Deal Overview: A Surprise Spanner in the Works
LayerZero’s $110 million proposal to acquire the cross-chain bridge Stargate—its own flagship front-end—was cruising toward approval when its arch-rival, the Wormhole Foundation, barged in. On August 21, Wormhole publicly claimed the offer “materially undervalues” Stargate’s assets and momentum, vowed to table a higher bid, and asked Snapshot to freeze the vote for five business days while it prepares a counter-proposal.

Background: Why LayerZero Wants Stargate Back
On August 11, the LayerZero Foundation posted a draft in Stargate’s governance forum, offering to swap every circulating STG token for ZRO at a fixed ratio of 1 STG : 0.08634 ZRO—prices of $0.1675 per STG and $1.94 per ZRO at announcement. After the swap, Stargate would dissolve its DAO, fold fully into the LayerZero stack, and route all future excess revenue into ZRO buy-backs.

Markets loved the headline: both ZRO and STG spiked 20 % within hours. Governance forums, however, erupted. Most Stargate community members called the bid a low-ball play that ignored Stargate’s market share and treasury.

The Vote So Far: Whales on Cruise Control
Snapshot voting opened on August 18. LayerZero sweetened the pot only slightly: veSTG voters would split 50 % of Stargate’s revenue for the next six months. Participation rocketed past quorum, and support topped 97 % for most of the window (the motion needs > 70 % to pass).

The lopsided tally isn’t surprising. Stargate is already the canonical bridge for LayerZero; half of Stargate’s foundation board are LayerZero appointees. The optics may scream “community governance,” but the outcome has always looked pre-ordained.

Wormhole’s “Open Conspiracy”: Four Paths, All Wins
Wormhole has yet to publish a formal offer, pleading the need for extra due-diligence time. Yet the mere threat already forces LayerZero into a four-way fork, each fork tilted in Wormhole’s favor:

1. Auction Scenario – Snapshot pauses, a bidding war erupts, and Wormhole wins Stargate outright.

2. Price-Hike Scenario – LayerZero matches or beats Wormhole’s bid, bleeding extra treasury but securing the asset.

3. Resentful-Community Scenario – Stargate ignores Wormhole and rams the original deal through. Irate STG holders fracture the LayerZero ecosystem.

4. Proposal-Failure Scenario – The vote, now under scrutiny, unexpectedly fails. Wormhole’s interference alone sinks the deal.

Wormhole spends nothing but gains something in every branch: either it steals the prize, forces the rival to overpay, seeds discord, or blocks the merger entirely.

Market Verdict: Theater, Not Turnaround
Fluid COO DMH distilled the mood: “Stargate and LayerZero already shook hands under the table. Wormhole is just pissed they sold Singapore for a bag of rice. So they’re bidding the price up to make life miserable, but everyone knows Stargate ends up inside LayerZero anyway.”

In other words, Wormhole’s eleventh-hour move is classic psy-ops: cheap to execute, impossible to ignore, and—win or lose—guaranteed to leave LayerZero with a headache.