Author: Tech Crunch

From turkeys to gasoline, clothes to dollar stores, nearly every avenue of human activity has been hit by the specter of inflation. Across the globe, rising inflation rates are disrupting purchasing plans and spending. In the face of this inflationary inferno, consumers and institutions holding devaluing fiat currency have sought out alternatives to hedge against. Bitcoin and many other cryptocurrencies are the current weapons of choice, driving the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to embrace crypto as an investable asset class. Bitcoin has witnessed strong year-to-date returns, outshining traditional hedges by rallying over 130% compared to gold’s meager 4%. In addition, increased institutional adoption, sustained…

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Much of Chinese society has come to depend on so-called super apps like WeChat to do multiple tasks, from making a medical appointment to hailing a taxi to getting a loan, all on one platform. But such one-stop shops have not taken off in the United States. Now, the time may finally be ripe — and the best contenders for super apps come from the fintech world, especially those platforms dedicated to cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrency is quickly growing in popularity amid sky-high equity prices, record-low interest rates and fear of inflation on the horizon, and they could, perhaps, gain more legitimacy…

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As the debates on Twitter rage on, most tech founders and VCs have by now chosen a side: Web 2.0 or web3. Proponents of web3 believe it is the future of the internet, and that blockchain-based products will completely supplant Web 2.0 within the next few years. Web 2.0 stalwarts say it’s all just a bunch of hype being spewed by crypto bros looking to turn a profit, and that blockchain technologies are fundamentally limited in scope. As a founder who has been building Web 2.0 apps for over a decade, and investing in crypto for nearly as long, I believe…

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Alternative investments are having a moment. Their popularity has surged over the last decade, with the asset class growing from just over $3 trillion in 2008 to more than $10 trillion in 2019, according to data provider Preqin. Institutions have fueled a large part of this growth, investing at record pace into alternatives like crypto, private companies and real estate. Some ultra-wealthy investors have made a windfall investing in alternatives using tax-advantaged accounts, a strategy billionaire Peter Thiel used to grow his Roth individual retirement account from $2,000 to $5 billion in 20 years, tax-free, ProPublica reported last year. Now, average investors…

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The NFT auction marketplace OpenSea had a blockbuster 2021 and as a result is seeing its private valuation grow more quickly than almost any other startup. The crypto firm announced late Tuesday that it closed a $300 million Series C round led by Paradigm and Coatue. The raise valued the startup at a massive $13.3 billion valuation, showcasing the wild growth the startup has seen in recent months. The Information first reported details on the Series C raise in November with Newcomer confirming additional details earlier today. OpenSea saw more than $2.4 billion in transaction volume in the past 30 days alone, hauling in some hundreds…

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The past 12 months in cybersecurity have been a rough ride. In cybersecurity, everything is broken — it’s just a matter of finding it — and this year felt like everything broke at once, especially toward the end of the year. But for better or worse, we end the year knowing more than we did before. Here we look back at the year that’s been, and what we learned along the way. 1. Ransomware costs businesses because of downtime, not ransom payments The scourge of file-encrypting malware continues. Ransomware this year alone forced entire towns offline, blocked paychecks and caused fuel…

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Bitcoin and broader cryptocurrency prices have skyrocketed in 2021. Stories abound of pandemic-era crypto millionaires that have struck it rich in the sector. The cryptocurrency narrative is a private sector one by design. Bitcoin and other crypto projects began with the intent to create an immutable digital currency that is decentralized and could not be affected by government monetary policy. That said, in recent years — as the marketplace crested $2 trillion in value — the public sector has increasingly taken a closer look, with nascent regulations emerging in some countries, outright bans in others and even wholesale adoption in…

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Switzerland-based privacy tech startup, Nym Technologies, which is trying to commercialize an old idea for privacy-centric infrastructure (mixnets) by combining it with buzzy crypto incentives, has closed $13 million in Series A investment from Andreessen Horowitz’s crypto-focused fund, following a $6M raise we covered back in the summer (also loosely pegged as a Series A). Per Forbes, which had the exclusive on the latest tranche of funding, the round values the nascent European startup at circa $270M. Other investors are named as including Barry Silbert’s Digital Currency Group, Tayssir Capital, Huobi Ventures, HashKey, Fenbushi Capital, and “more than two dozen”…

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