Welcome to Chain Reaction!
Sign up here to get TechCrunch's biggest and most important crypto stories delivered to your inbox every Thursday at 12:00 pm .
The cryptocurrency market and the ecosystem as a whole may be showing signs of recovery from a prolonged bear market.
At the time of publication, cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum were up 30% and 28% from a month earlier, according to CoinMarketCap. Separately, the total capitalization of the crypto market over the same period increased by approximately 31% to $1.41 trillion.
Even in the NFT space, which has seen a decline since the last hype cycle in 2021 and 2022, total sales increased 64% in the last 30 days, according to CryptoSlam. The top three by NFT sales volume are Ethereum, Bitcoin and Solana, each of which increased sales over the period (44%, 1222% and 56%).
Additionally, the cryptocurrency venture capital scene is heating up again after six consecutive fourth quarters of investment in Web3 companies. The capital increase comes amid a prolonged market downturn that has dampened consumer, founder and investor interest in the crypto industry.
More details below.
This week on Web 3
After six quarters of declining corporate interest, crypto investors are viewing the recent price increase as a positive sign (TC+).
Ave Companies rebranded to Avara and acquired the Crypto Wallet family to expand Web3's reach.
Prosecutors are likely to begin a second trial in the SBF case in March (TC+).
New module
In this week's episode, Jacqueline meets Stani Kulekhov, founder of Avara, formerly known as Ave Companies.
The company is perhaps best known for the Aave protocol, the platform-specific stablecoin GHO, and the Lens social network protocol.
Software company Web3 announced its rebranding as well as the strategic acquisition of an Ethereum-based crypto wallet exclusively in a podcast. The Aave name will continue to exist, but under the umbrella of the Aave Protocol and Ave Labs, two organizations under the Aave umbrella.
We discussed rebranding, acquisitions, changes to projects under the Avara umbrella, monetization of content on decentralized social media platforms and what this might look like.
We also talked.
The lens is out of beta.
Decentralized and traditional social networks
The future of social networks
What's next for Avara?
Subscribe to Chain Reaction on Apple Podcasts, Spotify , or your favorite podcast platform to stay up to date with the latest episodes, and leave us a review if you like what you hear.
Bonus : The startup business podcast TechCrunch Equity touched on the million dollar question on Monday. Listen.
Follow the money
Taproot Wizards Raises $7.5M (TC+) for Standard Project to Bring "Magic" Back to Bitcoin
Baton raised $4.2 million for the music collaboration platform from unreleased material.
Asset management company Superstate has closed a $14 million Series A financing.
Web3 social network Sleek has raised $5 million in seed funding.
Beoble has raised $2 million in seed funding to develop its Web3 social experience.
This list was compiled using data from Masari as well as TechCrunch's own reporting.
What else are we writing?
Want to get out of the Web 3 world? Here are a few TechCrunch articles that caught our attention this week.
Federal authorities require every new car to have speed reduction technology. Are American drivers ready?
Software Engineering Class of 2024 Silver (TC+).
Sorting time expired (TC+)
How reverse art is trying to become a Y-combinator (TC+) in the art world.
Does AI make you bad at something you're good at?
Follow me on Twitter @Jacqmelinek for cryptocurrency news, memes, and more!