Three Cardano ecosystem announcements landed onstage at Consensus Hong Kong yesterday, spanning cross-chain rails, a new stablecoin rollout timeline, and a privacy-focused network’s march to mainnet.
#1 Cardano Taps LayerZero
Intersect said via X its Critical Cardano Integrations workstream has approved bringing LayerZero into the Cardano ecosystem, positioning the move as the network’s largest interoperability expansion to date. In its post, Intersect framed the integration as a step-change in access to cross-chain assets and infrastructure:
“LayerZero is one of the most widely adopted omnichain messaging protocols in Web3, connecting 150+ blockchains and enabling access to 400+ tokens and $80B+ in omnichain assets. This integration unlocks the largest cross-chain connectivity expansion in Cardano’s history, opening pathways to stablecoin liquidity, Bitcoin-backed assets, tokenized real-world assets, and shared DeFi infrastructure across the broader crypto ecosystem.”
A companion write-up describes the effort in similar terms, saying the protocol “connects over 160 blockchains” and “has facilitated over $200 billion in cross-chain volume,” with Cardano gaining technical access to “over 400 tokens” and “$80 billion in omnichain assets” once the LayerZero endpoint is deployed.
The post argues that LayerZero’s messaging-layer approach is chain-agnostic “regardless of the underlying execution model,” explicitly flagging Cardano’s extended UTXO design as a historical friction point for tooling built around account-based chains.
Intersect said delivery work now moves into deployment, with “further milestones and timelines to be shared as progress continues.”
#2 USDCx Gets A Launch Date
Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson used the event to put a calendar marker on USDCx, saying the product now has a target launch window at the end of February. “We’ve announced not long ago that we will have USDCx. Now we have a launch date for USDCx, end of February. We’ve done some amazing engineering to have a beautiful UX. You can go straight from any wallet to Coinbase, or Binance, and back, and there’s instant convertibility to USDC,” Hoskinson said.
He also claimed feature advantages versus standard USDC in circulation, saying USDCx has “privacy, and it’s also immutable and irreversible, so it’s actually better [than USDC].”
#3 Midnight Targets Mainnet Before End Of March
Midnight, the privacy-oriented network tied to the broader Cardano ecosystem, said its mainnet is now imminent. “On the ConsensusHK stage, we shared that Midnight mainnet will officially go live before the end of March,” the team posted via X, calling it “a major milestone and the beginning of a live, production network designed to support early applications built around selective disclosure and real-world privacy.”
Midnight added that mainnet is “foundational,” describing it as the stable base for teams to “launch, test, and iterate,” while setting expectations for “rapid protocol and tooling expansion ahead.”
At press time, Cardano traded at $0.261.
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