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Welcome to TechCrunch Crypto, formerly known as Chain Reaction.
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Hello and welcome to the fourth edition of the new and improved TechCrunch Crypto newsletter. You’re probably already familiar with the offering, but alongside our regular news, I’ve added recurring segments and features – so if you like what you see (or not), let me know at jacquelyn@techcrunch.com.
Anyway, let’s get to the headlines below.
This week in web3
- Decentralized social network Farcaster attempts to achieve mass adoption using Web 2.0 techniques
- This may be why Bitcoin spot ETFs have yet to send cryptocurrency prices to the moon.
- SEC’s Hester Peirce still plans to push for symbolic ‘safe harbor’ plan
- a16z’s Chris Dixon thinks it’s time to focus on blockchain use cases, not speculation
- Bluesky is now open to everyone
Calculate numbers
This week, the crypto market was relatively up as the two largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, bitcoin and ether, rose 5.7 and 6% respectively for the week, according to CoinMarketCap. data. The global crypto market cap increased 5.5% over a seven-day period to $1.72 trillion.
Among the top 10 tokens by market capitalization, Solana increased the most over the week, at 7.7% at the time of writing.
Our favorite article “Crypto Twitter”
That awkward moment when your crypto friends and normal friends see “zero knowledge” as two different meanings. But in case you didn’t know… see the definition here.
Image credits: X (Opens in a new window)
The last module
This year, Chain Reaction is offering monthly series covering different crypto-related topics and themes. To start, this month we are focusing on NFTs.
For this week episode, I interviewed Devin Finzer, CEO of NFT marketplace OpenSea. This is also our first full-length video recording and is available on the TechCrunch YouTube channel; Check it out here.
He co-founded OpenSea in 2017 and the company quickly became one of the most well-known and well-funded NFT marketplaces. Two years ago, it raised $300 million in a Series C round for a post-money valuation of $13.3 billion, bringing its total capital raised to over $400 million. Its investors include Andreessen Horowitz and Paradigm, as well as celebrities like Kevin Durant and Ashton Kutcher.
Although trading volume in the NFT market has fallen from all-time highs between late 2021 and early 2022, OpenSea continues to move forward, even as other NFT markets have emerged and challenged their dominance.
Devin and I discuss the importance of Web3 games integrating NFTs, Web 2.0 companies launching their own digital collectibles, and the challenges facing the market.
We also explore:
- Big Use Cases for NFTs
- The future mission of the company
- Retain community members
- Gain market share and trading volume
But wait, there’s more…
This week we also have a bonus episode with Hester Peirce, Commissioner of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.
I hosted a fireside chat with Commissioner Peirce of Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business alongside Eddie Cullen, former 2021 New York City mayoral candidate and co-founder and CEO of Crescite Innovation Corporation.
We discussed a number of hot topics, including the SEC's timely approval of the Bitcoin ETF, policy development to keep crypto innovation alive in the United States, and the Token proposal Commissioner's Safe Harbor 2.0 and whether Peirce is considering a new one.
To subscribe to Chain reaction on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite pod platform to follow the latest episodes, and leave us a comment if you like what you hear!
Follow the money
- Superform Labs raised $6.5M to help others distribute, manage and access yield
- MediConCen raised $6.85 million to automate insurance claims using AI and blockchain technology
- Immoblocks raised $5.67 million for its blockchain-based real estate investment platform
- Filecoin-centric staking protocol GLIF raised $4.5 million in funding round led by Multicoin
- Tether led a $25 million Series A round for mobile payments app Oobit
This list was compiled with information from Messari as well as TechCrunch's own reporting.
What else do we write
Do you want to move away from the world of Web3? Here are some articles on TechCrunch that caught our attention this week.
- Why Latin American SaaS startups are different from their American counterparts
- Actually, it's good for Spotify that Joe Rogan's podcast is no longer exclusive
- Apple Vision Pro review: The infinite office
- Adam Neumann tries to buy WeWork
- Mamoon Hamid and Ilya Fushman of Kleiner Perkins: “More than 80%” of presentations now involve AI
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