as-dao-burns-303-m-stg" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Stargate-to-ZRO consolidation</a>, which eliminated hundreds of millions of remaining STG tokens.&amp;lt;iframe src=”https://widgets.coincodex.com/w/a41ec314-4af5-423c-b42e-d06d1e7e6ce0?site=coinpaper&amp;amp;mode=light” width=”100%” height=”420” frameborder=”0” style=”border:0;background:transparent;border-radius:0px;”&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/iframe&amp;gt;A $25M Supply Test Arrives This Month 
 The catch is that buybacks are competing against token unlocks.
 Around Sept. 19–20, approximately&nbsp;23.6 million ZRO&nbsp;allocated to core contributors and strategic partners are scheduled to unlock. At current prices, that is worth roughly&nbsp;$25 million&nbsp;and represents about&nbsp;6.7% of the circulating float, according to&nbsp;<a href="https://defillama.com/unlocks/layerzero" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">DefiLlama’s unlock data</a>.&nbsp;
 ZRO currently has roughly&nbsp;353 million tokens circulating&nbsp;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.
 <h3 id="layerzero-still-has-a-serious-interoperability-fight">LayerZero Still Has a Serious Interoperability Fight</h3>
 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&nbsp;$1 billion in Bitcoin-backed assets&nbsp;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&nbsp;<a href="https://coinpaper.com/16938/layer-zero-lazarus-and-kelp-dao-the-full-story-behind-the-bridge-exploit" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">KelpDAO analysis</a>&nbsp;details that dispute, while the subsequent&nbsp;<a href="https://coinpaper.com/17070/292-m-kelp-exploit-pushes-lombard-to-migrate-1-b-btc-assets-to-chainlink-ccip" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Lombard migration</a>&nbsp;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&nbsp;<a href="https://coinpaper.com/14489/layer-zero-price-surges-over-24-after-citadel-tether-and-ark-back-wall-street-blockchain" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">ZRO rally</a>.
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Cathie Wood Sees Big Upside in LayerZero, but This ZRO Risk Is Days Away

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