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ZRO Woody Wood backs LayerZero, but ZRO faces more severe short-term test
Although ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood has publicly supported the LayerZero agreement, the more immediate test for the token may come before the agreement validates its long-term revenue argument. Previously, ARK researcher Lorenzo Valente argued that LayerZero's interoperability business could eventually generate nine-figure annual recurring revenue, and Wood said investors underestimated LayerZero's role in cross-chain messaging.
According to data cited in the study, in the first half of 2026, LayerZero handled approximately 44% of cross-chain transactions, compared with Circle's CCTP accounting for approximately 41%. In the past month, ZRO tokens have risen by about 36%, but are currently trading at close to $1.06, still well below their 2024 peak. More importantly, LayerZero has just changed the way usage growth translates into token demand.
LayerZero starts raising fees and buying back ZRO
On September 1, LayerZero introduced a fee of up to 2 basis points for OFT transfers made through Stargate, with a cap of US$250 per transaction. At the same time, the minimum fee for LayerZero Labs Executor has also been increased to $0.25 per transaction.
Under the new pricing model, Stargate's excess revenue will be used to purchase ZRO. This is crucial because it establishes a clearer connection between cross-chain activities and the token itself. LayerZero acquired Stargate in 2025 and has begun using bridging revenue for monthly ZRO purchases. Between September and November 2025, Stargate generated approximately $2.4 million in revenue, of which $1.2 million was used for open market ZRO purchases. The company said Stargate's revenue will increasingly flow to the repurchase program. The strategy also builds on an early "Stargate-to-ZRO" integration that eliminated hundreds of millions of remaining STG tokens.
Will face a $25 million supply test this month
However, the repurchase program is facing competitive pressure from token unlocking. According to DefiLlama's unlocking data, approximately 23.6 million ZROs allocated to core contributors and strategic partners will be unlocked between September 19 and 20. At current prices, this is worth approximately US$25 million, or approximately 6.7% of the circulation. Currently, the circulation of ZRO is approximately 353 million pieces, and the maximum supply is 1 billion pieces.
This made Wood's endorsement seem particularly delicate. Investors are not just deciding whether LayerZero's technology is valuable; they are about to see whether its emerging revenue and repurchase model can absorb the continued pressure of token distribution.
LayerZero still faces fierce interoperability competition
ARK's investment argument also faces competition from other projects. Chainlink's CCIP is winning significant migration cases. Mantle recently relocated more than $2.5 billion of its MNT cross-chain infrastructure from LayerZero to Chainlink, while Lombard relocated more than $1 billion of bitcoin-backed assets after reviewing bridge security. The moves came after KelpDAO suffered an approximately $292 million breach, although LayerZero insisted its underlying protocol itself had not been compromised.
Relevant analysis documents this controversy in detail, and subsequent Lombard migration cases demonstrate how Chainlink actively competes for organization-level cross-chain traffic. Because ARK already has financial interests in LayerZero Labs and ZRO, Wood's comments are not the opinion of a neutral observer. This connection itself is not new: ARK's investment in LayerZero was previously disclosed, with support from Citadel Securities and Tether, which pushed ZRO to rise sharply.
