Why would shutting down L1 be bullish for ZetaChain?
- Core Viewpoint: The ZetaChain community passed a proposal with a 99.4% approval rate to shut down its L1 public chain and migrate the ZETA token and its privacy AI application Anuma entirely to Solana, marking a complete transformation of the project from cross-chain infrastructure to a consumer-grade AI application layer.
- Key Elements:
- ZETA will be converted 1:1 into Solana-native SPL tokens, retaining the token ticker and the total supply of 2.1 billion, while ZETA on Ethereum and BNB Chain are not included in the migration.
- ZetaChain was originally an omnichain interoperability L1 that raised over $27 million in 2023; however, in 2025, the market has become disillusioned with technical narratives and VC tokens, and cross-chain infrastructure is no longer a core demand, forcing the project to seek change.
- Its privacy AI application Anuma already has 305,881 registered users, has processed over 1.2 million requests, supports 35 AI models, and most users are using a crypto product for the first time.
- After migrating to Solana, ZETA shifts from an L1 governance token to a utility token: locking 100,000 ZETA unlocks Anuma Pro, and more than 490 million ZETA have already been locked, accounting for 23.47% of the total supply.
- Solana provides an open model compute, agent identity, x402 payment protocol, and sub-second finality tech stack, and supports wallets already registered with Anuma, providing the infrastructure for the migration.
- After the proposal passed, ZETA rose more than 40% in a single day, with its price holding near $0.05, as the market positively priced in the logic of the transformation.
Original | Odaily (@OdailyChina)
Author | Golem (@web3_golem)
On September 20, the ZetaChain community passed Proposal 68, deciding to shut down ZetaChain L1, migrate the ZETA token to Solana, and also migrate ZetaChain's privacy-focused multi-model AI application Anuma to the Solana ecosystem.
According to the proposal, ZETA will be converted 1:1 into a Solana-native SPL token, retaining the "ZETA" ticker and total supply (2.1 billion tokens), with the existing unlock schedule unchanged. ZETA on Ethereum and BNB Chain is not included in this migration.
As of press time, the shutdown date for ZetaChain L1 has not yet been determined. The community will subsequently hold a second vote to determine the balance snapshot block, shutdown block, token claim and asset withdrawal plans. ZETA staking will continue until exchanges confirm conversion arrangements.Therefore, before the specific migration method and timeline are announced, ZETA token holders and stakers do not need to take any action.
But for ZetaChain, this is a proposal significant enough to change its fundamentals—from an omnichain interoperability L1 to consumer-grade AI, from infrastructure to a Solana application-layer project. This is not a narrative downgrade, but a rebirth for ZetaChain and ZETA. After the proposal passed, ZETA surged over 40% in a single day on September 21, and the price is currently hovering around $0.05.
From Cross-Chain Infrastructure to Privacy AI
The community vote participation rate for ZetaChain's migration-to-Solana proposal was 58%, exceeding the 40% quorum threshold, with opposition and abstention votes each accounting for 0.3%. The proposal ultimately passed with 99.4% approval, demonstrating a high degree of community consensus for this migration.
ZetaChain was initially positioned as an L1 focused on omnichain interoperability, raising over $27 million in 2023 and launching its mainnet in early 2024. However, in 2025, the crypto market entered a special phase of disillusionment with technical narratives and VC coins, with market capital and attention shifting toward on-chain Memes. "Better cross-chain infrastructure" is no longer a primary market need, and ZetaChain urgently needs to adapt.
As crypto innovation recedes, the AI tsunami has arrived. The explosion of AI applications like ChatGPT and Claude has brought user privacy issues to the fore, with large model companies using user-AI conversation data for training or commercial activities. ZetaChain, combining its years of technical accumulation, has identified new opportunities in this direction.
In February of this year, ZetaChain launched the private AI application Anuma, with ZetaChain providing technical support for Anuma's private memory layer. Anuma integrates multiple advanced model capabilities into a unified experience, allowing users to freely switch models and migrate their context during use. Furthermore, during use, the model can only access the context information required for the request and cannot access all of the user's chat logs and complete history. No AI large model company can obtain users' private data.
According to official data, Anuma has 305,881 registered users and has processed over 1.2 million requests from 35 AI models.Since then, ZetaChain has fully transformed from cross-chain infrastructure into a private AI application layer, committed to building AI applications that can run across AI models with user-controllable privacy.
Therefore, this proposal to shut down ZetaChain L1 and migrate the ZETA token and Anuma project to Solana is the final step in ZetaChain's proactive abandonment of its public chain narrative and transformation into an AI application project. At the same time, this is a win-win transformation for all parties involved.
A Win-Win: ZetaChain Gets AI Infrastructure, Solana Gets 300,000 Users
ZetaChain clearly stated in the proposal the reasons for migrating to Solana, saying that "running our own L1 can no longer help us build private AI." Solana possesses the tech stack ZetaChain needs to build private AI, including open models and compute capabilities, agent identity, and agent payments through the x402 protocol. It is also designed for agent scale, enabling sub-second, sub-cent settlement. Most importantly, Solana supports wallets already registered with Anuma.
For ZetaChain, rather than building infrastructure from 0 to 1, migrating to an already mature ecosystem is more worthwhile. ZetaChain has also stated that it will focus more of its future efforts on building the Anuma application.
Solana is also a beneficiary of this proposal—ZetaChain gains AI infrastructure, and Solana gains users.
Anuma currently has over 300,000 registered users. If these users successfully migrate to the Solana ecosystem, it will directly increase Solana's user base, on-chain activity, and various other metrics. Meanwhile, according to a report published by ZetaChain, among the 305,881 wallets created on Anuma, most users are using crypto products for the first time, meaning these users are largely "pure" AI users.
The addition of these users will further strengthen Solana's narrative and user base in consumer-grade AI applications. Therefore, when ZetaChain posted the proposal on X, Solana's official account also tacitly interacted.
Solana official account interacts with ZetaChain
At the same time, for ZETA holders, this proposal is also positive. ZetaChain has one foot in the AI industry while still retaining its crypto DNA, providing new utility for the ZETA token. ZETA has transformed from an L1 governance token into a utility token backed by actual products and users.
ZETA's New Value Anchor
According to the proposal, after migration is complete, ZETA will become the private AI application-layer token on Solana, and Anuma has already provided utility for ZETA. Users only need to lock 100,000 ZETA (worth approximately $5,000) to unlock Anuma Pro, which is officially priced at $19.99/month.
According to official data, over 490 million ZETA has been locked, accounting for 23.47% of the total supply, worth over $24 million.
ZetaChain's ambitions in the Solana ecosystem go beyond Anuma. The private AI memory layer built by ZetaChain allows users to carry and migrate their personal context data. ZetaChain plans to extend this capability to other AI applications and agents in the Solana ecosystem in the future, building a unified private AI experience for users on Solana.
By then, ZETA will also become the underlying token for all AI applications and agents built on the same private AI memory layer on Solana. The future narrative space remains vast, which is the core reason why ZETA surged over 40% after the proposal passed.
ZETA's value capture logic has been completely transformed. In the past, it captured the value of ZetaChain network gas fees and ecosystem development. In the future, it will capture the value of Anuma user growth and the development of Solana's privacy AI ecosystem.
A public chain called ZetaChain is about to shut down, but ZetaChain's new story has just begun.
