LayerZero Labs Announces ‘ZERO’ Blockchain After Funding from ARK Invest & Citadel

LayerZero Labs, the team behind the cross-chain interoperability protocol LayerZero and the ZRO token, has announced fresh strategic funding from ARK Invest and Citadel Securities. This comes as the company introduces Zero, its own layer‑1 blockchain built to support large‑scale, institutional-grade trading, settlement, and tokenization.

The new backing from ARK Invest and Citadel Securities adds to LayerZero’s existing roster of venture and strategic investors, which already includes names such as a16z crypto, Sequoia Capital, Circle, and Tether from earlier rounds.

Details of the ARK Invest and Citadel Securities Round

According to funding data, the latest strategic round dated February 11, 2026 lists ARK Invest and Citadel Securities as investors, though the amount raised has not been disclosed. This round follows a separate strategic deal announced on February 10, 2026 involving Tether, which also did not disclose financial terms.

Citadel Securities has gone beyond a simple partnership by making a strategic investment directly in ZRO, LayerZero’s native network token and governance asset. ARK Invest is also involved at a strategic level, with CEO Cathie Wood named on the advisory board for the Zero blockchain initiative, underscoring the firm’s long‑term interest in digital market infrastructure.

Zero Blockchain and DTCC Collaboration

The new funding is closely tied to the launch of Zero, a blockchain designed to address long‑standing scalability and cost limitations in decentralized systems used for trading and settlement. Zero uses a heterogeneous architecture with advances in compute, storage, networking, and zero‑knowledge (zk) technology, targeting up to 2 million transactions per second per zone with very low transaction costs and high throughput.

DTCC, the world’s largest securities clearinghouse, has publicly welcomed the opportunity to collaborate across the industry to shape the future of digital market structure and is working with LayerZero to explore ways to leverage Zero’s architecture. Specifically, DTCC is investigating how Zero can enhance the scalability of the DTC Tokenization Service and its Collateral App Chain, with goals that include improving collateral mobility, enabling new trading modalities, and supporting programmable assets.​

Day Zero Partners: Citadel, DTCC, and ICE

LayerZero has assembled a group of what it describes as “Day Zero” partners around the Zero blockchain. These include:

• Citadel Securities: A global, next-generation market maker collaborating on market structure expertise and assessing how Zero can support high‑performance trading, clearing, and settlement workflows; Citadel has also invested strategically in ZRO.

• DTCC (The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation): The world’s largest clearinghouse, working with LayerZero to evaluate how Zero can scale tokenization and collateral services for regulated securities markets.​

• ICE (Intercontinental Exchange): Parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, exploring potential use cases for 24/7 trading and tokenized collateral leveraging Zero’s infrastructure.

Other technology partners such as Google Cloud are examining how Zero can support micropayments and resource trading for AI agents, reflecting interest in programmable money for machine‑driven economies.

Funding History and Capital Structure

LayerZero has built up its capital base over a series of rounds starting from 2021, reaching a cumulative $318.33M in total fundraising. The main known rounds are:​

• Seed (April 2021): $2.00M raised; investors not specified.​

• Series A (September 2021): $6.30M raised, led by Multicoin Capital and Binance Labs (now YZi Labs), with participation from The Spartan Group, Hypersphere Ventures, Robot Ventures, and others.​

• Extended Series A (March 30, 2022): $135.00M raised at a $1B valuation, led by a16z crypto, Sequoia Capital, and FTX Ventures, with Coinbase Ventures, Multicoin Capital, Sandeep Nailwal, and others joining.​

• Undisclosed round (July 18, 2022): Amount not disclosed; led by Christie’s venture arm.​

• Series B (April 4, 2023): $120.00M raised at a $3B valuation, with investors including a16z crypto, Sequoia Capital, Circle, OKX Ventures, Lightspeed, SamsungNext, and others.​

• Private sale (July 19-23, 2024): $30.00K raised at a token price of $2.50, with an ROI currently around 0.94x (-5.75%) from that sale price and an ATH ROI of about 3.01x.​

• Undisclosed (April 17, 2025): $55.00M raised from a16z crypto as the firm “doubled down” on its commitment to LayerZero.​

• Strategic (February 10, 2026): Strategic, undisclosed amount from Tether.

• Strategic (February 11, 2026): Strategic round with ARK Invest and Citadel Securities listed as investors; amount not disclosed.​

Funding Rounds

Below is a simple representation you can recreate as a chart in WordPress (e.g., using a bar chart plugin) to visualize disclosed funding amounts over time: