Author: GT

The media business is tough: Entrepreneurs must navigate fierce competition, fickle tastes, and an audience that expects content to be free. Despite all this, Jason Yanowitz believes he has figured out how to build a profitable media business around the niche of crypto, even at a time when leading rivals have stumbled. He says the firm he cofounded, Blockworks, is pursuing a growth strategy that is on track to pull in over $30 million in revenue this year, while adding a new business line of selling data in addition to its existing ones of news, events, research, consulting, and podcasts.…

Instagram head Adam Mosseri says the company is looking to improve the app’s search functionality, admitting this is an area where Instagram could do more to compete. The remarks, made on a recent episode of the “Build Your Tribe” podcast, come at a time when younger Gen Z users often turn to social apps like TikTok for answers, instead of using traditional search engines. Instagram is in that mix, too, of course, but it knows its position could be stronger. “We’re … starting to invest more in search on Instagram because there’s so much amazing content,” he said. “And quite frankly,…

“Hi Curly, kill anyone today,” said Billy Crystal’s Mitch to Jack Palance’s Curly in City Slickers. “Day ain’t over yet,” replied Curly. Bernstein, though, is ready to call it a day, saying bitcoin’s (BTC) being down just 26% from its record high of less than three months ago shows resilience. Previous crises, such as the Covid-19 epidemic and interest rate shocks, saw the world’s largest cryptocurrency “fall of the cliff” with 50-70% drawdowns, the report noted. The price action “suggests demand from more resilient capital,” the analysts led by Gautam Chhugani wrote. “Bitcoin’s digital gold thesis has strengthened driven by…

If you ever call 911 from an area that’s hard to get to, you might hear the buzz of a drone well before a police cruiser pulls up. And there’s a good chance that it will be one made by Brinc Drones, a Seattle-based startup founded by 25-year-old Blake Resnick, who dropped out of college to run the company. Brinc, which was founded in 2017 and counts OpenAI CEO Sam Altman as a seed-stage investor, just announced today that it has raised $75 million in new funding led by Index Ventures. This brings the startup’s total funding to $157.2 million.…

Borrowing demand across decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols plunged sharply in the wake of the recent crypto market turmoil, a sign of widespread deleveraging as crypto investors unwound risky positions. The average U.S. dollar stablecoin yield — what protocols pay out to lenders for lending out their assets — fell to 2.8% on Tuesday to its lowest level in a year, measured by DeFi yield-earning application vaults.fyi’s benchmark. That’s well below the average U.S. dollar money market rates on traditional markets (4.3%), and a hefty decline from mid-December’s crypto market peak, when DeFi rates topped 18%. “This is largely due to…

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department is disbanding a team of prosecutors who targeted cryptocurrency crimes and is shifting its focus away from complex crypto-related cases involving banking and securities law, according to a memo reviewed by The Associated Press. “The Department of Justice is not a digital assets regulator,” Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a memo sent to prosecutors Monday.It’s the latest move by the Trump administration to try to boost the cryptocurrency industry while undoing the Biden administration’s efforts to crack down on wrongdoers in the industry. The Trump administration’s effort has included a similar shift…

The crypto market’s relief rally fizzled out on Tuesday as stocks gave up big early gains and turned lower alongside the Trump administration’s plan to imminently enforce punitive tariffs against China. After staging a brief rally to the $80,000 mark, bitcoin (BTC) had slumped back to $76,500 before stabilizing below $78,000. Recently, the top cryptocurrency was down 1.2% in the last 24 hours, while ether (ETH) lost nearly 4% over the same period and fell below $1,500. The CoinDesk 20 — an index of the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, except for stablecoins, memecoins and exchange coins — was…

Apple is considering importing more iPhones from India to sidestep the 54% additional tariffs on goods imported from China that U.S. president Donald Trump announced last week, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing anonymous sources. The company sees this as a short-term measure while it seeks to negotiate with the Trump administration to get an exemption from the tariffs, as it doesn’t yet want to revamp its supply chain built around China, the report said. Compared to the new 54% tariffs on Chinese-made goods, the U.S. has proposed a 26% tariffs on goods imported from India. If the tariffs aren’t…

Billing itself as “Stripe for emerging markets,” Turkish fintech Sipay has raised a $78 million Series B funding round, claiming a valuation of $875 million in the process. This round is significant, as Sipay plans to expand into markets outside of Turkey, offering additional services like remittances that Stripe currently does not offer in those regions. The all-equity round was led by U.S.-based Elephant VC, with participation from Revolut co-founder Nik Storonsky’s VC firm, QuantumLight. Founded in 2019, Sipay operates an all-in-one app for managing digital wallets, investments, and loyalty schemes, and offers embedded finance, FX transactions, and other products.…

In one of the largest deals in the crypto space to date, crypto payments company XRP, to integrate a broader range of services that will attract large institutions, CEO Brad Garlinghouse told Fortune. “Ripple needs to make sure we have the infrastructure in place to appeal and expand to a larger segment of the biggest bulge bracket institutions,” he said. The deal consisted of mostly cash as well as XRP and stock, Garlinghouse said. The acquisition will close in the coming months pending regulatory approval, and Hidden Road founder Marc Asch will stay on to head the prime broker at…