Bitcoin continues climbing, Block releases hardware wallet, Robinhood expands to EU and VCs may see some relief soon

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It looks as if there’s a pep in each crypto particular person’s step as Bitcoin had one other sturdy week, rising over 15% to round $44,000, throughout a seven-day interval, in response to CoinMarketCap data. Ethereum, the second largest crypto by market capitalization, additionally elevated over 15% throughout that timeframe, to round $2,300.

Generally, the overall crypto market cap steadily rose 14% from about $1.4 trillion to $1.6 trillion prior to now week as extra capital enters the crypto market.

As Bitcoin climbs, it additionally rejoins the highest 10 membership for the “prime belongings by market cap” globally. Bitcoin ranked in at quantity 9, trailing behind shares like Nvidia, Amazon, Google, Saudi Aramco, Microsoft, Apple and valuable metals like gold and silver, in response to CompaniesMarketCap data.

Bitcoin’s complete market cap is at the moment about $854 billion, which accounts for over half of the overall crypto market cap.

What’s taking place in web3

1. As Bitcoin reaches the $44,000 threshold, why the surge and what’s next? (TC+)
2. Block releases Bitkey hardware wallet to 95 countries… kinda
3. Following UK expansion, Robinhood brings crypto trading to EU
4. Sona launches its music streaming platform and marketplace to reward fans for buying ‘digital twins’ of songs
5. The venture landscape may be on the ‘cusp’ of explosive growth after years of macro strain (TC+)

The most recent pod

For this week’s episode, Jacquelyn interviewed David Pakman, managing associate and head of enterprise investments at CoinFund.

Earlier than CoinFund, David spent 14 years on the enterprise capital agency Venrock. He additionally led the Collection A and B rounds at Greenback Shave Membership, which was acquired by Unilever for $1 billion. And in 1991, David co-created Apple Music when he was part of Apple’s system software program product advertising group.

We mentioned the state of the crypto VC atmosphere, areas he’s specializing in for investments and what he thinks traders are lacking.

We additionally talked about:

• AI in comparison with crypto.
• Way forward for NFTs.
• Regulatory influence on traders.
• 2024 outlook.
• Recommendation for startups.

Subscribe to Chain Response on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favourite pod platform to maintain up with the most recent episodes, and please go away us a assessment when you like what you hear!

Observe the cash

1. Swan Bitcoin raised $40 million to increase its institutional choices
2. Cash market and DeFi yield-focused Curvance raised $3.6 million in seed spherical
3. Bitcoin-based venture Babylon raised $18 million to develop its staking protocol
4. Ten raised $7.5 million to enhance Ethereum encryption
5. Ethereum-focused scaling startup Versatus raised $2.3 million at $50 million valuation

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

What else we’re writing

Need to department out from the world of web3? Listed here are some articles on TechCrunch that caught our consideration this week.

1. Why Congruent turned down over $300M from LPs for its third climate tech fund (TC+)
2. Early impressions of Google’s Gemini aren’t great
3. Your mobile password manager might be exposing your credentials
4. Why in-house platforms can undermine your business strategy (TC+)
5. Summer’s secondary surge didn’t last, but 2024 should be strong (TC+)

Observe me on Twitter @Jacqmelinek for breaking crypto information, memes and extra.