LayerZero, building its own blockchain - Alex Lim
(Sharing the on‑site notes as is.)
I personally use Stargate almost daily, and it's all powered by LayerZero technology. Hence, I have a strong interest in LayerZero.
I gave a presentation on the tokenization of everything; here’s a brief summary.
- Even Bitcoin is becoming institutionalized. For Alex, this is the fourth Bitcoin appearance, and he likely showed up in the most formal attire—a suit.
- I met Eric Trump and discussed real‑estate topics as well as stablecoins. He mentioned that during weekly Friday family meals, his biggest worry is whether deposited funds will arrive. He believes stablecoins can fix that.
- I also covered developments in the Middle East, where investment size is large. Stablecoin volume in 2024 already surpassed Visa and MasterCard transaction volume. In 2025, volume exceeded 33 trillion, about twice that of Visa, and this year it has already gone beyond that.
So, it’s not just a partial shift; the infrastructure itself is changing.
A blockchain is essentially just a globalized ledger.
Typically, one might think of each blockchain as a separate nation. However, as users and apps proliferate, there must be a way to locate these blockchains. Hence, bridges for inter‑country connections are needed, known as Interoperability.
Previously, we used smart contracts, depositing funds into a smart contract and then wrapping them to move to another blockchain. The problem with this type of bridge is that if the smart contract is hacked, both the locked and wrapped funds disappear. Moreover, moving to another chain requires unwrapping and re‑wrapping, which is very complex and cumbersome.
Look at SWIFT: it’s not about moving money directly. If you send $1,000 to someone, the two banks don’t transfer cash; they simply credit and debit each other’s ledgers (accounting). Similarly, with LayerZero, moving assets from one blockchain to another involves burning on the source chain and organically minting on the destination chain via OFT.
It is believed that OFT could eventually open an FX market, which is one reason institutions are interested.
71% of stablecoins have adopted OFT.
Currently most stablecoins are USD‑based, but there are already more than eight major economic zones in Asia. As these stablecoins increase, the FX market will expand.
LayerZero’s current growth is driven by institutional inflows and stablecoins.
Singapore, Hong Kong, and Japan have obtained actual stablecoin licenses. South Korea is in progress… the Philippines and Thailand are finalizing sandbox regulations. The key point is a regulatory‑focused approach, somewhat aligned with the U.S. Genius Act.
Thus, tokenization of almost all assets will accelerate, forming a diverse blockchain ecosystem.
Korean precious metals exchange KorDA will onboard $KGLD onto LayerZero, expanding cross‑chain.
Zero plans to launch its own blockchain.
A necessary L1 layer is required to enable more institutions to act, and a blockchain named ZERO is being built for that purpose.
