Wormhole counters rival Layer Zero's $110 million bid to buy Stargate, asks to pause voting period

LayerZero, an omnichain interoperability protocol, proposed a roughly $110 million acquisition of Stargate, the cross-chain bridge it originally launched, through a token swap in which all STG tokens would be converted to LayerZero’s ZRO at a fixed rate. The deal, framed as a way to retire the Stargate DAO and consolidate development and token economics under ZRO, would also direct Stargate’s future protocol revenue toward ZRO buybacks after an initial six‑month period in which half of revenues would be shared with existing Stargate stakers. This offer valued Stargate only modestly above the then‑spot price of STG and effectively transferred Stargate’s treasury and future upside to LayerZero. As the Stargate DAO vote on the LayerZero proposal progressed, Wormhole Foundation stepped in to counter, arguing that LayerZero’s terms significantly undervalued Stargate given its total value locked, transaction volume, and treasury. Wormhole announced its intention to submit a meaningfully higher, all‑cash bid—later reported as around $120 million—and publicly asked the DAO to pause the ongoing vote so a competitive process could take place. Wormhole’s intervention turned the process into what commentators described as one of the first on‑chain takeover contests between major cross‑chain interoperability projects, highlighting growing consolidation pressure in the sector and raising governance questions about how DAOs run M&A processes, balance speed versus price discovery, and account for the interests of smaller token holders versus large voting blocs.

✨ AI-generated background, compiled from web sources — not editorial content.

More coverage

• LayerZero buys Stargate in $110M deal with 95% approval (cryptorank.io)
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