Mentioned in This Article
1. ZetaChain Shutdown Date Is Set for Dec. 9
ZetaChain, a cross-chain blockchain, is preparing to retire its layer 1 network on or around December 9, after a governance vote known as Proposal 70 cleared its quorum threshold on November 5 with almost every ballot cast in favor. Holders will receive ZETA one-for-one as a Solana token, and the proposal names block 20,755,000 as the final block the chain will produce.
The proposal spells out the finality of the step in plain terms. After the halt, no transactions are processed and the chain is not restarted. That makes this a full wind-down of the network rather than a temporary pause for maintenance or an upgrade, and it turns what began as a strategic discussion in September into a dated operational plan with concrete instructions for token holders.
The vote is still open. Balloting closes on November 7 at 11:12 a.m. Eastern time, so stakers retain the ability to change the outcome until then, although the margin recorded so far leaves little room for a reversal. The practical consequences, from wallet snapshots to claim portals, are laid out below.
2. How Is the Proposal 70 Vote Going?
Proposal 70 is passing by a very wide margin. For approval it needs two things: turnout equal to at least 40% of the relevant voting power, and more than 50% of votes cast in favor. As of 4:48 p.m. Eastern on Thursday, the public tally showed roughly 256.1 million ZETA voting yes and only about 420 ZETA voting no.
Quorum on this kind of chain is measured against all bonded tokens, not only against the tokens that have voted. This follows the tally logic of the Cosmos SDK, the software framework on which ZetaChain's network was built. At the time of the tally, bonded tokens stood at 379.9 million ZETA. On that basis, turnout works out to about 67.4%, comfortably above the 40% requirement. That turnout percentage is a calculation derived from the published tally rather than a figure reported directly by the network.
A quorum rule exists so that a small, motivated group cannot decide a network's future in a thinly attended vote. Here the concern appears absent: well over half of all bonded tokens have already been counted, and the no votes amount to a rounding error beside the yes votes.
The result also fits the earlier pattern. On September 20, holders backed the idea of leaving the dedicated chain in principle through Proposal 68, which received 99.44% of votes in favor. Proposal 70 is the follow-up that converts that principle into a calendar date and a set of claim rules.
3. Why Is ZetaChain Leaving Its Own Chain?
ZetaChain is leaving because it no longer believes that operating its own layer 1 serves what it wants to build. In Proposal 68, the project said that running a sovereign chain does not help it develop private artificial intelligence products, which have become its main focus.
The proposal also pointed to a maintenance burden. According to the project, every upstream patch to the Cosmos SDK requires dozens of validators to apply it. For a team whose attention is shifting toward AI software, coordinating security and software updates across an independent validator set represents a recurring cost with limited strategic payoff.
That strategy centers on Anuma, a private AI application. ZetaChain says Anuma has attracted more than 300,000 users since February. A second product, ZetaLabs, is an application built on Anuma's technology. It is scheduled to go live on December 9, the same day the chain is expected to halt, and it will use ZETA as its token.
In other words, the token survives while the chain beneath it does not. ZETA keeps its ticker and becomes a Solana SPL token, the standard format for fungible tokens on that network. Rather than relying on an outside bridge to carry balances across, the conversion is handled through a claim process run by the project itself.
4. What Do ZETA Holders Need to Do Before the Snapshot?
Holders who want their ZETA on Solana need to meet a few conditions, the first of which is a minimum balance. A wallet must hold at least 10 ZETA at the moment the snapshot is taken to be eligible to claim.
Claims are scheduled to open on December 9 through a ZetaHub portal, but with a condition attached. The portal opens only after the security firm Hacken publishes its review of the Solana program that distributes the tokens and runs the claim system. If the review is delayed, the opening of claims would presumably follow it, which is why the December 9 date is described as a target rather than a guarantee.
The claim itself is designed to be simple. A holder connects the address that held ZETA and signs a message naming the Solana wallet that should receive the new tokens. Claiming costs nothing and does not require the holder to own any SOL, the network's native asset, which removes a common stumbling block for people who have never used Solana before.
Signing a message is a different action from sending a transaction. It proves control of the original address without moving funds, and it lets the project record where each balance should be delivered. Holders should make sure the Solana address they name is one they control, since the distribution follows the signed instruction.
5. What Happens to Staked, Wrapped and Liquid-Staked ZETA?
Staked ZETA is the easiest case. Holders who have delegated tokens to validators do not need to unstake them first. The snapshot counts delegated ZETA, ZETA that is sitting in the 21-day unbonding period, and rewards that have accrued but have not yet been claimed.
Staking rewards, however, stop at the halt block. After block 20,755,000 the network produces nothing, so there is nothing left to pay validators or delegators for securing it. Anyone relying on those payouts should plan on the assumption that they end with the chain.
Wrapped and liquid-staked ZETA require action. Tokens held in wrapped form, and tokens deposited in liquid-staking pools, sit inside smart contracts. No individual holder's private key controls those contracts, so the claim portal has no way to attribute the underlying ZETA to the people who own the wrapped or pooled positions. The proposal therefore tells holders to unwrap their tokens and exit any pools before the snapshot is taken.
Wrapped assets are claims on collateral held elsewhere, and liquid-staking tokens are receipts for staked positions. Both depend on a working chain to be redeemed. Holders who wait until after the snapshot risk leaving the underlying balance stranded in a contract that the claim process cannot reach.
Balances held at exchanges are handled differently. ZetaChain says they convert automatically, and each exchange will announce its own timing for the change. Users who keep ZETA on a trading platform should therefore watch that platform's notices rather than the project's claim portal.
6. Which Parts of ZetaChain Are Already Offline?
Some of the network's functions have been winding down for months. ZetaChain's cross-chain service, the feature that gave the project its name, is already offline. It stopped accepting inbound transfers in June and turned off withdrawals on July 1.
A staged shutdown of this kind is a standard way to retire a network with assets in circulation. Closing inbound transfers first prevents new value from entering a system that is about to disappear, and closing withdrawals later gives existing users time to leave. By the time the halt block arrives, the amount of value that still depends on the cross-chain machinery should be small.
For most holders, the sequence means the biggest remaining task is the snapshot. The cross-chain functionality is gone, the staking system ends at the halt block, and the only open question is how cleanly balances move to the new token on Solana.
7. Is ZetaChain the Only Network Closing Down?
ZetaChain is not alone in deciding that a standalone chain is not worth the upkeep. Blast, an Ethereum layer 2 network, said in October that it is shutting down, citing costs that exceed what the chain earns.
The DATA Network, previously known as Story, also plans to close its chain and rebuild its AI data registry on Sui, a separate layer 1 network. The common thread is economic: operating validators, security and infrastructure is expensive, and projects whose real product is an application rather than a base layer can find that shared infrastructure is cheaper and more convenient.
Moving onto an established network trades sovereignty for simplicity. A project gives up control over its own block production and governance, but it gains existing users, tooling and security without having to recruit and coordinate its own validators.
8. What Happens Next, and What If the Vote Fails?
The next milestone is the close of voting on November 7 at 11:12 a.m. Eastern. If Proposal 70 passes as the current tally suggests, the halt is targeted for around December 9 at block 20,755,000, with the claim portal opening that day once Hacken's review is public.
If voters were to reject Proposal 70, the approval of Proposal 68 would still stand. ZetaChain says it would return with new terms rather than abandon the plan to leave the chain. Given that no votes total only about 420 ZETA against more than 256 million in favor, that outcome looks unlikely.
Holders have a short list of tasks. They should confirm that their wallet holds at least 10 ZETA at the snapshot, unwrap any wrapped tokens, leave liquid-staking pools, and then wait for the claim portal. Those who keep ZETA on an exchange should wait for that exchange's announcement of how and when its balances will convert.