Coinbase Stock Surges Over 7% in Pre-market Trading, Q4 Huge Loss Worries Likely Fully Priced In

February 13th As the crypto bear market trend solidifies, market sentiment remains subdued. Pessimism has spread from the secondary market to the more seasoned primary market investment community—and even into the VC space. Last week, Multicoin co-founder Kyle Samani announced he is stepping down from Multicoin Capital. Today, DeFiance CEO Arthur voiced pessimism, stating the crypto venture capital model is dead. He added the firm will only invest in purely cash-flow-positive businesses going forward. Meanwhile, Moonrock Capital founder Simon Dedic noted he’s spoken with at least five top VCs and industry insiders this week. These contacts either doubt the market will fully recover, or have already exited crypto and shifted their focus to AI and Web2 stocks.

Bloomberg reported on February 13, 2024, that AI industry leaders including Marc Andreessen, Ben Horowitz, and Greg Brockman have donated $50 million to a super PAC named "Leading the Future." The group is backing candidates in November’s congressional elections who push for lighter regulation of artificial intelligence.

The report notes the move draws cues from the crypto industry’s political playbook during the 2024 election cycle.

February 13 – U.S. Treasury Secretary Benson stated that inflation could ease back to near 2% by mid-2026, reiterating that GDP growth is likely to hit 3% in 2025.

On February 13, LookOnChain monitoring data shows the Mixin hacker has begun selling 59,854 ETH after two years of inactivity, with the total value hitting $117 million. Fifteen hours ago, the hacker transferred 2,005 ETH to TornadoCash. Moments later, three new wallets received 2,087 ETH (valued at $4.03 million) from TornadoCash and sold the tokens at $1,933 each. As of now, the hacker still holds 57,849 ETH (worth $113.4 million) and 891 BTC (worth $59.7 million).

**February 12 Attempted Robbery Targets Binance’s France CEO; Suspects Arrested** French outlet RTL reported Binance’s France chief was the target of an attempted robbery on February 12. Three masked, armed individuals broke into an apartment building in France’s Val-de-Marne department around 7 a.m. that day, searching for the executive’s residence. The suspects first forced their way into another resident’s home to get info on the target apartment, then ransacked the crypto exec’s place. Finding the homeowner absent, they stole two cell phones before fleeing. At 9:15 a.m. the same day, the trio attacked another Villecresnes resident—mistakenly believing the person was a different crypto entrepreneur. Police used surveillance footage and cell signal tracking to arrest the three suspects at Lyon Part-Dieu train station. They are currently in custody pending investigation.

On February 13, Erika, an X user, disclosed that Gu Ai Ling will join Benchmark as a Senior Investment Manager reporting to Bill Gurley following the Winter Olympics. Bill Gurley has personally confirmed the news. Benchmark is a prominent Wall Street venture capital firm whose portfolio includes unicorns like Uber, Zillow and Nextdoor.