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Welcome to TechCrunch Crypto, previously often known as Chain Response.
To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s greatest and most vital crypto tales delivered to your inbox each Thursday at 12 p.m. PT, subscribe here.
Good day and welcome again to the third version of the brand new and improved TechCrunch Crypto e-newsletter. As beforehand talked about, alongside our usually scheduled information bits, I’ll be including some recent recurring segments and options — so when you like what you see (or don’t), let me know at jacquelyn@techcrunch.com.
Completely happy February, mates! We’ve made it by one-twelfth of the 12 months; that wasn’t so laborious was it? Solely need to do it 11 extra occasions to make it to 2025.
As January got here to an finish, hackers obtained busy and stole loads of XRP tokens, Polygon did layoffs, new experiences present demand for AI and blockchain to work collectively, Ethereum developer curiosity hit new highs final 12 months and Tether reported file revenue from the fourth quarter of 2023. Extra particulars beneath.
This week in web3
- Polygon Labs lays off 60 employees, about 19% of its staff, CEO says
- AI and blockchains might need one another to evolve, according to new report (TC+)
- Hackers steal $112 million of XRP Ripple cryptocurrency
- Ethereum developer interest hit new all-time highs in 2023 despite a bear market (TC+)
- Solana Mobile still has a long way to go until it hits breakeven (TC+)
Crunching numbers
This week the crypto market was fairly bullish as the 2 greatest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, bitcoin and ether, rose 7% and 4.4%, respectively, on the week, in line with CoinMarketCap data. The worldwide crypto market cap elevated 5.2% over a seven-day interval to $1.62 trillion.
Individually, Tether reported that within the fourth quarter of 2023 it introduced in a “record-breaking” internet revenue of $2.85 billion, making up 46% of the full $6.2 billion in internet income final 12 months. Tether is the world’s largest stablecoin by market capitalization and quantity and third largest cryptocurrency behind bitcoin and ethereum. Its complete belongings (which again its stablecoins) are at $97 billion, as of December 31, 2023. Its liabilities have been about $91.6 billion and it has about $5.4 billion of extra reserves, that are “totally protecting” its excellent $4.8 billion in secured loans, the report added.
If you happen to’re pondering, “these are huge numbers,” you’re proper. See beneath.
Our favourite ‘Crypto Twitter’ submit
Following all of the speak about Tether…
This post on X by Bitwise Asset Administration’s CIO Matt Hougan speaks for itself. Sorry Goldman Sachs, higher luck subsequent quarter:
Tether made more cash final quarter than Goldman Sachs. Tether: $2.85 billion Goldman: $2.01 billion
The most recent pod
For this week’s episode, I interviewed Chris Dixon, normal accomplice at enterprise capital agency Andreessen Horowitz (a16z).
Chris has been on the agency since 2012 and based and leads a16z’s crypto crew, which invests within the web3 world by 4 mega-funds with over $7 billion underneath administration. He’s additionally the creator of the lately launched e book “Learn Write Personal: Constructing the Subsequent Period of the Web.”
Previous to a16z, Chris co-founded two startups, SiteAdvisor and Hunch, acquired by McAfee in 2006 and eBay in 2011, respectively. He additionally attended Columbia College for his bachelor of arts diploma and masters in philosophy and has an MBA from Harvard College.
On this episode, we talk about the brand new e book, how crypto’s notion has modified and what function blockchains can finally carry to the world.
We additionally dove into:
- Huge Tech vs. crypto
- Significance of decentralization
- a16z web3 investments
- Blockchain gaming
- Embracing the longer term
Subscribe to Chain Response on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favourite pod platform to maintain up with the newest episodes, and please go away us a evaluation when you like what you hear!
Comply with the cash
- Squid raised $4 million in a strategic spherical to assist assist cross-chain interoperability
- Velar raised $3.5 million to construct a perpetual decentralized change on Bitcoin
- Web3 gaming startup Yooldo raised $1.5 million, elevating its valuation to $13 million
- Choices-focused protocol Ithaca Finance raised $2.5 million in pre-seed funding
- Portal raised $34 million in a seed spherical to develop its decentralized bitcoin ecosystem
This listing was compiled with data from Messari in addition to TechCrunch’s personal reporting.
What else we’re writing
Need to department out from the world of web3? Listed below are some articles on TechCrunch that caught our consideration this week.
- Why there’s no clear winning pricing strategy in B2B SaaS (TC+)
- Three San Francisco supervisors receive threats following YC President Garry Tan’s tweet
- Apple Vision Pro to launch with over 600 apps and games optimized for the new headset
- Senate hearing with five social media CEOs was a missed opportunity
- Tech layoffs scale to three-quarter high (TC+)
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