Sam Bankman-Fried Moves to Reopen FTX Fraud Case With New Trial Bid

Hi! In today’s edition:

• ⚖️ Sam Bankman-Fried files motion seeking new trial in FTX case

• 🏗️ LayerZero launches Zero layer 1 as Citadel and ARK buy ZRO

• 🧪 Robinhood pushes tokenization with layer 2 testnet launch

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Sam Bankman-Fried Seeks New Trial in FTX Fraud Case

Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has formally requested a new trial, filing a motion in federal court in Manhattan as he continues to challenge his 2023 fraud conviction. The 35-page filing was submitted as a “pro se” motion, meaning Bankman-Fried is representing himself, and was lodged by his mother, Stanford law professor Barbara Fried.

Bankman-Fried is currently serving a 25-year prison sentence after a jury found him guilty on seven counts of fraud and conspiracy tied to the collapse of FTX and the misuse of billions in customer funds. 

In the new motion, he argues that newly discovered evidence justifies a retrial and accuses the Department of Justice of withholding information. He also renews claims that FTX was solvent and faced a liquidity crisis, not insolvency.

The filing references potential testimony from former FTX executives who did not appear at trial. Bankman-Fried previously appealed his conviction, and earlier this year President Donald Trump said he would not consider a pardon.

Under federal rules, a new trial based on newly discovered evidence can be requested within three years of conviction. It is now up to the court to decide whether his claims meet that threshold.

LayerZero Launches ‘Zero’ Layer 1 as Citadel, ARK Buy ZRO

LayerZero is launching a new Layer 1 blockchain called Zero, pitching it as infrastructure built for tokenized markets and high-throughput finance. 

In an exclusive Unchained interview with LayerZero co-founder Bryan Pellegrino, he framed the focus bluntly: “All we care about is decentralized, permissionless, censorship resistance systems, winning at scale.”

The announcement comes with notable institutional involvement. Citadel Securities and ARK Invest have made strategic investments by buying LayerZero’s ZRO token, according to the company. 

Citadel said it’s collaborating with LayerZero to share market-structure expertise and evaluate how the tech could fit into trading, clearing, and settlement workflows. ARK also became an equity shareholder in LayerZero, alongside its ZRO purchase.

LayerZero also said Google Cloud and DTCC are partnering with the project, and Intercontinental Exchange plans to examine whether Zero could support 24/7 trading. 

LayerZero claims Zero’s architecture can scale to 2 million transactions per second, far faster than existing chains.

Robinhood Pushes Deeper Into Tokenization With Layer 2 Testnet Launch

Robinhood has moved its blockchain ambitions forward, launching a public testnet for Robinhood Chain, its Ethereum-based layer 2 network built on Arbitrum. The new phase allows developers to begin experimenting with applications in a live but low-risk environment ahead of a planned mainnet rollout later this year.

The company says the network is designed to support tokenized real-world assets, including stocks and ETFs, while enabling 24/7 trading and self-custody through the Robinhood Wallet. Developers will also be able to test integrations using tokenized stock assets on the testnet.

Rather than positioning the chain purely as a scaling solution, Robinhood executives have emphasized that the goal is to modernize parts of its financial infrastructure and expand access to onchain financial services. The move builds on last year’s launch of tokenized U.S. equities for European customers, which provided synthetic exposure to thousands of stocks.

Robinhood said the testnet phase will help identify technical issues and improve stability before a broader public launch, as the brokerage continues integrating blockchain technology more directly into its core trading business.

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• 🏛️ A White House meeting on the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act ended without compromise after major U.S. banking groups pushed for a total ban on stablecoin yield rewards, resisting pressure from crypto executives — including Coinbase and Ripple representatives — who view yield as central to their business models.

• 📱 The Base App, Coinbase’s non-custodial wallet rebrand tied to its Ethereum layer 2 network, removed its Farcaster-powered social feed and ended its $450,000 creator rewards program to concentrate solely on onchain asset trading and swaps.

• 🔥 Prediction platform Polymarket partnered with data analytics firm Kaito AI to launch “attention markets” that let users bet on brand popularity and public sentiment based on aggregated social media data, as the platform’s trading volume climbed to $7.7 billion in January during five straight months of growth.

• 🇪🇺🚫 The European Union is considering banning all crypto transactions with Russia to block sanction evasion and prevent new exchanges from replacing blacklisted platform Garantex, though the proposal still requires unanimous approval from member states.

• 💼 Crypto exchange Kraken removed its chief financial officer just months before a planned U.S. IPO, shifting her into an advisory role while promoting internal leadership as it restructures finance into a more product-driven function.

• 🚔 Former SafeMoon CEO Braden John Karony received an eight-year prison sentence and was ordered to repay $7.5 million after being convicted of fraud, money laundering, and manipulating his project’s token to siphon investor funds for personal luxury spending.

• 📊 Hyperliquid’s permissionless perpetual futures platform recorded a $5.2 billion daily trading peak as extreme gold and silver price swings drew traders beyond crypto, briefly pushing open interest above $1 billion before metals sharply corrected.

• 💳 Payments giant Stripe integrated Coinbase’s open-source x402 protocol to let businesses charge AI agents directly in USDC on Base, expanding machine-to-machine payments as the company reportedly explores a $140 billion valuation and CoinGecko simultaneously enabled $0.01 pay-per-call crypto data access using the same system.

• 🏦 Goldman Sachs disclosed over $1 billion in Bitcoin ETF holdings despite a 47% Bitcoin price drop since October, and also revealed positions of just over $1 billion in Ethereum ETFs, $152 million in XRP ETFs, and $108 million in Solana ETFs, underscoring its expanding exposure to crypto through exchange-traded funds rather than direct token ownership.

• 📉 Robinhood reported $1.28 billion in fourth-quarter revenue, missing analyst expectations as crypto trading income fell to $221 million amid declining bitcoin prices, sending its shares down in after-hours trading despite year-over-year growth.

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