Hello friends, and welcome back to the week in retrospect!
Last week I wrote about Facebook’s never-ending Trump problem. This week, I’m checking out Elon Musk’s wild week of whipping crypto markets.
If you’re reading this on the TechCrunch website, it can be found in your inbox via Newsletter pageand follow my tweets @ Lucasmtny.
The big thing
This week Elon Musk may have crashed the crypto markets with a couple of tweets.
Musk has always been far from predictable, but retail and institutional investors are also far from disapproving of his ability to pump up markets – especially if there’s a good joke to tell in the meantime. A few days after crashing Dogecoin for appearing on Saturday Night Live calling the currency a “hustle,” he dropped the price of Bitcoin – a cryptocurrency with a market cap of $ 1 trillion – at one Tweet Down Up To 17% Basically, he notices that he now believes Bitcoin is bad for the environment and that Tesla will eventually not accept Bitcoin payments for its cars.
The effects were felt immediately. Crypto investors flocked to his mentions, begging for mercy, and complaining publicly and privately that he shouldn’t be so hasty. Independent coins in the cryptosphere surfaced as investors worried that the tweet sent out at a weak point for this bull run would pull space to Earth. A later tweet, working directly with Dogecoin developers to improve efficiency, shot the joke coin (worth billions of dollars) and gave crypto investors the worrying insight that this might just be one for Musk Joke is.
Days later, Bitcoin wiped out months of profits – even though Dogecoin isn’t doing too badly.
Musk has had his own deals with the SEC for the past several years, but his market-moving tweets seemed dubious at times, but generally seemed just another case of trolling. Tesla’s investment in Bitcoin has made this a little complicated, and while it is not known whether he actually has any stake in Dogecoin, he has certainly put himself in a less flexible legal position when his company has a billion-dollar stake in Bitcoin’s assets He seems to have mastered control over with his Twitter.
Retail investors aren’t used to blowing up mentions of a billionaire and provoking a reaction, and there’s a certain irresistible power that comes with it, especially when it comes to pumping emerging bets like Dogecoin, but I suspect that there will be some reluctance among a certain class of investors to invite Musk’s brand of random volatility into their wallets.
Other things
Jim Urquhart / Reuters
Here are the TechCrunch news that caught my eye this week:
Uber and Lyft offer free trips to vaccination appointments
To get more Americans vaccinated, the Biden White House has partnered with Uber and Lyft to allow drivers to get free rides to and from vaccination sites that cover up to $ 15 each way.
Prosecutors are asking Facebook to nix the Instagram for Kids app
Attorneys-general from around 44 states and territories signed a letter pressuring Facebook to abandon its plans to create a version of Instagram specially designed for children.
Burning Man is planning a virtual year
The Covid-19 pandemic has stolen another year from Burning Man. The Nevada desert festival was a favorite with high profile tech managers, but this year they have to settle for a completely virtual experience.
Ethereum Creator Donates $ 1 Billion to India Covid Restoration
One of the wildest stories of the week is when the creator of Ethereum ditched billions of Dogecoin copycats that were unceremoniously donated to his account and donated them to a variety of charities. In total, he donated cryptocurrencies worth $ 1.5 billion.
Amazon Nukes accounts of some major Chinese sellers
Claiming fake reviews and behaviors that violated its business policies, Amazon selected a number of massive Chinese sellers on its platform responsible for the billions in value of the goods. These account holders are not very happy and Amazon is not too repentant.
GasBuddy is at the top of the App Store
After the attack on the Colonial Pipeline, several states in the eastern United States ran into gas shortages and pushed the gas detection app GasBuddy to the top of the App Store for the first time.
Extra things
Credit: Nigel Sussman
Some of my favorite readings from our Extra Crunch Subscription Service this week:
The Expensify EC-1
“Let’s be clear from the start that this story is a SaaS business with cost management Spend. As you’d expect, this is about the cost management market and how Expensify has grown, its technology and all that. Normally we would switch channels then. But this is also a story about pirates; Peer-to-peer hackers who asked, “Why not work from Thailand and dozens of countries around the world?” and in fact, it has used the P2P hacker culture as a model for consensus-driven decision-making – all with pre-Uber Travis Kalanick in a guest role. “
Is there a creed for venture capital?
“Business owners and investors should realize that contracts are worth very little without the ongoing relationship management that keeps all parties in harmony. Enforcement is so unusual in the world of startups that I consider it largely a dead end. In my experience, good communication is the only reliable means. This is the way.“
5 ways to improve your startup’s PR game
“I get emails every week from companies that are out of stealth mode and want to cause a stir. Or from a Series B company that has been around for a while hoping to improve their branding / messaging / positioning so a new upstart doesn’t have lunch. How do you cause a sensation? How do you stay relevant? “
If you’re reading this on the TechCrunch website, it can be found in your inbox via Newsletter pageand follow my tweets @ Lucasmtny.