Stargate Approves $110 Million Takeover by LayerZero

Stargate’s community has voted to approve the LayerZero Foundation’s takeover bid, bringing the cross-chain bridge back under its original developer’s control after weeks of debate.

Per data from Snapshot, the proposal closed with more than 15,100 addresses participating.

However, a closer inspection reveals that two addresses accounted for over 50% of the buyout’s support, despite having little to no prior voting history in the Stargate DAO.

Further review showed that at least six addresses — which appeared unrelated and together accounted for another 7% of support — were likely controlled by a single entity.

A LayerZero Telegram moderator didn’t shed any light on the addresses and referred The Defiant to the Stargate Discord, where a Stargate DAO moderator said that “no team member of L0 was involved in this session of voting according to official information.”

Token Swap

Nearly 95% of voting power supported the deal, which values Stargate at about $110 million and will dissolve the Stargate DAO.

All circulating STG tokens, including staked tokens, will be swapped for LayerZero’s ZRO tokens at a fixed ratio of 1 STG to 0.08634 ZRO.

At current prices, that reflects roughly $0.169 per STG, below where the token traded when the proposal was first floated.

LayerZero has framed the acquisition as a way to “move faster, ship incredible product and win,” emphasizing a single token with a “broader mandate.” The proposal argues that managing two tokens creates friction, noting that the buyout would allow Stargate to operate “without interruption; users of the Stargate bridge will not experience any downtime or changes in functionality during the transition.”

Rival Bids

The final days of voting were complicated by competing offers. The Wormhole Foundation proposed a $120 million all-cash purchase and offered to triple the projected near-term returns for stakers, while Axelar and Across signaled interest if the process was slowed to allow for due diligence.

However, Stargate moderators said the vote couldn’t be paused. Some STG holders initially criticized the original version of the offer, arguing that it undervalued the protocol and stakers. One commenter said that the proposal would dilute long-term stakers and largely benefit LayerZero and early investors.

LayerZero revised the terms of the proposal ahead of the vote to address concerns. Now, veSTG stakers will receive half of Stargate’s top-line revenue for six months following the acquisition, with the remainder used for ZRO buybacks. After that period, all revenue will flow into the LayerZero ecosystem.

Following the voting resolution, STG dropped 7%, while ZRO fell 5.5%, according to CoinGecko.