Hassan Maishera
TL;DR
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ZetaChain token holders approved Proposal 68 with 99.4% support, authorizing the project to shut down its Layer 1 network and migrate to Solana.
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The ZETA token will become a native Solana SPL token through a one-for-one conversion that preserves its ticker and total supply.
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ZetaChain plans to focus on Anuma, its AI application, rather than maintaining an independent Cosmos SDK blockchain.
ZetaChain Holders Back Solana Migration
ZetaChain token holders have overwhelmingly approved a proposal to shut down the project’s Layer 1 blockchain and migrate its operations to Solana.
Voting on Proposal 68 ended Sunday at 10:58 a.m. ET, with 99.4% of participating tokens supporting the plan. Opposition and abstentions each accounted for 0.3% of the vote.
Participation reached 58%, comfortably exceeding the required 40% quorum. The decision marks a major change in direction for ZetaChain, which raised $27 million in 2023 to develop an interoperability-focused blockchain connecting networks such as Bitcoin and Ethereum.
ZetaChain’s developers now plan to prioritize Anuma, an AI application launched in February. The team concluded that operating an independent blockchain was no longer necessary to develop the product.
Anuma will instead move to Solana alongside the ZETA token. According to figures published by ZetaChain, the app has attracted more than 300,000 users and processed one million requests across 35 AI models.
The platform provides an encrypted memory system that can operate across different models, applications and AI agents. ZETA holders can lock up their tokens to receive credits that can be spent within the app.
ZetaChain’s team argued that Solana already has a developing AI ecosystem but lacks a widely used application layer offering portable, user-controlled memory.
Cosmos Chain Maintenance Influences Decision
The demands of maintaining a Cosmos SDK-based blockchain were another factor behind the proposed shutdown.
ZetaChain’s team said every upstream security advisory and software patch must be coordinated across dozens of independent validators.
Developers warned that AI-powered security tools are making vulnerabilities easier to discover, potentially increasing the number of patches that blockchain operators must address.
Those concerns come after Cosmos Labs disclosed attacks affecting six Cosmos EVM chains last month. ZetaChain was not among the compromised networks, but attackers reportedly converted the stolen assets into approximately $5.7 million.
A researcher had previously identified the vulnerability, although testers mistakenly concluded that it could not be exploited on live networks.
ZETA Will Convert to Solana Token at 1:1 Rate
Under the approved plan, ZETA will become a native Solana Program Library token. Existing tokens will be converted at a one-for-one rate, while the ticker, total supply, and current vesting schedules will remain unchanged.
However, the proposal excludes ZETA tokens issued on Ethereum and BNB Chain. The project has not yet provided complete instructions for holders on those networks.
ZetaChain will remain operational while contributors finalize the migration process. A second governance proposal will specify the block height for the token-balance snapshot and establish the network’s final shutdown block.
That proposal will also outline how users can claim their new tokens and withdraw assets connected to other blockchains.
Shutdown Date Depends on Exchange Support
ZetaChain has not announced a firm timeline for ending its Layer 1 network. The team said it will wait until cryptocurrency exchanges confirm their token-swap arrangements before submitting the final migration proposal.
ZETA staking will continue in the meantime. However, developers are still evaluating how staking and token rewards could operate following the move to Solana.
Blockchain.com and Jane Street Capital participated in ZetaChain’s $27 million funding round in August 2023. The network launched its mainnet in January 2024 with the goal of enabling developers to use assets from multiple blockchains within a single application.
ZETA is up by 6.5% in the last 24 hours and now trades at $0.04123.
