Turns out Ledger can keep some keys to your crypto wallet, if you agree

On Thursday, the company’s technical director, Charles Guillemet, delivered a tweet thread in an attempt to spread the fire. “To use Ledger Recover, you must authorize the backup or restore process on your device.”

¯_(ツ)_/¯

This week in web3

Coinbase launches subscription service with focus on European expansion (TC+)

Coinbase, the world’s second-largest crypto exchange, is launching its subscription service, Coinbase One, in 35 countries in an effort to retain users and grow its recurring revenue streams as the crypto economy struggles through a bearish market. Coinbase One was originally launched in Fall 2021 in beta and will be publicly available starting today in the US, UK, Germany and Ireland, the company told TechCrunch+ exclusively.

Your first look at Alliance DAO’s newest group of web3 startups

Alliance DAO, a web3 accelerator and builder community, had its most recent cohort, known as ALL10, showcase their ideas Wednesday during a demo day, covered exclusively by TechCrunch. The latest cohort provides a good snapshot of what’s happening in the industry as a whole, said Qiao Wang, a core contributor to Alliance DAO. Many of the teams are looking at improving popular crypto subsectors, such as the Bitcoin network, appchains, rollups-as-a-service, zero-knowledge proofs, proof-of-physical-work, and real-time blockchain data, to just name a few.

LayerZero and Immunefi Launch the Largest Cryptobug Bounty Program With Up to $15M in Rewards

LayerZero Labs, the team behind cross-chain messaging protocol LayerZero, is teaming up with bug bounty and security services platform Immunefi to launch a $15 million bug bounty for its protocol, LayerZero co-founder and CEO Bryan Pellegrino told Exclusive to TechCrunch. “We have enough money to pay out numerous premiums. The security of the protocol is paramount,” said Pellegrino. The reward money will come from the company’s equity entity, Pellegrino added.

Even as crypto exchanges leave Canada, Coinbase intends to play the “long game.” (TC+)

The world’s largest crypto exchange, Binance, said last week it would stop serving Canadian customers due to “new guidelines regarding stablecoins and investor limits for crypto exchanges.” But while the exchange said it will return to the country “one day”, his departure leaves a huge gap that its competitors are looking to fill. Coinbase, Kraken, Gemini, and Crypto.com are some big players in space planning to do just that.

Binance is betting big on M&A and VC deals (TC+)

Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange by volume, is going big on M&A this year, with a particular focus on geographic gaps and customer base. And helping the exchange there is the company’s chief business officer, Yibo Ling. I sat down with Ling at Consensus 2023 to learn more about Binance’s investment focus, layer-1 blockchains, and geographic and product growth for the company, among a host of other things.

Pudgy Penguins wants to use its NFT-inspired toys to bring IP to the real world (TC+)

Pudgy Penguins, an (admittedly cute) NFT collection that doubles as a web3 IP company, is releasing a line of toys called Pudgy Toys, Luca Netz, CEO of the company exclusively told TechCrunch+. The initial launch will include approximately 100,000 toys, priced from $5 to $35, that will be sold online and through international retailers. Each toy comes with a birth certificate and QR code that unlocks a series of NFTs or a trait box on its online platform, Pudgy World, Netz said.

The latest pod

For this week’s episode, Jaquelyn interviewed Sergei Nazarovco-founder of Chainlink, a protocol that provides an oracle network for smart contracts.

Chainlink is also known as a web3 service platform that connects people, businesses and data to the world of web3. And for good reason: it has enabled more than $7 trillion in transaction volume across DeFi, gaming, NFTs and other major industries.

Prior to co-founding Chainlink, Nazarov co-founded four other companies, most recently SmartContract, which focused on smart contracts.

We discussed a number of issues related to smart contracts, oracle networks, cross-chain interoperability and Nazarov’s long-term vision for Chainlink.

We also dove into:

Unexpected use cases for smart contracts
Cryptographic guarantees
How traditional companies can symbolize assets
AI and blockchain technology
CCIP updates

Subscribe Chain reaction on apple podcasts, Spotify or your favorite pod platform to stay up to date with the latest episodes, and leave us a review if you like what you hear!

Follow the money

Jia, a blockchain-based lender to small businesses in emerging markets, raised $4.3 million
Success with Rihanna’s music rights helps web3 marketplace Royal raise $71 million
Bitcoin brokers River Financial raised $35 million in a series B
Cormint raised $30 million to scale up bitcoin mining operations
Web3 music company another block Raised $4.3 million

This list was compiled using information from Messari and TechCrunch’s own reporting.

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