On Sunday, ZetaChain (ZETA) token participants cast their ballots to sunset the platform’s Layer 1 chain, giving the green light to transition to Solana for an initiative that secured $27 million three years back to bridge competing networks.
As per the platform governance portal, the vote on Proposal 68 concluded at 10:58 a.m. ET with a 99.4% approval rate. Voter turnout reached 58%, surpassing the required 40% quorum, while both opposition and abstention figures stood at 0.3% individually.
ZetaChain engineers have spent time building Anuma, an AI application rolled out in February, and currently maintain that an independent blockchain is unnecessary for its development, opting instead to shift it alongside the ZETA token over to Solana.
According to its self-reported metrics, the platform serves over 300,000 Anuma users and has processed one million requests across 35 distinct AI models. The application features an encrypted memory architecture functioning seamlessly across different models, allowing ZETA owners to stake tokens in exchange for AI expenditure credits.
“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.
The team highlighted the operational overhead of managing a Cosmos SDK network within their submission. “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. “AI tooling is making such vulnerabilities easier to find, as the August 25 patch showed, so there will be more.”
Cosmos Labs revealed exploits targeting six Cosmos EVM chains last month, though ZetaChain was unaffected. The culprits liquidated pilfered funds for roughly $5.7 million. Although an investigator flagged the vulnerability months prior, testers incorrectly assumed it could not be exploited on live deployments, The Block reported at the time.
No shutdown date, yet
Despite the passage of the vote, the plan keeps ZetaChain operational while contributors finalize migration mechanics. The ZETA coin will transition into a native Solana SPL asset on a one-for-one basis, keeping its existing ticker and maximum supply. Vesting timelines remain unaltered under the proposal, which leaves out ZETA tokens residing on Ethereum and BNB Chain.
A subsequent proposal will outline the block height for balance records, establish the final termination block, and provide guidance for claiming tokens as well as retrieving cross-chain assets. ZetaChain indicated it will hold off on a vote until cryptocurrency exchanges finalize their conversion procedures, and no firm timeline has been communicated.
Meanwhile, ZETA staking remains active, and the September 17 update offered fewer specifics on post-transition arrangements, noting that the crew was still reviewing how staking and rewards will function on Solana.
Jane Street Capital and Blockchain.com participated in ZetaChain’s August 2023 capital raise. At that time, the initiative was developing a platform enabling developers to leverage assets from diverse networks like Bitcoin and Ethereum within a single app. The announcement of its mainnet debut followed in January.
Over the past 24 hours, the value of ZETA dropped roughly 2.5%, according to The Block’s ZetaChain Price tracker.
Originally published at https://www.theblock.co/news/defi/2026-09-20-zetachain-votes-to-shut-down-layer-1-network-and-move-zeta-to-solana-415878.
