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Hi there and welcome again to the third version of the brand new and improved KryptoCoinz Crypto e-newsletter. As beforehand talked about, alongside our repeatedly 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.
Pleased February, mates! We’ve made it by way of one-twelfth of the 12 months; that wasn’t so laborious was it? Solely must do it 11 extra instances 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 stories 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 workers, about 19% of its workers, CEO says
- AI and blockchains would possibly want each other to evolve, in keeping 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 Cellular 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 largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, bitcoin and ether, rose 7% and 4.4%, respectively, on the week, in keeping with CoinMarketCap information. 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” web revenue of $2.85 billion, making up 46% of the full $6.2 billion in web 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 had been about $91.6 billion and it has about $5.4 billion of extra reserves, that are “absolutely overlaying” its excellent $4.8 billion in secured loans, the report added.
In the event you’re pondering, “these are huge numbers,” you’re proper. See beneath.
Our favourite ‘Crypto Twitter’ publish
Following all of the discuss 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 extra money 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, basic accomplice at enterprise capital agency Andreessen Horowitz (a16z).
Chris has been on the agency since 2012 and based and leads a16z’s crypto group, which invests within the web3 world by way of 4 mega-funds with over $7 billion beneath administration. He’s additionally the writer 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 focus on the brand new e-book, how crypto’s notion has modified and what objective blockchains can in the end deliver to the world.
We additionally dove into:
- Massive Tech vs. crypto
- Significance of decentralization
- a16z web3 investments
- Blockchain gaming
- Embracing the long run
Subscribe to Chain Response on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favourite pod platform to maintain up with the newest episodes, and please depart us a evaluation should you like what you hear!
Observe 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 checklist was compiled with data from Messari in addition to KryptoCoinz’s personal reporting.
What else we’re writing
Wish to department out from the world of web3? Listed below are some articles on KryptoCoinz 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 Imaginative and prescient Professional 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+)