đź’µ Chia's "green" crypto fundraise
![_Chia farm life [funky-data/E+ via GettyImages]_](https://cdn.robinhood.com/static_content/mwphzyq69oso/en-US/assets/files/3IX7x2MOX7mInzzxFBNzYI_1_GettyImages-181899775.jpg)
Hey Snackers,
Contagious scrolling is the new contagious yawning — it's the "chameleon effect." Test it by seeing how long it takes your friend to grab for their phone after you pick up yours.
Shot Girl Summer is coming: half of US adults are fully vaxed.
Chia, the "green" alternative to Bitcoin, just doubled its valuation and could IPO soon
Can't sprinkle it on an acai bowl... But the name says it all: Chia promotes itself as an eco-friendly crypto coin. The digital currency platform has more than doubled its valuation, after raising a fresh $61M in funding. It's now reportedly valued at ~$500M, and could go public as soon as this year, even though Chia just started trading this month. The new cash infusion is likely not a coincidence.
The Prius to Bitcoin's Hummer?... What Chia wants investors to see. There's suddenly a lot of attention being paid to Bitcoin's enviro impact (which we wrote about in April). It started in mid-May, when Elon tweeted that Tesla will no longer accept Bitcoin payment for cars. Elon is concerned about BTC's fuel-burning ways, so Tesla will only accept/buy/sell Bitcoin when “mining transitions to more sustainable energy.” Cue: crypto prices plunged.
- Bitcoin operations require much more electricity than other cryptos, which can result in more emissions. Tesla said it's looking at other cryptos that use <1% of Bitcoin’s energy. Then again, Elon just spoke to "North American Bitcoin miners" re: sustainability.
- Chia says its operations are less energy-intensive than traditional mining. Instead of relying on special energy-sucking computers, Chia's network uses available storage space on your hard drive to "farm" coins by validating transactions on its network.
Chia may have a “but-what-about” problem... EVs are greener than gas cars, but what about the electricity needed to power them? Electricity is mostly generated by burning fossil fuels (like: gas). For Chia, it's "what about hard drives?" Some are concerned that Chia farming could burn out a drive in weeks, while drives subjected to normal usage can last over a decade. That could produce a ton of e-waste, and also lead to) a drive shortage. Solving one problem could cause others, and there's still plenty we don't know in the race to become a more energy efficient crypto.
The New York Times is reportedly eyeing The Athletic (to broaden its net)
All the news that's fit to... punt? The New York Times is looking into buying The Athletic, according to Axios.
- The Athletic: The subscription-based sports news site is valued at ~$500M, and reportedly has 1.2M subscribers — but it's still not profitable.
- NYT has a $7B market cap and 8M paying subscribers. It's profitable, and the stock has nearly 4X'd in the past five years. That's likely because...
Skipped the paper... The New York Times is no longer a newspaper — it's a multi-multi-media company. As Google and Facebook ate up newspapers' ad revenue, NYT pivoted. It took its core stories and turned them into documentaries, TV shows, and podcasts like The Daily. It acquired an app that turns articles into audio. And it leaned into digital subscriptions, which brought in more revenue than print for the first time last year.
- Subscribe or die: NYT sells subscriptions for its news, games, cooking, and audio products. ~7M of its 8M paying subscribers have digital subs.
- The Athletic and its 1M+ subscribers could be a boon to NYT's subscription offering — especially if it ever decides to bundle them.
Cast a wide net, catch a wide audience... continue to grow. NYT is a 170-year-old company that you would've only turned to for news 20 years ago. Now, nearly half of NYT's new digital subscribers came from non-core news products last quarter. Think: subs for cooking fans, gamers, and audio buffs (aka: pod-heads). The Athletic could broaden NYT's net even further to catch dedicated sports fans. While its core news audience may be saturated, these extracurriculars have room to grow.
What else we’re Snackin’
- Served: Amazon was hit with an antitrust suit by DC, which alleges that the 'Zon blocks its sellers from offering better deals elsewhere.
- Vaxeen: Moderna said its Covid vax was safe and effective for 12-year-olds and teens, which could clear the way for use in adolescents.
- USA: Peloton will start building its first US factory in Ohio this year, creating ~2K jobs.
- Flight: Airlines rerouted flights to avoid Belarus's airspace, after the country forced a landing to arrest a dissident journalist.
- Sponsor: Weight-loss app Noom raised a hefty $540M in funding — sales nearly doubled in 2020 thanks to pandemic snacking.
Wednesday
- Earnings expected from Snowflake, Workday, Pinduoduo, Nvidia, Honeywell, and Dick's Sporting Goods
Authors of this Snacks own: Bitcoin
ID: 1663363