Can LayerZero price hit $3 after ZRO buybacks?

LayerZero price has climbed roughly 41% over seven days to around $2.13 as another reported $ZRO buyback and rising derivatives activity coincide with the token’s strongest rally in months.

CoinGecko data shows $ZRO trading near $2.13 at the latest reading, up about 11.8% over 24 hours and 41.1% over seven days. The token has gained roughly 97% in 30 days, while its market capitalization stands near $840 million. Twenty-four-hour spot trading volume was around $158 million.

The rally has pushed $ZRO back above $2 after spending much of recent months below that level. Its latest 24-hour range sits between roughly $1.91 and $2.18, making the 2.18–2.20 area the first resistance test before traders can assess a possible move toward $3.

LayerZero price now needs to clear $2.20

$ZRO’s weekly structure has improved sharply after recovering from its July and August lows. On the latest weekly chart, price is trading around 2.10–2.13 after reaching roughly $2.19, leaving the token close to its current local high.

The Bollinger Bands show how quickly the move has developed. $ZRO is trading above the upper weekly band near $1.84, while the middle band sits around $1.08. Trading above the upper band points to strong momentum, although it can leave price vulnerable to consolidation when buying slows.

Weekly RSI has climbed to about 67.6, up from much weaker readings during the earlier part of the recovery. The indicator remains below the traditional 70 overbought threshold, but it is close enough to show that momentum has become elevated.

For the current breakout to extend, $ZRO first needs to establish support above the recent 2.18–2.20 high. A sustained break would leave $3 as the next visible psychological level. Failure to hold the breakout would put the upper Bollinger Band near $1.84 back into focus as the first technical support area.

Crypto analyst Pentoshi described $ZRO as a “great weekly chart” and said the project’s fundamentals had improved with ATLAS approaching. His comments are an analyst view, not a confirmed price target.

$ZRO buybacks have returned as price moves higher

On-chain monitoring reported another LayerZero purchase on Oct. 6.

BlockBeats reported that LayerZero bought roughly 162,000 $ZRO worth around $347,000, taking the reported cumulative total to approximately 2.538 million tokens. The figure was based on on-chain monitoring from TradingBeats.

LayerZero’s own buyback tracker has not yet incorporated the latest reported transaction. The Foundation page currently lists 2,375,357 $ZRO purchased at a cost basis of approximately $3.33 million through August. The additional 162,000-token purchase would bring that running total close to the 2.538 million figure cited by on-chain monitors.

Existing purchases are tied mainly to Stargate revenue. LayerZero said Stargate revenue funds recurring $ZRO purchases, with revenue collected from cross-chain swaps and transfers used to buy tokens on the open market.

LayerZero has used buybacks before during periods of weak $ZRO pricing. As crypto.news previously reported, LayerZero Labs bought $10 million worth of $ZRO on the open market in November 2025, when the token was recovering from a sharp decline.

Not every recent on-chain movement points in the same direction. On Oct. 3, two addresses linked to a LayerZero strategic partner transferred 8 million $ZRO, worth approximately $14.98 million, to Coinbase Prime. The addresses had received 40.57 million $ZRO from a strategic-partner multisig roughly one year earlier.

A transfer to Coinbase Prime does not establish that the tokens were sold. Coinbase Prime can be used for custody and institutional transactions, and no public statement from the wallet owner has identified the purpose of the transfer.

ATLAS could create another source of $ZRO demand

Attention around $ZRO has increased since LayerZero introduced ATLAS in August.

LayerZero describes ATLAS as a trading infrastructure system that combines matching, clearing, settlement and risk management for open and institutional markets. The product runs on Zero, LayerZero’s planned blockchain for financial-market workloads.

The fee structure gives $ZRO a direct role. Trading venues using Open ATLAS can receive rebates ranging from 20% to 65%, depending on trading volume and $ZRO staking. After the venue rebate is deducted, 25% of the remaining economics go to the market creator and 75% are allocated to buying and burning $ZRO.

As crypto.news reported when ATLAS was unveiled, the design gives $ZRO another fee-linked mechanism beyond existing Stargate buybacks. $ZRO rose more than 16% following the original ATLAS announcement in August.

LayerZero has not published a firm ATLAS mainnet date. Its official website currently says the system is “coming later this year.” Pentoshi’s reference to a launch in the next few weeks therefore remains an analyst expectation, not a confirmed company timetable.

Futures traders are building larger $ZRO positions

The derivatives market has expanded alongside the spot rally.

CoinGlass shows $ZRO futures volume near $308 million over 24 hours and open interest around $279 million at the latest reading. The derivatives price was near $2.11, up roughly 10.6% over the same period.

Open interest measures the value of outstanding futures positions. Its rise alongside price shows traders are adding leveraged exposure, although the figure does not establish whether the next move will be higher or lower.

Recent liquidation data points to pressure on bearish positions during the advance. CoinGlass data showed roughly $51,000 in short liquidations compared with around $29,000 in long liquidations in the latest snapshot, with Binance accounting for most of the short liquidations.

The amounts remain small compared with earlier $ZRO liquidation events. The price move therefore appears to involve more than forced short covering alone, while growing open interest means liquidations could increase if volatility accelerates.

The next $ZRO unlock arrives on Oct. 20

$ZRO’s next supply event is scheduled for Oct. 20, giving traders another date to monitor if the price continues toward $3.

DefiLlama’s unlock tracker shows approximately 23.63 million $ZRO scheduled to unlock across core contributors and strategic partners. At current prices, the tokens are worth roughly $50 million and represent about 5.9% of the circulating float shown by the tracker.

The scheduled release includes around 10.63 million $ZRO for core contributors and 13 million for strategic partners. LayerZero previously bought back 50 million tokens from early investors, which reduced the strategic-partner release schedule.

A year earlier, crypto.news reported that $ZRO faced selling pressure around its October 2025 unlock while Stargate-related buybacks were beginning to provide another source of market demand.

The Oct. 20 release is scheduled for approximately 05:33 UTC, according to DefiLlama, with 10.63 million $ZRO allocated to core contributors and 13 million $ZRO assigned to strategic partners.