Welcome to Ztoog Crypto, previously generally known as Chain Reaction.
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Hello, and welcome again to the second version of the new and improved Ztoog Crypto e-newsletter. As beforehand talked about, alongside our usually scheduled information bits, I’ll be including some contemporary recurring segments and options — so should you do (or don’t) like what you see, let me know at jacquelyn@techcrunch.com.
Thankfully, the crypto world wasn’t too chaotic this week — however let’s get into the greatest headlines.
This week in web3
- Worldcoin to launch new Orb to make its eyeball scanning gadget look ‘more friendly’
- 1RoundTable bets on ‘long-term, less volatile’ technique with new growth-stage crypto fund
- Can crypto’s current wins resurrect enterprise curiosity?
- Terraform Labs files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy
- After 12 years, Ripple’s president sees its fee and enterprise companies evolving additional
Crunching numbers
This week the crypto market noticed purple as the two greatest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, Bitcoin and Ether, dropped 7% and 13.5%, respectively, on the week, in accordance to CoinMarketCap knowledge. Even with that mentioned, the world crypto market cap was comparatively unchanged on the week round $1.55 trillion.
In the NFT world, gross sales quantity declined 16.4% over a seven-day interval to $248 million, however the variety of consumers — and sellers — elevated round 50%, in accordance to CryptoSlam knowledge. The prime three collections by gross sales quantity had been CryptoPunks at $19.33 million, CryptoUndeads at $12.36 million and Ordinals at $8 million, throughout the similar interval.
Our favourite ‘Crypto Twitter’ submit
Binance went to court docket on Monday to dismiss the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission June lawsuit towards them — and the decide wasn’t entertaining a few of their arguments, as Fortune reporter Leo Schwartz, highlighted under.
In as we speak’s listening to for Binance’s movement to dismiss the SEC’s lawsuit, Binance’s attorneys are echoing Coinbase from final week that Howey wants a contract.
This time, the decide is pushing again. “You’re being a little too cute,” she says, arguing its language is broader.
— Leo Schwartz (@leomschwartz) January 22, 2024
The newest pod
For this week’s episode, I interviewed Anatoly Yakovenko, co-founder of Solana Labs, the know-how firm that goals to assist develop the ecosystem for the layer-1 blockchain Solana.
The dialog targeted on Solana Mobile and its flagship web3 Android smartphone, Saga, which offered out in mid-December, in addition to its new cellphone, Chapter 2 — which was introduced final week.
Within its first 30 hours, Chapter 2 had over 30,000 preorders — signaling a lot of demand for the next-generation Android-based cellphone. At the time of recording, Anatoly shared there have been over 40,000 preorders.
Anatoly and Jacquelyn mentioned the lengthy street to promoting out Saga, how essential rewards and builders are and the nitty-gritty particulars for Chapter 2. They additionally dove into the firm’s technique and long-term mission of going up towards Google and Apple app shops and how lengthy it might take for Solana Mobile to break even.
If you want a refresher on Solana Mobile’s Saga cellphone, we’ve obtained you coated:
Subscribe to Chain Reaction on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favourite pod platform to sustain with the newest episodes, and please depart us a assessment should you like what you hear!
Follow the cash
- Polymer Labs raises $23M to construct out the Ethereum blockchain’s interoperability
- Avalanche-based Masa raised $5.4M to construct a “personal data network”
- Scene Infrastructure Company raised $3M from a16z to increase FWB token’s utility
- Web3 gaming startup Arcade2Earn raised $4.8M in non-public token spherical
- Ingonyama raised $21 million to enhance zero-knowledge know-how
This listing was compiled with data from Messari in addition to Ztoog’s personal reporting.
What else we’re writing
Want to department out from the world of web3? Here’s some articles on Ztoog that caught our consideration this week.
- VCs usually are not carried out betting on fintech
- As the Mac turns 40, a tip of the hat to Mr. Macintosh
- Tesla says EV gross sales progress could also be ‘notably lower’ in 2024
- Here’s what to know to elevate a Series A proper now
- iPhone customers ought to flip on Apple’s stolen gadget safety function