[Gnosis Chain to Transition to Ethereum L2 in Spring 2027, Bidding Farewell to Independent L1] Gnosis announced on its official blog that Gnosis Chain will cease operating as an independent L1 network via a hard fork in Spring 2027, transitioning to an Ethereum Economic Zone (EEZ) area that settles to Ethereum, becoming its first general-purpose area. Contracts, balances, addresses, chain IDs, and xDAI as the gas token will remain unchanged, and developers will not need to redeploy. Gnosis stated that based on current DeFi TVL calculations, Gnosis Chain will rank among the top ten Ethereum L2 networks after the transition, becoming the first L2 network that can be synchronized with the mainnet; however, its validator set of approximately 200,000 independent validators will not be retained after the transition. Gnosis stated that operating Gnosis Chain as an independent L1 network would cost Gnosis DAO approximately $7 million to $10 million annually.