Crypto World
What It Actually Takes to Prove Someone Is Satoshi Nakamoto
Verifying Satoshi Nakamoto: A matter of math, not media
From time to time, individuals claim to be Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin’s pseudonymous creator. Such announcements generate headlines, spark heated debates and trigger instant skepticism. Yet after years of assertions, lawsuits, leaked files and media interviews, no claim has been backed by definitive proof.
The reason is simple. Proving someone is Satoshi is not a matter of storytelling, credentials or courtroom victories. It is a cryptographic problem governed by unforgiving rules.
Nakamoto built Bitcoin (BTC) to function as a peer-to-peer (P2P) cryptocurrency without requiring trust in people. It is widely assumed that Satoshi Nakamoto is an adopted name rather than a real one. As a result, anyone who claims to be Satoshi, or is presented as such, must prove that identity. That proof would likely involve identity documents, historical communication records and, most critically, control of a private key associated with one of Bitcoin’s earliest addresses.
Over the years, several individuals have been speculated to be Satoshi Nakamoto, but only a few have publicly claimed to be the creator of Bitcoin.
The most prominent claimant is Craig Steven Wright, who repeatedly asserted that he was Satoshi. That claim collapsed after a UK High Court ruling explicitly determined he was not Satoshi Nakamoto and sharply criticized the credibility of his evidence.
Dorian S. Nakamoto was identified by Newsweek in 2014 as Satoshi Nakamoto, but he immediately denied any connection to Bitcoin’s creator. Early Bitcoin pioneer Hal Finney also rejected speculation that he was Satoshi Nakamoto before his passing. Nick Szabo has likewise been speculated to be Satoshi over the years and has consistently denied the claim.
What constitutes genuine proof of ownership in Bitcoin
In cryptographic systems like Bitcoin, identity is bound to private key ownership. Demonstrating control requires signing a message with that key, a process that anyone can verify publicly.
This distinction is clear:
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Evidence can be debated, interpreted or challenged.
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Cryptographic verification is binary; it either checks out or it does not.
Bitcoin’s verification model does not rely on authority, credentials or expert consensus. It depends on mathematics, not people, institutions or opinion.
Did you know? Early Bitcoin forum posts and the white paper used British spellings like “colour” and “favour.” This sparked theories about Satoshi’s geographic background, though linguists caution that spelling alone can be easily imitated or deliberately altered.
The gold standard: Signing with early keys
The most conclusive proof of being Satoshi would be a public message signed using a private key from one of Bitcoin’s earliest blocks, particularly those associated with Satoshi’s known mining activity in 2009.
Such a signature would be:
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Verifiable by anyone using standard tools
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Impossible to forge without the actual private key
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Free from dependence on courts, media or trusted third parties.
The tools required for such proof are simple, accessible and decisive, yet no one has ever provided it.
Did you know? Satoshi gradually stepped away from public communication in 2010, just as Bitcoin started attracting developers and media attention. Their final known message suggested they had “moved on to other things,” fueling speculation about motive and timing.
Moving early coins: Even more powerful, but improbable
An even stronger demonstration would be transferring Bitcoin from an untouched Satoshi-era wallet. That single onchain action would dispel nearly all doubt.
Yet it carries massive downsides:
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Instant worldwide scrutiny
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Severe personal security threats
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Potential tax, legal and regulatory fallout
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Market disruption from anticipated dumps.
The most ironclad proof is also the most disruptive. It makes inaction a rational choice, even for the true creator.
Did you know? Blockchain researchers estimate that early mining patterns linked to Satoshi may represent roughly 1 million BTC, making those dormant wallets some of the most closely watched in crypto history.
Why documents, emails and code don’t settle the ownership
While emails, draft papers, forum posts and code contributions can support a claim, they do not constitute definitive evidence. Such materials can be forged, edited, selectively leaked or misinterpreted.
Code authorship does not prove key control. In Bitcoin, keys define identity, and everything else is secondary. Analysis of emails, draft papers and forum posts may offer intriguing correlations between an individual and Bitcoin, but it lacks certainty. The samples are limited, and styles can overlap or be mimicked.
In social settings or conventional legal disputes, identity can be supported by personal testimony or documentation. However, such evidence is irrelevant within Bitcoin’s decentralized model.
Human memory is fallible, and incentives can be misaligned. Bitcoin was designed specifically to avoid reliance on such factors. Cryptographic proof removes any human role from the verification process.
Why partial proof is not proof
Some claimants offer evidence behind closed doors. However, material shown only to select individuals, or signatures produced using later Bitcoin keys, does not meet the required standard.
To convince the world, proof must be:
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Public: Visible to anyone
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Reproducible: Independently verifiable
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Direct: Tied to Satoshi-era keys.
Anything less leaves room for doubt, which is unacceptable to the Bitcoin community.
For Bitcoin to function, its creator does not need to be known or visible. On the contrary, its decentralization narrative is strengthened by the creator’s absence. There is no founder to defer to, no authority to appeal to and no identity to attack or defend.
While most organizations or projects rely on founders or management teams, Bitcoin functions precisely because identity is irrelevant.
Bitcoin mining stress deepened as difficulty fell 14% and Puell dipped below 0.8, even as Cango sold $305M in BTC.
Bitcoin mining conditions tightened sharply in late January and early February after network difficulty fell 14% over three weeks and publicly traded miner Cango disclosed a $305 million BTC sale over the weekend.
The combination of falling profitability metrics and selective balance sheet sales shows pressure spreading across the mining sector, even as broader on-chain data shows no signs of disorderly selling.
Difficulty Drops as Miners Cut Capacity
According to a February 10 brief published by on-chain analyst Axel Adler Jr., Bitcoin’s network difficulty dropped by a combined 14.1% between January 22 and February 6, following two consecutive downward adjustments of 3.3% and 11.2%. Such back-to-back cuts usually occur when less efficient mining equipment is taken offline, often during periods of weak price action.
During the same window, the price of BTC fell about 25%, briefly touching $60,000 before rebounding toward $70,000. At the time of writing, the flagship cryptocurrency was trading at around $69,000, down nearly 1% in the last 24 hours and more than 12% over the past week, based on CoinGecko data.
The asset has also lost 24% of its value over the past month and about 29% year over year, underperforming earlier-cycle expectations and keeping mining margins tight.
Against this backdrop, Cango confirmed it sold 4,451 BTC for approximately $305 million, citing balance sheet strengthening. The sale, approved by the company’s board, drew an immediate reaction from equity investors, with Cango shares closing 8% lower on the first trading day after the disclosure.
Adler described the transaction as a point event rather than evidence of widespread forced liquidation, noting that aggregate miner flows to exchanges are still holding steady.
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Data from miner exchange inflows supports that view, with the 30-day moving average of daily miner transfers hovering near 82 BTC, only slightly lower than mid-January levels and well within recent norms, according to the market watcher. Furthermore, he reported that there have been no sustained spikes that would suggest broad reserve dumping.
Profitability Pressure and What Comes Next
Profitability metrics still point to strain. For instance, Adler pointed out in his brief that the Puell Multiple, which compares daily miner revenue to its annual average, slipped to a 30-day average of 0.77 in early February, down from 0.86 in mid-January. He added that spot readings briefly fell to around 0.61, levels historically associated with miner stress and capacity exits.
The analyst noted that miners earning below their annual average tend to prioritize liquidity, increasing the chance of selective reserve sales rather than aggressive expansion. According to him, completion of this stress phase typically requires a reversal in difficulty adjustments and a recovery in the Puell Multiple toward the 0.85 to 0.90 range.
For now, the data suggests the adjustment is playing out mainly through hashrate reductions instead of heavy selling. The risk, in Adler’s opinion, is a renewed price drop below $60,000, which could push profitability metrics lower and prompt similar sales from other public miners.
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Crypto miner and manufacturer Canaan fell 6.9% on the Nasdaq on Tuesday despite reporting a 121.1% year-on-year increase in revenue to $196.3 million in the fourth quarter, driven by an increase in hardware sales and stronger mining performance.
Canaan reported that its Bitcoin (BTC) mining revenue rose 98.5% year-on-year to $30.4 million, helping boost its Bitcoin treasury to a record 1,750 BTC, valued at nearly $120 million, while the company also increased its Ether (ETH) holdings to 3,950 ETH, worth $7.9 million.
The revenue figure is Canaan’s highest quarterly posting in three years, and was also driven by Bitcoin mining machine sales, with the company shipping a record 14.6 exahashes per second (EH/s) of computing power during the quarter.
Canaan said computing power sales were supported by a “milestone order” from a US-based institutional miner, helping it set a new quarterly record for computing power sales and achieve a 60% year-on-year increase.
On the mining front, the Singapore-based company said it expanded its installed hashrate to 9.91 EH/s, with 7.65 EH/s operational during the quarter.
Bitcoin network hashrate has fallen from a record 1,150 EH/s in mid-October to 980 EH/s as miners continue to unplug unprofitable machines and pivot to AI and high-performance computing.
Despite the strong Q4 performance, Canaan (CAN) shares tanked another 6.87% to $0.56, Google Finance data shows, making it one of the lowest performers among the 15 largest Bitcoin miners by market cap.
Canaan’s risk of Nasdaq delisting worsens
At its current price of $0.56, the company is now down 18.1% year-to-date and 70.2% over the last 12 months.
On Jan. 16, Canaan said it received a letter from the Nasdaq warning that it must increase its share price to above $1 to meet the stock exchange’s minimum bid rule or risk being delisted.
Related: Bitcoin ETFs extend rebound as $145M in fresh inflows hit market
The Nasdaq gave the Singapore company 180 days, until July 13, to regain compliance with the rule, which requires its closing bid price to hit at least $1 for a minimum of 10 consecutive trading days. Canaan last closed above $1 on Nov. 28, 2025.
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Ethereum remains in a cyclical downswing after the recent capitulation leg that drove the price from the mid-$2,000s into the $1,800 demand region. The structure across higher timeframes is still dominated by a well-defined descending channel, with lower highs since late 2025 and momentum readings in oversold territory now attempting to stabilize.
Current conditions, therefore, reflect a market in the process of digesting a sharp repricing, where the next impulse will likely be defined by how the price reacts to the nearest resistance band around $2,700 and the reclaimed support zone near $1,800–$2,000.
Ethereum Price Analysis: The Daily Chart
The daily chart shows Ethereum trending within a broad downward channel, with the latest sell-off driving the asset into the lower boundary and the horizontal demand region between roughly $1,800 and $1,700. This zone has produced an initial reaction, but the sequence of lower highs and lower lows remains intact, and the bearish fair value gap around $2,300–$2,400 now acts as the first short-term resistance cluster.
Daily RSI has also bounced from deeply oversold readings but still resides in a bearish regime, indicating that any recovery for now is best classified as a corrective rebound within a dominant downtrend. Yet, a sustained move back above $2,400–$2,500 and the channel midline would be required to argue for a more durable trend change.
ETH/USDT 4-Hour Chart
On the 4-hour timeframe, the market displays a short-term basing attempt after the steep decline. The price carved out a descending leg that terminated near the $1,800 demand zone while the 4-hour RSI formed a clear bullish divergence, signalling seller exhaustion and prompting the current consolidation above the support zone at $1,800 and below the resistance level at $2,100.
This range now defines the tactical battlefield: holding above $1,800 would keep the developing recovery structure valid and open the door for a retest of the $2,200 short-term resistance level, whereas a decisive breakdown below $1,800 would indicate that the relief phase has failed and expose the lower daily supports closer to $1,600.
On-Chain Analysis
The Exchange Supply Ratio for Ethereum has continued to trend lower and currently sits near the lowest levels of the displayed series, around 0.135, implying that an increasingly smaller fraction of the total ETH supply is held on centralized exchanges. This persistent decline, even as prices have sold off toward the $2,000 area, suggests that a significant portion of the supply has migrated to self-custody or staking and is less immediately available for sale, reducing structural spot sell-side liquidity.
In the short term, this configuration can amplify volatility, with sharp downtrends driven by derivatives and forced selling facing relatively thin spot order books. But from a medium-term perspective, a depressed exchange supply ratio combined with already realized downside often characterizes late-stage phases of a corrective cycle, where additional marginal supply becomes progressively harder to source if demand begins to recover.
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Throughout its history, bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have been subject to significant price fluctuations, whether that’s due to larger macro factors impacting all asset classes or during “crypto winters” tied to industry concerns.
But with a crypto-friendly Trump administration and expectations for passage of a cryptocurrency market structure bill, many onlookers expected another bull run in digital assets to start 2026. However, it’s been the exact opposite. Bitcoin is down more than 21% so far this year, and it fell to $60,062.00 last week — its lowest level in roughly 16 months. That marked a drop of nearly 50% from its record back in October 2025.
What is driving this latest decline? Rather than a single event, Galaxy founder and CEO Mike Novogratz said at the CNBC Digital Finance Forum on Tuesday in New York City that it’s a reflection of a larger industry shift. When bitcoin fell 22% in less than a day back in November 2022 following the collapse of FTX, there was a “breakdown in trust,” Novogratz told CNBC’s MacKenzie Sigalos at the event. “This time, there’s no smoking gun,” he said. “You look around like, what happened?”
Bitcoin price since the start of 2026
Novogratz did note the wipeout that occurred in October 2025 as a significant event, when more than 1.6 million traders suffered a combined $19.37 billion erasure of leveraged positions over a 24-hour period, a situation that he said, “wiped out a lot of retail and market makers” and put plenty of pressure on prices.
“Crypto is all about narratives, it’s about stories,” he said. “Those stories take a while to build and you’re pulling people in … so when you wipe out a lot of those people, Humpty Dumpty doesn’t get put back together right away,” he said.
But Novogratz also sees something more lasting he expects to come out of the current downturn, saying the recent era of crypto investing, “the age of speculation,” will be phased out going forward as the crypto industry has brought in “institutions where people have a different risk tolerance.”
“Retail people don’t get into crypto because they want to make 11% annualized,” he said. “They get in because they want to make 30 to one, eight to one, 10 to one.”
Some traders will always speculate, Novogratz says, but overall, “it’s going to be transposed or replaced by us using these same rails, these crypto rails, to bring banking [and] financial services to the whole world. And so, it’s going to be real world assets with much lower returns.”
He also pointed to tokenized stocks as assets that will have “a different return profile.”
Sigalos asked Novogratz if the eventual passage of the CLARITY Act could be a catalyst for the industry, with the stall in the crypto market structure bill’s momentum on Capitol Hill at least a short-term headwind. He is confident a crypto market structure bill will eventually become law.
“I talked to [Senate Minority Leader] Chuck Schumer two nights ago and he said ‘We’re going to pass the goddamn CLARITY Act,’” Novogratz said. “The Democrats want to pass the act, and the Republicans want to.”
Novogratz said the crypto industry needs the bill for “a lot of reasons,” but notably, “We need it for spirit back in the crypto market.”
At the World Economic Forum 2026 in Davos, crypto was no longer framed as a parallel financial system. Instead, it appeared as emerging institutional infrastructure—regulated, operational, and increasingly shaped by legislation, market structure, and real deployment timelines.
Across CNBC House and Bloomberg House, the conversation shifted decisively away from hype. The focus was execution: what can realistically ship in 2026, under which rules, and with what return on capital.
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Why Davos Matters for Crypto in 2026
Davos is less about announcements and more about institutional alignment. This year’s theme, “A Spirit of Dialogue,” reflected crypto’s transition from ideology to negotiation—between regulators, market operators, and incumbents.
Crypto repeatedly surfaced in discussions around financial infrastructure modernization, settlement efficiency, tokenization of regulated assets, and market resilience. The signal was clear: crypto is now being judged on compliance, governance, and measurable outcomes, not narratives.
CNBC House: Stablecoins and Tokenization, Narrowed
CNBC House debuted in 2026 as a curated venue for C-suite and policy-level discussions. Its tone was pragmatic. Conversations with Binance Co-CEO Richard Teng and Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse positioned 2026 as an execution year, not a speculative cycle.
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Stablecoins emerged as the most deployable use case—where institutional demand, technical readiness, and regulatory attention already overlap. Tokenization, meanwhile, was framed less as a sweeping transformation and more as a targeted efficiency upgrade: faster settlement, improved collateral mobility, lower operational risk, and better auditability.
Crypto’s challenge at Davos was attention. It now competes directly with AI, cybersecurity, and operational resilience for executive capital. The bar in 2026 is ROI.
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Bloomberg House: Legislation as the Bottleneck
If CNBC House captured intent, Bloomberg House captured constraints.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong focused on US legislation, particularly the stalled Clarity Act. In early 2026, Coinbase withdrew support for the Senate market structure bill, arguing its latest draft could restrict tokenized equities, DeFi, and stablecoin rewards—putting crypto firms at a disadvantage to banks.
His opposition delayed the bill’s markup and highlighted a key reality: policy details, not technology, are pacing adoption. Stablecoins sit at the center of that debate, with yield, consumer protection, and financial stability now active fault lines.
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Tokenization at Bloomberg House was framed as market structure competition. Moves toward 24/7 trading and blockchain-based rails suggest the battle is no longer about feasibility, but about who controls standards, fees, and distribution.
What Davos Made Clear
Crypto’s next phase is defined by integration, not disruption. Stablecoins are the leading institutional wedge. US legislation sets the tempo. Tokenization is becoming incremental, regulated, and competitive.
Davos sent a clear message: crypto’s future will be decided less by narratives—and more by who can deliver institution-grade infrastructure under real-world rules.
This article was contributed by Ionut Gaucan, an independent industry expert reporting from Davos. The views expressed are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of BeInCrypto.
Coinbase is being quietly eclipsed by Hyperliquid, whose trading volume is nearly double that of Coinbase.
The prominent decentralized perpetual futures exchange, Hyperliquid, has surpassed Coinbase in terms of trading volume, according to Artemis. The data revealed that Hyperliquid recorded $2.6 trillion in trading volume, compared with Coinbase’s $1.4 trillion within the same timeframe.
This represents nearly double the notional volume of Coinbase.
Hyperliquid vs. Coinbase
Findings shared by Artemis also disclosed that the year-to-date price performance highlights a stark contrast between the two platforms. Hyperliquid has gained 31.7% so far in 2026, while Coinbase has declined by 27.0%. This resulted in a divergence of 58.7% over just a few weeks.
Coinbase is one of the most established centralized exchanges in the world, while Hyperliquid is still an emerging decentralized player in the space. Following the significant gap in both trading activity and asset performance, Artemis described it as a sign that the market is paying attention to the decentralized perpetuals exchange’s rapid growth.
Throughout 2025, the platform generated $822 million in revenues. So far this year alone, it recorded $79.1 million in revenues.
Meanwhile, open interest on Hyperliquid, over the past 24 hours, stood at $4.1 million.
Amid rapid growth, Ripple announced that its Ripple Prime brokerage platform will now support Hyperliquid. This would allow institutional clients to access Hyperliquid’s on-chain derivatives while cross-margining exposure across other assets, including cleared derivatives, OTC swaps, fixed income, forex, and digital assets, under a single counterparty.
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Michael Higgins, international CEO of Ripple Prime, said the integration merges decentralized finance with traditional prime brokerage, improving liquidity access and trading efficiency. The move comes as Hyperliquid continues to see billions in daily volumes, as the platform sees growing influence in the decentralized perpetual futures market.
HYPE Shorting Controversy
Hyperliquid’s popularity has not been without controversy. In December, the exchange confirmed that a former employee, dismissed in early 2024 for insider trading, was behind large short positions in its native HYPE token. On-chain analysis verified that the wallet responsible executed leveraged shorts totaling over $223,000, including $180,000 in HYPE at 10x leverage.
The platform reiterated its zero-tolerance policy for insider trading and said employees and contractors are prohibited from trading HYPE derivatives.
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BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) options have surged to new heights, surpassing gold ETFs in both open interest and trading volume. As of February 10, IBIT options reached a total of 7.33 million active contracts, positioning it as the ninth-largest options market in the U.S. This marks a significant shift, as Bitcoin gains momentum over traditional assets like gold.
The surge in IBIT options highlights a growing interest in cryptocurrency. This uptick has coincided with Bitcoin’s strong performance, outpacing gold in recent trading sessions. As Bitcoin continues to rise, the surge in IBIT options reflects broader market trends, with investors responding to changing global risk sentiment.
BlackRock Bitcoin ETF’s Growing Dominance in the Options Market
The rise of IBIT options points to a shifting preference towards Bitcoin-based assets. With 7.33 million IBIT contracts now open, Bitcoin has solidified its position in the options market, surpassing even gold ETFs like SPDR Gold Shares (GLD). By contrast, GLD options currently sit at 6.44 million, showing a distinct advantage for Bitcoin in this space.
IBIT options have recorded impressive trading volumes, with over 284 million shares traded, resulting in more than $10 billion in notional value. This represents a notable increase from the previous record set in November. The growing volume and interest reflect a clear trend of Bitcoin gaining ground in the financial market.
The put/call ratio for IBIT options is currently 0.64, indicating a more balanced market outlook compared to gold’s ratio of 0.50. As Bitcoin continues to rise, its options market is becoming increasingly influential, while interest in gold begins to wane. This shift signals a broader change in market sentiment, with Bitcoin gaining prominence over gold.
Bitcoin Options Outpace Gold Amid Global Market Shifts
Bitcoin options have experienced significant growth, while the price of gold has weakened. A resurgence in global risk appetite has caused gold prices to ease, as equity indices show positive performance. This shift in sentiment has been attributed to anticipation surrounding upcoming U.S. economic data, including jobs reports and CPI inflation figures.
Despite expectations that gold could hit new highs in the coming years, Bitcoin continues to outperform it in terms of market sentiment. BNP Paribas has projected that gold could reach $6,000 by 2026, but Bitcoin has maintained a stronger position in the current market. This shift in favor of Bitcoin reflects a reassessment of traditional safe-haven assets.
As market conditions change, the growing focus on Bitcoin-based assets like IBIT may continue to challenge traditional investments such as gold. With Bitcoin rising in prominence, it could represent an increasing share of investor portfolios, reshaping the landscape for safe-haven investments.
Bitcoin’s Performance in the Face of Increased Volatility
Despite a 30% crash in the market recently, Bitcoin has shown remarkable resilience. This volatility has sparked ongoing debates regarding Bitcoin’s future, especially in comparison to gold. However, some analysts believe that Bitcoin’s volatility could attract more investors if market conditions continue to favor riskier assets.
JPMorgan’s Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou noted that Bitcoin’s volatility relative to gold has decreased to a record low of 1.5. This reduced volatility ratio makes Bitcoin more attractive to investors looking for higher returns. As Bitcoin’s volatility continues to drop, it may attract a new wave of interest from risk-seeking investors.
With this shift in market dynamics, Bitcoin’s recognition as a significant asset is growing. Many experts suggest that Bitcoin’s price may rally toward $266,000 once the current negative sentiment dissipates. This potential for growth signals that Bitcoin could become even more appealing to investors in the near future.
Spot Bitcoin ETF Sees Record Inflows Despite BlackRock ETF Redemptions
BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) has seen a surge in options activity, but its overall performance has been mixed. On February 6, spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $144.9 million in net inflows, signaling renewed interest in cryptocurrency. This marks a positive reversal after a period of outflows, demonstrating a shift in sentiment towards Bitcoin.
However, BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF faced redemptions of $20.9 million, signaling a less favorable outlook for the ETF itself. Despite this, the IBIT ETF remains an influential player in the market. The growing activity in Bitcoin options, along with fluctuating ETF inflows and outflows, suggests that Bitcoin’s role in traditional financial markets is evolving.
This discrepancy between inflows and redemptions highlights the complexity of investor behavior in the cryptocurrency space. While Bitcoin options gain in popularity, the ETF market remains volatile. Nonetheless, the rise in Bitcoin options is a strong signal that Bitcoin is establishing itself as a dominant asset in global financial markets.
Alongside its permissionless blockchain, the firm also revealed investments from Citadel Securities and ARK Invest.
LayerZero, a cross-chain interoperability protocol, has announced the launch of a new Layer 1 blockchain, dubbed Zero, that aims to address “long-standing scalability challenges” in blockchain, according to a press release shared with The Defiant.
The new blockchain — backed by heavyweight collaborators including Citadel Securities, The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), and Google Cloud — is positioned as core infrastructure for financial markets, rather than just another platform for crypto apps, the developers said.
Alongside the launch, LayerZero said Citadel Securities, a multi-billion-dollar market maker, is making a strategic investment in the network’s ZRO token. ARK Invest is also coming on board as a holder of LayerZero equity, as well as its native token.
The Defiant reached out to LayerZero to clarify the funding terms, but didn’t receive a response by press time.
Citadel Securities is exploring how Zero could be used across trading, clearing, and settlement workflows, per the announcement. Meanwhile, DTCC said it’s looking into using the new network for tokenized securities and large-scale collateral management.
ICE, which owns the New York Stock Exchange, said it’s also evaluating using Zero as it adapts its infrastructure for 24/7 tokenized markets. Meanwhile, Google Cloud will be joining as a partner “to explore how to enable AI agents to make micropayments,” per the press release.
LayerZero said it has also formed an advisory board that includes ARK Invest founder and CEO Cathie Wood, alongside current and former executives from ICE and BNY Mellon.
Earlier today, stablecoin giant Tether also announced a strategic investment in LayerZero, though the funding size wasn’t disclosed.
How Zero Works
At the technical level, the team behind Zero says the network employs a different approach from many blockchains, especially around consensus. Rather than requiring “every node to replicate the same work,” by validating transactions and updating the blockchain ledger, Zero uses zero-knowledge proofs to separate transaction execution from verification.
That design, combined with what the team describes as advances in compute, storage, and networking, allows Zero to potentially reach as many as 2 million transactions per second (TPS) across multiple “zones,” which the team describes as permissionless environments owned and governed by the network itself.
For context, Ethereum currently operates at around 20-30 TPS, while Solana boasts over 3,000 TPS.
According to the press release, Zero will be launched with three initial zones, including a general-purpose Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) environment, a privacy-focused payments setup, and a trading-oriented zone covering multiple asset classes. The network will be permissionless, with LayerZero’s native token used for governance.
ZRO is currently trading around $1.80, flat today but up about 21% in the past 30 days.
Crypto World
XRP Price Prediction: Could XRP Really Flip Bitcoin and Ethereum? One Analyst Says the Battle Has Already Begun
XRP price has dropped 12% in the last 7 days has held $1.40 this week and hasn’t let go of that level.
A well-known crypto analyst called CryptoInsightUK pointed out that XRP is showing strength relative to Bitcoin and ETH, which fuels a bullish XRP price prediction amid weak sentiment.
The analyst highlighted large liquidity clusters above XRP price around ~$2.29, ~$3.60, and ~$4.20, $4.40, which he believes could fuel strong upside if price begins to move up.
What is interesting is that metrics like XRP “dominance” have bounced off support and are showing bullish patterns, which the analyst interprets as a sign of strengthening market posture.
He also mentions that it is possible for XRP to flip Ethereum, as it would only need a 189% move from here. He called it possible, but a very hard task.
With all that said, traders might be asking one question: is it time for XRP price to overtake ETH?
XRP Price Prediction: Is XRP Preparing For a 189% Rally?
XRP Price has been grinding lower inside a well-defined descending channel.
Now it’s pressing into a key demand zone around $1.30–$1.50, an area where it bounced many times before.
The Selling pressure has noticeably slowed here.
If XRP can reclaim $1.50, it opens the door to a move toward $2.50, where a major liquidity pocket sits, followed by $3.50–$3.60, a level that lines up with both past resistance and the liquidity clusters highlighted by analysts.
As long as $1 holds, this looks less like a breakdown and more like price preparing up before its next move.
This downtrend has pushed a lot of smart whales to look for something shinier and more interesting.
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Maxi Doge does not fight narratives. It weaponizes them. Clear branding, aggressive positioning, and a community-first approach designed to thrive when sentiment flips fast and liquidity chases hype, not whitepapers.
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If this cycle is about attention over perfection, Maxi Doge is playing the game exactly as the market wants.
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LayerZero Labs on Tuesday unveiled Zero, a new blockchain aimed at powering institutional-grade financial markets, alongside a strategic investment from Citadel Securities into ZRO, the network’s native token and governance asset.
ARK Invest is also investing in LayerZero’s equity and ZRO token, with CEO Cathie Wood joining a newly formed advisory board alongside ICE executive Michael Blaugrund and former BNY Mellon digital assets head Caroline Butler, the company said in a press release. The size of the investments were not disclosed.
The announcement signals a deeper push by traditional market infrastructure players into blockchain-based trading, clearing and settlement, as scalability and performance constraints have long limited real-world adoption.
Tether Investments, the investment arm of the leading stablecoin issuer, has also made a strategic investment in LayerZero Labs, it said earlier on Tuesday.
Citadel Securities said it is working with LayerZero to evaluate how Zero’s architecture could support high-throughput workflows across trading and post-trade processes. The firm’s investment in ZRO adds to growing institutional interest in LayerZero, which is best known for operating one of crypto’s largest interoperability networks.
After years of pilot projects and cautious experimentation, large financial institutions are moving more decisively into crypto as infrastructure improves and regulatory clarity advances. Asset managers, exchanges and clearing houses are increasingly viewing blockchains not as speculative rails but as potential upgrades to legacy systems, particularly for trading, settlement and collateral management. The shift reflects a growing belief that crypto-native technology is maturing enough to support real-world financial markets at scale.
Zero is designed around LayerZero’s first-of-its-kind heterogeneous architecture, which uses zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) to separate transaction execution from verification. The company claims the design can scale to roughly 2 million transactions per second across multiple zones, with transaction costs approaching a millionth of a dollar and effectively unlimited blockspace.
Zero-knowledge proofs let blockchains verify that a statement is true without revealing the underlying data, preserving privacy while ensuring validity.
LayerZero said the system delivers step-change improvements across compute, storage, networking and cryptography, allowing different zones to be optimized for specific use cases rather than forcing all nodes to perform identical work.
The project is launching in collaboration with several major institutions. The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) said it will explore using Zero to enhance the scalability of its tokenization and collateral initiatives, while Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, is examining applications tied to 24/7 trading and tokenized collateral. Google Cloud is partnering with LayerZero to explore blockchain-based micropayments and resource trading for AI agents, reflecting growing interest in programmable money for machine-driven economies.
“Zero’s architecture moves the industry’s roadmap forward by at least a decade,” said Bryan Pellegrino, CEO of LayerZero Labs, in the release. “We believe we can actually bring the entire global economy onchain with this technology.
The blockchain is set to debut with three initial zones: a general-purpose Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) environment, a privacy-focused payments system, and a purpose-built trading venue. ZRO will anchor network governance and security, while LayerZero’s interoperability stack links Zero to more than 165 blockchains.
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