GeckoPulse: LayerZero Unveils Their Big Plans

This GeckoPulse episode covers February 10-12's top crypto news. Subscribe to our free daily newsletter to be the first to receive breaking updates!

Going Back to Ground Zero

Crosschain protocol LayerZero has announced the upcoming launch of its own Layer-1 known as Zero.

According to LayerZero’s announcement post, Zero will focus on three decentralized environments or zones during its initial launch, which will be governed by an underlying network.

The first zone will function similarly to an EVM network, the second zone is built for global markets, while the third zone will be used to facilitate global payments.

Each zone is independently capable of achieving a theoretical capacity of 2M transactions per second.

In a nutshell, Zero’s architecture focuses on improvements with storage, computing networking, and ZK proofs, which help to bypass the bottlenecks faced by traditional blockchains.

As part of the LayerZero, the network will continue to use the existing ZRO token as its native gas and governance token.

Additionally, both ARK Invest and Citadel Securities have made strategic investments into the project and the ZRO token.

The Zero mainnet is scheduled to go live in Q4 this year.

Since the announcement of Zero, the price of ZRO has shot up by 23.8% from $1.93 to $2.39.

Finding Middle Ground for Aave

Aave Labs has proposed to redirect all protocol revenue to the Aave DAO as part of its recent temperature check on the Aave governance forum.

Introduced as part of a new 'Aave Will Win Framework', Aave Labs has proposed to redirect 100% of the proceeds from Aave-branded products into the Aave DAO treasury.

This includes revenue from transactions on the Aave V3 and V4 protocols, as well as from other future product lines such as the Aave Card and AAVE ETF.

In addition, the proposal aims to spin off a new Aave Foundation to hold Aave's IP and trademarks.

In exchange for giving up its revenue streams, Aave Labs is requesting a significant funding package from the DAO to cover its long-term operational costs.

This includes $25 million in stablecoins, with $5M paid upfront and 75,000 AAVE tokens, worth approximately $8.4M, to be distributed monthly over a 2-year period.

However, Marc Zeller, founder of the Aave Chan Initiative, remains unconvinced, stating that Aave Labs is still 'extracting a massive
amount,'

Regardless, the price of Aave's native AAVE token has risen by 4.8% since the temperature check was made public.

Will Jet Engines Bring Us to the Moon?

ETH treasury company ETHZilla has launched its latest product - tokenized jet engines?

The firm aims to launch a token known as ‘Eurus Aero Token 1’ which offers equity in the jet engines acquired back in January and have subsequently been leased to a US-based carrier.

The tokens will be launched under its subsidiary, ETHZilla Aerospace, at an initial launch price of $100 per token, and a minimum purchase of 10 tokens.

Additionally, the company aims to generate a target yield of 11% based on the full lease term of the jet engines, which expires in 2028.

Wall Street Dips Its Toes into DeFi 

In its latest foray into DeFi, BlackRock has officially listed its tokenized BUIDL fund on the Uniswap DEX.

With collaboration from the tokenization firm Securitize, the integration allows whitelisted institutional investors to trade BUIDL shares on UniswapX, an RFQ platform that sources quotes from approved market makers and settles transactions on-chain.

As such, the integration allows clients to trade with 24/7 liquidity and near-instant settlement, bypassing traditional banking hours.

However, access to the fund will still be restricted to pre-approved, whitelisted institutional participants that have been verified by Securitize.

Additionally, BlackRock has also made a strategic investment into the Uniswap protocol, as well as purchasing the protocol’s native UNI token.

Shortly after the announcement, the price of UNI surged by 32.5% from $3.29 to a peak of $4.36, but has since retraced to $3.34.

No Humans Required

Crypto exchange Coinbase has deployed a new wallet architecture that specifically enables AI agents to autonomously spend and trade crypto.

Introduced as the Agentic Wallets feature, agents can perform transactions via Coinbase's x402 payments protocol or operate directly on the Base L2.

This feature builds on the AgentKit toolbox announced by Coinbase earlier in November 2024, which allows developers to embed wallets into AI agents.

Additionally, transactions are gasless and can involve any token on Base.

Benji Comes to Binance

Crypto exchange Binance has teamed up with asset management firm Franklin Templeton to launch a new institutional collateral program.

Under this new program, institutional clients can use tokenized money market funds issued under Franklin Templeton’s Benji platform as collateral to trade crypto assets, without having to deposit them onto the exchange.

Clients will simply have to pledge their assets with the program’s designated custodian, Ceffu, while Binance will mirror the total value of funds available for trading.

This mechanism allows institutions to reduce counterparty risk that may stem from potential security failures on the exchange.

More over, the pledged assets will continue to generate yield while it remains in custody.

Backpack Brings Out the Tokens

Crypto exchange Backpack has finally announced the launch of its native token, with unlocks to be determined based on the performance of its upcoming IPO.

Additionally, the platform is looking to raise $50M in a new funding round at a valuation of $1B.

The team recently posted more details about Backpack’s tokenomics, where 25% of the total supply, equating to 250M tokens, will be circulating on launch day.

Of the initial circulating supply, 240M tokens will go to eligible Points holders on Backpack, while the remainder will go to holders of the Mad Lads NFT collection.

A further 37.5% are categorized as "pre-IPO" tokens, which will be unlocked when the company hits specific milestones, such as entering major new markets or launching new financial products.

The remaining tokens have been designated as post-IPO tokens, and will remain locked in a corporate treasury until 1 year after Backpack conducts its official IPO.

Shortly after the announcement, the floor price of Mad Lads NFTs jumped to 22.2 SOL (~$1.9K) but has since retreated to 21.2 SOL (~$1.8K).

However, the crypto community remains skeptical of new launches, as Polymarket users are currently predicting only a 26% chance that the exchange will reach above a billion-dollar valuation on day one.

Creator Rewards Canceled

Coinbase’s Base App will close down its Creator Rewards program, as well as its Farcaster-based social feed.

As announced on X, the in-app feed will now focus entirely on tradable assets, placing more emphasis on on-chain activity.

After paying out more than $450K in rewards, the Creator Rewards program will conclude at the end of the week, with the final payouts to be distributed next Wednesday.

However, the program’s termination will not affect the Creator Coins program, allowing users to continue to deploy new ERC-20 tokens using their profile.

Additionally, the Base App team will also disclose new rewards for creators in the coming future.

In Other News

Crypto Derivatives in Thailand. The Thai SEC said it will support the integration of digital assets into the local derivatives market.

The First G7 Nation to Issue Tokenized Debt. Britain is positioning itself to become the first G7 nation to issue sovereign debt on the blockchain. Banking giant HSBC is selected for this pilot due to their experience in processing over $3.5B in digital bond issuances.

World Liberty Financial Teases Forex Platform. World Liberty Financial, a Trump-family-linked crypto project, teased the launch of World Swap, a foreign exchange platform that will further support its USD1 stablecoin.

Pudgy Penguin Releases Pengu Card. Pudgy Penguins, a popular NFT collection, is venturing into consumer finance with the release of their Pengu Visa card. The card offers up to 12% rewards plus up to an additional 7% in yield.

Robinhood Chain Testnet Goes Live. Robinhood, the popular trading app, has begun to make progress on developing their upcoming Robinhood chain. Their chain will be a financial-grade ETH L2 built on Arbitrum.

AZTEC Live Tomorrow. AZTEC, the native token for the privacy-focused ETH L2, is set to go live for trading tomorrow.

Arkham Shutters Perps Platform. Arkham, the popular on-chain analytics platform is reportedly shutting down its perpetual trading platform after struggling to attract users.

Stripe Previews x402 Integration on Base. Payment giant Stripe introduced a preview of its machine payments system, integrating the x402 protocol to let developers and businesses directly bill autonomous agents using USDC on Base.

Robinhood Shares Fall on Crypto Slowdown. Robinhood’s latest earning release saw their stock tumbling 8% after reporting crypto revenue falling 38% in Q4.

Cango’s Big Bitcoin Dump. Bitcoin miner Cang, has reportedly dumped $305M worth of Bitcoin during this market slump as it seeks to pivot towards AI computing instead of Bitcoin mining. Cang sold the Bitcoin at an estimated average price of $69K.

ZachXBT Calls Out Logan Paul. Famed crypto investigator calls out a Polymarket X post that Logan Paul’s supposed $1M wager turned out to be fictitious as his account was showing a zero balance.

SushiSwap Live on Solana. SushiSwap, an EVM DEX announced that they now support token swaps on Solana. This new feature is powered by Jupiter’s Ultra API.

Tempo Poaches Farcaster Founders. Tempo, an upcoming stablecoin-focused L1 backed by Paradigm and Stripe has hired Dan Romero and Varun Srinivasan, the co-founders of Farcaster, a social network crypto project. The co-founders previously left Farcaster after their project was acquired by Neynar.

South Korea to Probe Bithumb. South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service has launched a full-scale investigation into the crypto exchange after it had recently mistakenly airdropped $140M worth of Bitcoin into user’s wallets.

A Big Miss for Coinbase. Coinbase’s latest earnings call reported a huge miss with a net loss of $667M for Q4 2025. Coinbase’s shares dropped 7.9% to $141/share after the earnings release.

Fractional Gold. USDT issuer Tether introduces Scudo, a new unit of measurement for Tether Gold (XAUT). 1 Scudo represents 1/1000 of XAUT.

Lighter’s $920M Deal. Perp DEX Lighter has reportedly struck a deal with USDC issuer Circle. Circle will share revenue generated on the $920M USDC deposited on Lighter.

DraftKings Predict $6.9B Revenue From Predictions. DraftKings, a traditional gambling company is venturing into the predictions market place. DraftKings Predictions has launched in 38 states including California, Florida, Georgia, and Texas, where traditional sports betting isn’t legal.