Lets Have More Crypto Partnerships and Fewer Crypto Layoffs!

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For a moment, talk about FTX – the 3-letter crypto exchange – was quieter. But SBF (the former CEO of FTX) quickly changed that as he shared his 2,300-word overview on Thursday via Substack explaining what went into building FTX and Alameda before they existed.

In the last week, Coinbase (2nd largest exchange) and SuperRare (NFT marketplace) have both announced staff cuts of 20% and 30%, respectively.

Coinbase Co-founder and CEO Brian Armstrong’s post on Tuesday explained that after their first major round of layoffs (18% or 1,100 jobs) last June, there was “no way to reduce expenses significantly enough” without further headcount changes.

Amid the gloomy sentiment of layoffs, Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko tweeted a ray of hope: “Coinbase employees affected by cuts – reach out! I’d love to find you a place in the ecosystem.”

Though it may seem like humanity is doomed, hope remains.

This week saw major partnerships between crypto companies and big-name Web 2.0 and financial players like AWS and Mastercard. Check out the stories below to find out more!

This week in web3

, and other organizations.

AWS partners with Avalanche to bring blockchain solutions to enterprises, governments, and other organizations at scale.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Ava Labs, the company building Avalanche layer-1 blockchain, have joined forces to drive blockchain adoption with enterprises, institutions and governments. “Web3 and blockchain are inevitable,” Howard Wright of AWS told TechGround. “It’s just a matter of when they’ll become mainstream – but this cycle is moving faster than ever before.” Both firms are excited to be part of it!

6 crypto investors discuss DeFi and its potential for adoption in 2023. What lies ahead? TG++

Mastercard and Polygon have joined forces to launch an artist incubator, focused on web3 technologies. The incubator will foster creativity and innovation in the space, helping artists develop their projects using blockchain-based platforms.

Mastercard, a leader in financial payments, is launching an incubator to help artists join the Web3 revolution and better connect with fans. The company has partnered with Polygon – a scaling blockchain built on Ethereum which has seen significant success in the Web 2.0 space – to equip participating artists with knowledge of minting NFTs, representing themselves virtually & building their communities. Raja Rajamannar (Chief Marketing & Communications Officer at Mastercard) shared that this initiative will “help them [artists] understand how they can use these emerging technologies” for greater connection.

Investors in web3 are committed to the long-term. (TG++)

Investors seem more than willing to back web3 companies, which appear here to stay. To understand investor perspectives on this technology, TechGround surveyed over 35 of them and found most are actively investing in it – with optimism for its transformative potential.

The latest pod

After the success of Season 1, we knew that it was time to bring back this popular game show.

Chain Reaction is back for Season 2! After the success of its debut season, we’re thrilled to launch an all-new edition of this exciting game show.

This week I spoke to Ryan Wyatt, President of Polygon Labs. They’re revolutionizing the crypto space with their layer-2 blockchain built on Ethereum’s ecosystem.

Last year, Polygon partnered with major companies like Starbucks, Disney and Mastercard to launch loyalty rewards and accelerator programs. Now, Wyatt shares what’s next for Polygon in 2023 as well as potential growth opportunities in the industry.

We spoke about: