Techmeme
February 9, 2022, 7:30 AM

Top News

Devlin Barrett / Washington Post:
The US DOJ arrests two people in New York and seizes ~$3.6B worth of bitcoin allegedly stolen in a 2016 Bitfinex hack, its “largest financial seizure ever”  —  The Justice Department announced Tuesday it had seized more than $3.6 billion in bitcoin allegedly stolen as part …
Lauren Feiner / CNBC:
As Meta dips under a $600B market cap, it may avoid antitrust liability since it falls below the threshold set by recent US House bills as a “covered platform”  —  - Facebook owner Meta closed with a market cap below $600 billion on Tuesday for the first time since May 2020.
Bloomberg:
Sources: Microsoft is in talks to acquire cybersecurity research and incident response company Mandiant, whose stock closed up 17.86% on Tuesday  —  Microsoft Corp. is considering making a bid for cybersecurity-research and incident response company Mandiant Inc., according to a person familiar …
Darren Loucaides / Wired:
A deep dive into the CEO and history of Telegram, which has about 30 core employees, minimal content moderation, and, until recently, no ongoing revenue  —  Hundreds of millions of users.  No algorithm.  No ads.  Courage in the face of autocracy.  Sound like a dream?  Careful what you wish for.
Bloomberg:
As crypto tokens fall, FTX and Crypto.com will run Super Bowl ads, seeking new customers; research shows $112.9M+ has been spent on crypto TV ads since 2020  —  It's a testing time for crypto exchanges to be making their Super Bowl ad debuts.  —  Recruiting new users can be simple when prices are skyrocketing.
Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
Apple unveils Tap to Pay, letting US merchants accept payments with an iPhone and a partner-enabled app “later this year”; partners include Stripe and Shopify  —  Apple has officially announced a new Tap to Pay feature for iPhone.  This feature, coming later this year …
Justine Calma / The Verge:
The WWF hyped and then canceled plans to raise money for conservation with NFTs on Polygon's “eco-friendly blockchain”, a fraught claim dismissed by experts  —  WWF thought it picked a less polluting blockchain  —  Within a few days last week, the World Wildlife Fund hyped …
Ryan Gallagher / Bloomberg:
Twitter tells US Senator Wyden that it's “transitioning” away from using Mitto for passcodes, as the text message services firm faces surveillance accusations  —  Twitter Inc. told a U.S. senator it is cutting ties with a European technology company that helped it send sensitive passcodes to its users via text message.
More: Engadget
Olivia Little / Media Matters for America:
TikTok continues to allow ads encouraging ADHD self-diagnosis and medication, geared towards young users and likely violating its medical misinformation policy  —  RESEARCH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM GIDEON TAAFFE, KAYLA GOGARTY & ABBIE RICHARDS  —  A swarm of advertisements encouraging attention …
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Apple plans to improve benefits for full- and part-time US retail workers, including doubling paid sick days and increasing PTO, amid a tight labor market  —  Apple Inc. plans to significantly increase its benefits for U.S. retail store workers as it grapples with a tightening labor market …
Tage Kene-Okafor / TechCrunch:
Egypt-based Thndr, an investing app for stocks and mutual funds in the Middle East and North Africa, raises a $20M Series A led by Tiger Global and others  —  The MENA region has about 400 million people with $500 billion in annual savings.  But as a relatively young population …
Ben Thompson / Stratechery:
A review of digital advertising in 2022, which has shifted from a Google-Meta duopoly to one where Amazon and potentially Apple are major forces  —  Six years ago tomorrow, in The Reality of Missing Out, I wrote that the digital advertising market was settled, and Google and Facebook won:
The Intercept:
Purchase records and docs show that 14 of the 15 US Cabinet departments and several other federal agencies bought Cellebrite phone hacking tools in recent years  —  Investigators with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service frequently work to thwart a variety of environmental offenses …
Shubham Agarwal / The Verge:
Interviews with over a dozen rapid grocery delivery workers in India show they spent months healing after road accidents and had to pay their own medical bills  —  India's instant delivery apps are pushing drivers into accidents  —  Mahesh knew he was running out of time.

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Earlier Picks

Dade Hayes / Deadline:
John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Cara Lombardo / Wall Street Journal: