Welcome back to Chain Reaction.

Last week, we recorded our news episode live onstage at TechCrunch Disrupt, in which we talked about the Aptos launch and shared our predictions for where we expect money to flow in the web3 world. This week, we dove into NFTs, examining Apple’s new App Store guidelines and Reddit’s recent success in the space.

We also announced some personal news — one of our co-hosts, Lucas Matney, has moved on to new adventures outside of TechCrunch, but Jacquelyn and Anita are still here and excited to keep bringing you the latest and greatest crypto stories each week.

We’re also super busy prepping for our crypto event in Miami this November 17th, where we’ll be onstage chatting with speakers including OpenSea’s Devin Finzer, FTX’s Amy Wu and Yuga Labs’ Nicole Muniz. If you’re interested in joining us, you can use the promo code REACT for 15% off a General Admission ticket.

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this week in web3

Here are some of the biggest crypto stories TechCrunch has covered this week.

The country may soon require retail investors to take a test and not use credit card payments and other forms of borrowing for trading cryptocurrencies, per a central bank proposal on Wednesday. It’s another stringent measure from the island nation’s government as it looks to make citizens aware of the risks surrounding volatile assets.
Asset management firm Stone Ridge has launched a startup accelerator, In Wolf’s Clothing (Wolf), that will be dedicated to growing Bitcoin-focused applications, the team exclusively told TechCrunch. The program will bring four cohorts per year, each consisting of about eight to 12 teams, or about 30 to 50 founders, to New York City from around the world for eight weeks at a time to focus on building on the Bitcoin-centric Lightning Network and Taro protocol, Kelly Brewster, CEO of Wolf, told TechCrunch.

Apple introduced new App Store rules on Monday that limit features unlocked through NFTs. The company is prohibiting apps to use other mechanisms such as QR codes or cryptocurrencies to give special access to users. It’s also cracking down on cryptocurrency exchanges as it now mandates them to have “appropriate licensing and permissions to provide a cryptocurrency exchange” in all regions they operate in.

Meta reported earnings this week, revealing that its net income was just $4.395 billion, down from $9.194 billion year over year. The decline is mostly due to Meta’s huge investment in the metaverse: Reality Labs, Meta’s virtual reality division, lost $3.672 billion this quarter.

Image Credits: Meta

the latest pod

For this week’s Tuesday episode, we caught up with Andrei Brasoveanu, a venture capital investor at Accel, about his web3 investments. He talked to us about his investments in companies such as Nansen and Sorare and discussed how the firm competes with crypto-native VC players for top deals in the blockchain space. 

In our Thursday episode, we unpacked two big stories in the NFT space — Apple’s new App Store guidelines for NFT purchases, which are less-than-friendly to exchanges, and Reddit’s surprisingly successful foray into this undeniably tough market. We also talked about the latest tea from across the pond in the U.K., where crypto proponent Rishi Sunak just became prime minister, and what that could mean for crypto companies and regulation in the country.

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

Image Credits: HM Treasury

follow the money

1. DAO operating system Origami raised $6.2 million from investors, including Bloomberg Beta and Protocol Labs.
2. NFT startup Exclusible bagged $5 million from FC Basel owner Dan Holzmann and Tioga Capital.
3. ParaFi participated in Thala Labs’ $6 million seed round to build a DeFi stack on Aptos.
4. Paragraph, a web3-native publishing platform, closed a $1.7 million pre-seed round led by Lemniscap with participation from Binance Labs, FTX Ventures and others.
5. Blockchain identity and privacy startup Sealance emerged from stealth with an undisclosed amount of funding from Galaxy, Ribbit Capital and other investors.