In one of the most significant architectural pivots of the year, ZetaChain (ZETA) token holders have resoundingly approved a governance proposal to wind down its independent Layer-1 blockchain and migrate the network’s native asset entirely to the Solana ecosystem.

The blockchain sector is witnessing a dramatic structural shift. On September 21, 2026, the ZetaChain community officially passed Governance Proposal 68, decisively authorizing the project’s core contributors to execute a complete transition to Solana.

The vote closed with an overwhelming 99.4% in favor of the migration, with only 0.3% opposing and abstaining.Turnout was remarkably high at 58% of the eligible stake, comfortably exceeding the 40% quorum requirement.This mandate signals a massive strategic realignment for a project that originally launched in 2021 as an interoperability protocol designed to connect disparate blockchains without traditional bridges.

Why would a well-funded project—which raised $27 million in 2023 and processed hundreds of millions of transactions—choose to shut down its proprietary consensus layer? The answer lies in the explosive growth of artificial intelligence and the specific infrastructural demands of autonomous agents.

Earlier this year, ZetaChain made a strategic pivot toward AI with the launch of Anuma, a privacy-focused, multimodal application featuring a Private Memory Layer.The app allows users to carry one encrypted, user-controlled memory state across dozens of leading AI models.Since its debut in February, Anuma has scaled rapidly, amassing over 300,000 users and processing more than one million requests across 35 AI models.

Maintaining an independent Cosmos-based Layer-1 network is no longer the optimal path for Anuma’s growth. Instead, the team identified Solana as the premier environment for machine-speed execution. Solana’s 400-millisecond finality and sub-cent transaction fees provide the exact foundational layer required for AI agents to operate and transact at scale. By abandoning the overhead of maintaining its own validator set, ZetaChain can deploy its resources entirely into expanding its decentralized AI application layer.

Under the approved framework, native ZETA will be converted into a Solana SPL token on a strict 1:1 basis. The asset will retain its original ticker and its exact total supply; no new tokens will be minted to facilitate the move.

For current token holders, the transition aims to be seamless. All existing vesting schedules will be honored and preserved under their original terms.Every address will receive the exact equivalent on Solana of the tokens they held on the native ZetaChain Layer-1.However, one technical adjustment will occur: the token’s decimal precision will shift from 18 decimal places to 9 decimal places on Solana, meaning microscopic fractional balances may be rounded down.

This migration strictly applies to the native Layer-1 ZETA. Tokens currently residing on Ethereum and the BNB Chain are excluded from this specific transition plan.

While Proposal 68 provides the ultimate green light, the ZetaChain network is not shutting down overnight.This governance vote served as an initial authorization to begin the complex technical and logistical groundwork required for a migration of this scale.

Before any network halt occurs, the core contributors must finalize coordination with major centralized exchanges to ensure a smooth transition of liquidity. Once exchange support is locked in, the team will submit a second, binding governance proposal.This follow-up vote will explicitly outline the exact block height for the snapshot, the withdrawal window for connected-chain assets, the official shutdown timetable, and the token-claim process.

Until that second proposal is passed, the ZetaChain Layer-1 will continue operating normally. Blocks are still being produced, and users can continue staking their ZETA without interruption.

ZetaChain’s migration highlights an emerging trend in the broader Web3 ecosystem: the capitulation of the standalone Layer-1. As high-throughput networks like Solana continue to refine their infrastructure and capture massive liquidity, the burden of bootstrapping and securing bespoke Layer-1 blockchains is becoming harder to justify for application-specific projects. Recently, other notable networks like BounceBit and Harmony have also announced plans to retire their standalone blockchains.

For ZetaChain, this is not a retreat, but a highly calculated evolution. By shedding the heavy armor of Layer-1 maintenance, ZETA is streamlining its focus, betting aggressively on the intersection of blockchain and AI, and making Solana its new canonical home.