ZRO token surges as LayerZero unveils ATLAS on Zero blockchain

LayerZero unveiled ATLAS, exchange infrastructure built on the Zero blockchain. ZRO rose more than 16% over the past 24 hours to $1.26. ATLAS is a headless exchange without its own consumer app or trading platform. Crypto exchanges, brokers and financial institutions can use ATLAS as backend infrastructure while keeping their own users and interfaces. LayerZero said ATLAS combines matching, clearing, settlement and risk management in one system. ATLAS will support open markets for crypto apps, prediction markets and other public trading products. Institutional markets will be able to set their own trading rules. Trading venues will operate user-facing platforms. Market creators will define the assets and markets available for trading. Market makers will provide liquidity. Supported markets can include spot tokens, perpetuals, stocks, commodities, bonds, memes and prediction markets. ZRO will secure Zero through delegated proof-of-stake. ZRO will also serve as Zero's gas token and support governance. Trading venues can stake ZRO to qualify for higher ATLAS fee rebates. The highest rebate tier requires up to 1% of ZRO supply. ATLAS will charge one all-in trading fee. Open ATLAS venues will receive rebates ranging from 20% to 65% based on ZRO stake and or trading volume. Market creators will receive 25% of fees remaining after the rebate. The remaining 75% will be used to buy and burn ZRO. LayerZero announced Zero in February with Citadel Securities, DTCC, ARK Invest and Intercontinental Exchange. Zero is designed for financial markets and uses zero-knowledge proofs to verify trades onchain. LayerZero said its Omnichain Fungible Token Standard has supported more than $290 billion in cross-chain volume across more than 160 blockchains. The volume includes stablecoins and tokenized stocks. A number of firms recently moved cross-chain operations from LayerZero to Chainlink after an April attack on Kelp DAO's rsETH bridge. The attack caused the loss of 116,500 rsETH valued at about $292 million at the time. Jack Melnick, who recently joined LayerZero from Berachain to lead strategy for Zero and ATLAS, said ATLAS is the first product built on Zero.