• LayerZero steadies near $2.10 on Thursday after surging over 15% and topping at $2.59 the previous day following the announcement of the Zero blockchain.
• Cardano's founder, Charles Hoskinson, announces plans to integrate LayerZero, marking an expansion of cross-chain infrastructure.
• Sam Bankman-Fried’s Alameda Research swapped roughly $25 million for LayerZero’s ZRO token through its bankruptcy wallet, reflecting an interesting demand.

LayerZero (ZRO) trades above $2.00 at press time on Thursday, holding steady after a 17% rebound the previous day, which aligned with the public announcement of the Zero blockchain and Cathie Wood joining the advisory board. LayerZero is attracting industry interest, including from Charles Hoskinson, founder of the Cardano blockchain, who plans to integrate it as a partner chain, while Sam Bankman-Fried’s Alameda Research has swapped roughly $25 million into ZRO using funds from its bankruptcy wallet.

The technical outlook for ZRO remains bullish, with a Golden Cross pattern likely to form between two crucial Exponential Moving Averages (EMAs).

Zero Blockchain: LayerZero’s new 100x layer-1 for institutions

The heterogeneous Zero blockchain was announced on Tuesday, designed to bring global finance on-chain, with significant claims of a 2 million TPS throughput and a 100x improvement in four key performance metrics. These are computations with Fast Ahead-of-Formation Optimization (FAFO) offering parallel execution of blocks, storage with Quick Merkle Database (QMDB) allowing 1 million native TPS, networking with Scalable Verifiable Information Dispersal (SVID) minimizing load on validators, and privacy with an a16z research product Jolt, a high-speed zero-knowledge virtual machine (zkVM). 

“Zero’s architecture moves the industry’s roadmap forward by at least a decade,” said Bryan Pellegrino, CEO of LayerZero Labs, in the release. “We believe we can actually bring the entire global economy on-chain with this technology.”

The Zero blockchain is still under development and is scheduled for a full launch in September 2026. The blockchain will initially offer permissionless environments with Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) support, with a focus on privacy and an industrial standard trading zone. These zones could start the global finance migration on-chain by catering to its investors, such as Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), which handles over trillions of US Dollars in daily settlement, Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), parent company of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), and Citadel Securities, which made a strategic ZRO investment. 

Additionally, on Tuesday, Cathie Wood, CEO of Ark Invest, joined LayerZero's advisory board, alongside Michael Blaugrund of ICE and Caroline Butler (formerly of BNY Mellon), which increased the project’s credibility.

Demand surges among crypto notables

Charles Hoskinson announced on Thursday at the Consensus 2026 in Hong Kong plans to integrate LayerZero, the cross-chain communication protocol, to expand Cardano’s interoperability features ahead of the Midnight mainnet release by the end of March. 

Additionally, Alameda Research, a trading company founded by Sam Bankman-Fried, swapped 129.04 million Stargate Finance (STG) tokens, valued at $24.29 million, for 11.14 million ZRO tokens.

Rising demand across existing blockchains reinforces the potential for additional gains in ZRO as the Zero blockchain continues to develop.

Technical outlook: Will ZRO extend gains above $2?

LayerZero extends a V-shaped reversal on the daily chart, accounting for roughly 45% gains over the last seven days. At the time of writing, ZRO holds above $2.00 on Thursday after an over 17% rise the previous day from the 200-day Exponential Moving Average (EMA) at $1.80. 

The cross-chain messaging token also trades above the upward-sloping 50-day EMA, hinting at a potential Golden Cross with the 200-day EMA and reinforcing the bullish bias. 

If ZRO exceeds the $2.59 resistance level, which capped the previous day's gains, it could target the $3.35 peak from March 21. 

The technical indicators on the daily chart suggest heightened bullish momentum amid the short-term recovery. The Relative Strength Index (RSI) at 62 closes towards the overbought zone as buying pressure increases. Meanwhile, the Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) extends above the signal line after a crossover on Wednesday, sustaining a buy signal. 

On the downside, if ZRO falls below $2, it could test the 200-day EMA at $1.80.