USAZetaChain Layer 1 shutdown and ZETA migration to Solana
⚠ The date is not confirmed yet and may change.
ZetaChain plans to stop block production on its own Layer 1 network around December 9, 2026, and reissue the ZETA token 1:1 as a native Solana SPL token. The date is tentative and depended on a governance vote that closed on November 7.
What is happening
ZetaChain's governance vote on Proposal 2 ran from November 4 until November 7, 2026, and set out the mechanics of retiring the project's own blockchain. The chain is expected to stop producing blocks at height 20,755,000, around December 9, with ZETA becoming a native Solana token the same day. The project stated that nothing takes effect without approval. The sources reviewed do not report the vote result, so the plan should be treated as unconfirmed until the outcome is published. An earlier September round saw 99.4% of participating votes back the general direction of a Solana migration.
At a snapshot block, ZetaChain would record liquid balances, staked tokens, unbonding positions and unclaimed staking rewards. The ZetaChain Foundation would then mint a matching amount of ZETA on Solana, keep the ticker and the 1:1 ratio, and permanently revoke its minting authority. The new token would have nine decimals and no freeze authority. ZETA already on Ethereum as an ERC-20 is not affected. Claims would run through a portal on ZetaHub starting December 9, with no transaction fee, and only after a security review by Hacken is finished and published.
Addresses holding fewer than 10 ZETA at the snapshot are excluded from the individual portal, and exchange-held balances will be converted on each platform's own schedule. Tokens in liquidity pools or wrapped-token contracts must be withdrawn before the snapshot. ZRC-20 assets would become claimable on their original networks, subject to a $5 minimum per token. The proposal also directs about 55 million ZETA earmarked for validator rewards to be burned over 12 monthly transactions in 2027. An archive node is to remain online until at least October 31, 2027.
Why it matters
For the project, the move ends roughly five years of independent chain operation and shifts validator, maintenance and security burdens to an existing network. The stated aim is to focus engineering on private AI products, including ZetaLabs, which is targeted to launch on the same December 9 date. For holders, the practical impact is procedural: claiming through the portal, withdrawing assets from pools beforehand, and relying on exchange announcements for conversion.
For traders, the points to follow are exchange conversion timetables, the Hacken review results, and how the burn and the end of validator emissions change ZETA's issuance profile. The burn is spread over 2027 and its final size depends on rewards already paid out when the chain halts. If the vote did not pass, the September mandate would remain, but a revised proposal would be needed before the date or burn could proceed.
Key details
- Date: December 9, 2026 (approximate, tentative; chain halt at block height 20,755,000)
- Project: ZetaChain
- Coins: ZETA
- Category: Mainnet Launch
- Status: Tentative; dependent on the Proposal 2 vote that closed November 7, result not reported in the source
- Source: finance.biggo.com