LayerZero unveils Zero L1 as Citadel, ARK and institutional partners back ZRO

LayerZero announced the launch of a new Layer 1 blockchain named Zero, describing it as infrastructure built for tokenized markets and high‑throughput finance; co‑founder Bryan Pellegrino said the project’s focus is on “decentralized, permissionless, censorship resistance systems, winning at scale.” ^[1]

The project drew strategic support from institutional investors and partners: reporting lists Citadel and ARK as backers and names firms such as ICE, DTCC and Google Cloud among partners tied to the initiative. ^[2][5][6][1]

LayerZero and related coverage have highlighted Zero’s throughput ambitions — one guide and press reports cite a 2 million transactions‑per‑second capacity target and position the chain for high‑volume financial use cases. ^[6][2]

Markets reacted to the announcement: ZRO’s price surged intraday, with some outlets reporting gains as large as 45% following the L1 debut news. ^[4][2]

LayerZero says Zero will launch later in 2026 and frames the chain as a permissionless, censorship‑resistant platform for scaled tokenized finance; the announcement has already attracted institutional partners and moved ZRO markets. ^[6][1][4]