Citadel and Cathie Wood back Zero, a new blockchain designed for traditional finance

As Wall Street embraces blockchain technology, the crypto industry is still dealing with an existential problem: how to scale the tech so that it can handle the massive volume created by traditional finance entities like the New York Stock Exchange. Meanwhile, big banks and trading firms are seeking reassurances that their sensitive client data does not appear on the public ledger of a blockchain like Ethereum or Solana. One startup believes it has found a way to address these concerns. On Tuesday, the Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia-backed crypto company LayerZero announced a proposed solution: a new blockchain called Zero designed to meet the needs of Wall Street.

Though a slew of previous blockchain companies have purported to build TradFi-grade trading infrastructure, LayerZero is also announcing an impressive array of Wall Street players who are coming on board as investors, partners, and advisors, including the market-making giant Citadel Securities as well as ARK’s Cathie Wood and Intercontinental Exchange, parent company of the New York Stock Exchange.  

In an interview with Fortune, cofounder Bryan Pellegrino said that the Zero blockchain can overcome the scaling challenge thanks to a breakthrough on a cutting-edge type of technology known as zero-knowledge proofs, which allows different parties to verify information in a privacy-preserving method.