Layer Zero's Massive Blockchain Upgrade, MegaETH’s Bread Talks Mainnet, SBF Wants a New Trial

Crypto majors are red down 2-3% ahead of today’s jobs report; BTC -2% at $67.1K; ETH -2% at $1,960; SOL -3% at $81; XRP -2% at ~$1.37. ZRO (+32%), RIVER (+14%) and ASTER (+4%) led top movers. LayerZero announced its own L1 blockchain called Zero, backed by Citadel Securities and Ark Invest, with Google Cloud and DTCC partnerships. Tether Investments made a strategic investment in LayerZero Labs, the protocol behind USDt0 just hours ahead of the Zero announcement. Goldman Sachs disclosed holding $1.1B of BTC and $1B of ETH, making up 0.33% of its portfolio. SBF filed a pro se motion for a new trial after firing his lawyer, potentially opening a path for him to get out of prison. Ray Dalio warned CBDCs will eliminate financial privacy in an interview with Tucker Carlson, calling them inevitable but also “not that big of a deal” as a store of value. Robinhood missed Q4 revenue expectations at $1.28B vs. $1.35B expected; crypto revenue fell 38% YoY to $221M as BTC dropped 23% in Q4 while prediction market volume spiked 4x. SafeMoon CEO Braden Karony received a 100-month prison sentence for securities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering; ordered to forfeit $7.5M. Kraken moved CFO Stephanie Lemmerman to an advisory role ahead of the exchange’s planned IPO.