Lucas Matney

TechCrunch

Lucas Matney was a senior editor at TechCrunch based in San Francisco.

Lucas Matney

Latest from Lucas Matney

Crypto entities ranging from major exchanges to small projects are on the road to stateside regulation. Whether it comes through the Securities and Exchange Commission or the Commodity Futures Trading…

Bitwise, Paradigm and Perkins Coie talk regs at TC Sessions: Crypto

Featured Article

BetterData taps the blockchain to help create better synthetic data

As the global data privacy regulatory landscape gets more convoluted and constrictive, engineering teams looking to use structured data to improve their products and AI models are being pushed to jump through plenty of hoops to stay compliant. BetterData, which is launching onstage at the TechCrunch Disrupt SF Battlefield startup…

3:13 pm PDT • October 19, 2022
BetterData taps the blockchain to help create better synthetic data

Kraken’s Jesse Powell on why he’s stepping down as CEO of the crypto exchange

Jesse Powell is stepping down from the CEO role at U.S.-based crypto exchange Kraken, The Wall Street Journal reported last month. Co-founded by Powell and Thanh Luu in 2011, Kraken is now the fourth-largest crypto exchange by volume, according to CoinMarketCap. It’s a critical inflection point for the company, which was valued at $10 billion…

Kraken’s Jesse Powell on why he’s stepping down as CEO of the crypto exchange
Gaming

Meta announces legs

11:08 am PDT • October 11, 2022

Meta didn’t hold back with their announcements at Meta Connect this year. As Facebook has done every year or so, the company is shaking up their avatar products. This year…

Meta announces legs

At Meta Connect 2022, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the company’s latest virtual reality headset. But, after years of striving to bring down the cost of entry to the VR world,…

Meta announces the $1,499 Quest Pro

While outside research data suggests that the number of VR headsets being shipped over the past couple years has surged, the release of new VR titles hasn’t always kept pace.…

Meta’s Quest Store hits $1.5 billion in total revenue to date

This week was a weird one for crypto, as reality TV superstar Kim Kardashian was one of the first celebrities to get an SEC fine…

Did Kim Kardashian really deserve that crypto fine?

When it comes to the decentralized world of crypto, few single entities loom larger or carry more weight in the industry than exchange behemoth Binance. The blockchain giant processed $34…

Binance founder Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao shares his vision of web3 opportunities at TC Sessions: Crypto

While the broader virtual reality industry earnestly waits for Meta’s next announcements around new VR products at its Connect event next week, Google’s venture arm GV is placing an interesting…

Google’s GV backs SideQuest, an unofficial Meta Quest app store

The crypto industry seemed to age several decades over the past bull run, maturing in some places while barreling ahead in ambitious new pursuits, including DeFi, NFTs and web3. And…

Announcing the agenda for TechCrunch Sessions: Crypto 2022
Crypto

Can crypto make the world a better place?

The crypto world has never shied away from making big promises, but as the industry matures and its audience widens, now’s a good time to…

Can crypto make the world a better place?

Welcome to Chain Reaction, where we unpack and explain the latest in crypto news, drama and trends, breaking things down block by block for the crypto…

The Merge pregame is over, but where’s the party?

Crypto token prices have been trending downward for the past year, with BTC and ETH both down over 50% since last September. Yet despite the…

CoinFund’s Seth Ginns on why the crypto downturn has spared early-stage startups

Welcome to Chain Reaction, where we unpack and explain the latest in crypto news, drama and trends, breaking things down block by block for the crypto curious. For our Thursday episode…

Private equity’s gatekeepers get serious about tokens

The quest to define what exactly a web3 use case looks like hasn’t always been easy but has allowed plenty of founders to get creative in building out products designed…

Arpeggi Labs banks a16z funding to build web3 music software

Meltem Demirors hasn’t just been working in crypto for seven years — she’s been shaping its trajectory. Demirors, chief strategy officer at publicly traded European…

Meltem Demirors on why society isn’t ready for a crypto-driven revolution yet

Welcome to Chain Reaction, where we unpack and explain the latest in crypto news, drama and trends, breaking things down block by block for the…

Crypto’s biggest powerhouse flexes on its competition

Welcome back to Chain Reaction, where we unpack and explain the latest in crypto news, drama and trends, breaking things down block by block for…

A video game industry veteran on making the art behind popular NFTs

Few startups in the crypto world boast the market dominance that OpenSea currently enjoys, but numerous venture-backed startups are looking to chip away at their…

Magic Eden looks to challenge OpenSea’s NFT dominance

Welcome to Chain Reaction, where we unpack and explain the latest in crypto news, drama and trends, breaking things down block by block for the crypto curious. For our Thursday…

How many Coinbases is FTX worth?

Welcome back to Chain Reaction. Last week, we talked about privacy in crypto and how it’s sometimes at odds with regulation. This week, we’re covering…

Crypto, where the fallen seek a fresh start

There are some events in your life that you look back on and think to yourself, “Wow, that was a really tough time.” We all…

Do Kwon’s Terra trauma and drama lives to see another day

Crypto lending and financial services companies have been at the forefront of the industry’s latest controversies ever since the collapse of the Terra stablecoin, with many drawing parallels between the…

Uniswap Labs COO MC Lader on the incentives behind DeFi

Welcome back to Chain Reaction. Last week, we talked about a hack that gave new, ironic meaning to the word “trustless.” This week, we’ll get…

Why Twitter anons are sending crypto to celebrities

The world of crypto venture has had a whirlwind few years, with powerful new players inspiring furious catch-up among traditional VC firms aiming to make a name for themselves in…

FTX Ventures’ Amy Wu is bringing her blockchain investing expertise to TC Sessions: Crypto
Crypto

A Tornado (Cash) flew around my room

It seems like there are always people butting heads in the crypto world, and this week was no different. Cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash was hit…

A Tornado (Cash) flew around my room

While plenty of crypto investors have scaled back their breakneck pace of startup investing as they wait for more clarity on the macro environment, the fact is there have never…

Portal Ventures closes on $35 million debut fund for early-stage crypto startups

Welcome back to Chain Reaction. Last week, we looked at the near-term future for crypto gaming as VCs zero in on where to place consumer…

There’s always another nightmarish crypto hack around the corner

The world of crypto moves quickly and sometimes, when there’s an ongoing heist, the best thing that technically savvy but ethically sound users can do…

Sometimes, stealing crypto is the moral choice

Despite Zuckerberg & Co. spending billions of dollars on virtual reality tech every fiscal quarter, the wider VR startup ecosystem has been having a tough few years coming down from…

YC and a16z back virtual reality basketball app Gym Class