ZetaChain Votes to Shut Down Its L1 and Bring ZETA and Anuma AI to Solana

ZetaChain opened a 72-hour community vote on September 17 to shut down its layer-1 blockchain and migrate ZETA to Solana as a native SPL token. The vote is live on ZetaHub and closes September 20. If it passes, ZetaChain's L1 enters a staged wind-down and every ZETA holder receives a 1:1 token conversion with total supply held constant.

The official announcement covers more than a token swap. Anuma, ZetaChain's private AI application with more than 300,000 users, migrates alongside ZETA and would operate as a native Solana application with ZETA as its access token.

What the Vote Would Approve: ZETA Converts 1:1 to a Solana SPL Token

The conversion is a direct token issuance on Solana, distinct from a bridge. ZetaChain's proposal explains that bridging only works when both source and destination chains remain live; once the L1 winds down, there is no chain to wrap from. A fresh SPL token is issued instead at 1:1: same name, same ZETA ticker, no change to total supply, no new tokens minted.

Existing vesting schedules and Token Dashboard balances carry over unchanged. ZETA on Ethereum and BNB Chain is unaffected by the vote; those positions remain under their existing terms.

No migration occurs until exchanges separately confirm participation. ZetaChain will publish a confirmed exchange list before the process begins.

Anuma's 300,000 Users and the AI App That Migrates with the Token

Anuma launched in February 2026 as a private AI application built around an encrypted, user-controlled memory layer. That memory travels with the user across sessions and AI models without retention by any external provider. Since February, the application has processed more than one million requests across 35 models, with thousands of new users registering daily, per the announcement.

The proposal frames ZETA as "the common access token for the entire AI application layer on Solana." Under the proposed model, users lock ZETA to receive service credits for Anuma, removing tokens from circulating supply as adoption increases. ZetaChain describes the economics as "designed to grow alongside actual service usage."

Anuma is also rolling out a social discovery beta feature as part of its move to Solana, expanding beyond its core multi-model AI and encrypted memory offering.

Why Solana: Speed and Cost Requirements for AI Agent Operations

ZetaChain's announcement frames the core requirements for AI agent operations as settlement speed, low fees, and throughput, arguing its own L1 cannot meet them at scale. Solana offers approximately 400ms transaction finality with a median fee of around $0.001, and load tests have exceeded 100,000 transactions per second, per the announcement. The announcement also cited $15 billion in on-chain stablecoins and seven consecutive quarters as the top-ranked chain by DEX volume. At any meaningful usage scale, each AI agent interaction (retrieval, memory write, payment) is a transaction, and both latency and cost become constraints.

The announcement also references the x402 agent payments protocol, which has processed more than 20 million transactions since July 2026, as the payment rail for real-time AI agent micropayments on Solana.

L1 Wind-Down Process and What Changes for Validators

If the vote passes, the transition is staged rather than immediate. Validators and staking operations continue until the token migration completes. Solana validators then take over network responsibilities. ZetaChain commits all development resources to ZETA, Anuma, and Solana work going forward.

The pattern has precedent: Helium migrated its own L1 to Solana in a comparable 2022-2023 transition, maintaining holder positions and operational continuity throughout. ZetaChain's proposal follows the same shape: the original chain winds down in full rather than operating as a parallel network.

ZETA holders can vote at hub.zetachain.com/governance. Voting closes September 20.