LayerZero Unveils Zero Blockchain

️ On today's Top Picks:

Crypto News

• ⭐️ LayerZero $ZRO to launch layer 1 blockchain 'Zero' in partnership with Citadel Securities, DTCC, & Intercontinental Exchange (ICE); also, Tether, Citadel Securities, & Ark Invest an undisclosed amount in LayerZero Labs.

• US White House meets with crypto and banking executives (again) to discuss stalled crypto market structure bill (Clarity Act), focusing on stablecoin yield; meeting was reportedly productive, but no compromise was reached (again).

• Uniswap $UNI partners with Securitize to launch BlackRock’s USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL) on UniswapX; also, Blackrock invests an undisclosed amount in Uniswap.

• Hyperliquid Strategies $PURR Q4 2025 Financial Results: holds 5M $HYPE acquired for $129.5M at ~$25.9 per HYPE; also holds $125M in cash to buy more HYPE.

• Circle $CRCL invests an undisclosed amount in perps DEX 'edgeX'; to launch native USDC and CCTP on EDGE Chain; edgeX expected to launch token before March 31st.

• FTX $FTT founder Sam Bankman-Fried files motion for new trial; alleges jury never heard critical evidence; also claims the government and bankruptcy estate misrepresented FTX’s financial data.

• SafeMoon $SFM founder Braden Karony sentenced to 100 months in prison; convicted in May 2025 for conspiracy to commit securities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering; co-founder Kyle Nagy is still at large.

• Binance $BNB partners with Franklin Templeton to launch institutional collateral program; enables tokenized money market fund (MMF) shares issued via Franklin Templeton’s Benji Technology Platform to be used as collateral on Binance.

• Kraken fires CFO Stephanie Lemmerman ahead of upcoming IPO; moves to strategic advisory role; Kraken’s VP of business expansion Robert Moore has since taken over as CFO.

• Interactive Brokers $IKBR launches nano Bitcoin & nano Ether futures via Coinbase $COIN Derivatives; available 24/7 and includes both monthly and perpetual style futures.

• Intercontinental Exchange $ICE launches Polymarket Signals and Sentiment tool; offers prediction market data and analytics; recently invested $2B in Polymarket.

Alpha

• ⭐️ Aztec $AZTEC to launch TGE on February 12th; AZTEC Uniswap CCA participants will be eligible to claim & trade their tokens.

• Nado $INK to raise NLP cap from $2M to $4M on February 12th; Alpha Tornado & Storm tiers are whitelisted for early access; deposits will open to the public after 48 hours.

• USDai $CHIP Allo (points) Season 1 ends on February 2nd; to launch Level Up campaign ahead of Season 2, offering bonuses; to launch TGE & airdrop in March.

• Euphoria to launch on MegaETH mainnet on February 16th; to also launch two-week Tap Trading competition; limited to 5,000 traders.

• ICYMI MegaETH $MEGA launches public mainnet; also launches Rabbithole for users to discover apps, bridge & swap assets, & more; to launch TGE at a later date after 1 of 3 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are achieved.

• ICYMI Polymarket $POLY parent company Blockratize files trademark application for POLY token; recently launched Polymarket US app; to potentially officially announce POLY token soon.

Airdrops

• ⭐️ Espresso $ESP to launch airdrop claim soon; ~1M wallets via 30+ paths were eligible to register; registration closed on February 8th.

• Superform $UP launches airdrop claim; Season 1 XP holders, Season 2 CRED holders, Season 3 Points holders, & more were eligible to register.

• ICYMI Backpack allocates 25% of token supply for airdrop at TGE; Backpack points holders (24%) & Mad Lads NFT holders (1%) will be eligible.

• ICYMI Rainbow $RNBW launches airdrop claim; Rainbow points holders are eligible; snapshot was taken on January 26th.

• ICYMI YO $YO launches airdrop claim; YO points holders are eligible; token is non-transferable until enabled via governance vote.

Finance News

• Polymarket projects ~84% chance there will be another US government shutdown by February 14th; due to partisan disputes over Department of Homeland Security funding & immigration enforcement.

• US economy added 130,000 jobs in January, beating expectations of 55,000; unemployment rate fell to 4.3%, below expectations of 4.4%.

• Coinbase $COIN to report Q4 2025 earnings on February 12th; Polymarket projects ~20% Coinbase will beat quarterly earnings.

• S&P Global $SPGI Q4 2025 Earnings; reports $3.9B in revenue (+9% YoY), beating expectations; EPS of $4.30 (+14% YoY), missing expectations.

• Robinhood $HOOD Q4 2025 Earnings: reports $1.3B in revenue (+27% YoY), missing expectations; $221M in crypto revenue (-17.5% QoQ, -38% YoY); EPS of $0.66 (-35% YoY), beating expectations.

• ⭐️ Robinhood $HOOD launches Robinhood Chain public testnet, an Ethereum layer 2 built on Arbitrum $ARB; phase 1 (testnet) focuses on developer onboarding and infrastructure testing.

• Goldman Sachs $GS discloses ~$2.4B worth of crypto ETF holdings; $1.1B in Bitcoin $BTC, $1B in Ethereum $ETH, $108M in Solana $SOL, & $153M in Ripple $XRP.

Security and Exploits

• Bubblemaps $BMT alleges @beaverd, winner of the $1M X Article Contest, is a serial rugger who made $600K from memecoin pump & dumps.

• TheDao Security Fund donates 69 ETH (~$135K) to SEAL and 133.7 ETH (~$261K) to SEAL 911; SEAL to distribute funds to white hat volunteers.

• Victim loses ~$118K in BUSD due to signing malicious 'increaseAllowance' transaction; users should verify every approval request.

• ⭐️ Apple $AAPL releases new security update; patches zero-day vulnerability that was exploited in sophisticated attacks targeting specific individuals.

• ⭐️ Microsoft $MSFT releases February 2026 security updates; patches 59 Windows 11 vulnerabilities, including 6 actively exploited in the wild.

• Discord clarifies that majority of users will NOT have to do age verification; to confirm age group using existing information.

Token Unlocks

• Linea $LINEA / ~$4M / FEB 10th
• Aptos $APT / ~$12M / FEB 10th
• Avalanche $AVAX / ~$15M / FEB 11th
• Starknet $STRK / ~$6M / FEB 15th
• Sei $SEI / ~$4M / FEB 15th
• Arbitrum $ARB / ~$10M / FEB 16th
Sourced from Tokenomist

Funding

• Bullshot raises $7.5M in Private Sale from several investors.

• Birch Hill raises $2.5M in Pre-Seed funding led by ParaFi Capital & Castle Island Ventures.

• Xross Road raises $1.5M in Pre-Seed funding from several investors.

The Degen Farmer