LayerZero and Wormhole Foundation are engaged in a bidding war to acquire Stargate Finance, a leading fungible token bridge in the cryptocurrency interoperability sector. LayerZero initially offered $110 million in a token-swap proposal to acquire Stargate, which has a treasury valued at $92 million, a total value locked (TVL) of $345 million, and recorded $4 billion in bridge volume in July. Wormhole Foundation has challenged this offer, calling it undervalued and signaling its intention to submit a higher bid. Wormhole also requested a five-day pause on the governance vote to finalize its counteroffer. The competition highlights the increasing stakes in cross-chain finance and governance arbitrage within decentralized finance (DeFi). Stargate is built on LayerZero’s protocol, and both LayerZero and Wormhole are major cross-chain messaging protocols competing in the multi-blockchain data and asset transfer space. This bidding war represents one of the first on-chain acquisition contests in the crypto industry, drawing attention to the valuation of decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) and the evolving landscape of crypto mergers and acquisitions.