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In focus
- CoinGecko’s 2024 crypto ride
- Ele.me co-founder banks US$11m to reinvent your calendar with AI
- AI agents are coming, and they might all live on the blockchain
Hello reader,
Crypto piqued the interest of a lot of people during the pandemic, me included. I made a number of investments and had some good wins.
However, I also saw my portfolio cut in half seemingly overnight, when the value of Ethereum – which at the time I thought was one of the few coins that held a stable value – crashed in 2022.
It wasn’t a big amount of money, but it was enough for me to quit altogether.
Crypto is inherently a fickle beast, so I find it impressive when companies built around digital tokens are able to stay afloat.
Malaysia-based CoinGecko is one of these companies. For one of our top stories, I go into how the crypto data aggregator had pushed through amid the industry’s collapse.
The company said it had always prepared for the crypto industry’s ups and downs. Now, it plans to double down on emerging trends like AI and the increased interest in real-world assets to keep its momentum going.
In another big story, my colleague Glenn Kaonang delivers the scoop on the US$11 million funding round for Orion Arm, a company started by Ele.me co-founder Raymond Wong.
Its flagship product is Toki, an AI-powered calendar assistant that turns chat apps like WhatsApp and Telegram into smart schedulers, making planning as easy as sending a text.
It’s a glimpse of how AI is quietly reshaping everyday tools – and where the next breakout startup might come from.
Miguel Cordon, journalist
Top stories
1️⃣ CoinGecko entity grows revenue by 72% in 2024, but profit stalls
A data story you shouldn’t miss
This 60/40 episode gets real with Khailee Ng about founder leverage, term sheets, and overcoming system prompts.
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