pour one out for US-East-1

AWS outage, Cobie's return, State of Crypto

Hey!

We’re live RIGHT now talking about lead in protein supplements, the general state of crypto, and AI matchmaking apps. Join us?!

Really hope this guy who was commenting in last week’s stream comes back to hang out!!

Warmest Regards,

The Boys

Writer: Deana

Editor: Miranda

Use code BOYSCLUB20 for a discount on your Bitkey.

US-East-1. AWS shit the bed on Monday and we all felt it. Multiple casualties were reported, including my Fire TV remote, a colleague’s much-needed virtual therapy session, this person’s EightSleep bed, plus the McDonald’s app, Fortnite, and much more. Given the industry’s bible-thumping about decentralization, everyone was taking appropriate jabs at the crypto companies and blockchains affected, which included Zora, Coinbase, Gemini, and others. A highlight of the day was this exchange between Cameron Winklevoss and a person willing to bring receipts. (Lesson in that.) Experts say the financial impact of the outage was $75M per hour, though Bezos’ net worth was unaffected.

State of Crypto. a16z Crypto released their annual State of Crypto report, and the findings are fairly buoyant IMO! As a person whose livelihood is tied to the success of this industry, I am always (constantly and in a ruminating way) trying to assess its health. Top-line learnings:

  • 40-70M active crypto users; up ~10M from last year.

  • Solana & Hyperliquid capture 53% of network revenue, up from only 1% two years ago.

  • Institutional players and stablecoins driving growth. $175B in BTC and ETH ETFs is a +159% jump from last year.

  • Crypto is growing fastest in emerging markets. Outside of the US, mobile wallet usage is highest in Nigeria, India and Colombia.

Plus, infamous crypto personality and podcaster Cobie is back, thanks to a big Coinbase acquisition of his startup (primarily) & pod. He’s booking a per-episode rate that’s bigger than Joe Rogan. So back?

Quick Hits.