Welcome to TechCrunch Crypto, formerly known as Chain Reaction.
Get a roundup of TechCrunch's biggest and most important crypto articles delivered to your inbox every Thursday at 12pm PT. Subscribe here.
Hello. Welcome to the TechCrunch Crypto Newsletter.
First off, here's a shameless plug. Last week on Yahoo Finance, I participated in a roundtable discussion with Grayscale CEO Michael Sonnenshein, CoinDesk Indices Managing Director Andy Baehr, and crypto-focused Matt Kohrs, host of The Matt Kohrs Show.
We talked about Spot Bitcoin ETFs, digital asset regulation, and what the next era of cryptocurrencies will be. Look here.
It's been an eventful week in the world of cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin prices hit new highs on Tuesday, Spain's data protection authority temporarily banned WorldCoin, and Binance raised eyebrows by creating a cryptocurrency perfume to commemorate International Women's Day.
Full of curiosity? Please see below for details.
this week's web3
Bitcoin hits new all-time high above $69,000 for the first time since November 2021 Binance makes crypto fragrance in mysterious attempt to attract women WorldCoin temporarily banned in Spain over privacy concerns OpenSea and Coachella partnership are signs that NFTs can become more than just name recognition Binance to suspend Naira service amid ongoing regulatory investigation in Nigeria
process numbers
As mentioned earlier, Bitcoin hit an all-time high in the cryptocurrency industry this week. However, the grandfather of cryptocurrencies has since fallen about 3%, from about $69,000 to $67,000 at the time of publication. Still, Bitcoin is up 6.5% for the week and 56% for the month. Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency, rose 9.7% this week to $3,800, according to data from CoinMarketCap. The market capitalization of cryptocurrencies increased by 7.7% during the same period to $2.53 trillion.
Small-cap tokens have also gained significant momentum over the past week. The Solana-based dog-themed meme coin has once again gained traction after gaining hype in December. Bonk and Dogwifat rose 15% and 115%, respectively, during the week. Separately, Dogecoin and Shiba Inu rose 19% and 125%, respectively, during the same period.
This begs the question…who let the dog out?
Our Favorite “Crypto Twitter” Posts
Sorry for the bad language, but if you didn't know how big some meme coins could get… you probably do now. At the time this X post was written, Dogwifat (WIF)'s market cap was three times that of Spirit Airlines.
In terms of actual value, although it has declined since then, Dogwifat (WIF) has a market capitalization of $1.8 billion, which is still 213% higher than Spirit Airlines.
Image credits: IcedKnife on X (Opens in new window)
latest pod
Chain Reaction runs a monthly series that delves into various topics and themes in cryptocurrencies. This month we will focus on the integration of blockchain and AI.
In this week's episode, we interview Dee Goens, co-founder of Zora.
Zora is a platform and protocol that helps developers and creators bring their ideas to the chain and Ethereum through an open, shared environment. According to its website, the platform has minted more than 1 million NFTs, with more than $300 million in secondary sales and approximately 1 million unique collectors.
Mr. Goens previously spent two and a half years at Coinbase, where he was responsible for risk management, operations, and brand partnerships. Prior to that, she worked at KPMG analyzing the risks of emerging technologies with a focus on blockchain.
We just finished our February NFT series, and given Zora's focus on bringing AI on-chain, Goens is the perfect guest to move from that topic to AI and blockchain. .
Chain Reaction is the first to create this podcast on the Zora platform. You can check it here.
Jacqueline and Goens discuss how Zola envisions blockchain and AI working together, the role blockchain and AI can play for NFT creators, and what more the platform's developers and community members want to see. Let's discuss.
Subscribe to Chain Reaction on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite pod platform for the latest episodes. If you like what you hear, please leave us a review.
follow the money
Zama's Homomorphic Encryption Technology Scores $73 Million at Approximately $400 Million Valuation Taiko Raises $37 Million to Build Web3 Infrastructure for a Censor-Free Internet Karma3 Labs Reviews and Recommendations Utila raises $4.5M to boost trust in Web3 Utila raises $11.5M in seed funding round for enterprise-grade cryptocurrency operations platform Security infrastructure startup Firewall raises 370 to bring smart contracts mainstream Raised $1 million
This list was compiled using information from Messari and TechCrunch's own reporting.
what else are you writing?
Ready to step outside the world of Web3? Here are some TechCrunch articles that caught our attention this week.
Elon Musk sues OpenAI and Sam Altman for 'betrayal' of non-profit AI mission and… former Twitter CEO Elon Musk sues Roku to block TVs and streaming devices until users agree to new terms Disabled Database breach exposes 2FA codes for world's tech giants When will your cap table hit and make your startup uninvestable Target launches its own version of Amazon Prime, starting at $49/year