Welcome back. Lucas was out sick this week, so TC crypto reporter Jacquie Melinek subbed in as co-host to talk with Anita about the biggest stories in web3 this week. They discussed whether Sam Bankman-Fried is the savior crypto needs as more and more companies declare bankruptcy and unpacked the drama behind the fight for a U.S. Bitcoin spot ETF.In this week’s interview, Anita chatted with Tux Pacific, the founder and CEO of Entropy, a startup that just raised a $25 million seed round led by a16z for its decentralized crypto custody solution. Pacific, one of the rare trans and queer founders to have raised institutional funding, dropped out of college to teach themselves cryptography. They describe themselves as an “anti-capitalist anarchist” and spoke with Anita abut why they think decentralization is the only way crypto can succeed.Subscribe to Chain Reaction on Apple, Spotify or your alternative podcast platform of choice to keep up with us every week.Subscribe to the Chain Reaction newsletter to dive deeper: https://techcrunch.com/newslettersHelpful links:https://techcrunch.com/2022/06/08/the-trans-queer-anarchist-crypto-founder-seed-round-a16z-andreessen-horowitz/https://techcrunch.com/2022/07/01/crypto-mega-hedge-fund-three-arrows-capital-reportedly-files-for-bankruptcy-in-new-york/https://techcrunch.com/2022/07/01/ftx-us-deal-with-troubled-crypto-lender-blockfi-floats-acquisition-with-up-to-240m-purchase-price/https://techcrunch.com/2022/06/30/the-sec-rejected-bitcoin-spot-etfs-again-now-what/ 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.

Welcome back, this week Anita was off on vacation so Lucas was joined by TC crypto reporter Jacquie Melinek to discuss what happened in the crypto world this week. They dove into the topic of the Solana Saga phone, discussed FTX's alleged interest in buying up Robinhood, and chatted about some of the crypto financial firms that are currently in deep... trouble.In this week’s interview, Lucas chatted with Julian Holguin, the CEO of Doodles. Doodles is a very popular NFT project that has done just over $500 million in total sales volume. Holguin was previously a big exec at Billboard and has taken on the task of scaling the Doodles brand into an intellectual property powerhouse. The firm just banked its first round of venture funding from Alexis Ohanian and is gearing up for some big new NFT launches as it looks to keep the party going even amid a crypto downturn.Subscribe to Chain Reaction on Apple, Spotify or your alternative podcast platform of choice to keep up with us every week.Subscribe to the Chain Reaction newsletter to dive deeper: https://techcrunch.com/newslettersHelpful links:https://techcrunch.com/2022/06/27/ftx-says-no-active-talks-to-buy-robinhood/https://techcrunch.com/2022/06/23/osoms-ov1-is-now-solanas-web3-android-handset-saga/https://techcrunch.com/2022/06/30/north-korea-lazarus-harmony-theft/ 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.

Welcome back, this week Anita and Lucas discuss the $258 billion Dogecoin lawsuit facing Elon Musk, how crypto collectible lovers are partying through the pain at the NFT NYC event and how some DAOs are showing the dark side of digital democracy.In their interview this week, Lucas and Anita got the chance to talk with musician and visual artist Latashá. In addition to creating crypto art, Latashá is the Head of Community at NFT startup Zora which recently raised a big round of funding. We talked with her about how the downturn will impact crypto creators and what web3 really has to offer artists.Subscribe to the Chain Reaction newsletter to dive deeper: https://techcrunch.com/newslettersHelpful links:https://techcrunch.com/2022/06/16/dogecoin-investor-sues-elon-musk-tesla-and-spacex-for-258-billion/https://techcrunch.com/2022/06/20/afropolitan-raises-2-1m-to-build-a-digital-nation-backed-by-balaji-srinivasan/https://techcrunch.com/2022/06/21/magic-eden-raises-130m-hitting-unicorn-status-at-1-6b-valuation/https://twitter.com/regiscake/status/1539338847829782528?s=20&t=gxtu5vdu6FyYcGw-LpT_bg 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.

Welcome back, this week Anita and Lucas discuss another stressful week for crypto markets which has pushed even bullish investors into bearish territories. We also chatted about growing crypto regulation efforts and Jack Dorsey’s latest effort called “web5”.In their interview this week, Lucas and Anita chat with Aaron Levie. Levie is the CEO of enterprise software company Box. While his day job doesn’t have anything to do with the blockchain, he has attracted the ire of plenty of crypto VCs for sharing thoughts on Twitter about why web3 won’t work. We caught up with Levie about some of his biggest complaints and what it would take for him to angel invest in a crypto startup.Subscribe to the Chain Reaction newsletter to dive deeper: https://techcrunch.com/newslettersHelpful links:https://techcrunch.com/2022/06/14/coinbase-ceo-says-it-is-laying-off-18-of-its-workers/https://techcrunch.com/2022/06/13/as-celsius-accelerates-the-crypto-sell-off-who-pays-the-price/https://techcrunch.com/2022/06/14/binance-crypto-exchange-hiring-plans-fight-crypto-winter/https://techcrunch.com/2022/06/13/crisis-on-the-blockchain/https://twitter.com/levie/status/1477052989881782272 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.

Welcome back, this week Lucas and Anita discuss investor drama facing blockchain startups during the market crash and the major piece of crypto legislation that just went live on the US Senate floor.In their interview this week, Anita and Lucas chat with Sriram Krishnan. Krishnan is a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), which he joined after a trifecta of senior roles at Twitter, Facebook and Snap. Krishnan recently joined the crypto team at a16z, which recently debuted a new $4.5 billion crypto mega fund. We chatted about crypto controversy and opportunities in web3 social with Krishnan. Our interview was edited for length and clarity.Subscribe to the Chain Reaction newsletter to dive deeper: https://techcrunch.com/newslettersHelpful links:https://techcrunch.com/2022/06/08/proposed-bipartisan-us-crypto-bill-could-be-sigh-of-relief-for-the-industry/https://techcrunch.com/2022/05/25/amid-crypto-downturn-a16z-debuts-4-5-billion-web3-mega-fund/https://twitter.com/levie/status/1531498735137476608 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.

Welcome back, this week Lucas and Anita argue about Coinbase’s latest management strategies, whether Do Kwon being called the new Bernie Madoff is a fair comparison, and why the OnlyFans founder is the latest web2 entrepreneur pivoting to crypto.In their interview this week, Anita and Lucas chat with Ty Haney. Haney is the founder of athleisure empire Outdoor Voices, though she’s recently departed the company to start a new effort around getting brands to embrace NFTs. We chatted with her about founding a crypto startup in a downturn, keeping her company well-capitalized and how she pivoted from yoga pants to non-fungible tokens.Subscribe to the Chain Reaction newsletter to dive deeper: https://techcrunch.com/newslettersHelpful links:https://techcrunch.com/2022/05/28/coinbase-real-time-feedback-dot-collector-ray-dalio/https://techcrunch.com/2022/05/26/onlyfans-founder-crypto-debut-influencer-trading-cards/https://techcrunch.com/2022/05/26/longtime-bitcoiner-dan-held-says-this-crypto-winter-wont-be-as-harsh-as-others/ 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.

Welcome back, this week Lucas and Anita dive into the latest mega-fund from venture giant Andreessen Horowitz and some of the… interesting bets that they’re making, including one in disgraced WeWork founder Adam Neumann’s new crypto startup. Lastly, they recap crypto exchange FTX’s big entry into stock trading, which comes just a week after the firm’s young CEO made a massive bet on Robinhood.In their interview this week, Lucas and Anita talk to Grace Isford. Isford is an investor at Lux Capital where she focuses on the infrastructure and security opportunities for blockchain startups. We talk about some of the recent big hacks and whether consumers can feel safe betting on crypto.Subscribe to the Chain Reaction newsletter to dive deeper: https://techcrunch.com/newslettersHelpful links:https://techcrunch.com/2022/05/25/amid-crypto-downturn-a16z-debuts-4-5-billion-web3-mega-fund/https://techcrunch.com/2022/05/24/flowcarbon-wework-adam-neumann-blockchain-crypto-carbon-credit-startup-raises-funding-from-a16z/https://techcrunch.com/2022/05/19/crypto-exchange-ftx-expands-into-stock-trading-retail-investors/ 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.

Welcome back, this week Lucas and Anita discuss the continued fallout from the broader market crash and how life is going for crypto giants on the public markets. We chat about FTX’s 30-year-old billionaire CEO buying up a big chunk of Robinhood, which is pumping the gas on crypto even as the market cools. We also discuss trouble at Coinbase and the continued fallout from the collapse of Terra. In their interview this week, Lucas and Anita chat with Mercedes Bent. Bent is a venture capitalist at Lightspeed Venture Partners where she places bets on consumer products in  cryptoland. Before joining Lightspeed, Bent spent some time in the VR world, so we picked her brain on where crypto fits into this metaverse future everyone is clamoring about. Helpful links:https://techcrunch.com/2022/05/17/robinhood-lets-users-manage-their-own-crypto-wallets-in-push-to-spur-trading/https://techcrunch.com/2022/05/17/coinbase-backtracks-hiring-plans-crypto-market-turmoil/https://techcrunch.com/2022/05/17/encode-club-is-minting-new-web3-developers-amid-crypto-talent-war/ Subscribe to the Chain Reaction newsletter to dive deeper: https://techcrunch.com/newsletters 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.

Welcome back, this week Lucas and Anita discuss turmoil and heartbreak in the crypto markets as Bitcoin and Ethereum get hit hard, a number of other popular tokens get crushed, and crypto-aligned public stocks like Coinbase and Robinhood see their share prices tank. What caused this bloodbath? Well, a major catalyst was the disastrous implosion of Terra’s Luna token as a result of ongoing stablecoin woes.In their interview this week, Lucas and Anita chat with Kevin Rose. Kevin is a serial entrepreneur who founded Digg in the early 2000s and is now an investor at True Ventures and a co-founder of the Proof Collective. His startup recently raised $10 million from Seven Seven Six and launched its NFT project Moonbirds, which has quickly become one of the most popular NFT efforts out there. Listen along as we discuss the crypto crash and its fallout, and the challenges up ahead for NFTs.Helpful links:https://techcrunch.com/2022/05/10/bitcoins-backers-trying-to-turn-it-into-one-blockchain-to-rule-all-crypto/11:09https://techcrunch.com/2022/05/11/ust-founder-do-kwon-shares-plan-to-save-its-stablecoin-from-mass-destruction/11:09https://techcrunch.com/2022/05/11/terras-ust-crash-will-make-life-harder-for-crypto-as-regulation-looms/Subscribe to the Chain Reaction newsletter to dive deeper: https://techcrunch.com/newsletters 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.

Welcome back, this week Lucas and Anita break down the chaotic rollout of Ethereum’s biggest drop yet — a virtual land sale for the Bored Apes metaverse. The startup behind it banked more than $400 million in the sale, but the auction of land tiles called Otherdeeds brought the Ethereum blockchain to a crashing halt, leaving users paying exorbitant transaction fees worth thousands and tens of thousands of dollars just to buy themselves some monkey land.Beyond that, they discuss Wikipedia’s abandonment of crypto donations after a vote from the Wikimedia Foundation’s editors and how the SEC is bulking up its crypto crime division with a few new hires that are tasked with the daunting challenge of policing web3.In their interview this week, Lucas and Anita chat with Jill Gunter. Jill is a crypto VC at Slow Ventures and the co-founder of Espresso Systems — a startup building a privacy-centric blockchain. Listen along as they get her take on why there are so many blockchains out there and whether we’re headed towards a future where one blockchain rules them all.Subscribe to the Chain Reaction newsletter to dive deeper: https://techcrunch.com/newsletters 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.