Zero Network, the gasless Ethereum Layer 2 blockchain built by crypto wallet company Zerion, is shutting down — ending an ambitious 18-month experiment that sought to eliminate one of crypto’s most persistent user experience barriers: gas fees.
The announcement, made Thursday via the social media platform X, confirmed that Zerion is redirecting all resources toward its core API and wallet products. “We’re winding down ZERϴ Network to double down on [Zerion’s] API and wallet,” the team wrote. For users still holding assets on the network, the clock is ticking: bridging into Zero has already been suspended, and all NFTs, ETH, and other tokens must be bridged out by the end of July 2026.
A Bold Idea That Launched With Promise
When Zero Network went live in November 2024, it arrived with genuine ambition. Built on the ZK Stack — the same zero-knowledge technology underpinning ZKsync — and positioned within the Elastic Chain ecosystem, Zero was designed as the first fully EVM-compatible, gasless rollup aimed at mainstream adoption.
The pitch was straightforward and consumer-friendly: Zerion Wallet users could send USDC to friends, mint NFTs, swap tokens, and bridge from other Layer 2 networks — all without a single cent in gas fees. Under the hood, the network used native account abstraction with Smart Accounts and Paymasters to sponsor transactions, combined with a proprietary scoring mechanism called Onchain DNA, which evaluated whether a given address qualified for fee-free activity.
“We believe people shouldn’t need to pay to transact and explore onchain,” said Zerion co-founder and CEO Evgeny Yurtaev at launch. “It’s not only about the cost but the mental load.”
The launch was backed by angel funding from notable crypto figures including Cooper Turley, Spencer Noon, Yearn lead developer Banteg, and ZKsync’s Alex Gluchowski.
Ethereum Layer 2 Zero Network to Cease Operations After 1.5 Years
Operational Struggles Behind the Scenes
Despite the promising debut, Zero Network faced significant technical turbulence during its brief lifespan. In late December 2025, the network halted block production entirely — a stoppage that stretched over three weeks. Zerion said it was working with infrastructure partners Caldera and ZKsync to restore operations, which it aimed to do by mid-January 2026.
Data from blockchain analytics platform L2BEAT confirmed a state update gap of over 26 days between December 19, 2025 and January 15, 2026 — an extended anomaly that raised questions about the network’s long-term operational reliability.
Earlier in 2025, a separate multi-hour outage linked to sequencer instability had also rattled users, highlighting the fragility of even well-engineered ZK-rollup infrastructure when dependent on centralized components like sequencers and RPC providers.
A Strategic Pivot, Not a Failed Vision
In Thursday’s announcement, the Zero team was careful to distinguish between the product and the principle behind it. The vision — a frictionless, gasless crypto experience for everyday users — remains sound, they said. What changed was the team’s assessment of how to get there.
“Maintaining a standalone blockchain was the wrong path to realize it,” the team acknowledged. The best path forward, they concluded, is “[focusing] our resources where they have the greatest impact for the people who are using our products every day.”
Zerion, founded in 2016, operates a self-custody crypto wallet available across mobile and web browser extensions. By doubling down on its API and wallet services, the company appears to be betting that infrastructure-layer tools — rather than a proprietary chain — offer a more durable and scalable route to delivering gasless experiences.
A Strategic Pivot, Not a Failed Vision
Part of a Broader Crypto Shakeout
Zero Network’s closure is not an isolated event. It arrives amid a stark wave of shutdowns across the crypto sector, with several high-profile projects folding in the same 48-hour window.
Cross-chain infrastructure startup Everclear (formerly Connext) announced Thursday that its core UI, protocol, foundation, and research lab are all shutting down. Despite reaching monthly transaction volumes of $500 million, the project said it “never developed the commercial depth we needed” and was unable to convert volume into revenue. Its CLEAR token fell roughly 49% in 24 hours following the news.
Everclear Price Chart (Source: Coingecko)
On Wednesday, Syndicate Labs — an a16z-backed Ethereum infrastructure provider with over $20 million in Series A funding — announced it was closing after five years, citing a fundamental market shift away from reusable EVM rollup frameworks toward custom-built chains. Crypto card game Fantasy.top also shuttered on the same day, saying its trading volume “was not sufficient to sustain” continued operations.
The macro backdrop is grim. Bitcoin has fallen roughly 40% from its October 2025 peak of $126,000, and the crypto industry has shed more than 5,000 jobs so far in 2026. Analysts note that consolidation has pushed users and liquidity to dominant Layer 2 networks like Base and Arbitrum, squeezing out smaller, niche infrastructure plays.
“The rollup infrastructure market has consolidated around a few dominant Layer-2 networks,” Ryan Yoon, senior analyst at Tiger Research, told Decrypt. “There’s a clear shift where projects prefer subnets or existing infrastructure over building new L2s.”
What Users Need to Know
For those with assets still on Zero Network, the immediate priority is clear: bridge out before July 31, 2026. The team has assured users that all funds are safe and accessible. Bridging into the network has already been disabled, so no new deposits can be made.
Users can access the bridge via the Zerion Wallet interface on mobile or via the browser extension.
The Takeaway
Zero Network’s story is, in many ways, a microcosm of the broader Layer 2 landscape in 2026: technically innovative, consumer-minded, but caught between the difficulty of bootstrapping a sovereign blockchain and the gravitational pull of dominant incumbent networks. The gasless transaction thesis hasn’t been abandoned — it’s just moving off-chain. Whether Zerion’s wallet and API can deliver that promise more efficiently than a standalone rollup remains to be seen.
What’s clear is that the easy days of launching new chains are over. In this market, execution depth matters more than infrastructure ambition.
