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What is ZRO?

ZRO is the token of the LayerZero protocol, infrastructure that moves messages between blockchains. Applications on different chains integrate immutable endpoint contracts, choose their own set of decentralized verifier networks to check each message, and pay executors to deliver it. Version 1 launched in 2022; the current V2 went live in January 2024.

The token itself launched on 20 June 2024 at the same deterministic address on Ethereum and several other networks. Claiming required Proof-of-Donation: 10 cents per ZRO, paid to Protocol Guild, the funding collective for Ethereum core development, with the LayerZero Foundation matching donations up to 10 million dollars.

How ZRO works

LayerZero's security model is configurable rather than pooled: each application picks how many and which verifier networks must attest to a message before it executes, so one application's misconfiguration does not break another's. The token standard built on top, OFT, burns tokens on the source chain and mints them on the destination, which is how ZRO itself and many other assets move across chains without wrapped copies.

ZRO's defined mechanism is the fee switch. An immutable voting contract runs a referendum every six months in which holders vote on whether the protocol should charge a fee up to the cost of verifying and executing each message; if activated, collected fees are converted to ZRO and burned. Four referendums between December 2024 and June 2026 all ended with the switch off.

ZRO supply and tokenomics

Supply is fixed at one billion. The Foundation's launch breakdown allocated 38.3% to the community, split between the retroactive claim at 8.5%, future initiatives at 15.3% and Foundation-managed ecosystem growth at 14.5%. Strategic partners received 32.2% and core contributors 25.5%, both on one-year locks followed by two years of monthly unlocks, and 4% of repurchased tokens was pledged back to the community.

Who builds ZRO

LayerZero Labs, based in Vancouver, was founded in 2021 by Bryan Pellegrino, Ryan Zarick and Caleb Banister. It raised a 120 million dollar Series B in April 2023 at a 3 billion dollar valuation, with a16z and Sequoia among 33 investors, and acquired the Stargate bridge business in August 2025. The LayerZero Foundation, a not-for-profit entity, manages community allocations and administers the referendum process.

How ZRO is governed

There is no DAO and no governance forum. The fee-switch referendum is the governance surface, administered by the Foundation, with Labs, the Foundation and affiliates abstaining from the vote; a holder's ZRO across chains counts as one balance through LayerZero's own read tooling. In 2025 the company also announced Zero, its own network, where ZRO is slated to become the staking, gas and governance asset; until that ships, those roles are announcements rather than mechanisms.

What people use ZRO for

Today the token's practical footprint is holding, moving and voting, with the heavier roles waiting on decisions and launches that have not happened yet.

• Vote in the semiannual fee-switch referendum from any chain where you hold ZRO.
• Move ZRO across networks natively through the OFT standard.
• Pay protocol fees, if holders ever vote the fee switch on.

ZRO risks and considerations

ZRO's value case is mostly prospective. The fee switch has never been activated in four votes, the announced Zero network utility is not live, and buybacks have been discretionary programs run by the company and foundation rather than contract-enforced flows. More than half the supply belongs to strategic partners and core contributors whose three-year schedules run into mid-2027.

Application-level security is also delegated: a cross-chain app is only as safe as the verifier set it chose, so failures elsewhere in the ecosystem can reflect on the protocol without any fault in the token's own contracts.