LayerZero and 21X AG Achieve 10,000 Matches Per Second in Institutional Onchain Trading Pilot

LayerZero and 21X AG have completed a technical pilot demonstrating that institutional-grade trading can occur entirely onchain without sacrificing speed. By recording 10,000 order matches per second on the Zero blockchain, the test proves that regulated financial instruments can be traded and settled in a single transaction at scales significantly higher than current Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) baselines.

What was announced

The month-long pilot focused on US equity tokens and utilized 21X AG’s fully onchain central limit order book (CLOB). Unlike many venues that match orders on private servers before posting results to a blockchain, this architecture performed matching and settlement within the same transaction. The testing took place on a private-permissioned instance of Zero, a blockchain developed by LayerZero.

The results showed a throughput of 10,000 matches per second, representing a 45x improvement compared to the baseline performance of standard Layer 2 EVM networks. The pilot aimed to quantify Zero’s performance against common EVM networks used in capital markets and establish a baseline for further optimization. Over the course of continuous testing, the system demonstrated it had the headroom to go further than the recorded 10,000 matches.

The deployment on a private-permissioned instance allowed for specific institutional requirements, including control over network participation and data visibility, while maintaining compatibility with the broader EVM and multi-chain ecosystem. 21X AG currently operates its live multi-chain infrastructure alongside this pilot environment. This demonstration confirms the technical viability of running institutional order flow end-to-end onchain for regulated financial instruments, provided appropriate regulatory approvals are in place.

"Capital markets are already moving onchain, and throughput across the industry is rising fast. What institutions need next is infrastructure that can carry real order flow at full scale without compromise,"

Bryan Pellegrino, Co-Founder and CEO of LayerZero.

The companies involved

LayerZero is a prominent interoperability protocol that has facilitated more than $300 billion in cross-chain volume. In February, the company announced the development of Zero, a blockchain project involving collaboration with major financial institutions including Citadel Securities, the DTCC, ARK Invest, and the Intercontinental Exchange. The protocol is designed to provide the scale and performance required for high-performance institutional use cases, moving beyond simple asset bridging toward comprehensive market infrastructure.

21X AG is a financial technology firm and the first venue licensed under the European Union’s DLT Pilot Regime. This license allows the company to operate both trading and settlement functions from a single source, a significant regulatory milestone in the European market. The firm’s central limit order book is built to run entirely onchain with no offchain matching, and it is already live in production in Europe for the trading and settlement of regulated financial instruments. Based in Germany, 21X Group has recently sought to expand its footprint into the United States market, positioning itself as a bridge between traditional capital markets and distributed ledger technology.

What FF News has reported before

FF News has closely followed the intersection of institutional finance and decentralized infrastructure. In August 2026, we covered how LayerZero Unveils ATLAS: A Global Market Infrastructure for Institutional and Open Trading Venues, highlighting the company's push to provide "headless" exchange architecture. More recently, in October 2026, reports surfaced that 21X Group Targets US Market with New Tokenized Securities Trading Platform, as the firm seeks regulatory approval to operate as a US broker-dealer. Additionally, the broader movement of institutional assets to onchain environments was noted when the Wyoming Stable Token Commission Migrates to Chainlink CCIP for Enhanced Security in August 2026, reflecting a period of intense competition among interoperability protocols.

What this means

The success of this pilot puts significant pressure on traditional exchanges and legacy settlement systems that still rely on T+1 or T+2 cycles. By proving that 10,000 matches per second is achievable on a regulated, onchain venue, LayerZero and 21X AG are challenging the narrative that blockchain is too slow for high-frequency institutional trading. The real test for the sector now lies in liquidity fragmentation; while the technical throughput is there, the industry must determine if trading volume will migrate from established dark pools and lit markets to these new DLT-based venues. It also raises questions for competing Layer 2 solutions about whether general-purpose chains can ever match the performance of purpose-built institutional instances like Zero.