Moving on from the SBF test with Circle IPO rumors, a huge new crypto fund and sanctions

Welcome back to Chain Reaction.

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This week on web3

1. Stablecoin Circle IPO Makes Sense (TC+)
2. Faction Launches $285M Early-Stage Crypto Fund
3. LG’s IT arm taps Tiger Global-backed QuickNode for web3 search
4. a16z backs London-based crypto startup Pimlico as it boosts UK focus
5. US Sanctions Russians Accused of Money Laundering Ryuk Ransomware

The last pod

For this week episode, Jacqueline interviewed Brendan Quigley, partner at law firm Baker Botts.

Quigley is a former US Marine now an attorney representing clients in matters related to government investigations and commercial litigation.

Previously, he was a federal prosecutor as an Assistant US Attorney in the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, which we call the SDNY. If the bell rings it is because one of our previous guests, Josh Naftalishad this role as well.

Brendan has tried over 12 cases leading to verdicts and was a senior member of the Office’s Capital and Commodities Fraud Unit.

We talked about SBF’s verdict and future sentence, as well as how his March 2024 trial on additional charges will play out.

Sign up to Chain reaction on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite pod platform to catch up on the latest episodes and leave us a review if you like what you hear!

Follow the money

1. Stackr raises $5 million in seed round to help developers build scalable web3 apps
2. Crypto and AI-centric Ritual comes out of stealth with $25 million in funding led by Archetype
3. StablR has raised $3.5 million to build its euro-backed startup
4. NFT browsing platform Authentick raised $4M in first round
5. Llama Raises $6M to Help Improve Crypto Protocols and Smart Contracts

This list was compiled with information from Messari as well as reports from TechCrunch itself.

What else are we writing?

Want to escape the web3 world? Here are some TechCrunch articles that caught our attention this week.

1. With the power of AI, you can also be mediocre (TC+)
2. Secure messaging app Signal is one step closer to launching usernames
3. Robotics funding saw another drop in 2023
4. Klarna is headed for an IPO and it’s not alone (TC+)
5. New pre-seed chapters appear everywhere (TC+)

Follow me on twitter @Jacqmelinek for crypto news, memes and more.