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Welcome back to Chain reaction.
It seems like just yesterday we were ringing in the New Year, but we have arrived in February and all seems to be somewhat relaxed (for once) in the crypto world.
Last month was filled with crypto companies dismiss staff, developments around the existing and New Chapter 11 bankruptcies in space, partnerships and conversations about a potential recovery in 2023.
Even with a series of bad news flooding the industry, some cryptocurrencies saw gains in January amid the market turmoil.
Bitcoin rebounded 40% over the month, while ether increased by about 32% over the same period. Solana also had a serious rally, around $10 at the start of the year, near its lowest level since February 2021, up 146% to around $24.3 at the end of January, CoinMarketCap Data watch.
These market movements could potentially entice more retail and institutional investors to take the plunge. But whether or not this seemingly random market rally will continue into February remains to be seen.
This week in web3
Lost your crypto amid Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings? You probably won’t get it back (TC+)
As Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings progress for several major crypto companies, those who have lost funds are surely hoping to recover all – or at least some – of their money. Lawyers and experts shared their thoughts with TechCrunch on what these cases could mean for creditors and what could happen to those who saw their money disappear overnight.
Venture Capital Funding From Black Web3 Founders Surged Last Year, Bucking Trends (TC+)
Black people who have invested in crypto have been disproportionately impacted over the past crypto winter, although many black founders and investors who spoke to TechCrunch remain optimistic about the sector’s potential for the community and society in general. On the contrary, last year’s economic correction was necessary, they told TechCrunch. “Bubble had to burst,” said People of Crypto co-founder Simone Berry. “It was not sustainable and an economic correction was needed.
Sorare teams up with Premier League for NFT fantasy football game
French startup Sorare has signed a four-year licensing partnership with the Premier League. This agreement marks an important milestone for the company as the English football league is one of the most watched sports leagues in the world. As for sports fans who don’t particularly like football (or soccer as Europeans call it), Sorare has also teamed up with the NBA and MLB over the past few months.
Bitcoin-based Strike app expands to the Philippines to expand cross-border payment solutions
Strike, a bitcoin-based payment network and financial app, is expanding into the Philippines to develop cross-border payments and remittance markets. Besides the Philippines, Strike also plans to expand further into Latin America and Africa regions due to “extreme demand”, explained its CEO, Jack Mallers. Overall, the company’s partnerships and announcement indicate that it is focused on growing the remittance market through its app and other alternative channels, such as Clover.
Enterprise blockchain adoption may grow as hybrid use cases evolve (TC+)
While crypto markets remain volatile, enterprise blockchain adoption continues to grow as companies find new use cases for the technology, according to Daniela Barbosa, executive director of the Hyperledger Foundation. One of the biggest asks over the past couple of years has been for “hybrid use cases” and the technology is not just helping large enterprises, but small businesses as well, she shared.
The last capsule
ICYMI: For the past week episode, Jacquelyn spoke with Mo Shaikh, co-founder and CEO of the Aptos layer 1 blockchain. Shaikh is a three-time founder with over a decade of experience in financial services as well as blockchain technology and cryptography. He has also worked on strategic blockchain partnerships for Novi, Facebook’s portfolio, and served as Chief Strategy Officer at ConsenSys.
“When we thought of Aptos, we certainly thought people needed a new form of digital information sharing and to be able to share that information and economic value digitally in a more efficient and equitable way,” said Shaikh. during the podcast. “That’s the mission we’re on.”
It’s been a huge year for Aptos – as the blockchain launched publicly and raised around $400 million in funding, amid a bear market. The new Layer 1 has gained backing from major investors like Andreessen Horowitz, Circle Ventures, and the now defunct FTX Ventures, to name a few. And even though the market is down, its token, APT, is up 380% in the month of January, according to CoinMarketCap. Data.
Looking forward to 2023, Aptos plans to make it a “year of intent”, Shaikh said. “I think this is a year of intent for the whole industry.”
We also discussed:
- What is it like to get into a bear market
- Blockchain builders
- Business development plans for 2023
- Integration of people not in the space
- The future of interoperability and the multi-channel world
To subscribe to Chain reaction to apple podcast, Spotify or your favorite pod platform to follow the latest episodes, and leave us a comment if you like what you hear!
follow the money
- Haun Ventures leads $7.4 million seed round from Sovereign Labs to help evolve blockchains
- Getting Started with Cryptographic Security Hypernative raised $9 million to help prevent web3 cyberattacks
- BlockJoy raised $12 million to help reduce operating costs for businesses running blockchain nodes
- Starting Web3 Marketing Addressable raised $7.5 million in seed round
- Everscale raised $5 million to help scale blockchains
This list was compiled with information from Messari as well as TechCrunch’s own reports.
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