In partnership with
DeFi, believe it or not. Both companies, along with ARK Invest, Google, and others, are betting big on DeFi. They are starting to see what we’ve seen for years. If you’ve been keeping up with our news section, you know we have a bit of a saying. Call it a mantra if you like.
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Today’s DeFi will become tomorrow’s TradFi.
While money is flowing into the decentralized side, the centralized side is facing the same economic challenges as any centralized company. Let’s get after it.
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From the Dypto Crypto Newsroom
From Zero to Hero – LayerZero Working on Its Own Blockchain
TLDR
LayerZero is known as one of the best, most secure protocols for enabling crypto users to connect seamlessly across blockchains.
The protocol is now creating its own chain, which can allegedly scale to 2 million TPS.
Major backers include ARK Invest, Citadel Securities, and Google.
Imagine a version of the internet where everything is instant, essentially free, and never slows down, no matter how many people are using it. That is the promise of “Zero”, a new blockchain project announced by LayerZero Labs.
The new chain is a massive infrastructure overhaul backed by some of the biggest names in finance and tech, including the folks behind the New York Stock Exchange and Google Cloud.
LayerZero’s solution and why it matters.
On traditional blockchains (yes, we just used traditional and blockchain in the same sentence), every computer (node) on the network must verify and store the same data. It’s like if every single employee at a grocery store had to scan every single item in your cart before you could leave. It’s secure, but it’s slow.
Zero uses something called a heterogeneous architecture. In simple terms, it decouples the work. It uses zero-knowledge proofs (fancy math that proves something is true without revealing the data itself) to speed things up. This eliminates the need for every node to perform the same work.
According to the developers, this makes Zero roughly 100,000 times faster than Ethereum and 500 times faster than Solana.
The Great Crypto Slim-Down – Block, Gemini, Cutting Jobs
TLDR
The crypto market has been sliding for months.
Recently, Gemini and Block have announced or are expected to announce layoffs and service cuts.
While this could appear to be a crypto problem, it’s an economic problem. It just so happens that crypto is the new kid on the block in the US economy.
If you’ve logged into LinkedIn lately, you might have noticed the vibe is a little…tense. It feels like the job market is going through some serious turbulence. And if you’re watching the crypto headlines, you might be wondering if the sky is falling.
Two major industry heavyweights — Gemini and Block — have recently announced significant staffing cuts. It’s enough to make any new investor sweat and wonder if we’re heading for another crypto winter.
But before you panic-sell your portfolio, let’s look at the facts. Yes, the market is down. Yes, these companies are downsizing for one reason or another. But they aren’t the only ones. Jobs are increasingly hard to find across the US. We reviewed the latest reports to determine exactly what’s happening, why companies are slimming down, and why this isn’t just a crypto problem.
Crypto isn’t struggling. The economy is struggling.
The entire US economy is seeing a massive wave of job cuts. According to a report by Challenger, Gray & Christmas, US employers announced a staggering 108,435 layoffs in January alone. That is the highest total for any January since 2009 — back when the global economy was clawing its way out of the Great Recession.
To put that in perspective:
Layoffs are up 118% compared to the same time last year.
UPS announced plans to cut 30,000 workers.
Amazon is shedding thousands of corporate jobs.
Hiring intentions are at their lowest point since 2009.
While seeing crypto companies cut staff is nerve-wracking, they are following a trend that’s hitting logistics, retail, and traditional tech just as hard. Companies across the board are signaling they are not optimistic about the immediate economic outlook for 2026.
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Question of the Week
A TikTok comment - “What’s your take on the state of prediction markets?”
Meme of the Week
By the Numbers - The Dypto Crypto Portfolio
Here’s a screenshot of our portfolio, which we started in late December 2024.
Original portfolio valuation - 3 ETH ($9,670)
2025 portfolio valuation - $8,049 YTD - (-)15%
2026 start - $8,813
Current valuation - $5,639 YTD - YTD - (-) 36%
The market continues its slide. And while we hesitate to use the term “bottom”, we really aren’t that far from the bottom of the last bear market. The crypto winter. The most dire of the dire. A place where fortunes were lost and the only winners were the leveraged shorts and the GMX holders.
We were neither, by the way.
So, while the market is still brutally depressing, we don’t think all is lost. We think things will likely crab for a bit and then slowly start to go up from here. We could also be completely and totally wrong.
shrug It’s crypto. Who knows.
Deep Dive - BlackRock and Uniswap Just Became Best Friends
BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, is partnering with Uniswap, the leading decentralized exchange. Why does this matter to you? Because it clearly states how institutional capital views the blockchain right now. TradFi and DeFi are finally becoming Fi.
BlackRock has a fund called BUIDL (BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund). It’s a “tokenized” fund, meaning shares of this fund exist as digital tokens on the blockchain. Up until now, trading these institutional tokens has been somewhat cumbersome. But thanks to a new partnership with Securitize, BlackRock is making BUIDL shares available for trading on UniswapX.
The TLDR is that BlackRock is using the same tech that crypto degens use to swap ETH and DOGE. As part of this arrangement, BlackRock is investing in the ecosystem by purchasing an undisclosed amount of UNI (Uniswap’s native governance token).
It’s like Shaq buying up Google stock 25 years ago (Which actually happened). It suggests they see long-term value in the governance and future of the Uniswap protocol itself.
As you can probably imagine, some die-hard crypto purists are already a little salty about this. They think DeFi should be completely separate from big banks and government regulations. And sure, there’s an argument there.
But for mass adoption? For your grandma to feel safe using digital assets? We need bridges.
The strongest case for this partnership is that it bridges the trust and safety of traditional finance with the speed and openness of DeFi. It’s paving the roads so the rest of the world can drive on them.
Question of the Week Answer
They are Icarus. And they’re getting real close to the sun.
From state lawsuits, including Nevada, to the CFTC and the SEC keeping a close watch on these platforms, they’re walking a tightrope.
These once fully decentralized platforms (except for Kalshi, which has always been centralized and has nothing to do with crypto or blockchain) are now having to play a game they aren’t used to.
One wrong step and they will meet their doom.
We hope all of this drama is resolved and they can continue to be a success story in crypto, DeFi, and blockchain. But…we also wouldn’t want to be on their legal teams right now, either.
