Good news for crypto, bad news for TikTok, and new TWiST500 companies

Top News

• New TikTok Trouble: The U.S. FTC has “referred a complaint” against TikTok to the Justice Department, Reuters reports. TikTok, the popular social media app that Chinese tech giant Bytedance owns, was already having a tough go of it with a forced divesture or ban hanging over its head. Now, it could be in trouble over how it handled children's information.

• Ethereum in the clear? ****According to Decrypt, the SEC appears to have decided that Ethereum’s token is not a security, a coup for the domestic crypto industry and fans of decentralized assets. The question now is what the Ethereum decision means for other forms of stored wealth, digital or otherwise.

• Framework links up with RISC-V: Jason and Alex have discussed Framework on the podcast a few times in recent weeks. The venture-backed company sells highly modular laptops and is a paragon of repairability and consumer choice. Now, it’s working with DeepComputing, which will build hardware using the open-source RISC-V processor blueprint.

TWiST500

We have new names for the TWiST500! Expect an end-of-the-week rundown of new names and an updated database to boot, but for today, short notes on the latest entrants:

• Color: All about cancer screening and prevention, the heavily backed Color has linked up with OpenAI, a copilot for doctors who do not specialize in oncology. The goal as far as we can tell, at Color is to help companies spot and prevent or otherwise manage cancer diagnoses amongst their employees. Very cool.

• Albedo: High-res imaging from very low Earth orbit? Reregerator-sized satellites plastered in solar panels? Alex was all-in on Albedo, a startup that he has tracked since it was a Y Combinator graduate. If you are into the space economy, Albedo is one to watch. Expect to see its first satellite in the air next year.

• Dawn Aerospace: This startup was founded back in 2017, and it does business selling propulsion systems for satellites. But that is not enough for Dawn, which is also working to build rocket-powered jets that will be able to get other rockets high into the sky for orbital insertion. Alex wants to go to space, making this an easy addition.

• SpaceX: Have you heard of it?

A message from .techdomains:

Don’t miss the “Jam Session with JCal” contest! To apply for a chance to pitch JCal on This Week in Startups go to https://jamwithjcal.tech - brought to you by .tech domains.

This Week in Startups

E1958: Jason and Alex discuss Nvidia's ascent to becoming the most valuable company and insights into Eli Lilly and the GLP-1 phenomenon. The conversation shifts to the future of telehealth and its evolving landscape. They also cover the FTC's lawsuit against Adobe and introduce new companies in the TWIST500!

E1967: Jason and Alex dug into how Google Maps handles design decisions, Bilt’s relationship with Wells Fargo, AI progress in both China and Japan, and AI regulation. The pair also took audience questions at the end of the show, and touched on how we might define AGI.

E1966: What is Unreasonable Hospitality? Former hospitality boss Will Guidara came on the pod to chat with Jason about what he learned from getting his former restaurant to the number one spot in the world. He learned a lot about customer and staff care, much of which can be applied directly to founders and startups.

The TWiST500 newsletter is the new, updated, and improved TWiST Ticker.