Techmeme
May 12, 2022, 9:35 PM

Top News

Tim Copeland / The Block:
Terraform Labs resumes Terra block production, with staking disabled, after halting the blockchain “to prevent governance attacks” following LUNA's collapse  —  Quick Take  — Terraform Labs has said the Terra blockchain has been halted.  — This is due to concerns …
Joanna Ossinger / Bloomberg:
After UST's collapse, most rival algorithmic stablecoins are below their dollar peg; the biggest non-algorithmic stablecoins USDT and USDC are mostly holding  —  Stablecoins besides TerraUSD are failing to live up to their billing as the collapse of the algorithmic token has investors pondering …
Shaurya Malwa / CoinDesk:
Terra's LUNA drops to $0.01, a 99%+ decline in 24 hours, down from $60 earlier this week and $120 in mid-April, after Terra's UST stablecoin lost its dollar peg  —  LUNA tokens lost 96% in the past 24 hours alone, prompting more to be minted in a mechanism that helped lift the UST price.
Financial Times:
Tether CTO Paolo Ardoino declines to reveal details about the company's $40B US government bond holdings, for fear of revealing its “secret sauce”  —  Token's tech chief declines to provide details on Treasury holdings on fear of revealing ‘secret sauce’
@kayvz:
[Thread] Twitter product chief Kayvon Beykpour says he is leaving at the request of CEO Parag Agrawal, who wants to “take the team in a different direction”  —  Interrupting my paternity leave to share some final @twitter-related news: I'm leaving the company after over 7 years.
Bloomberg:
In a memo, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal announces a hiring freeze and other cost-cutting efforts; VP of product Jay Sullivan will take over as head of product  —  Twitter Inc. Chief Executive Officer Parag Agrawal announced a hiring freeze and other cost-cutting efforts on Thursday …
Sam Nussey / Reuters:
Lucas Matney / TechCrunch:
Ex-Facebook crypto chief David Marcus launches Lightspark, a payments startup building on Bitcoin's Lightning network, backed by a16z, Paradigm, and others  —  After his departure from Facebook in November, many crypto industry insiders speculated where long-time executive David Marcus would land.
Washington Post:
Interviews with 17 Hollywood insiders reveal that celebrities view Twitter as a high-risk, low-reward platform, and why Musk's ownership might make it worse  —  Elon Musk was right that Twitter's most popular accounts have gone quieter over the years.  Hollywood insiders explain what happened …
Ryan Browne / CNBC:
David Yaffe-Bellany / New York Times:
Scott Stein / CNET:
Mark Zuckerberg demos mixed reality on Meta's Project Cambria headset; Meta will enable MR app development for Quest 2 and Cambria via its Presence Platform  —  A demo of Meta Cambria demonstrates how it blends AR and VR, while Quest 2 headsets could be used to develop apps in the meantime.
Financial Times:
Tanaya Macheel / CNBC:
SEC filing: FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried bought a 7.6% stake, worth $648M, in Robinhood, calling it “an attractive investment”; stock jumps 20%+ after hours  —  Sam Bankman-Fried, the CEO of crypto exchange FTX, has taken a 7.6% stake in Robinhood, according to a Thursday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Mahira Dayal / The Information:
PitchBook: 16 new VC funds with 60%+ female decision makers have raised $4.5B from January to April 2022; women-led funds raised $3.7B in 2021 and $1.8B in 2020  —  For years, women-led venture capital funds were the true Silicon Valley unicorns, a rarity in a sector where the vast majority of check writers are men.
Lauren Kaori Gurley / VICE:
Leaked memo: Apple is sending anti-union talking points to US retail store leaders, including that workers could lose “flexibility” and merit-based promotions  —  Apple is instructing managers to tell retail workers that they could lose benefits and career opportunities if they unionize.

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More News

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Earlier Picks

Jay Peters / The Verge: