ZetaChain holders approve plan to wind down L1, move ZETA to Solana

ZetaChain token holders have voted overwhelmingly to shut down the project's Cosmos‑based layer‑1 blockchain and migrate the native ZETA token to Solana.

Governance vote and next steps

Governance proposal 68 passed with 99.4% support and 58% participation, surpassing the 40% quorum requirement. The proposal outlines a 1:1 conversion of ZETA into an SPL token on Solana, retaining the same ticker and total supply. The vote does not trigger an immediate shutdown; a follow‑up proposal will detail the asset withdrawal window, snapshot block height, shutdown timetable, token claim process and exchange conversion period. Validators will continue operating and staking rewards will persist during the transition.

Rationale for the migration

ZetaChain’s team cited that maintaining its own Cosmos SDK‑based layer‑1 no longer aligns with the project's focus on Anuma, a private‑focused artificial intelligence application. Moving to Solana is intended to free resources for Anuma and its Private Memory Layer, which enables encrypted context to be carried across AI models.

Background and recent security incidents

ZetaChain was founded in 2021 to provide cross‑chain interoperability. In 2023 it raised $27 million from investors including Blockchain.com, Jane Street Capital, Human Capital and Sky9 Capital. The project suffered a $334,000 exploit in April targeting its cross‑chain gateway contract, affecting wallets on Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base and BNB Smart Chain. The incident prompted a review of its security processes.

Trend of winding down standalone chains

Other projects have recently announced similar moves. BounceBit retired its blockchain after an authorization flaw led to a $3 million theft, migrating its token to BNB Smart Chain at a 1:1 ratio. Harmony proposed shutting down its layer‑1 and moving the ONE token to Ethereum as an ERC‑20 following an exploit that created unauthorized tokens.