Welcome to Ztoog Crypto, previously referred to as Chain Reaction.
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Hello and welcome again to the third version of the brand new and improved Ztoog Crypto publication. As beforehand talked about, alongside our usually scheduled information bits, I’ll be including some contemporary recurring segments and options — so should you like what you see (or don’t), let me know at jacquelyn@techcrunch.com.
Happy February, mates! We’ve made it by means of one-twelfth of the yr; that wasn’t so laborious was it? Only should do it 11 extra instances to make it to 2025.
As January got here to an finish, hackers obtained busy and stole lots of XRP tokens, Polygon did layoffs, new stories present demand for AI and blockchain to work collectively, Ethereum developer curiosity hit new highs final yr and Tether reported file revenue from the fourth quarter of 2023. More particulars beneath.
This week in web3
- Polygon Labs lays off 60 workers, about 19% of its employees, CEO says
- AI and blockchains would possibly want each other to evolve, in line with new report (TC+)
- Hackers steal $112 million of XRP Ripple cryptocurrency
- Ethereum developer curiosity hit new all-time highs in 2023 regardless of a bear market (TC+)
- Solana Mobile nonetheless has a protracted solution to go till 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 knowledge. The world crypto market cap elevated 5.2% over a seven-day interval to $1.62 trillion.
Separately, Tether reported that in the fourth quarter of 2023 it introduced in a “record-breaking” net revenue of $2.85 billion, making up 46% of the overall $6.2 billion in net profits final yr. Tether is the world’s largest stablecoin by market capitalization and quantity and third largest cryptocurrency behind bitcoin and ethereum. Its whole belongings (which again its stablecoins) are at $97 billion, as of December 31, 2023. Its liabilities had been about $91.6 billion and it has about $5.4 billion of extra reserves, that are “fully covering” its excellent $4.8 billion in secured loans, the report added.
If you’re considering, “these are big numbers,” you’re proper. See beneath.
Our favourite ‘Crypto Twitter’ put up
Following all of the speak about Tether…
This post on X by Bitwise Asset Management’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 newest pod
For this week’s episode, I interviewed Chris Dixon, basic accomplice at enterprise capital agency Andreessen Horowitz (a16z).
Chris has been on the agency since 2012 and based and leads a16z’s crypto staff, which invests in the web3 world by means of 4 mega-funds with over $7 billion below administration. He’s additionally the creator of the lately launched ebook “Read Write Own: Building the Next Era of the Internet.”
Prior to a16z, Chris co-founded two startups, SiteAdvisor and Hunch, acquired by McAfee in 2006 and eBay in 2011, respectively. He additionally attended Columbia University for his bachelor of arts diploma and masters in philosophy and has an MBA from Harvard University.
In this episode, we focus on the brand new ebook, how crypto’s notion has modified and what goal blockchains can finally convey to the world.
We additionally dove into:
- Big Tech vs. crypto
- Importance of decentralization
- a16z web3 investments
- Blockchain gaming
- Embracing the longer term
Subscribe to Chain Reaction on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favourite pod platform to maintain up with the newest episodes, and please go away us a evaluation should you like what you hear!
Follow the cash
- Squid raised $4 million in a strategic spherical to assist help cross-chain interoperability
- Velar raised $3.5 million to construct a perpetual decentralized trade on Bitcoin
- Web3 gaming startup Yooldo raised $1.5 million, elevating its valuation to $13 million
- Options-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 checklist was compiled with info from Messari in addition to Ztoog’s personal reporting.
What else we’re writing
Want to department out from the world of web3? Here are some articles on Ztoog that caught our consideration this week.
- Why there’s no clear profitable pricing technique in B2B SaaS (TC+)
- Three San Francisco supervisors obtain threats following YC President Garry Tan’s tweet
- Apple Vision Pro to launch with over 600 apps and video games optimized for the brand new headset
- Senate listening to with 5 social media CEOs was a missed alternative
- Tech layoffs scale to three-quarter excessive (TC+)