Network News
ROBINHOOD UNVEILS BLOCKCHAIN: Robinhood has launched the public testnet for its layer 2 Ethereum blockchain with plans for a wider introduction later this year as the brokerage app aims to move more trading activity onto the chain. The new network, called Robinhood Chain, is built on Arbitrum and is designed to support real-world tokenized assets, including stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Developers will be able to publicly leverage the network for the first time after six months of private testing, ahead of the future mainnet launch, the company announced at CoinDesk’s Consensus conference in Hong Kong. With this channel, Robinhood aims to allow users to trade 24/7 and self-custody their assets in Robinhood’s own crypto wallet. Users will also be able to link different chains and access decentralized finance (DeFi) applications on Ethereum, the company said. The moment comes as Ethereum’s core roadmap refocuses more attention on the base layer. Some upgrades have already reduced transaction costs, and other improvements are expected to continue to reduce congestion, a development that weakens the case for Layer 2s as a pure necessity for scaling. Robinhood’s approach suggests that it is already operating under this assumption. “I think Vitalik [Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum] “For us, it was never really about scaling Ethereum or making faster transactions.” — Margaux Nijkerk & Krisztian Sandor Learn more.
CITADEL SECURITIES SUPPORTS THE LAYERZERO BLOCKCHAIN: LayerZero Labs unveiled Zero, a blockchain aimed at powering institutional-grade financial markets, alongside a strategic investment from Citadel Securities in ZRO, the network’s native token and governance asset. ARK Invest is also investing in LayerZero shares and the ZRO token, with CEO Cathie Wood joining a newly formed advisory board alongside ICE director Michael Blaugrund and former BNY Mellon head of digital assets Caroline Butler, the company said. The size of the investments was not disclosed. The announcement signals a deeper push by traditional market infrastructure companies toward blockchain-based trading, clearing and settlement, as scalability and performance constraints have long limited real-world adoption. Tether Investments, the investment arm of the largest stablecoin issuer, has also made a strategic investment in LayerZero Labs, it said. Citadel Securities said it was working with LayerZero to evaluate how Zero’s architecture could support high-throughput workflows in trading and post-trading processes. The company’s investment in ZRO adds to growing institutional interest in LayerZero, which is best known for operating one of the largest crypto interoperability networks. Zero is built around LayerZero’s first heterogeneous architecture, which uses zero-knowledge proofs (ZKP) to separate transaction execution from verification. The company says the design can achieve around 2 million transactions per second across multiple zones, with transaction costs approaching a millionth of a dollar and effectively unlimited block space. — Will Canny Learn more.
THE MEGAETH MAINNET IS LIVE: MegaETH, a high-performance blockchain designed to make Ethereum applications nearly instantaneous, has launched its public mainnet, entering an ecosystem mired in a fundamental debate over how Ethereum should evolve. The project, which billed itself as a Layer 2 “real-time blockchain” targeting over 100,000 transactions per second (tps), would make on-chain interactions closer to traditional web applications than today’s crypto networks. Ethereum runs at less than 30 tps, according to Token Terminal. This publication caps a rapid rise that has attracted both technical curiosity and major financial support. The project’s development arm, MegaLabs, raised a $20 million seed round in 2024 led by Dragonfly. Last October, it announced an oversubscribed $450 million token sale, backed by some of the most recognizable names in crypto, including Ethereum co-founders Vitalik Buterin and Joe Lubin. The sale was one of the largest crypto fundraisers this year. — Margaux Nijkerk Learn more.
LAYER PLANS 2 OF THE ENS SCRAP: ENS has decided not to move forward with Namechain, a planned Layer 2 rollup, marking another significant shift from the once-dominant narrative that Ethereum’s future would be built primarily on L2s. Instead of its own deployment, ENS will now deploy the long-awaited ENSv2 upgrade exclusively on the Ethereum mainnet, citing significantly lower gas costs and a broader shift in Ethereum’s scaling philosophy. According to Nick Johnson, founder and lead developer of ENS, the initial rationale for launching a bespoke rollup is no longer valid. “The landscape has changed since we decided to pursue an L2,” Johnson said in an interview with CoinDesk. Two years ago, high gas prices made rollups the “official trajectory,” but Ethereum’s base layer has since evolved to the point where transaction costs are viable. — Margaux Nijkerk Learn more.
In Other news
- Kraken has fired its chief financial officer, Stephanie Lemmerman, just as the crypto exchange prepares to list publicly in the United States early this year, according to two people familiar with the matter. Lemmerman joined Kraken from Dapper Labs in November 2024 and served as the exchange’s CFO for one year and four months. She now has a strategic advisory role at Kraken, one of the people said. Robert Moore, former vice president of business development, has virtually taken over his position, the person said. An updated leadership page on the website of Kraken’s parent company, Payward Inc., lists Moore as deputy chief financial officer. Lemmerman does not appear. Obviously, it’s significant that Kraken fired its CFO after filing confidentially with U.S. regulators in November. This came just days after Kraken raised $800 million at a $20 billion valuation, including $200 million from Citadel Securities. — Ian Allison Learn more.
- Jump Trading plans to take a small stake in each of market prediction platforms Kalshi and Polymarket, Bloomberg reported, citing people with knowledge of the matter. The trading powerhouse, which particularly focuses on cryptocurrency, will obtain the shares in exchange for providing liquidity on both platforms. Jump is expected to take a fixed amount of equity in Kalshi, while its stake in Polymarket will increase over time based on the trading capacity the company provides to the platform’s US operations. Jump has expanded into prediction market trading in recent months, hiring 20 employees for that venture, according to Bloomberg. — Jamie Crawley Learn more.
Regulation and policy
- President Donald Trump’s U.S. bitcoin stash does not yet exist, and there is no mechanism within the federal government for bulk purchasing of crypto. Keep that in mind as you consider this weekend’s speculation about what price would cause the White House to hit a buy button, thanks in large part to CNBC’s Jim Cramer. There is no such button. The president did order the creation of a “strategic reserve” to contain Bitcoin, but that did not give rise to this “strategic reserve.” The Treasury Department and crypto advisors have spent months auditing federal crypto holdings (although White House crypto advisor Patrick Witt told CoinDesk last week that they still wouldn’t share a number). But the process ran into a problem: Supporters said they needed Congress to establish the stockpile under law. The new US crypto industry law for stablecoin issuers does not include it, nor does the sweeping crypto market structure bill currently being considered by the US Senate. Getting legislation through this Congress – even less controversial issues – is a daunting challenge, and industry lobbyists are focused on the bill to finally establish market and oversight regulations for digital assets. A reserve may not even be second on the priority list, as crypto tax rules also call for it. — Jesse Hamilton Learn more.
- Cryptocurrency exchange and wallet provider Blockchain.com has won regulatory approval in the UK almost four years after apparently giving up. Blockchain.com was added to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) register of authorized crypto companies on Tuesday under its trading name “BC Operations”. The London-based company opted to withdraw its FCA license application in March 2022, having failed to obtain approval before a looming deadline. Blockchain.com turned to its company registered in Lithuania. UK registration allows Blockchain.com to carry out certain crypto-related activities in the UK, provided it complies with money laundering and terrorist financing rules. — Jamie Crawley Learn more.
Calendar
- February 10-12, 2026: Consensus, Hong Kong
- February 17-21, 2026: EthDenver, Denver
- February 23 and 24, 2026: NearCon, San Francisco
- March 24-26, 2026: Digital Assets Summit, New York
- March 30-April. 2, 2026: EthCC, Cannes
- April 15-16, 2026: Paris Blockchain Week, Paris
- April 29-30, 2026: Token2049, Dubai
- May 5-7, 2026: Consensus, Miami
- September 29-October 1, 2026: Korean Blockchain Week, Seoul
- October 7 and 8, 2026: Token2049, Singapore
- November 3-6, 2026: Devcon, Mumbai
- November 15-17, 2026: Solana Breakpoint, London
