Welcome to Ztoog Crypto, previously often known as Chain Reaction.
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Hello and welcome again to the Ztoog Crypto e-newsletter. I used to be out final week, so there was no e-newsletter, however we’re again to commonly scheduled information bits and some contemporary recurring segments and options — so in the event you like what you see (or don’t), let me know at jacquelyn@techcrunch.com.
Here’s what was the largest information this week: bitcoin’s value jumped over $60,000 and Coinbase’s app crashed, Telegram rolled out a plan to pay out rewards utilizing toncoin on the TON blockchain and Nigerian crypto customers confronted difficulties with some exchanges. Let’s get into it.
This week in web3
- Ex-Meta workers’ Aptos checks Hong Kong’s crypto urge for food
- Bitcoin’s so excessive, it crashed Coinbase
- Telegram is launching advert income sharing subsequent month utilizing toncoin
- Crypto customers in Nigeria briefly lose entry to Binance, Kraken and Coinbase
- Starbucks Odyssey’s neighborhood lead sees NFTs as the easiest way to construct model loyalty
Crunching numbers
This week the crypto market was very overvalued as the 2 greatest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, bitcoin and ether, each jumped about 23.6% and 18%, respectively, on the week, in line with CoinMarketCap knowledge. The complete crypto market cap elevated 19.4% over a seven-day interval to $2.34 trillion.
The current value soar for bitcoin, coupled with the incoming bitcoin halving and spot bitcoin ETF approvals in early January boosting demand, has many crypto market gamers questioning if the grandfather of cryptocurrencies will hit a brand new all-time excessive quickly or if this rally is short-lived.
Our favourite ‘Crypto Twitter’ submit
ICYMI, final week a whole lot of crypto folks have been tweeting about emails from Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin. Satoshi stated a whole lot of attention-grabbing issues, however this submit on X by Tom Schmidt, associate at Dragonfly Capital, obtained a whole lot of consideration and even brought about some Bitcoiners to go out and purchase a pineapple and jalapeno pizza in honor of it. Which brings me to the query…would you eat that?
Image Credits: Tom Schmidt on X(opens in a brand new window)
The newest pod
Chain Reaction is doing a month-to-month collection diving into completely different matters and themes in crypto. This month we’re specializing in NFTs.
Because there was no e-newsletter final week, we’re highlighting final week’s episode, the place I interviewed Steve Kaczynski, co-author of the guide “The Everything Token,” and co-host of a web3 morning present, Coffee with Captain.
He additionally co-authored the primary Harvard Business Review article about NFTs. Outside of that, he consults with businesses and manufacturers about constructing their web3 methods, together with his function with Starbucks, the place he's a neighborhood lead for its NFT-focused loyalty program, Starbucks Odyssey.
Before entering into the web3 world, Steve labored in communications and advertising roles for greater than 15 years.
Jacquelyn and Steve mentioned what obtained him all for NFTs, how essential it's to construct understanding for the sector and why communities matter greater than flooring costs.
They additionally dove into:
- Future adoption for Bored Ape Yacht Club
- Growing Starbucks’ NFT-based loyalty program
- What businesses and manufacturers have to find out about web3
- How to get began within the NFT area
BONUS: For this week’s episode, we’re resharing a dialog I had in June 2023 with Jack Lu, CEO and co-founder of Magic Eden.
When we recorded this episode, NFT gross sales have been down round $640 million originally of the month, in comparison with immediately the place February 2024 NFT gross sales quantity hit $1 billion, for the primary time since February 2023.
Looking again on this dialog, we determined this episode was an awesome addition to the NFT collection so as to add some context for what a loopy yr it has been and how a lot issues have modified (and some issues stayed the identical) — particularly for folks constructing within the NFT area.
Magic Eden initially started as a Solana-based NFT buying and selling platform, however has expanded its help to different blockchain networks like Polygon, Ethereum and Bitcoin. In June 2022, Magic Eden raised $130 million in a Series B spherical that granted it unicorn standing.
We mentioned why the NFT market expanded its help to different blockchains, its BRC-20 token help and how the corporate plans on staying aggressive within the continually altering market.
We additionally talked about:
- NFT market volatility
- Royalty charges
- Web3 gaming growth
- Advice for NFT neighborhood
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 assessment in the event you like what you hear!
Follow the cash
- Silence Laboratories, a cryptographic safety startup, secures $4.1 million in funding
- Initia raises $7.5 million seed spherical to simplify blockchain growth
- Asymmetric Financial has a plan to unlock Bitcoin’s trillion-dollar potential with devoted DeFi fund
- Crypto pockets and trade Backpack raised $17 million in strategic Series A spherical
- Ethereum-based Etherfi raised $27 million in a spherical led by Bullish and CoinFund
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 are some articles on Ztoog that caught our consideration this week.
- Why VCs are investing in startups that assist different startups shut down
- Don’t ignore Asia tech
- Mark Zuckerberg woos Big Tech in Asia to double down on AI chips
- The Apple Car that by no means was: A timeline
- Tim Cook says Apple will ‘break new ground’ in GenAI this yr