An Explosion of Bitcoin Startups

Plus Warren struggles to get support for anti-crypto bill

Author

Nathaniel Whittemore
April 28, 2023

The Breakdown First Five - Friday April 28, 2023

5. Warren has no support for bill

Despite the fire and fury, Senator Warren can’t get it done. Warren’s reintroduction of a draconian Crypto AML bill is being delayed due to a lack of sponsors. The Anti-Crypto army seems to be running out of recruits.

4. The Narrative Dun Shifted

When the banking crisis first began there were many (ahem looking at you #5) who wanted to blame it on crypto. Except that over and over, the officials involved have gone out of their way to say it wasn’t - and that the failures of these institutions were caused by internal management decisions and external forces. Nic speculates here on why.

3. Two hearings, little progress

Democrats aren’t moving an inch. Two Congressional hearings were held yesterday on Crypto market structure but little progress seems likely. House Democrats are hardening their stance that no additional legislation is required. Meanwhile, Chair Gensler released another video. This time the gag is about goldfish and leash laws. 🙄

2. Coinbase takes SEC response public

Gary’s not the only one who can make videos. Coinbase takes the gloves off in responding to the SEC’s Wells Notice. They point out that the US used to be a place where innovative companies can have a constructive dialogue with regulators. Now? The SEC seems hell-bent on pushing the industry into a showdown over unclear and ill-suited regulations.

1. Bitcoin Startups Supercharged

Bear market building has shown incredible results for Bitcoin. Alongside the dramatic increase in users of NOSTR and the Lightning network, the next generation of Bitcoin startups are getting increasing focus from VC. On Thursday Trammell Venture Partners released their Bitcoin-native research brief covering the last two years of the Bitcoin startup ecosystem. If you want to get hyped going into the weekend, this is your read.

Midjourney is amazing but we need to train it that Bitcoin isn’t just these weird old coin images

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Thanks for reading -NLW