Sardine, a fraud detection service for crypto and fintech clients, raised a $51.5M Series B led by a16z, after a $19.5M Series A in February 2022 (Anita Ramaswamy/TechCrunch)

Ryan Browne / CNBC:
Blockchain web search startup nxyz, founded by ex-Google executive Sridhar Ramaswamy, raised a $40M Series A in May led by Paradigm; Ramaswamy also runs Neeva  —  – Sridhar Ramaswamy, who led Google’s advertising business from 2013 to 2018, has launched a Web3 company called nxyz.

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
London-based Sequence, which offers APIs and other tools for pricing, billing, and related services, raised a $19M seed led by a16z  —  When it comes to fintech, consumers have commanded the most attention in the last decade, with banking, credit, investing and other legacy services getting the disruption treatment.

CNBC:
The Southern District of New York charges SBF with wire fraud, wire fraud conspiracy, securities fraud, securities fraud conspiracy, money laundering, and more  —  – Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York unsealed eight seperate charges against disgraced FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried …

Ivan Levingston / Bloomberg:
A profile of Checkout.com founder and CEO Guillaume Pousaz, who owns 60% of the $40B London-based payments company and has begun investing in fintech startups  —  A college dropout from Switzerland has amassed a $14 billion fortune to become one of the country’s richest people by creating a rising star in electronic payments.

Jacquelyn Melinek / TechCrunch:
Aztec Network, which is developing an “encrypted version of Ethereum”, raised a $100M Series B led by a16z and plans a testnet within 12 months  —  Aztec Network, a privacy layer for web3, has raised $100 million in a Series B round led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) …

Sara Fischer / Axios:
Meta will end support for Instant Articles, source says in mid-April 2023, giving news publishers six months to readjust their Facebook strategies  —  Meta is ending support for Instant Articles, a proprietary mobile format it debuted in 2015 to quickly load news articles on the Facebook app, Axios has learned.