Welcome back to Chain Reaction.
To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important crypto stories delivered to your inbox every Thursday at 12 p.m. PT, subscribe here.
The crypto market and overall ecosystem may be showing signs of recovery after a prolonged bear market.
At the time of publication, cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ethereum were up 30% and 28% from the month-ago date, respectively, according to CoinMarketCap data. Separately, the total crypto market capitalization is up about 31% to $1.41 trillion during the same period.
Even the NFT space, which took a tumble after its latest hype cycle in 2021 and 2022, has seen total sales increase 64% in the past 30 days, according to CryptoSlam data. The top three blockchains by NFT sales volume were Ethereum, Bitcoin and Solana, and all of them saw sales increase (44%, 1,222% and 56%, respectively) in that time frame.
Separately, the crypto venture capital landscape is heating back up after six consecutive quarters of declines of investments into web3 companies. The bullish take comes at a time when a lengthy market downturn has persisted, chilling consumer, founder and investor interest in the crypto industry.
More below.
This week in web3
- After six quarters of falling venture interest, crypto investors see recent price gains as positive signal (TC+)
- Aave Companies rebrands to Avara and acquires crypto wallet Family to expand its web3 reach
- Prosecutors will likely proceed with SBF’s second trial in March (TC+)
The latest pod
For this week’s episode, Jacquelyn interviewed Stani Kulechov, the founder of Avara, formerly known as Aave Companies.
The company is probably best known for Aave protocol, its platform-focused stablecoin GHO and its social network protocol Lens.
The web3-focused software technology company announced exclusively on our podcast their rebranding as well as a strategic acquisition of an Ethereum-based crypto wallet. The name Aave will still exist, but through Aave Protocol and Aave Labs, two organizations under Avara’s umbrella brand.
We discussed the rebrand, acquisition, changes to projects under the Avara umbrella and content creator monetization on decentralized social media platforms and what it can look like.
We also talked about:
- Lens transitioning out of beta phase
- Decentralized versus mainstream social media
- The future of social networks
- What’s next for Avara
Subscribe to Chain Reaction on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite pod platform to keep up with the latest episodes, and please leave us a review if you like what you hear!
BONUS: On Monday, Equity, TechCrunch’s podcast focused on the business of startups, dove into the million-dollar question: Are we at the start of a new crypto bull cycle? Listen in here.
Follow the money
- Taproot Wizards raised $7.5 million (TC+) for its Ordinals project to bring the “magic” back to Bitcoin
- Baton, a music collaboration platform for unreleased material, raised $4.2 million
- Asset management firm Superstate closed $14 million in Series A financing
- Web3 social network Sleek raised $5 million in a seed round
- Beoble raised $2 million in a pre-seed round to grow web3 social experiences
This list was compiled with information from Messari as well as TechCrunch’s own reporting.
What else we’re writing
Want to branch out from the world of web3? Here are some articles on TechCrunch that caught our attention this week.
- Feds want speed reduction tech in every new car. Are American drivers ready?
- The bull case for software growth in 2024 (TC+)
- The time to triage is over (TC+)
- How Inversion Art is trying to become the Y Combinator of the arts world (TC+)
- AI makes you worse at what you’re good at
Follow me on Twitter @Jacqmelinek for breaking crypto news, memes and more.