The privacy-focused blockchain Midnight saw renewed market interest this week 
after Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson announced key developments at the 
Consensus Hong Kong conference. This includes the project’s scheduled mainnet 
launch in late March and collaborations involving Google and Telegram.…

Midnight token price jumps after Google and Telegram partnership news

An OKX-commissioned Pollfish survey finds 13% of Gen Z have paid for dates 
with crypto, while many non-users cite a lack of a direct way to do so.

Gen Z flirts with crypto to pay for dates this Valentine’s, survey finds

Despite a total ban, the country has surged to 13th in global cryptocurrency 
adoption — and the new government may not be able to look away much longer. As 
Bangladesh Votes, a Crypto Underground Demands Recognition The following guest 
post was written by Nabil Sorkar, Verse Community Member. DHAKA, Bangladesh — 
On a sweltering Wednesday […]

Bangladesh Votes for a New Era While Millions Trade Crypto in the Shadows

ZRO, the native token of the omnichain interpretability protocol LayerZero, 
has skyrocketed more than 40% on the past day following the announcement of 
its new Layer-1 (L1) blockchain backed by major institutional players. Related 
Reading: XRP Positioned For Major Structure Shift As Price Tests Critical 
Level LayerZero Unveils Zero Blockchain On Tuesday, LayerZero Labs announced a 
new L1 blockchain, Zero, aimed at institutional financial markets. According 
to the announcement, it is set to launch in fall 2026, with three initial 
“zones,” described as permissionless environments fully owned and governed by 
the underlying network. Moreover, ZRO will serve as the network’s native 
token, providing interoperability between Zones and across the 165+ 
blockchains it connects. Designed to “eliminate the long-standing scalability 
challenges of decentralized networks,” Zero is set to process 2 million 
transactions per second (TPS) per Zone and charge near-zero fees by targeting 
four primary bottlenecks. “By leveraging Zero-Knowledge (ZK) proofs to 
decouple execution from verification, Zero transitions the network from 
redundant replication to a heterogeneous architecture,” LayerZero Labs 
explained on X. “This structural shift allows for two distinct validator 
classes: lightweight Block Validators capable of running on low-grade consumer 
hardware and optional higher performance Block Producers,” it continued. Bryan 
Pellegrino, CEO of LayerZero Labs, affirmed that Zero’s architecture advances 
the industry’s roadmap by at least a decade. “We believe we can actually bring 
the entire global economy onchain with this technology. Our mission is to 
build permissionless infrastructure for a better world &#8211; this is the beginning 
of that world,” he added. Zero Receives Major Institutional Backing The 
rollout was backed by key institutional players, including Citadel Securities, 
The Depository Trust &amp; Clearing Corporation (DTCC), ARK Invest, Google Cloud, 
and Intercontinental Exchange (ICE). Notably, Citadel Securities is 
collaborating to evaluate how its technology could apply to trading, clearing, 
and settlement workflows. Additionally, it made a strategic investment in ZRO. 
ARK Invest is becoming a shareholder of LayerZero equity and ZRO. Meanwhile, 
Cathie Wood, the company’s CEO and CIO, joined LayerZero’s new advisory board 
alongside Michael Blaugrund, VP of Strategic Initiatives at ICE, and Caroline 
Butler, former head of digital assets at BNY Mellon. “This is a historic 
opportunity at the intersection of finance and the internet. I am thrilled to 
join LayerZero’s advisory board and help accelerate the adoption of Zero by 
the largest markets and companies in the world,” Wood said in a statement. 
DTCC will investigate the Zero blockchain architecture to enhance the 
scalability of the DTC Tokenization Service and collateral management, while 
ICE will examine it for 24/7 trading and tokenized collateral. Moreover, 
Google Cloud partnered to explore how to enable AI agents to make 
micropayments and trade resources instantly. Tether also announced a separate 
strategic investment in LayerZero Labs on Tuesday. ZRO Price Skyrockets 
Following the news, ZRO soared more than 40% in the last 24 hours, hitting a 
four-month high of $2.59 on Wednesday morning. The cryptocurrency had been 
trading between the $1.50 and $2.00 area over the past few weeks, reaching a 
local low of $1.35 during last week’s crash. Now, the recent momentum has 
pushed LayerZero back above the $2.00 area and toward a major resistance area. 
The cryptocurrency has been unable to reclaim the $2.60 mark since June, being 
rejected from this area after each retest. Related Reading: Bitcoin Could See 
New Drop To $60,000 Despite Bounce – Here’s The Level To Defend If ZRO 
reclaims $2.60, it could target the next major resistance, located at around 
$3.00. Analyst Crypto Tony affirmed that if the cryptocurrency clears this 
level, “we are good for $3.30. Wave 3 is beginning.” As of this writing, ZRO 
is trading at $2.45, a 36.5% increase in the weekly timeframe. Featured Image 
from Unsplash.com, Chart from TradingView.com

LayerZero (ZRO) Soars 40% Amid Zero Blockchain Debut, Major Institutional Backing

PIPPIN price has shot up nearly 200% over the past week, driven by sharp 
demand from futures traders. Is the meme coin set to see more gains, or will 
it crash? According to data from crypto.news, the Pippin (PIPPIN) price…

Cryptocurrency price in BRL