Will VCs soon be expected to shoulder the cost of crypto hacks and scams? As startups venturing into crypto become more susceptible to cyber attacks that can siphon USD mns in a matter of minutes, they often turn to their wealthy investors to bail them out, writes Bloomberg, citing VC and trading group leaders. This happened most recently with Sky Mavis — the developer of popular game Axie Infinity — raising USD 150 mn from the likes of Binance, Andreessen Horowitz and Paradigm to reimburse customers after a hack. With this in mind, VCs should set aside contingency funding to bail out victims of hacks as a core part of the agreement, players in the space now recommend. This comes as around USD 4.7 bn has been poured into crypto startups globally in 1Q2022 as the crypto trend continues to gain traction.

Meta wants to tap into finance with products such as (the horribly-named) “Zuck Bucks”: As its advertisement business receives hits worldwide from competition and new regulations, the Facebook and Instagram parent company is searching for new revenue streams. The company’s financial arm, Meta Financial Technologies, is considering a number of new products such as “Zuck Bucks” — a cryptocurrency for the metaverse, the Financial Times reports, citing sources with knowledge of the matter. Meta could also launch “social tokens” or “reputation tokens,” (hi, Black Mirror) which could be sent as reward for meaningful posts or comments as well as “creator coins” that could be purchased for influencers. Mark Zuckerberg could also try his hand at more traditional finance solutions such as offering low-interest loans to small businesses on his platform. Most of the efforts are in the early stages of being discussed and might not necessarily be brought to life, the sources said.