Year: 2018

07 Feb 2018

Crypto prices mount a comeback following huge losses

 What goes up, must go down… what does down, must go up…? After a big and bloody plunge this week — which saw the price of bitcoin touch a two-month low of sub-$6,000 — the crypto market has mounted a comeback with double-digit gains across the board. Coinmarketcap.com — the current go-to for crypto pricing — shows that bitcoin is up 26 percent in the last… Read More
07 Feb 2018

SoftBank’s Vision Fund has already spent over $35 billion on investments

 SoftBank made waves when its gigantic Vision Fund hit a massive $93 billion first close of a targeted $100 billion total last year, but already it is clear why the firm is reportedly planning a sequel. According to the Japanese firm’s latest financials, it has already deployed one-third of the capital. A large chunk of the investments went on ride-hailing. SoftBank completed a $7.7… Read More
07 Feb 2018

Day One Ventures launches fund which wraps VC and PR into one

 There is a clutch of new VC funds launched in the US every year, and but when you look at the stats around new funds started by women they are pretty dismal. A cursory glance at the figures from last year reveals that out of 153 funds founded in the US last year, only four were founded by women, and only two have gone on to raise money. Furthermore, women account for only seven percent of… Read More
07 Feb 2018

SpaceX’s spacesuited Starman mannequin serves a real purpose

 SpaceX put a “Starman” into space today, on a path to a potential wide looping orbit of Mars and Earth — it was actually a mannequin wearing an official SpaceX crew flight suit, but it was more than just a fun payload for a rocket that stood every chance of exploding mid-flight, it turns out. Read More
07 Feb 2018

David Sacks’s new startup wants to make it safer for old-guard industries to jump into crypto

 SEC chairman Jay Clayton made clear today that his agency, along with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, remains acutely concerned about initial coin offerings and cryptocurrency trades. In fact, toward that end, they’re now looking for more expansive powers when it comes to protecting customers on cryptocurrency exchanges from fraud. Read More
07 Feb 2018

Elon Musk says SpaceX to focus on BFR following Falcon Heavy launch

 SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said at a press event for the just-launched Falcon Heavy that SpaceX will now begin focusing in earnest on “BFR,” the code name for its next big space launch vehicle. BFR (aka “big f*cking rocket,” in case you lack imagination) will be designed to be a vehicle capable of using a single stage to make it all the way to orbit, with fully loaded tanks. Read More
07 Feb 2018

After years of neglect, Snapchat wins in the developing world

 Snapchat doubled its Rest Of World revenue this quarter. That’s a surprise, considering CEO Evan Spiegel never seemed to care about anyone but U.S. teens. Snapchat’s Android app was buggy. Its videos loaded too slow on weak connections. And Spiegel even admitted “Historically we’ve really focused our efforts on markets where [high-end phones and broadband mobile… Read More
07 Feb 2018

SpaceX landed two of its three Falcon Heavy first-stage boosters

 SpaceX has managed an incredible feat alongside its historic Falcon Heavy first test launch today — landing two of its boosters at once, nearly simultaneously, intact. The first-stage rockets used during today’s launch included two flight-proven Falcon 9 boosters previously used during missions for SpaceX in 2016 and then refurbished, which landed at their intended destinations… Read More
06 Feb 2018

Senate cryptocurrency hearing strikes a cautiously optimistic tone

 In a hearing today before the Senate Banking Committee, Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton and Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Christopher Giancarlo opened up about what the near-term U.S. regulatory fate of cryptocurrency might look like. In a week of plunging prices and bad news, the hearing struck a tone that coin watchers could reasonably interpret as… Read More