Startups

Announcing the agenda for TechCrunch Sessions: Crypto 2022

Comment

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 while scams continued to proliferate and hacker heists became a weekly occurrence, the space onboarded an onslaught of retail investors and fostered feverish excitement among young technologists eager to bet their careers on the blockchain.

We’re thrilled to tap into this controversy and excitement once again as we announce the star-studded agenda for TechCrunch Sessions: Crypto 2022.

The event — taking place November 17 in Miami — will offer an opportunity for founders and investors to hear war stories from some of the crypto world’s most powerful decision-makers, while also picking up learnings from industry veterans who have weathered a crypto winter or two. Take advantage of our special launch pricing — save $250 on General Admission passes while supplies last. Buy your pass today, and then join the web3, DeFi and NFT communities to keep up with the ever-evolving and always exciting cryptoverse.

We’re so excited to hold this event in the city of Miami, which has encapsulated so much of the recent excitement surrounding emerging tech development and investment in the crypto sector. Our guests at this event have some of the brightest minds in the business and have intimately shaped crypto as an asset class and cultural touchstone.

We have lots more news and speakers to share in the coming weeks, but here is a first peek!


November 17

Live onstage: TechCrunch’s Chain Reaction

Join us for a live podcast recording of Chain Reaction as TechCrunch’s crypto team dives into lively discussions on the latest blockchain news, drama, and trends.

Keeping the Web3 Dream Funded

with Michelle Bailhe (Sequoia), Tom Schmidt (Dragonfly)

Billions in capital were raised by crypto native funds and web3 VCs during an unprecedented bull run, but as the crypto markets turn bearish, how will investors keep their web3 dream alive? We talk to some of the most influential investors in the crypto space about which potential bets are too early, too late and right on time.

Bringing Crypto to the Crowds

with Amy Wu (FTX)

Former Lightspeed partner Amy Wu made waves this year when she left the VC firm to lead startup investments out of a new $2 billion fund at Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto powerhouse FTX. Since then, the Coinbase challenger has become a critical presence in the crypto M&A world as it has sought to offer a lifeline to blockchain finance businesses wrecked by the sudden downturn all while backing young, ambitious efforts in the consumer web3 space as well. Hear from Wu on how her firm is helping guide the crypto industry through uncertainty while betting on its next class of winners.

Building for Normies

with Alex Adelman (Lolli), Devin Lewtan (Mad Realities), and Brandon Millman (Phantom)

The most-hyped decentralized apps have typically been built for crypto speculators or decentralized finance acolytes, but a new breed of products are being crafted with the common internet user in mind. Join us as we chat with the founders of some of web3’s most exciting consumer apps, and pick their brains on mainstream audience opportunities and the challenges of building consumer crypto businesses in a bear market.

Building a Blockchain Behemoth

with Changpeng Zhao (Binance)

Binance is the largest crypto exchange in the world, and its founder and CEO, Chinese Canadian billionaire Changpeng Zhao, is so well-known that he’s often referred to by his initials alone — “CZ.” Binance’s scale has attracted scrutiny from regulators across the globe, yet the exchange has managed to maintain a cult-like popularity among its customers. Zhao will give us a rare peek behind the curtain at Binance, sharing his insights on what it takes to run the company in a choppy market and his biggest hopes, fears and predictions about its future.

TechCrunch Crypto Pitch-Off

The industry’s brightest entrepreneurs will take the stage in front of a live audience and a panel of industry experts, pitching revolutionary technologies.

Is Crypto Regulation Ready?

with Katherine Dowling (Bitwise Asset Management), more speakers to be announced

As crypto markets continue to gain mainstream adoption, regulators globally are watching the young industry with laser focus. But which crypto companies, protocols and projects will be compliant within the current regulatory framework? And how will the crypto industry respond when government agencies start providing new guidelines? We talk to some of the brightest people in the space, who will dig into what regulation means for the industry in 2022.

A Non-Fungible Empire

with Devin Finzer (OpenSea)

Few in the crypto space saw the explosive adoption of NFTs happening this quickly this soon, but NFT marketplace startup OpenSea, which was founded back in 2017, was waiting in the wings. Fast forward to present day, and there have been tens of billions of dollars in NFT transaction volume with OpenSea handling the lion’s share of those sales. CEO Devin Finzer has so far fended off marketplace competitors from well-funded public behemoths and upstart threats, but can the $13.3 billion startup hold its lead through a bear market?

Fundraising in a Crypto Winter

with Flori Marquez (BlockFi), Nikil Viswanathan (Alchemy), and John Wu (Ava Labs)

The days of flashy deal terms for pre-product crypto startups may be a thing of the past as the industry stares down an uncertain next few years. We talk with a number of veteran crypto founders on how young founders can keep a steady source of funding during the bear market and what their investors might like to see.

Apeing into the Metaverse

with Nicole Muniz (Yuga Labs)

There’s never been anything quite like the rise of Bored Ape Yacht Club. The pricey monkey JPEGs have inspired endless incredulity among crypto outsiders while owners of the NFT collection have showcased a devotion uncommon outside of religious groups. Yuga, the startup behind the collection, is eager to turn this cultural anomaly into an empire. After raising a seed round this year at a mind-boggling $4 billion valuation, Yuga CEO Nicole Muniz has been focusing her efforts on building Otherside, an NFT-centric metaverse aiming to challenge the efforts of Meta, Roblox and others.

Don’t miss your chance to catch all of this amazing content and mine for prime networking opportunities at TC Sessions: Crypto on November 17 in MiamiBuy your pass now and save — before the special launch pricing disappears. We’ll see you in November!

Is your company interested in sponsoring or exhibiting at TC Sessions: Crypto? Contact our sponsorship sales team by filling out this form.

More TechCrunch

Zoox, Amazon’s self-driving unit, is bringing its autonomous vehicles to more cities.  The self-driving technology company announced Wednesday plans to begin testing in Austin and Miami this summer. The two…

Zoox to test self-driving cars in Austin and Miami 

Called Stable Audio Open, the generative model takes a text description and outputs a recording up to 47 seconds in length.

Stability AI releases a sound generator

It’s not just instant-delivery startups that are struggling. Oda, the Norway-based online supermarket delivery startup, has confirmed layoffs of 150 jobs as it drastically scales back its expansion ambitions to…

SoftBank-backed grocery startup Oda lays off 150, resets focus on Norway and Sweden

Newsletter platform Substack is introducing the ability for writers to send videos to their subscribers via Chat, its direct messaging feature, the company announced on Wednesday. The rollout of video…

Substack brings video to its Chat feature

Hiya, folks, and welcome to TechCrunch’s inaugural AI newsletter. It’s truly a thrill to type those words — this one’s been long in the making, and we’re excited to finally…

This Week in AI: Ex-OpenAI staff call for safety and transparency

Ms. Rachel isn’t a household name, but if you spend a lot of time with toddlers, she might as well be a rockstar. She’s like Steve from Blues Clues for…

Cameo fumbles on Ms. Rachel fundraiser as fans receive credits instead of videos  

Cartwheel helps animators go from zero to basic movement, so creating a scene or character with elementary motions like taking a step, swatting a fly or sitting down is easier.

Cartwheel generates 3D animations from scratch to power up creators

The new tool, which is set to arrive in Wix’s app builder tool this week, guides users through a chatbot-like interface to understand the goals, intent and aesthetic of their…

Wix’s new tool taps AI to generate smartphone apps

ClickUp Knowledge Management combines a new wiki-like editor and with a new AI system that can also bring in data from Google Drive, Dropbox, Confluence, Figma and other sources.

ClickUp wants to take on Notion and Confluence with its new AI-based Knowledge Base

New York City, home to over 60,000 gig delivery workers, has been cracking down on cheap, uncertified e-bikes that have resulted in battery fires across the city.  Some e-bike providers…

Whizz wants to own the delivery e-bike subscription space, starting with NYC

This is the last major step before Starliner can be certified as an operational crew system, and the first Starliner mission is expected to launch in 2025. 

Boeing’s Starliner astronaut capsule is en route to the ISS 

TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 in San Francisco is the must-attend event for startup founders aiming to make their mark in the tech world. This year, founders have three exciting ways to…

Three ways founders can shine at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024

Google’s newest startup program, announced on Wednesday, aims to bring AI technology to the public sector. The newly launched “Google for Startups AI Academy: American Infrastructure” will offer participants hands-on…

Google’s new startup program focuses on bringing AI to public infrastructure

eBay’s newest AI feature allows sellers to replace image backgrounds with AI-generated backdrops. The tool is now available for iOS users in the U.S., U.K., and Germany. It’ll gradually roll…

eBay debuts AI-powered background tool to enhance product images

If you’re anything like me, you’ve tried every to-do list app and productivity system, only to find yourself giving up sooner than later because sooner than later, managing your productivity…

Hoop uses AI to automatically manage your to-do list

Asana is using its work graph to train LLMs with the goal of creating AI assistants that work alongside human employees in company workflows.

Asana introduces ‘AI teammates’ designed to work alongside human employees

Taloflow, an early stage startup changing the way companies evaluate and select software, has raised $1.3M in a seed round.

Taloflow puts AI to work on software vendor selection to reduce cost and save time

The startup is hoping its durable filters can make metals refining and battery recycling more efficient, too.

SiTration uses silicon wafers to reclaim critical minerals from mining waste

Spun out of Bosch, Dive wants to change how manufacturers use computer simulations by both using modern mathematical approaches and cloud computing.

Dive goes cloud-native for its computational fluid dynamics simulation service

The tension between incumbents and fintechs has existed for decades. But every once in a while, the two groups decide to put their competition aside and work together. In an…

When foes become friends: Capital One partners with fintech giants Stripe, Adyen to prevent fraud

After growing 500% year-over-year in the past year, Understory is now launching a product focused on the renewable energy sector.

Insurance provider Understory gets into renewable energy following $15M Series A

Ashkenazi will start her new role at Google’s parent company on July 31, after 23 years at Eli Lilly.

Alphabet brings on Eli Lilly’s Anat Ashkenazi as CFO

Tobiko aims to reimagine how teams work with data by offering a dbt-compatible data transformation platform.

With $21.8M in funding, Tobiko aims to build a modern data platform

In 1816, French physician René Laennec invented an instrument that allowed doctors to listen to the heart and lungs. That device — a stethoscope — eventually evolved from a simple…

Eko Health scores $41M to detect heart and lung disease earlier and more accurately

The number of satellites on low Earth orbit is poised to explode over the coming years as more mega-constellations come online. This will create new opportunities for bad actors to…

DARPA and Slingshot build system to detect ‘wolf in sheep’s clothing’ adversary satellites

SAP sees WalkMe’s focus on automating contextual, in-app support as bringing value to its own enterprise customers.

SAP to acquire digital adoption platform WalkMe for $1.5B

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has emerged victorious in India’s 2024 general election, but with a smaller majority compared to 2019. According to post-election analysis by Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, CLSA,…

Modi-led coalition’s election win signals policy continuity in India — and spending cuts

Featured Article

A comprehensive list of 2024 tech layoffs

The tech layoff wave is still going strong in 2024. Following significant workforce reductions in 2022 and 2023, this year has already seen 60,000 job cuts across 254 companies, according to independent layoffs tracker Layoffs.fyi. Companies like Tesla, Amazon, Google, TikTok, Snap and Microsoft have conducted sizable layoffs in the…

22 hours ago
A comprehensive list of 2024 tech layoffs

Featured Article

What to expect from WWDC 2024: iOS 18, macOS 15 and so much AI

Apple is hoping to make WWDC 2024 memorable as it finally spells out its generative AI plans.

23 hours ago
What to expect from WWDC 2024: iOS 18, macOS 15 and so much AI

We just announced the breakout session winners last week. Now meet the roundtable sessions that really “rounded” out the competition for this year’s Disrupt 2024 audience choice program. With five…

The votes are in: Meet the Disrupt 2024 audience choice roundtable winners