Moving on from SBF trial with Circle IPO rumors, a massive new crypto fund and sanctions

Welcome back to Chain Reaction.

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This week in web3

1. Stablecoin company Circle going public makes good sense (TC+)
2. Faction launches $285M early-stage crypto fund
3. LG’s IT arm taps Tiger Global-backed QuickNode for web3 pursuit
4. a16z backs London-based crypto startup Pimlico as it ramps up UK focus
5. US sanctions Russian accused of laundering Ryuk ransomware funds

The latest pod

For this week’s episode, Jacquelyn interviewed Brendan Quigley, partner at Baker Botts law firm.

Quigley is a former U.S. Marine, now attorney who represents clients on matters related to white-collar government investigations and commercial disputes.

Previously, he was a federal prosecutor as an assistant U.S attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, which we call SDNY. If that rings a bell it’s because one of our previous guests, Josh Naftalis, also had that role.

Brendan has tried more than 12 cases that were brought to verdicts and was a senior member of the Office’s Securities and Commodities Fraud Unit.

We talked about SBF’s verdict and future sentencing as well as how his March 2024 trial for additional charges will pan out.

Subscribe to Chain Reaction on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite pod platform to keep up with the latest episodes, and please leave us a review if you like what you hear!

Follow the money

1. Stackr raised $5 million in seed round to help developers build scalable web3 apps
2. Crypto and AI-focused Ritual comes out of stealth with $25 million in financing led by Archetype
3. StablR raised $3.5 million to build out its euro-backed stablecoin startup
4. NFT browsing platform Authentick raised $4 million in seed round
5. Llama raised $6 million to help improve crypto protocols and smart contracts

This list was compiled with information from Messari as well as TechCrunch’s own reporting.

What else we’re writing

Want to branch out from the world of web3? Here are some articles on TechCrunch that caught our attention this week.

1. With the power of AI, you can be mediocre, too (TC+)
2. Secure messaging app Signal moves a step closer to launching usernames
3. Robotics funding saw another dip in 2023
4. Klarna is inching toward an IPO, and it’s not the only one (TC+)
5. New pre-seed funds are popping up everywhere (TC+)

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