ZetaChain's holders retire a $27m Layer 1 after 32 months of mainnet
Proposal 68 passed with 99.4% of a 58% turnout, so the votes against came to about 0.17% of eligible stake. ZetaChain's stated reason is the work of coordinating upstream Cosmos patches across dozens of validators.
The Investor · Invest desk
What happened
- Proposal 68 closed on Sunday with 99.4% in favour on 58% participation, clearing a 40% quorum, with opposition and abstentions at 0.3% apiece, according to the project's governance portal.
- ZETA becomes a native Solana SPL token at one-for-one, keeping its ticker, total supply and vesting schedules, while the proposal excludes ZETA held on Ethereum and BNB Chain.
- The project raised $27 million in August 2023, with Blockchain.com and Jane Street Capital among the investors, to build a network where developers could use Bitcoin and Ethereum assets in one application.
- Its developers now say they do not need their own chain for Anuma, the AI app launched in February that the project says has more than 300,000 users and a million requests across 35 AI models.
Why it matters
- Who's exposed exposure A ZETA staker keeps the same number of tokens under the one-for-one swap and gives up a known reward schedule; the team said it was still working out how staking and rewards would function on Solana.
- What it limits constraint Exchange desks now control the timetable, because the vote that ends the chain waits on their swap confirmations.
- What it sets up precedent A Cosmos SDK team naming upstream patch coordination across dozens of validators as its reason to leave hands the same argument to every other app-chain weighing its own validator set.
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The approval share multiplied by the turnout puts about 57.7% of eligible stake behind the proposal, and the opposed share works out to roughly 0.17% [19][20]. Around 42% of staked ZETA did not vote at all [21]. The token fell about 2.5% in the 24 hours after the result, per The Block's ZetaChain Price page [26].
The proposal argues upkeep. "As a Cosmos SDK chain, ZetaChain inherits every upstream advisory and patch, and each one has to be coordinated across dozens of independent validators," the migration proposal states [10]. It goes on: "AI tooling is making such vulnerabilities easier to find, as the August 25 patch showed, so there will be more" [11]. Cosmos Labs disclosed attacks last month on six Cosmos EVM chains, and the attackers sold the stolen funds for about $5.7 million; ZetaChain was not one of the six [12]. A researcher had reported the flaw months earlier, and testers mistakenly believed it could not be exploited on live networks, The Block reported at the time [13].
The report does not include fee revenue or treasury figures for the chain, so the case is made in engineering hours. One division the disclosed numbers do support is the raise against the life of the network, though nobody has said that was the spend rate. Mainnet was announced in January 2024 [5] and the shutdown vote closed in September 2026 [17], which is 32 months of live chain [22]. Divide the raise by that and you get about $840,000 for each month it ran [23].
Then Anuma. "What Solana's AI stack still lacks is the application layer: an app people use every day, with memory that belongs to them and travels across models, apps, and agents," the ZetaChain team wrote in its post about the vote [14]. Against that, the project's self-reported figures are more than 300,000 users and a million requests across 35 AI models since February [18], about 3.3 requests per user [24], or under half a request per user per month across seven months [25]. Holders lock ZETA for credits to spend on AI [15].
I'd expect the exchanges to set the calendar. The second proposal that fixes the snapshot and shutdown blocks will not go to a vote until they confirm swap arrangements, and ZetaChain has not given a date [7][8]. The conversion could still complete on the published terms, one-for-one into an SPL token with ticker and supply intact; the interesting term there is the exclusion of ZETA on Ethereum and BNB Chain [6]. It could also sit unfinished for months, with staking running on a chain already scheduled for retirement [9]. That view is wrong if the next proposal arrives with named exchanges, block heights and the staking design in one document.
What to watch
- The second proposal's snapshot and shutdown block heights, and whether it names the exchanges that confirmed swap arrangements.
- Whether the staking and rewards design for ZETA on Solana lands in the same document as the shutdown block or after it.
- Any update to Anuma's self-reported user and request counts, which would move the requests-per-user figure.
Information, not investment advice. This story is general information about companies and markets, drawn from cited reporting. It is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any security; check the cited sources before acting.
Clarity's read
What the record supports and how the coverage leans. The claims behind it follow.
Reality
- Evidence72
- Adoption22
- Hype gap+30
- Incentives60
- Confidence66
Perspective Coverage
3 publishers- Builder
- Builder 30%
- Operator
- Operator 38%
- Investor
- Investor 32%
Claim ledger
Ranked by verification strength, evidence, and original report placement.
- [1]
A proposal to retire ZetaChain's Layer 1 blockchain and move ZETA to Solana passed on Sunday with 99.4% support.
- [2]
The vote on Proposal 68 ended at 10:58 a.m. ET with 99.4% in favor, according to the project's governance portal.
- [3]
Participation in the ZetaChain vote was 58%, exceeding the 40% quorum; opposition and abstentions were 0.3% apiece.
- [4]
ZetaChain raised $27 million three years ago to help connect competing networks.
- [5]
Blockchain.com and Jane Street Capital were among the investors in ZetaChain's August 2023 funding round; the project was then preparing a network on which developers could use assets from chains as different as Bitcoin and Ethereum in the same application, and its mainnet launch was announced the following January.
- [6]
The ZETA token is to become a native Solana SPL token at a one-for-one rate, retaining its ticker and total supply, with vesting schedules unchanged; the proposal excludes ZETA on Ethereum and BNB Chain.
- [7]
The proposal leaves ZetaChain running while contributors work out the conversion; a second, forthcoming proposal will specify the block height for a balance snapshot and determine the shutdown block, along with instructions for claiming tokens and withdrawing connected-chain assets.
- [8]
ZetaChain says it will not put the second proposal to a vote until exchanges have confirmed their swap arrangements, and has not given a firm date.
- [9]
ZETA staking continues in the meantime, and in the Sept. 17 announcement the team said it was still exploring how to handle staking and rewards on Solana.
- [10]
"As a Cosmos SDK chain, ZetaChain inherits every upstream advisory and patch, and each one has to be coordinated across dozens of independent validators," the migration proposal states.
- [11]
"AI tooling is making such vulnerabilities easier to find, as the August 25 patch showed, so there will be more," the migration proposal states.
- [12]
Last month Cosmos Labs disclosed attacks against six Cosmos EVM chains, though not ZetaChain, and the attackers sold the stolen funds for about $5.7 million.
- [13]
A researcher had reported the flaw months earlier, but testers mistakenly believed it could not be exploited on live networks, The Block reported at the time.
- [14]
"What Solana's AI stack still lacks is the application layer: an app people use every day, with memory that belongs to them and travels across models, apps, and agents," the ZetaChain team wrote in their post about the vote.
- [15]
Anuma's memory system is encrypted and works across models, and ZETA holders can lock up tokens in return for credits to spend on AI.
- [16]
ZetaChain's developers say they do not need their own blockchain to pursue Anuma, and are instead moving it to Solana with the ZETA token.
- [17]
The Block reported the completed vote on September 20, 2026, and ZetaChain's migration announcement was dated Sept. 17.
- [18]
Anuma, ZetaChain's AI app, launched in February, and the project counts more than 300,000 Anuma users, per its self-reported numbers, and a million requests across 35 AI models.
- [19]
About 57.7% of eligible staked ZETA voted in favour of Proposal 68.
- [20]
Votes against Proposal 68 amounted to roughly 0.17% of eligible staked ZETA.
- [21]
About 42% of eligible staked ZETA did not vote.
- [22]
ZetaChain's mainnet ran about 32 months between the January 2024 launch announcement and the September 2026 shutdown vote.
- [23]
The $27 million raise divided by the months of live mainnet comes to about $840,000 per month the chain ran.
- [24]
Anuma's reported million requests across more than 300,000 users is about 3.3 requests per user.
- [25]
Spread over the seven months from Anuma's February launch to the September vote, 3.3 requests per user is under half a request per user per month.
- [26]
The price of ZETA fell about 2.5% in the past 24 hours, per The Block's ZetaChain Price page.
Sources
3 independent publishers whose own reporting we read for this story.
- cointelegraph.comZetaChain holders approve plan to wind down L1, move ZETA to Solana
1 article · September 21, 2026
- cryptopolitan.comZETA moves to Solana after ZetaChain holders back ending its Layer 1 by 99.4%
1 article · September 21, 2026
- theblock.coZetaChain votes to shut down Layer 1 network and move ZETA to Solana
1 article · September 20, 2026
Topics and entities
Topics
- On-chain governance
- Crypto-linked AI applications
- Cosmos ecosystem security
- Blockchain wind-downs and migrations
Entities
- Blockchain.com
- Jane Street Capital
- Cosmos SDK
- Solana