Friend.tech hype grows, Tornado Cash founders go for a spin and FBI’s monitoring North Korean hackers
Welcome back to Chain Reaction.
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If you haven’t heard about friend.tech this week, you’re probably living under a rock. But that’s ok, we dove deep into the hype and looked at what skeptics are worried about for the new application.
There was also a lot of talk around Tornado Cash as the two founders behind the crypto mixer were charged on Wednesday by U.S. federal agencies. Details on that and more below.
This week in web3
Two founders behind crypto mixer Tornado Cash charged by U.S. federal courts
FBI says North Korean hackers preparing to cash out after high-profile crypto hacks
Friend.tech hype is skyrocketing, but will it actually reach the stars?
Solana Pay integrates plug-in with Shopify for USDC payments
Checkout.com cuts ties with Binance, which is mulling legal action in response
The latest pod
For this week’s episode, Jacquelyn interviewed Erik Svenson, co-founder, president and chief financial officer at Blockstream, a bitcoin and blockchain-focused infrastructure firm.
The company was founded in 2014 and has its own sidechain technology, Liquid Network, as well as bitcoin mining operations and hardware wallets for Bitcoin and other assets. It most recently raised $125 million in January and has raised more than $400 million to date.
Erik previously worked on Wall Street as a VP for AIG investments and was a co-founder and consultant of other startups. The last startup he co-founded before Blockstream was Dan’s Plan, a health tech company.
We discussed how the current macroenvironment is impacting Bitcoin-focused businesses and where Erik sees the most opportunities for startups today.
We also talked about:
Blockstream’s mining operations
Surviving a bear market
Transitioning from TradFi to crypto
Advice for startups
Subscribe to Chain Reaction on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite pod platform to keep up with the latest episodes, and please leave us a review if you like what you hear!
Follow the money
Crypto lender Maple Finance raises $5 million to enter Asia amid regulatory clarity
Vessel Capital emerges from stealth with $55 million fund focused on web3 infrastructure and apps
Berlin-based Anytype raises $13.4 million for its open sourced tool
Nodal Power raises $13 million to use landfill to power bitcoin mining centers
Decentralized credit protocol PADO Labs raises $3 million in a seed round
This list was compiled with information from Messari as well as TechCrunch’s own reporting.
What else we’re writing
Want to branch out from the world of web3? Here are some articles on TechCrunch that caught our attention this week.
Nvidia’s Q2 earnings prove it’s the big winner in the generative AI boom
5 trends in VC funding for pre-seed startups (TC+)
Chronic technical debt could be holding your company back (TC+)
The late-stage venture market is crumbling (TC+)
Introducing the Startup Battlefield 200 companies at TechCrunch Disrupt 2023