Bitcoin hits new high, Solana price jumps as memecoins mania rises and Worldcoin faces heat in SpainWelcome to TechCrunch Crypto, formerly known as Chain Reaction.
Hello and welcome back to the TechCrunch Crypto newsletter.
This week in web3Crunching numbersAs mentioned, this week the crypto space saw all-time highs for bitcoin, again.
Memecoins across the Ethereum, Solana and Avalanche blockchains have seen a huge rally as the crypto market continues to expand.
It’s important to remember that while some memecoins will retain price support for an extended period of time, some can plummet within days, or hours.
The cryptocurrency passed $160 on Wednesday, marking its highest price since January 2022.
So it’s not surprising that the growth and traction on its blockchain is also being transpired through to its token.
Since mid-December, a number of Shiba Inu dog-themed tokens on the Solana blockchain like Bonk and dogwifhat have taken off.
(Please note none of this is financial advice, but one of the reasons that could point to Solana’s price increase.)
Memecoins in general have seen a huge rally as the crypto market continues to thaw from its most recent winter.
At the low end of this range, $31 billion, though Reddit would be worth $4.93 billion based on an expected 158.98 million shares outstanding.
With $804.0 million in 2023 revenue, Reddit is on track to trade for a multiple of 6.9x to 8.0x its revenue, depending on the valuation estimate you want to use.
Reddit’s game plan for AI is one good reason why it’s pricing its shares closer to Meta than Snap.
Reddit data constantly grows and regenerates as users come and interact with their communities and each other.
Investors might consider Reddit a side-bet on AI itself, even if the company’s core business isn’t creating AI models.
Bitcoin has increased 9.5% in the past seven days and is up 50% on the month, according to CoinMarketCap data.
There is, of course, no way of telling how high bitcoin can rise during the current bull frenzy.
The CoinMarketCap Crypto Fear & Greed Index is in “extreme greed” territory at 89.12 points, up from “neutral” at 59.3 points, in early February.
The index measures price and trading data of the biggest cryptocurrencies, with its user behavior data to measure crypto market sentiment from 0-100.
The last bitcoin halving was on May 11, 2020 and drove its price up about 600% from around $9,000 to $63,000 by the April 2021 mark.
Rivian has a little cinematic surprise tucked in its new “treehouse” rooftop tent, one of the many accessories the automaker plans to sell alongside its next-generation R2 SUV and future R3 EVs.
The rooftop tent, which Rivian calls the treehouse, is equipped with a movie projector, which is run using power from the Rivian, Brian Gase, Rivian’s senior director of prototype and special projects, told TechCrunch during a customer event in Laguna Beach, California.
The customer event was held Thursday evening, several hours after Rivian founder and CEO RJ Scaringe unveiled the all-electric R2 SUV and the sporty R3 and R3x hatchback vehicles.
The treehouse, as Rivian has branded it, is different from the white-labeled Yakima tent designed for its flagship R1T truck.
This new treehouse product is contained in a hardshell, which then opens up into a large rooftop tent.
Rivian just surprise-announced an all-electric hatchback called the R3 — giving the company a big Apple-esque “one more thing” announcement at the event that was ostensibly supposed to be all about its new R2 SUV.
And it represents an entirely new market for Rivian to try and play in of smaller EVs — crucially, one that Tesla currently dominates.
While we knew Rivian was working on an “R3,” I’m not sure many people expected it to look quite like this.
Unfortunately, the company didn’t immediately share… any real details whatsoever about when the R3 will be available, or how much it will cost.
The R3 is a near-term fix for that, apparently, as Rivian’s stock price soared after the surprise reveal.
Spotify has revealed plans to increase subscription fees in France, in response to a new tax directed at music-streaming services operating in the country.
While all the impacted companies are opposing the new law, Spotify has been the most vociferous, largely due to the fact it is the biggest player in the country.
The company wrote in a blog post today:“With the creation of this new tax, Spotify would be required to give approximately two-thirds of every euro it generates to music to rights holders and the French government.
What’s perhaps the most telling part of this whole episode is how important France is to Spotify in terms of market traction.
With regards to France, Spotify is conveying as much — if not more — grievance with the new tax as it did with Uruguay, yet it has given no indication that it will exit the country.
In an e-mail exchange, Babylon Micro-Farms CEO Alexander Olesson tells me “we’ll have these in every school and apartment one day.” It’s a nice vision, and really the level of belief/commitment required to run a startup – particularly in a field as oft-fraught at vertical farming.
With a price point of $6,500, howver, the STEM Garden isn’t likely arriving in too many homes in the near term.
Virginia-based Babylon Micro-farms has long distinguished itself from much of the vertical farming world with its focus on smaller spaces and the new system further shrinks that footprint.
Where previous models were focused on higher ed, the STEM Garden is specifically tackling K-9, which tends not to have as deep pockets.
The STEM garden is up for pre-order starting today and will start shipping to classes in Q2.
The much-teased and oft-leaked Nothing Phone (2a) is now officially official, just under a week after it made its limited debut at the company’s MWC after party.
Nothing’s third phone is the first that goes directly after the mid-tier/budget space, with a starting price of $349.
The phone is currently only available here for developers looking to integrate third-party apps with the light up “Glyphs” on the device’s back.
In the London-based firm’s home market, it’s available in both 8GB/128GB and 12GB/256GB models, running £319 and £319, respectively.
At 5,000 mAh, the battery is larger than the ones found on both the Phone (1) (4,500mAh) and Phone (2) (4,700 mAh).
If Reddit prices too high out the gate, it loses out on potential buyer interest and could trade down from its IPO valuation instead of building momentum.
Reddit’s most recent primary round in 2021 raised $410 million at a $10 billion valuation from investors, including Fidelity, Quiet Capital and Montauk Ventures, among others.
The market has obviously changed since then, and going out at that $10 billion valuation wouldn’t be smart.
What happens nextThe $5 billion valuation that Reddit may pursue is not risk-free.
Reddit offering shares to its top users is likely a ploy to avoid the stock entering meme-trading territory, Martin said.
