blockchain

According to CoinDesk, Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson announced at the Consensus Hong Kong conference that the long-developed privacy blockchain Midnight will officially launch in the last week of March, operating as a partner chain of Cardano.Midnight is based on zero-knowledge proof technology and employs a "selective disclosure" privacy model: user transaction data is kept private by default and only specific information is disclosed to authorized parties when necessary. This design aims to balance the privacy protection of the blockchain with compliance requirements, supporting different levels of data access views for public, audit, and regulatory purposes. Hoskinson revealed that Google and Telegram have already participated in the collaboration.The concurrently launched Midnight City Simulation testing platform will be open to the public on February 26, simulating a real trading environment through AI agents to validate the network's proof generation and processing capabilities in large-scale scenarios.

The UK Treasury has selected HSBC Holdings Plc's blockchain platform Orion for a pilot issuance of the country's digital debt instrument DIGIT. HSBC stated that issuing bonds on the blockchain can improve the structure of the UK debt capital market by accelerating settlement speeds.The UK Treasury plans to issue these digital instruments in a regulated testing environment managed by the Financial Conduct Authority. Previously, HSBC's Orion platform has been used globally to issue over $3.5 billion in digital native bonds, including the European Investment Bank's first digital pound bond and a $1.3 billion equivalent green bond issued by the Hong Kong government.

According to Bloomberg, Naveen Mallela, the global co-head of JPMorgan's blockchain division Kinexys, has left the company. Meanwhile, the bank is accelerating its expansion into digital asset payment services. Mallela took on the role in 2024 and had been with the bank for over ten years.A JPMorgan spokesperson confirmed that Mallela has left and stated that a successor will be appointed soon.

According to a report by Finextra, the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) announced plans to connect private equity funds to its blockchain digital market infrastructure (DMI) to build an end-to-end digital distribution network for the private market, covering the entire lifecycle processes of asset issuance, tokenization, distribution, settlement, and ongoing management, enhancing fundraising efficiency and investor reach.It is reported that the related services are expected to officially launch in the first half of 2026.

XION recently published an article introducing its new infrastructure and application scenarios. XION announced the official launch of the DKIM module and the ZK module, becoming the first blockchain to directly store email authentication keys (DKIM) on-chain, as well as the first consumer-grade L1 public chain to implement zero-knowledge verification at the protocol level.XION pointed out that existing email verification solutions (including projects like zkEmail) rely on centralized DNS servers to obtain encryption keys. When email service providers rotate keys, the old verifications become invalid, and there are no historical records available. XION's DKIM module permanently stores these keys in the on-chain state, completely eliminating the reliance on centralized DNS infrastructure. Its ZK module implements zero-knowledge proof verification at the protocol level, achieving an efficiency that is 10 times that of smart contract solutions. The two work together, allowing users to prove any information in an email without exposing the email itself.XION stated that currently about 61% of employees who witness misconduct remain silent, as traditional options are often "anonymous but ignored" or "speak up but risk unemployment." With the above infrastructure, XION has realized various application scenarios, including:Anonymous reporting and workplace evaluations (proving employment status without exposing personal information)Wallet recovery without mnemonic phrases (using email as a backup key)Purchase behavior and certificate verification (without excessive sharing of personal information)Trust-based ticket resale and insurance claims, etc.It supports Gmail and Apple Mail from launch, covering approximately 3.8 billion email users globally (accounting for over 90% of the global email market). Currently, the XION platform has over 800,000 monthly active users, with more than 150 brands including Uber, Amazon, and BMW already onboarded. The official statement claims this is a verification infrastructure built for the existing internet, "capable of verifying anything while leaking zero information."

According to Nikkei News, Japan's Nomura Holdings and Daiwa Securities Group are collaborating with Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, and Mizuho Financial Group to jointly promote a pilot project for securities trading based on stablecoins, aiming to achieve 24-hour real-time settlement on the blockchain.The project plans to convert assets such as stocks, government bonds, corporate bonds, investment trusts, and ETFs into digital securities. After investors place orders through brokers, transactions will be settled in real-time using yen stablecoins jointly issued by the three major banks, with asset rights simultaneously transferred to the buyer. The experiment is expected to start as early as this month after notifying financial regulatory authorities, and may attract more financial institutions in the future.The project aims to support round-the-clock trading through the tamper-proof characteristics of blockchain, extending trading hours and shortening settlement cycles to invigorate the markets for stocks, bonds, and investment trusts. However, implementation still faces compliance and practical challenges related to broker order verification and other operational processes, and the pilot will focus on identifying and addressing related obstacles.

According to Fortune magazine, the cross-chain protocol LayerZero, supported by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Sequoia Capital, announced the launch of a new blockchain called "Zero," specifically designed for traditional finance, and has received support from several mainstream Wall Street institutions.The newly launched Zero blockchain aims to achieve a performance of processing 2 million transactions per second with a cost of less than one cent per transaction through breakthroughs in zero-knowledge proof technology, addressing the traditional financial system's demand for high throughput and low costs. The company plans to officially launch the network in September.Citadel Securities, ARK Invest founder Cathie Wood, and the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), have participated in the project as investors, partners, or advisors. Stablecoin issuer Tether and ARK Invest have also confirmed their investment in LayerZero.LayerZero co-founder Bryan Pellegrino stated that the introduction of these institutions with deep market structure experience aims to drive Wall Street's large-scale adoption of blockchain technology.

According to official news, LayerZero has announced the launch of the Layer 1 blockchain network Zero. It is reported that LayerZero positions Zero as a ------ multi-core world computer, indicating that the network fundamentally changes the current blockchain paradigm limited by single-threaded, homogeneous architectures.By utilizing zero-knowledge proof technology, the Zero network can support two different categories of validators: lightweight block validators that can run on low-end consumer hardware, and optional high-performance block producers. The system achieves a practical scalability roadmap of 2 million transactions per second for each Zone by addressing four major bottlenecks. The solutions include QMDB for state storage, FAFO for parallel computing scheduling, Jolt Pro for real-time zero-knowledge proof generation, and SVID for high-throughput networks.

According to official news, Tether Investments announced a strategic investment in LayerZero Labs. LayerZero Labs is a developer of interoperability protocols, and its technology is widely used to support cross-chain value transfer in the global digital asset ecosystem. The investment aims to support LayerZero Labs in developing efficient and secure cross-chain technology.LayerZero Labs' technology has been used to support cross-chain transfers of assets such as USDt0 and XAUt0. Since its launch, USDt0 has achieved over $70 billion in cross-chain value transfer in less than 12 months, validating the global scale interoperability of its technology. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino stated that LayerZero Labs' technology provides critical support for real-time cross-chain transfers of digital assets, particularly suitable for micropayment scenarios in the AI agent economy.

According to PRNewswire, Blockchain.com has officially obtained registration for cryptocurrency business from the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). As a company originating from York, UK, Blockchain.com has been deeply involved in the UK cryptocurrency ecosystem for over a decade. This registration enables the company to compliantly offer brokerage, custody, and institutional-grade cryptocurrency services within the UK.This milestone follows the company's acquisition of a license under the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation last year, which allows it to provide cryptocurrency services in 30 European Economic Area countries. Blockchain.com plans to apply for full authorization later this year, aiming to obtain comprehensive authorization by the time the new permanent regulatory regime comes into effect in 2027.

According to market news, the cross-chain interoperability protocol LayerZero plans to launch its own blockchain "Zero," a piece of information that appeared in a now-deleted YouTube video.

According to market news, LayerZero previously released a video showing what appears to be the upcoming blockchain "Zero," but the related video has now been deleted.

At the "Build and Scale in 2026" themed forum held by ChainCatcher in Hong Kong, Michael, co-founder & CEO of the ZK verifiable computing platform Brevis, delivered a keynote speech on "The Infinite Computing Layer Where Everything Can Be Computed," sharing how ZK technology is driving a fundamental transformation in the blockchain computing paradigm.Michael pointed out that the current on-chain computing costs are high and the speed is slow. The "verifiable computing" paradigm proposed by Brevis can offload heavy computations to off-chain, requiring only low-cost verification on-chain, achieving decoupling of computation and verification while supporting privacy protection scenarios.The speech showcased the performance breakthroughs of Brevis's core product, Pico ZKVM: its latest generation, Pico Prism, can complete Ethereum block proofs in an average of 6.9 seconds, with 99.6% of blocks completed within 12 seconds, achieving real-time proof (RTP) for Ethereum for the first time. Currently, Pico ZKVM, as an "on-chain ZK data co-processor," has been applied in various scenarios such as privacy-preserving incentive distribution, high-performance DeFi, and trustless on-chain data computation, providing Rust programming support for developers with zero ZK development experience.Michael predicts that in the next 10 years, 99% of blockchain computing will occur off-chain, verified through ZK proofs. Brevis is driving this process through its verifiable computing infrastructure.

Farcaster founder Dan Romero announced on the X platform that he has joined the stablecoin blockchain project Tempo, which has previously received support from Stripe and Paradigm.

According to tracking data from the Web3 asset data platform RootData X, in the past 7 days, the compliant blockchain ecosystem Rayls has been the project with the most new followers among X (Twitter) Top personalities. New influential figures following this project include cryptocurrency analyst Phyrex (@Phyrex_Ni), IcoBeast.eth (@icobeast), and crypto researcher Jason Chen (@jason_chen998).

a16z partner and a16z crypto leader Chris Dixon published an article on social media titled "The Long Game of Cryptocurrency," stating: There is a popular saying that the non-financial use cases of cryptocurrency are dead. Some also claim that the "read-write-own" model has failed. These conclusions misunderstand the core concepts and misjudge the stage of development we are in.We are currently in the financial era of blockchain. But the core idea has never been that all crypto applications will emerge simultaneously, nor that finance will not lead the way. The core thought has always been that blockchain introduces a new primitive—capable of coordinating human and capital at internet scale, embedding ownership directly into the system. Finance is the domain where this primitive can most naturally prove its value, which is why we often cite finance as the primary example of productive use cases for tokens.Finance is not separate from a larger vision; it is part of it. It serves as the foundation and testing ground for all other applications. At a16z and a16z crypto, we are looking long-term: our fund structure is designed for a cycle of over 10 years because building new industries takes time—operational sequence is crucial. Infrastructure and distribution networks often emerge before new categories of applications.The internet did not begin with social media, streaming, or online communities; it began with packet switching, TCP/IP, and basic connectivity. Only after hundreds of millions of people went online did entirely new cultural and economic categories emerge. Cryptocurrency is likely to be similar. A reasonable speculation is that we need to onboard hundreds of millions of people through financial applications like payments, stablecoins, savings, and DeFi before we can see meaningful adoption in media, gaming, AI, or other potentially more distant fields.Many applications rely on ready wallets, identities, liquidity, and trust mechanisms. This is why a16z has spent over five years working to establish a clear regulatory framework for tokens. Great endeavors take time. The breakthroughs we see today in the AI field are the result of decades of hard work by outstanding talents. Building a new technological system is a marathon, and this is what a marathon looks like in practice: a long period of groundwork followed by a sharp turning point. It is those chaotic years that make the clarity of the future possible.

The publicly listed Bitcoin mining company DMG Blockchain disclosed that it mined 23 BTC in January, bringing its Bitcoin holdings to 414 BTC, with an average hash rate of 1.69 EH/s. Additionally, the company announced it received a $1.5 million energy efficiency incentive and will use these funds to deploy the Christina Lake data center construction.

The a16z crypto team pointed out that as AI systems scale, the internet lacks a native way to distinguish between humans and machines, and the trust system faces challenges. Blockchain technology can provide solutions. The article summarizes the following five key roles:Increase the cost of AI impersonation: By using decentralized human verification systems (such as World ID), the scale of false identity generation is limited, raising the cost of attacks.Decentralized identity verification: Blockchain gives users control over their own identities, avoiding single points of failure in centralized identity systems while protecting privacy and resisting censorship.Create a universal "passport": A blockchain-based identity layer allows AI agents to operate across platforms, carrying permissions and payment information, enhancing interoperability and preventing lock-in effects.Support machine-scale payments: Utilizing blockchain micropayments and smart contracts enables low-cost, granular payment distribution, supporting economic activities between machines.Enhance privacy protection: Through zero-knowledge proofs, users can verify their identity without exposing specific data, preventing AI from misusing information for impersonation.a16z believes that blockchain is a necessary infrastructure for building an AI-native internet, capable of restoring trust and supporting the healthy development of AI systems.