Lucas Matney

Lucas Matney

Senior Editor

Lucas Matney is a senior editor at TechCrunch based in San Francisco. He manages the team of reporters covering the cryptocurrency industry and leads strategy for TechCrunch’s web3 coverage, events and products.

Earlier this year, Lucas launched the Chain Reaction podcast. The podcast chronicles the chaotic growth of the cryptocurrency industry through news analysis and interviews with industry leaders and skeptics. Alongside the podcast, Lucas sends out a weekly newsletter breaking down insider moves to a mainstream audience of tens of thousands of subscribers.

Lucas has written thousands of stories on early stage startups and venture capital deals since joining TechCrunch in 2015. He has a degree in journalism from Northwestern University’s Medill school.

He can be reached at lucas (at) techcrunch.com and followed on Twitter at @lucasmtny

Disclosures (updated 8/1/22): I have investments in exchange-traded funds but do not directly trade any individual stocks myself. I own a small amount of Ethereum tokens to engage with products in the web3 ecosystem for the purpose of learning more about them. I own an ENS handle. I do not day trade any cryptocurrencies or NFTs for speculative purposes.

The Latest from Lucas Matney

Portal Ventures closes on $35 million debut fund for early-stage crypto startups

Lucas Matney
While plenty of crypto investors have scaled back their breakneck pace of startup investing as they wait for more clarity on the macro environment, the fact is there have never been more firms and mor

There’s always another nightmarish crypto hack around the corner

Lucas Matney,  Anita Ramaswamy
Welcome back to Chain Reaction. Last week, we looked at the near-term future for crypto gaming as VCs zero in on where to place consumer bets. This week, we’re looking at hardware wallets and th

Sometimes, stealing crypto is the moral choice

Lucas Matney,  Anita Ramaswamy,  Jacquelyn Melinek
The world of crypto moves quickly and sometimes, when there’s an ongoing heist, the best thing that technically savvy but ethically sound users can do is join in on the pillaging. That’s w

YC and a16z back virtual reality basketball app Gym Class

Lucas Matney
Despite Zuckerberg & Co. spending billions of dollars on virtual reality tech every fiscal quarter, the wider VR startup ecosystem has been having a tough few years coming down from the highs of 2

Arca’s David Nage on how regulatory scrutiny is impacting venture investment in web3

Lucas Matney,  Anita Ramaswamy
The regulatory environment surrounding crypto is shifting stateside as the SEC takes aim at major players in the web3 world, promising to shake up business as usual with aggressive action. This week o

Can VCs game crypto out of this downturn?

Lucas Matney,  Anita Ramaswamy
Welcome back to Chain Reaction. Last week, we looked at Musk holding onto doge. This week, we’re talking about where all of this crypto VC money is possibly gonna go. To get this in your inbox e

Securities are in the eye of the beholder

Anita Ramaswamy,  Lucas Matney
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has brought down its wrath on Coinbase. The publicly traded exchange has been under investigation for allegedly selling crypto tokens on its platform that q

The outlook is getting more complicated for Meta’s virtual reality dreams

Lucas Matney
For an industry that rarely has major news anymore, this was an awfully big week for virtual reality. Unsurprisingly, all of the important data points are related to the industry’s sole benefact

FTC sues Meta to block acquisition of VR fitness app

Lucas Matney
The FTC filed an injunction today to block Meta’s acquisition of the virtual reality studio Within, which is best known more recently for its subscription VR workout app Supernatural. The regula

The ‘D’ in DAO doesn’t stand for democracy, says Upstream CEO Alexander Taub

Anita Ramaswamy,  Lucas Matney
Ever since a group of chronically online crypto enthusiasts tried to buy a copy of the U.S. Constitution in a high-profile bidding war, DAOs (decentralized autonomous organizations) have been at the f

The Dogefather sends his regards

Lucas Matney,  Anita Ramaswamy
Welcome back to Chain Reaction. Last week, we looked at a crossover episode for meme investing. This week, we’re talking about Musk dumping tokens while holding onto others. You can get this new

Snap stock is getting obliterated

Lucas Matney
Investors in social media company Snap are reeling this afternoon as the stock has endured a bit of a meltdown following its release of Q2 earnings yesterday. The stock price is down nearly 40% for th

The SEC takes a long-feared position in Coinbase insider trading suit

Lucas Matney
A former product manager at Coinbase has been arrested, the U.S. Justice Department announced Thursday, after being charged in a cryptocurrency insider trading scheme related to the listing of new cry

Get ready for a lot of dead DAOs

Lucas Matney,  Anita Ramaswamy
After a lengthy crypto bull run, the startups and projects in the space are reining in expectations and settling in for a long-haul crypto winter. It’s been a particularly tough time for DAOs, w

Elon Musk discloses that Tesla owns Dogecoin, but how much does it have?

Lucas Matney
Despite announcing that Tesla had sold 75% of its Bitcoin holdings in Q2, CEO Elon Musk disclosed in a quarterly investor call that the company also held Dogecoin and had not sold any of those holding

Tesla dumped 75% of its Bitcoin holdings

Lucas Matney
Elon Musk apparently isn’t trying to hodl Tesla’s bitcoin during a crypto winter. During the company’s Q2 earnings report, the electric car company revealed it has sold 75% of its Bi

Bored Apes founders on their plans for Otherside metaverse

Lucas Matney
After seemingly pulling off the strangest unicorn success story in tech, the founders of NFT project Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) have an awful lot to prove with their startup Yuga‘s early beta v

Yat founder Naveen Jain talks ’emoji identity’ and lasting web3 trends

Lucas Matney,  Anita Ramaswamy
As the crypto market continues to struggle, plenty of founders and investors are left wondering whether this latest bull run was all some grand fever dream or whether some of the trends of the past tw

GameStop looks to diversify its meme money

Lucas Matney,  Anita Ramaswamy
Welcome back to Chain Reaction. Last week, we looked at web3 without Web 2.0’s winners. This week, we’re looking at a crossover episode for meme investing. You can get this in your inbox e

NFT brand loyalty platform Hang banks $16M from Paradigm

Lucas Matney
Crypto startups — fresh off a mind-boggling bull run — are preparing for the next phase of life where the mere mention of “NFT,” “DAO” or “DeFi” may not tempt i
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