Buddy.tech hype grows, Twister Money founders go for a spin and FBI’s monitoring North Korean hackers

Welcome again to Chain Response.

To get a roundup of starcrypto’s largest and most vital crypto tales delivered to your inbox each Thursday at 12 p.m. PT, subscribe right here. Comply with me on Twitter @Jacqmelinek for breaking crypto information, memes and extra.

In case you haven’t heard about buddy.tech this week, you’re in all probability residing below a rock. However that’s okay, we dove deep into the hype and checked out what skeptics are nervous about for the brand new software.

There was additionally a variety of speak round Twister Money as the 2 founders behind the crypto mixer had been charged on Wednesday by U.S. federal businesses. Particulars on that and extra under.

This week in web3

1. Two founders behind crypto mixer Twister Money charged by U.S. federal courts
2. FBI says North Korean hackers making ready to money out after high-profile crypto hacks
3. Buddy.tech hype is skyrocketing, however will it really attain the celebs?
4. Solana Pay integrates plug-in with Shopify for USDC funds
5. Checkout.com cuts ties with Binance, which is mulling authorized motion in response

The newest pod

For this week’s episode, Jacquelyn interviewed Erik Svenson, co-founder, president and chief monetary officer at Blockstream, a bitcoin and blockchain-focused infrastructure agency.

The corporate was based in 2014 and has its personal sidechain expertise, Liquid Community, in addition to bitcoin mining operations and {hardware} wallets for Bitcoin and different property. It most lately raised $125 million in January and has raised greater than $400 million thus far.

Erik beforehand labored on Wall Road as a VP for AIG investments and was a co-founder and marketing consultant of different startups. The final startup he co-founded earlier than Blockstream was Dan’s Plan, a well being tech firm.

We mentioned how the present macroenvironment is impacting Bitcoin-focused companies and the place Erik sees probably the most alternatives for startups in the present day.

We additionally talked about:

• Blockstream’s mining operations
• Surviving a bear market
• Transitioning from TradFi to crypto
• Recommendation for startups

Subscribe to Chain Response on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favourite pod platform to maintain up with the newest episodes, and please go away us a evaluation in case you like what you hear!

Comply with the cash

1. Crypto lender Maple Finance raises $5 million to enter Asia amid regulatory readability
2. Vessel Capital emerges from stealth with $55 million fund centered on web3 infrastructure and apps
3. Berlin-based Anytype raises $13.4 million for its open sourced instrument
4. Nodal Energy raises $13 million to make use of landfill to energy bitcoin mining facilities
5. Decentralized credit score protocol PADO Labs raises $3 million in a seed spherical

This listing was compiled with info from Messari in addition to starcrypto’s personal reporting.

What else we’re writing

Wish to department out from the world of web3? Listed below are some articles on starcrypto that caught our consideration this week.

1. Nvidia’s Q2 earnings show it’s the massive winner within the generative AI growth
2. 5 traits in VC funding for pre-seed startups (TC+)
3. Continual technical debt could possibly be holding your organization again (TC+)
4. The late-stage enterprise market is crumbling (TC+)
5. Introducing the Startup Battlefield 200 corporations at starcrypto Disrupt 2023