Welcome to Chain Reaction, where we unpack and explain the latest in crypto news, drama and trends, breaking things down block by block for the crypto curious.For our Thursday episode this week, we dug into the institutional embrace of blockchains by stodgy financial powerhouses -- including mega PE firm KKR, which announced this week that they were tokenizing one of their latest funds to provide access to a slightly less rich class of wealthy investors. While it’s far from pervasive financial democratization, the move attracted a lot of attention, which we dissected. We also covered:

• A Supergroup of financial institutions including Fidelity, Schwab and Citadel are teaming up to build a new digital asset exchange called the EDXM. Is this a signal of institutional fervor or just more groupthink?
• The White House’s Office of Science and Tech Policy released a sweeping report on the energy usage of the cryptocurrency industry. The report signals future pressures on Bitcoin miners to reduce greenhouse gas emissions or else.

Join us at TechCrunch Disrupt this October to hear from speakers including a16z’s Chris Dixon and Solana Labs’ Anatoly Yakovenko — use the promo code REACT for 15% off, excluding online and expo.

And even if you can’t join us in person, you can use the promo code REACT for 25% on an annual pass for our TechCrunch+ membership service.

Chain Reaction comes out every Tuesday and Thursday at 12:00 p.m. PT, so be sure to subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite pod platform to keep up with the action. 

Chain Reaction comes out every Thursday at 12:00 p.m. ET, so be sure to subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite pod platform to keep up with the action.