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Crypto exchange Crypto.com is cutting its global workforce by 20%, it said on Friday, as it navigates ongoing economic headwinds and “unforeseeable” industry events.

This is the second major layoff at the Singapore-headquartered Crypto.com, which cut 250 jobs in mid-last year — though a report suggested that more than 2,000 people were either let go or left at their own will. The company did not say what roles were being eliminated in the new round of layoff but blamed the collapse of FTX, whose misappropriation of customers’ funds and bankruptcy “significantly damaged trust in the industry.”

“We grew ambitiously at the start of 2022, building on our incredible momentum and aligning with the trajectory of the broader industry. That trajectory changed rapidly with a confluence of negative economic developments,” Kris Marszalek (pictured above), co-founder and chief executive of Crypto.com, said in a blog post.

As with firms in other industries, crypto companies are aggressively undertaking major decisions to survive the downturn in the broader market, which has reversed much of the gains from the 13-year bull run. Coinbase cut about 20% of its workforce earlier this week in its second round of major layoffs at the firm. Kraken said in November that it plans to lay off 1,100 people, or 30% of its workforce.

Even then Crypto.com had a especially rough last year. The firm received some criticism for its cringey/overly enthusiastic Matt Damon ad; accidentally sent an Australian customer more than $10 million in a snafu, and grappled with industry concerns over its financial health performance.

The firm received a vote of confidence from auditing firm Mazars, which said Crypto.com users’ crypto assets were fully backed one-to-one. But days later, Mazars, which also audited Binance, said it had paused its work with crypto clients.

“The reductions we made last July positioned us to weather the macro economic downturn, but it did not account for the recent collapse of FTX, which significantly damaged trust in the industry. It’s for this reason, as we continue to focus on prudent financial management, we made the difficult but necessary decision to make additional reductions in order to position the company for long-term success,” Marszalek added.

Crypto.com cuts 20% jobs amid ‘unforeseeable’ industry events by Manish Singh originally published on TechCrunch

People using third-party Twitter clients are facing a number of issues including unable to log in and access Twitter feeds. Tweetbot, Echofon, and Twitterrific, three popular third-party Twitter apps, confirmed the issues and noted that they are not sure what has triggered the glitch.

Makers of these apps also complained about these issues on Mastadon. Twitterrific developer Sean Heber said ” Did Twitter just kill 3rd party clients?” while Tweetbot’s Paul Hadad said “I’m hoping whatever is going on at Twitter is just some automated spam protection bot that is incorrectly suspending proper apps”.

In an email response to TechCrunch Haddad said that the issue started around 7.30 PM PT today. He also mentioned that all API requests from the apps are failing.

It’s likely that Twitter made some changes to its API for third-party clients that resulted in these apps breaking down. It’s not clear if this is a step to thwart access to the platform.

Apart from the above-mentioned apps, users complained about being unable to access Twitter from clients like Fenix, Twitpane, Feather, and Talon. So the only way to access Twitter is through the official client or the website.

A post on Twitter’s developer forum said that on the developer portal, these apps show up as “Suspended”.

Since Elon Musk’s takeover, Twitter has killed many developer programs including Twitter Toolbox for app discovery. Third-party developers have been cautious about their development plans around Twitter as the company hasn’t communicated its plans for the ecosystem. Last month, the company’s former head of developer platforms, Amir Shevat, wrote for TechCrunch that the new management broke the trust of developers.

Earlier this week, Twitter decided to make the algorithmic timeline — named “For You” — the default feed on iOS.

The story is developing…

Third-party Twitter apps are facing issues, users say by Ivan Mehta originally published on TechCrunch

There’s still nothing quite like thumbing the pages of a real-life print magazine, but the latest evolution of E Ink’s color tech is creeping tantalizingly close — at least as far as my eyes are concerned.

You’ve heard it all before: A lifetime of staring at screens has worn out my eyes, leading me down a rabbit hole of lifehacky solutions to ease the fatigue. Some of the tricks I picked up over the years have helped — especially the one where I simply take breaks and go for walks — but one thing hasn’t changed: I still spend more time than I’d like gazing at glossy displays.

I don’t want anything less for videos or gaming, but for reading I typically ignore the latest tech and instead turn to a 2016 Kindle Oasis or old-fashioned books. My hands can obviously tell the difference between the two, but when I’m lost in a story, I don’t think my eyes can. With paper and e-paper alike, a sense of ease washes over me as I read. Is it how the light bounces off the page? Or, is it because I know ads and notifications won’t bombard me at every turn? I’m not sure, and I don’t really care why; I just prefer it, and E Ink reminded me of that when I stepped into its little conference room last week in Las Vegas.

E Ink posted up at the Venetian for CES 2023, and inside its makeshift showroom, the MIT spinoff crammed its latest tech, including pieces of its wacky BMW wrap and its latest Gallery 3 color displays. The latter tech is now trickling into the market, starting with devices like the PocketBook Viva. And let me tell you, these displays look outright vivid next to the washed-out hues in E Ink’s Kaleido color displays, which debuted just two years ago. Gallery 3’s CMYK displays can spit out 50,000 colors at 300 DPI — way, way up from Kaleido’s 4,000 colors, the company said.

“We aren’t ever going to be the best movie-showing screen,” U.S. business lead Timothy O’Malley stated the obvious in an interview with TechCrunch. But E Ink’s goals are still stretching well into iPad territory. Eventually, E Ink aims to build a magazine reading experience that’s good enough to win over even the most demanding publishers, O’Malley told TechCrunch.

“Fashion magazines in particular really have strict standards on color [and] that’s a great goal for us,” the 22-year company veteran said. “I do believe we will get there and the tech fundamentally supports it.”

O’Malley added, “We’ll work on the material response and the controls, and we will get the saturation up to that.” Reaching that bar could win over comics fans and picturebook readers, too.

For now, E Ink’s Gallery color tech is at its best when it’s used in signage, where the company can sacrifice refresh speed for clarity. But in handheld readers, where you don’t want to wait ages for the next page to display, the colors are still looking muted next to a retina screen. As I swiped on a Gallery 3 prototype, large images lagged and flashed clumsily. But when the same prototype displayed small color illustrations alongside black-on-white text, the tech actually seemed ready for the masses.

E Ink’s in-house Gallery 3 stats illustrate the current trade-off. The company said in December that its black-and-white update time is now at 350 milliseconds, while its color speeds range from 500 ms (which E Ink calls “fast color mode”) to 1500 ms (for “best color”). E Ink lets manufacturers decide how they’ll balance speed and clarity, so your proverbial mileage may vary.

Brands like PocketBook, Bigme and BOOX already seem to be embracing Gallery 3, yet there’s still no word if Amazon is willing to throw its considerable weight behind color e-readers. Amazon could help legitimize the tech, but crucially, the retail giant recently bailed on magazine and newspaper subscriptions for its black-and-white Kindles, amid broad cost cuts.

When I asked O’Malley what the holdup might be for a full-color Kindle, the executive speedily deflected. “It’s a two step dance — we have our part, and each customer has their own part,” he said.

A Kindle rep quickly declined to comment when I asked a similar question over email, but hey, a girl can dream.

E Ink’s latest color displays have me dreaming of electronic paper magazines by Harri Weber originally published on TechCrunch

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Hello, dear readers! We’re back once again (like a renegade master) with a wall of great tech news stories. Plug in some headphones and bop your head to that song while you catch up on what’s happening out there in the wider worlds. Remember: There’s no such thing as a standing desk. It’s a dancing desk. Aw yessss. (We may have had a little bit too much coffee this morning. That might explain our ill behavior.) — Christine and Haje

The TechCrunch Top 3

Get your woof on: With pet ownership up since the pandemic, veterinarians are being stretched to their limits. Here comes Romania-based Digitail, a company that automates the administrative work for veterinarians so they can focus on our four-legged friends. Mike reports that the company closed on $11 million in new funding to scale its operations in the U.S. and Canada.
Your move: Amanda writes that proposed changes to Dungeons & Dragons’ Open Gaming License threatens an entire cohort of D&D content creators, and they are fighting to protect their livelihoods.
SBF starts a Substack: In an effort to explain his side of the FTX debacle, Sam Bankman-Fried took to Substack to say, “I didn’t steal funds, and I certainly didn’t stash billions away.” Mary Ann has more.

Startups and VC

The outlook of investing in China is suddenly brightening as the country gradually phases out its draconian zero-COVID policy, which has caused disruptions in businesses of all kinds and kept the country’s borders shut for the last three years, Rita reports. For venture capitalists, the pandemic has been a tumultuous ride. Tony Wu, a partner at Northern Light Venture Capital, a China-focused VC firm with $4.5 billion assets under management, calls 2022 the “toughest” in his 15 years of investing in Chinese startups.

Another fistful of headlines for your edification:

That’s a hell of a loot box, y’all: Kakao Entertainment lands $966 million from sovereign wealth funds, including Saudi Arabia’s PIF, Kate reports.
Irony is not dead: Career Karma’s latest layoff underscores edtech’s new challenge, Natasha M writes.
Learning how to make the world a better place: The Logic School wants to teach tech workers activism for free, Haje writes.
From merger to layoffs: The company created by the Citrix-Tibco merger confirms it has laid off 15% of its staff, Ron reports.
Gimme all your A/S/L: Carly reports that The Guardian confirms ransomware attacks stole employee data.

Why Africa had no unicorns last year despite record fundraising haul

Unicorns are becoming an endangered species in Africa’s startup ecosystem, reports Tage Kene-Okafor.

Although funding in the region increased slightly in 2022, “no unicorns popped up throughout the year, compared to five in 2021,” he writes.

“So what happened in Africa in 2022 that made it so … weird?”

And there’s more for our trusty TC+ subscribers:

Sunny times ahead: U.S. solar manufacturing gets a $2.5 billion boost, reports Tim.
What is going on with your team slide?: Haje gets grumpy in his Pitch Deck Teardown of the Mint House’s $35 million Series B deck.
DeFigure it out: DeFi startups need to experiment with new use cases and build solutions, investors say. Jacquelyn has more.

TechCrunch+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams get ahead of the pack. You can sign up here. Use code “DC” for a 15% discount on an annual subscription!

Big Tech Inc.

We started some of this yesterday, but Natasha L brings us a warning article to other ad-funded programs to take heed of Meta’s ads being found unlawful in the European Union. She writes that “just because Facebook has — for years — processed and profited off of Europeans’ data by running unlawful ads does not mean other ad-funded platforms are going to get the same free ride from the bloc’s regulators. Enforcement is here at last.”

And we have five more for you:

Stopping the stealing: Christine reports on Nvidia’s new AI workflows to help the retail industry with loss prevention amid increased organized theft.
Give your Benz the premium charging treatment: At least that’s what Mercedes-Benz is hoping its electric vehicle customers will want to do. As such, Tim Stevens writes that the carmaker is creating its own charging network.
Google Meets emojis: Taking a nod from Zoom, Google Meet video calls finally get emojis, Ivan reports.
Cover girl: Fashion rentals marketplace Rent the Runway’s clothing comes to Amazon, including preworn items and design exclusives, Sarah writes.
More layoffs: Lauren writes that DirecTV plans to lay off about 10% if its management amid the ongoing shift to streaming.

Daily Crunch: Pet tech startup Digitail fetches $11M Series A led by Atomico by Christine Hall originally published on TechCrunch