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.

Worldcoin — the crypto “proof of personhood” startup co-founded by OpenAI’s Sam Altman — has been given the green light to resume iris-scanning and other operations in Kenya after a…

Kenya closes its probe of Worldcoin, opening the door to a relaunch of its orbs after a year-long suspension

When Urvashi Barooah applied to MBA programs in 2015, she focused her applications around her dream of becoming a venture capitalist. She got rejected from every school, and was told…

How Urvashi Barooah broke into venture after everyone told her she couldn’t

Stock-trading app Robinhood is diving deeper into the cryptocurrency realm with the acquisition of crypto exchange Bitstamp.

Robinhood acquires global crypto exchange Bitstamp for $200M

The next few weeks could be pivotal for Worldcoin, the controversial eyeball-scanning crypto venture co-founded by OpenAI’s Sam Altman, whose operations remain almost entirely shuttered in the European Union following…

Worldcoin faces pivotal EU privacy decision within weeks

President Joe Biden has vetoed H.J.Res. 109, a congressional resolution that would have overturned the Securities and Exchange Commission’s current approach to banks and crypto. Specifically, the resolution targeted the…

President Biden vetoes crypto custody bill

Japanese crypto exchange DMM Bitcoin confirmed on Friday that it had been the victim of a hack resulting in the theft of 4,502.9 bitcoin, or about $305 million.  According to…

Hackers steal $305M from DMM Bitcoin crypto exchange

Ledger, a French startup mostly known for its secure crypto hardware wallets, has started shipping new wallets nearly 18 months after announcing the latest Ledger Stax devices. The updated wallet…

Ledger starts shipping its high-end hardware crypto wallet

Accurate weather forecasts are critical to industries like agriculture, and they’re also important to help prevent and mitigate harm from inclement weather events or natural disasters. But getting forecasts right…

Deal Dive: Can blockchain make weather forecasts better? WeatherXM thinks so

Farcaster, a blockchain-based social protocol founded by two Coinbase alumni, announced on Tuesday that it closed a $150 million fundraise. Led by Paradigm, the platform also raised money from a16z…

Farcaster, a crypto-based social network, raised $150M with just 80K daily users

The new coalition, Tech Against Scams, will work together to find ways to fight back against the tools used by scammers and to better educate the public against financial scams.

Meta, Match, Coinbase and others team up to fight online fraud and crypto scams

Bankruptcy lawyers representing customers impacted by the dramatic crash of cryptocurrency exchange FTX 17 months ago say that the vast majority of victims will receive their money back — plus interest. The…

FTX crypto fraud victims to get their money back — plus interest

Robert Kahn has been a consistent presence on the Internet since its creation — obviously, since he was its co-creator. But like many tech pioneers his resumé is longer than…

Crypto? AI? Internet co-creator Robert Kahn already did it … decades ago

With U.S. regulators continuing to ramp up their scrutiny of crypto, startups and founders in the space are looking overseas to find friendlier climates to support their growth. One such…

Global crypto firms turn to Hong Kong for refuge — and opportunity

The graduates of Alliance DAO are often useful indicators of investor appetite and user adaption trends within the crypto space. The latest batch of the stage-agnostic crypto accelerator, unveiled today,…

Alliance DAO is attracting fewer US founders amid crypto crackdown

Four months behind bars and a massive fine, that’s what CZ is getting from the government for his crypto exchange’s misdeeds. Regardless of how you view the verdict — too…

TechCrunch Minute: Where CZ’s sentencing leaves the state of crypto

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Haun Ventures is riding the bitcoin high

Haun Ventures has made 48 investments, including some of its token positions, across its early-stage $500 million and $1 billion later-stage acceleration funds.

4:24 pm PDT • May 1, 2024
Haun Ventures is riding the bitcoin high

Changpeng Zhao, also known as “CZ,” the founder and CEO of crypto exchange Binance, has been sentenced to four months in prison. Six days ago, the US Department of Justice…

Binance CEO ‘CZ’ sentenced to four months in prison

The company announced that it would start to let customers accept cryptocurrency payments, starting with USDC stablecoins, initially only on Solana, Ethereum and Polygon

After 6-year hiatus, Stripe to start taking crypto payments, starting with USDC stablecoin

Carv, a data layer platform that lets web3 gaming and AI companies, as well as gamers, control and monetize their data, has raised a $10 million Series A round led…

Carv raises $10M Series A to help gamers monetize their data

Block, the company behind Square, Cash App and other services, announced a new program today allowing merchants using Square’s solutions to convert a percentage of their daily sales to bitcoin.…

Block lets Square merchants convert a part of their daily sales to bitcoin

Shakeeb Ahmed, a cybersecurity engineer convicted of stealing around $12 million in crypto, was sentenced on Friday to three years in prison. In a press release, the U.S. Attorney for…

Security engineer jailed for 3 years for $12M crypto hacks

If you think that choosing a nail polish color or which ingredients go into your face cream can’t have anything to do with blockchain, think again. Kiki World, a beauty…

Kiki World, a beauty brand that uses web3 for customer co-creation and ownership, raises $7M from a16z

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Nine crypto VCs on why Q1 investments were so hot and how it compares to previous bull market

If the 2023 crypto venture landscape was an ice-cold pot of water, the first quarter of 2024 is the part where the bubbles start to form right before water boils, Tom Schmidt, a partner at Dragonfly Capital, said to TechCrunch. And he’s not wrong: $2.52 billion in total capital has…

11:28 am PDT • March 29, 2024
Nine crypto VCs on why Q1 investments were so hot and how it compares to previous bull market

After a lengthy trial and conviction, we finally learned how long former crypto baron Sam Bankman-Fried will be behind bars: up to 25 years. It’s a lengthy sentence, but one…

TechCrunch Minute: Sam Bankman-Fried’s sentencing marks an end to the FTX saga

Nearly everything else that’s being built on or enabled by blockchains replaces something that’s already being done fairly well.

SBF’s prison sentence marks the end of the crypto grift era — so what’s next?

Before sentencing, Bankman-Fried acknowledged in court that he made a “series of bad decisions,” but argued they were not “selfish” ones.

Sam Bankman-Fried gets 25 years in prison for fraud and money laundering at FTX, ordered to pay $11B in forfeiture

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…

0G Labs launches with whopping $35M pre-seed to build a modular AI blockchain

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…

Web3 investment firm Borderless Capital acquires CTF Capital to bring AI and quant expertise

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…

Worldcoin hit with another ban order in Europe citing risks to kids

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…

Rails launches with $6.2M round for its decentralized FTX alternative