LayerZero debuts Zero blockchain with 2M TPS claim

Zero is LayerZero’s new L1 blockchain for tokenized finance

LayerZero, known for cross-chain interoperability, has unveiled a new Layer 1 blockchain called Zero aimed at tokenized finance and institutional-grade trading and settlement, as reported by The Defiant. The company positions Zero as distinct from its messaging and interoperability protocol, framing it as base-layer infrastructure for issuance, execution, and post-trade workflows.

The initiative is being explored by major market participants, with backing from Citadel Securities and ARK Invest, as reported by Unchained Crypto. The stated focus is purpose-built market plumbing that could host tokenized securities and related capital-markets activity under higher throughput and lower latency constraints than today’s public chains typically sustain.

Why it matters: 2 million TPS and securities tokenization

Zero’s design centers on performance claims that, if validated, would materially expand feasible on-chain workflows. According to MarketsMedia, LayerZero describes four “100× breakthroughs” across storage, compute, network, and zero-knowledge proving, enabling up to 2 million transactions per second per zone and what it characterizes as “abundant” blockspace. Independent benchmarking, security review, and production telemetry will be critical to assess the practical ceilings for throughput, finality, and cost.

Comparative positioning has also been highlighted. As reported by Decrypt, promoters have framed the performance target as far exceeding today’s prominent public networks, but precise ratios depend on methodology and workload; independent, like-for-like testing across throughput, latency, and fees will be necessary. For regulated use cases, qualitative factors such as determinism, auditability, and recoverability may carry equal weight to raw TPS figures.

For institutions, the potential upside ties directly to tokenized securities, near-real-time (T+0) settlement, and 24/7 market operations under clear legal and operational controls. “DTCC has been driving acceptance and adoption of digital assets, but realizing the full potential of blockchain technology has been elusive due to limitations in speed and scale. By working collaboratively across the industry, we believe that we can unlock the value of blockchain and deliver transformational benefits to market participants . . . tokenizing securities with uncompromising security, robust scalability, sound legal footing and seamless interoperability,” said Frank La Salla, President & CEO at DTCC.

Immediate impact: DTCC, ICE, Citadel, ARK exploring pilots

Near term, pilots and evaluation tracks are coalescing around concrete workflows. As reported by CryptoBriefing, priorities include trading-and-settlement flows with Citadel Securities, securities tokenization with DTCC, extended trading hours and collateral operations with ICE, and cross-chain utility aligned to cloud and AI environments with Google Cloud. The emphasis spans execution quality, custody, clearing, and the legal finality of tokenized instruments.

Key open questions remain and will likely determine production timelines. Stakeholders will look for clarity on the consensus and validator model, decentralization targets and governance, data availability guarantees, and the scope of third-party audits. Regulatory integration across custody, transfer agency, clearing, and settlement functions will also be pivotal to any move from pilots to scaled adoption.

What the LayerZero Zero blockchain targets in institutional finance

Zero is aimed at the full lifecycle of tokenized financial assets: compliant issuance, primary and secondary trading, post-trade netting and settlement, margin and collateral mobility, and corporate actions processed on-chain. By separating an interoperability layer from a high-throughput base layer and pursuing “abundant” blockspace via a zone-style architecture, the framework is designed to host parallel, high-volume workflows without congesting shared resources.

Interoperability remains a core design pillar. Existing applications and assets could, in principle, bridge into or interact with Zero while preserving controls required by regulated venues and intermediaries. In evaluating alternatives to incumbent chains, institutions will weigh measurable outcomes, finality times, determinism under load, operational resilience, and total cost of ownership, over headline TPS figures alone.

At the time of this writing, Coinbase Global (COIN) traded at 161.04, up 10.21% intraday, based on data from Yahoo Finance. While equity-market performance is not a proxy for outcomes on Zero, it provides neutral context for risk appetite and activity across the broader digital-assets operating environment.