Crypto
Cryptocurrency coverage and news on major investments, tokens like Bitcoin and Ethereum, as well as blockchain and web3 startups that aim to build a more decentralized, community-owned future.
Sam Bankman-Fried gets 25 years in prison for fraud and money laundering at FTX, ordered to pay $11B in forfeiture
Before sentencing, Bankman-Fried acknowledged in court that he made a “series of bad decisions,” but argued they were not “selfish” ones.
SBF sentenced, Worldcoin hit with another ban order and big web3 pre-seed rounds are back
Welcome to TechCrunch Crypto, formerly known as Chain Reaction. This is the last edition of this newsletter. I want to personally thank each of you…
0G Labs launches with whopping $35M pre-seed to build a modular AI blockchain
As the crypto space heats back up, so has funding for new startups. 0G Labs, a web3 infrastructure firm,” has raised $35 million in a pre-seed round, the team exclusively…
Web3 investment firm Borderless Capital acquires CTF Capital to bring AI and quant expertise
Borderless Capital, an investment firm that specializes in web3, announced Tuesday that it is acquiring CTF Capital, a quantitative trading and asset management firm headquartered in Miami, with technology and…
Worldcoin hit with another ban order in Europe citing risks to kids
Controversial crypto biometrics venture Worldcoin has been almost entirely booted out of Europe after being hit with another temporary ban — this time in Portugal. The order from the country’s…
A new web3 network is being built right now that wants to end Big Tech’s control of your data
Many of the people building web3 feel like the traditional web ecosystem has taken advantage of users and their data. While it benefits a number…
Solana memecoin hype continues, Backpack’s beta phase was a success and Starbucks axes its NFT program
Welcome to TechCrunch Crypto. This week, Starbucks killed its Odyssey NFT program, Solana continued to see memecoin momentum and India faces more challenges with the…
Rails launches with $6.2M round for its decentralized FTX alternative
Rails, a decentralized crypto exchange, has raised $6.2 million in attempts to fill the void FTX left behind after crashing in 2022, the startup’s co-founder and CEO Satraj Bambra exclusively…
Crypto exchange OKX ceases services in India; KuCoin becomes FIU compliant
Updated at 12.16am IST, March 23: KuCoin said it has become the first global crypto exchange to comply with India’s FIU. KuCoin said it will support local banks in India…
TechCrunch Minute: Solana is ushering in a new round of memecoin mania
Blockchain is back and Bitcoin is hot, the Ethereum blockchain is seeing price gains, and lots of folks are stoked about ETFs. But lately, one less-mainstream blockchain is perhaps making…
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How crypto exchange Backpack climbed its way to success after its major investor FTX died
Backpack’s founders, who are building a crypto exchange and wallet, have experienced strong growth since launching in 2022. But the road wasn’t easy. FTX co-led Backpack’s $20 million strategic investment round in September 2022. Less than two months later, in November 2022, FTX collapsed. “We lost 80% of the operating…
Starbucks launched Starbucks Odyssey in 2022 as its initial foray into the web3 world.
Blockchain tech could be the answer to uncovering deepfakes and validating content
Two months ago, media giant Fox Corp. partnered with Polygon Labs, the team behind the Ethereum-focused layer-2 blockchain, to tackle deepfake distrust. Fox and Polygon…
Bitcoin hits new high, Solana price jumps as memecoins mania rises and Worldcoin faces heat in Spain
Welcome to TechCrunch Crypto, formerly known as Chain Reaction — it was an eventful week in the crypto world.
Former web3 gaming founders raise $2.5M for their NFT marketplace to retain users even when there ‘isn’t money to be made’
Even though NFT sales volume is still down 88% from 2022 all-time highs (and down 38% year-to-date), Pallet Exchange is building a new type of NFT marketplace focused on user…
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Solana’s price rises to $160, highest level since January 2022 as memecoin mania rises
The token behind Solana, a layer-1 blockchain that’s competitive with the Ethereum blockchain, has been through the wringer after it plummeted from a high of about $260 in late 2021 to a low around $8 in early 2023. But like every good movie with a character redemption arc, Solana has…
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Blockchain startup Sei Labs creates an interesting solution to make Ethereum faster
Sei Labs, a startup co-founded by a former Robinhood engineer and a former VC from Coatue, has launched a new open sourced project that offers a novel and exciting approach to make Ethereum faster and less expensive for developers. On Wednesday, Sei launched The Parallel Stack, a public good project…
Nigeria demands Binance disclose top users, executives remain detained
Nigeria is actively seeking information from Binance regarding its top 100 users in the country and all transaction history spanning the past six months, according to a Financial Times report.…
Worldcoin fails to get injunction against Spain’s privacy suspension
Controversial eyeball scanning startup Worldcoin has failed to get an injunction against a temporary suspension ordered Wednesday by Spain’s data protection authority, the AEPD. The authority used emergency powers contained…
Bitcoin hits new all-time high of $72,700 but one index warns we’re in ‘extreme greed’ territory
The crypto scene continues to remain so hot that bitcoin is hitting one new high after another. It surpassed $72,700 on Monday. This was initially driven by the approval of…
Worldcoin says it’s paused services in Spain, after filing legal challenge to temporary ban
A German subsidiary involved in Sam Altman’s controversial crypto blockchain digital identity business, Worldcoin, was reported Friday to have filed a legal challenge against a suspension order from Spain’s data…
NFT platform Zora is offering a novel way for AI model makers to earn money
Zora, an NFT-based social network platform, is continuing its expansion beyond the crypto-sphere into the hot artificial intelligence market, Dee Goens, the startups’ co-founder, said…
Bitcoin hits highs, Binance launches a crypto perfume and Coachella partners with OpenSea
Welcome back to TechCrunch Crypto. It was an eventful week: bitcoin’s price hit a new high, Spain’s data protection authority banned Worldcoin and Binance raised…
Zama’s homomorphic encryption tech lands it $73M on a valuation of nearly $400M
Homomorphic encryption, a complex technique that uses cryptographic algorithms to keep data secure as it travels around networks and to third parties, continues to elude mass-market scalability and thus adoption…
Spain’s data protection authority has ordered Worldcoin to temporarily stop collecting and processing personal data from the market. It must also stop processing any data it previously collected there. The…
What does crypto smell like? Ozone, salt and moss, according to Binance’s new fragrance, “CRYPTO.” Binance is the largest crypto exchange in the world by volume, but it is facing…
OpenSea’s partnership with Coachella is a sign that NFTs can be more than profile pictures
The NFT sector has not yet returned to the glory of its 2022 heyday, but that hasn’t stopped the evolution of the tech. For instance, OpenSea has partnered with the…
Bitcoin hits new all-time high passing $69,000 for first time since November 2021
It’s been a busy year so far for bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, and it’s only March. The digital currency hit a new all-time high for the first…
Binance to halt naira services amid ongoing regulatory probe in Nigeria
Binance will discontinue its naira (NGN) services in response to heightened regulatory scrutiny in Nigeria, it said in a blog post today. The cryptocurrency exchange will begin delisting any existing…
Taiko raises $37M to build web3 infrastructure for a censorship-free internet
Amid the speculation and volatility in the casino-like crypto land, there remains a subset of individuals who espouse blockchain’s potential to decentralize various aspects of human activities for the greater…
