Farcaster hype grows, Bluesky opens to the general public and SEC’s Hester Peirce is open to new token proposals

Welcome to TechCrunch Crypto, previously referred to as Chain Response.

To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s largest and most necessary crypto tales delivered to your inbox each Thursday at 12 p.m. PT, subscribe right here.

Hey and welcome again to the fourth version of the brand new and improved TechCrunch Crypto publication. You in all probability know the deal already, however alongside our recurrently scheduled information bits, I’ve added some recurring segments and options — so for those who like what you see (or don’t), let me know at jacquelyn@techcrunch.com.

Anyhow, let’s get into the massive headlines under.

This week in web3

1. Decentralized social community Farcaster is making an attempt to succeed in mass adoption by means of Internet 2.0 strategies
2. Maybe this is the reason the bitcoin spot ETFs are but to ship crypto costs to the moon
3. SEC’s Hester Peirce nonetheless plans to push for a token ‘secure harbor’ plan
4. a16z’s Chris Dixon thinks it’s time to give attention to blockchains’ use circumstances, not hypothesis
5. Bluesky is now open for anybody to affix

Crunching numbers

This week the crypto market was comparatively up as the 2 largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, bitcoin and ether, rose 5.7 and 6%, respectively, on the week, in line with CoinMarketCap information. The worldwide crypto market cap elevated 5.5% over a seven-day interval to $1.72 trillion.

Of the highest 10 tokens by market cap, Solana elevated probably the most on the week at 7.7% on the time of writing.

Our favourite ‘Crypto Twitter’ publish

That awkward second when your crypto mates and normie mates see “zero data” as two completely different meanings. However in case you don’t know…see the definition right here.

Picture Credit: X (opens in a brand new window)

The most recent pod

This 12 months, Chain Response is doing month-to-month sequence diving into completely different matters and themes in crypto. To start out issues off, this month we’re specializing in NFTs.

For this week’s episode, I interviewed Devin Finzer, the CEO of NFT market OpenSea. That is additionally our first full video recording and it’s on TechCrunch’s YouTube channel; test it out right here.
He co-founded OpenSea in 2017 and it shortly climbed to turn into probably the most well-known — and effectively funded — NFT marketplaces. Two years in the past, it raised $300 million in a Collection C spherical at a $13.3 billion post-money valuation, bringing its whole capital raised to over $400 million. A few of its traders embrace corporations Andreessen Horowitz and Paradigm, in addition to celebrities like Kevin Durant and Ashton Kutcher.
Regardless of the NFT market’s buying and selling quantity falling from all-time highs in late 2021 to early 2022, OpenSea continues to be pushing ahead, although different NFT marketplaces have popped up and challenged their dominance.
Devin and I focus on the significance of web3 video games integrating NFTs, Internet 2.0 corporations launching their very own digital collectibles and challenges {the marketplace} faces.
We additionally dive into:

Huge use circumstances for NFTs
The corporate’s future mission
Retaining group members
Gaining market share and buying and selling quantity

However wait there’s extra…
This week we even have a bonus episode with Hester Peirce, commissioner of the U.S. Securities and Alternate Fee.
I moderated a fireplace chat with Commissioner Peirce at Georgetown College’s McDonough College of Enterprise alongside Eddie Cullen, a former candidate for New York Metropolis Mayor in 2021 and co-founder and CEO of Crescite Innovation Company.
We mentioned quite a few well timed matters, together with the SEC’s spot bitcoin ETF approval, coverage making to maintain crypto innovation alive within the U.S. and the commissioner’s Token Secure Harbor Proposal 2.0 and whether or not Peirce is contemplating a brand new one.
Subscribe to Chain Response on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favourite pod platform to maintain up with the newest episodes, and please go away us a evaluate for those who like what you hear!
Comply with the cash

Superform Labs raised $6.5 million to assist others distribute, handle and entry yield
MediConCen raised $6.85 million to automate insurance coverage claims with AI and blockchain tech
Immoblocks raised $5.67 million for its blockchain-based actual property funding platform
Filecoin-centric staking protocol GLIF raised $4.5 million in a seed spherical led by Multicoin
Tether led a $25 million Collection A spherical for cell cost app Oobit

This listing was compiled with info from Messari in addition to TechCrunch’s personal reporting.
What else we’re writing 
Wish to department out from the world of web3? Listed below are some articles on TechCrunch that caught our consideration this week.

Why Latin American SaaS startups are completely different from their US friends
Really, it’s good for Spotify that Joe Rogan’s podcast is not unique
Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional evaluate: The infinite desktop
Adam Neumann is making an attempt to purchase again WeWork
Mamoon Hamid and Ilya Fushman of Kleiner Perkins: ‘Greater than 80%’ of pitches now contain AI