Well, here we go. The battle for Stargate Finance just got a whole lot more interesting. It’s not just LayerZero’s game anymore.
The Wormhole Foundation threw its hat in the ring on August 20th, publicly challenging the acquisition. They didn’t mince words, either. Their main argument, posted on X, is pretty straightforward: they think LayerZero’s $110 million offer is just too low. Way too low, in their view. It’s a bold move that completely changes the dynamic.
A Clash Over What It’s Really Worth
So, what’s the basis for this disagreement? It seems to come down to a fundamental difference in how each side sees Stargate’s value. LayerZero’s offer, made back on August 10th, was to buy all the circulating STG tokens for $0.1675 each, paying with its own ZRO tokens.
But Wormhole is pointing to Stargate’s own books. They’re highlighting the protocol’s substantial treasury—over $92 million in assets, with a big chunk of that, about $76 million, sitting in stablecoins. There’s another $16 million or so in Ethereum. When you have that much cash on hand, a $110 million bid for the whole operation might seem a little light. Perhaps it doesn’t fully account for what’s already in the bank.
And then there’s the performance. The numbers from July are pretty hard to ignore. $4 billion in bridge volume? That’s a tenfold increase from the year before. The total value locked, sitting at $348 million across more than 80 chains, isn’t nothing either. It suggests a protocol that’s actually growing, not shrinking.
More Than Just Money On The Table
This isn’t only about the price tag, though. The two foundations seem to have pretty different ideas about what should happen to Stargate.
LayerZero is talking about consolidation. They see bringing Stargate into the fold as a way to streamline things, using its existing infrastructure and users. Their plan involves directing future revenue into buying back ZRO tokens and expanding what Stargate does beyond simple bridging. They also make a case for simpler governance, saying it avoids future conflicts.
Wormhole, on the other hand, is sketching out a different future. They’re talking about combining Stargate’s liquidity with their own wide network of integrations. The idea, I suppose, is that this would create something bigger than the sum of its parts, ideally leading to more activity and more revenue for everyone involved—both STG and W holders.
They’ve also asked for a brief pause, just five business days, in the ongoing governance vote. They want time to put together a proper competing bid. That vote itself has a high bar: it needs a 70% approval from holders, with a quorum of 1.2 million veSTG tokens. It was actually amended recently to throw a bone to long-term stakers, offering them six months of revenue share after some complaints about the original terms.
It’s a messy situation, really. You’ve got two big players with competing visions and now, competing offers. STG holders suddenly have a real choice to make, and it’s not just a simple yes or no on a single deal anymore. They have to decide which path forward actually makes the most sense.
