Axios

Brendan Blumer, the founder of Block.One, has disclosed a 9.3% stake in Silvergate Capital, according to a new filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Why it matters: Silvergate, the parent company of Silvergate Bank, is one of the largest providers of financial services in the blockchain industry.

Crypto mining stocks have given back a lot over the past 30 days — mainly the ground they won amid the run-up in bitcoin prices — but Core Scientific has been cut down more than others.

Driving the news: With its stock already down 86% in the past month, Core Scientific in a filing Tuesday disclosed $1.7 billion in losses this year through the end of September.

Twitter faces a mass of forces abroad and in Washington that aim to compel the company to obey privacy rules, speech limits and other regulations as Elon Musk remakes the service.

Why it matters: Musk's word is law inside Twitter now, but his disdain for rules will encounter tough pushback from governments around the world — just as the company has lost most of the people who managed its relationships with regulators and legislators.

I took a ride in a Cruise driverless taxi last week in San Francisco and, for the first time, I thought, "This might really happen!"

Why it matters: Self-driving cars have been promised for years, but the technology is hard, regulations are spotty, and the business case has yet to be proven.

Cruise and Waymo are plowing ahead with plans to bring robotaxis to more cities, despite growing disillusionment among investors and automakers about the timeline for self-driving cars.

Why it matters: The two companies already operate driverless taxis in San Francisco and Phoenix.

Computer and printer maker HP Inc. said Tuesday it will cut between 4,000 and 6,000 jobs by the end of 2025 as part of a restructuring.

The big picture: The move comes amid large-scale layoffs at a number of large tech companies including Meta, Twitter and Snap.

Veteran crypto boss Barry Silbert, chief and founder of Digital Currency Group, in a letter to shareholders Tuesday tried to shore up confidence in the crypto conglomerate as speculation around the health of its subsidiary Genesis reached fever pitch.

Why it matters: When Silbert talks, the crypto industry tends to listen. That he would speak out in defense of his business and its main subsidiaries suggests that the FTX-catalyzed contagion has had an impact.

Hackers are ramping up their phishing and ransomware campaigns targeting the retail sector as the holiday shopping season kicks off.

The big picture: The ongoing economic downturn is prompting more shoppers to look for online discount codes and more hackers to trick these consumers with phony deals, threat analysts tell Axios.

Federal prosecutors seized seven domain names that cybercriminals used to collect crypto investments, prosecutors said Monday.

Why it matters: This week's action appears to be the first time federal prosecutors have taken action against operators of a so-called "pig butchering" crypto scam.

Palo Alto Networks has investigated several incidents involving a data extortion gang using a growing social engineering tactic to extort retailers and other businesses out of hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to a report Monday.

Why it matters: The report highlights the range of threats retailers, other businesses and consumers are up against heading into the hectic holiday season — and the depths hackers will go to make sure they find success.

Waves of layoffs and departures from Twitter last week led many users to fear the service might face a sudden crash of some kind, as hashtags such as #RIPTwitter and #TwitterDown trended in the U.S.

Yes, but: It's far more likely that the social network will experience an increasing volume of glitches, delays and decay around the edges, as small breakdowns pile up and the teams responsible for fixes have been decimated.

While Twitter's turmoil has sparked waves of interest in alternative social networks, tech's biggest firms have stayed conspicuously aloof from the field.

Between the lines: Cloning Twitter would not be a huge technical challenge for companies like Microsoft, Google and Meta that already have a massive cloud infrastructure.

The media industry is getting hit by sizable rounds of layoffs and cost-cutting measures as the ad market continues to show signs of a serious slowdown.

Why it matters: For many companies, the challenges are similar to the early onset of the pandemic. But now, fewer government relief programs and resources from Big Tech firms are available to help.