A wave of developments across blockchain protocols and crypto projects this week highlights innovation in public chains, decentralized governance, institutional infrastructure, and financial services. Key announcements include LayerZero Labs unveiling a scalable public blockchain, Aave Labs proposing all product revenue be routed to its DAO treasury, Robinhood launching a Layer 2 testnet, and other notable ecosystem moves.
LayerZero Unveils “Zero” Public Blockchain With Institutional Backing
LayerZero Labs announced the launch of a new layer-1 blockchain called Zero, designed to deliver high throughput scalability for institutional use cases. The platform reportedly aims for approximately 2 million transactions per second (TPS) using zero-knowledge proof-based architecture to separate execution from verification.
The initiative has drawn strategic interest from major financial players — including Citadel Securities and ARK Invest — which have taken positions in the network’s native governance token and joined the project’s advisory efforts. The design intentions include enabling tokenized global markets and supporting financial infrastructure use cases not well served by existing chains.
Zero’s architecture is expected to support multiple “zones” optimized for different use cases, such as general EVM contract execution, payment systems and trading venues — potentially paving the way for broader institutional blockchain adoption.
Aave Labs Proposes Redirecting 100 % of Product Revenue to Aave DAO
In a significant governance proposal, Aave Labs submitted a plan — dubbed the “Aave Will Win Framework” — aimed at redirecting all revenue from Aave-branded products directly into the Aave DAO’s treasury. The scope would include fees from the core protocol, swap fees, the Aave Card and other product streams.
Under the proposal, Aave Labs would become a service provider to the DAO, and in exchange, request funding support of $25 million in stablecoins and 75,000 AAVE tokens to sustain operations and protocol growth. The move has sparked debate within the Aave community over governance structure, revenue decentralization and the balance of power between Aave Labs and the DAO.
Robinhood Goes On-Chain With Public Testnet for Its Layer 2 Blockchain
Robinhood has activated the public testnet of “Robinhood Chain”, an Ethereum Layer 2 blockchain developed with Arbitrum’s scaling technology. The testnet launch opens the platform for developers to build and test applications focused on tokenized assets, decentralized finance and real-world asset integrations.
The chain is designed to support tokenized equities, ETFs and other assets that were previously listed on Robinhood’s trading platform, with the goal of offering decentralized custody, 24/7 trading and permissionless smart contract deployment for financial infrastructure. Early integration partners — including Alchemy, Chainlink and LayerZero — have begun work on dApp compatibility and testing.
AI Agents and Cross-Chain Activity Gain Momentum
On the application side, more than 20,000 AI-driven agents have been deployed across networks such as Ethereum, BNB Chain and Base using the emerging ERC-8004 standard, signaling strong developer interest in autonomous on-chain processes.
Also drawing attention is the surge in AI-related infrastructure and tools that intersect with decentralized finance, as protocols explore ways to support automated strategies and real-time data processing on multiple chains.
WLFI Plans Foreign Exchange Platform “World Swap”
World Liberty Financial (WLFI) — a crypto project associated with the Trump family’s broader financial ecosystem — announced plans to launch World Swap, a foreign exchange platform within its USD1 stablecoin network. The service is intended to simplify cross-border transfers with much lower fees than traditional remittance channels and close the gap between crypto payments and mainstream payment providers.
Base Strategic Shift and UniswapX Enhancements
Protocol developments include a strategic pivot by Base to focus on on-chain trading experiences, phasing out features like the Creator Rewards program while prioritizing tradable assets and decentralized infrastructure engagement.
Separately, Securitize partnered with Uniswap to enable on-chain trading of BlackRock’s USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL) via UniswapX, aiming to broaden institutional access to tokenized financial products within decentralized markets.
Ecosystem Highlights: Hyperliquid and Farcaster Move
Finally, data from this week shows that Hyperliquid has briefly surpassed Coinbase in notional trading volume, while Farcaster founder Dan Romero joined Tempo — a stablecoin-oriented blockchain backed by Stripe and Paradigm — focusing on stablecoin strategy and network development.
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