Tech
Alternative app store AltStore PAL joins the fediverse
AltStore PAL, an alternative app store for iOS, made possible by new regulations in markets like the EU and Japan, is integrating with the open social web. The company on Wednesday announced support for the fediverse, the open social web that runs on ActivityPub, which underpins apps like Mastodon, Flipboard, PeerTube, Threads, and others.
Known broadly as the “fediverse,” users on the open social web join independent servers that interoperate with one another, or “federate,” allowing people to communicate, view, and respond to posts with those on other social platforms.
With AltStore PAL’s launch of its own Mastodon server, it’s becoming the first federated app marketplace.
The company intends to use its server to give app developers a way to communicate about their apps’ news, updates, and alerts. Because these posts are federated, they can be seen, liked, and interacted with by users across the open social web, including Mastodon, Instagram’s Threads, and even Bluesky — assuming the Bluesky users have bridged their accounts to make them accessible to those in the fediverse.
“So that means, like, if you have a Mastodon account or Threads account, you could follow these accounts. You could follow the source from our Mastodon server, and then, in your timeline, you would see when there was an app update,” AltStore PAL co-founder Riley Testut told TechCrunch last fall, when the company was teasing its plans and announcing its $6 million Series A.
The interactions on these posts will also be shown on the AltStore PAL app itself, as people can sign in with their Mastodon or Bluesky accounts to like the apps, the app updates, and the news alerts within the app marketplace.
At launch, a handful of apps are already participating, including Loops, a federated short-form video app; PeerTube, a federated app similar to YouTube; and iPhanpy, a Mastodon client built by indie developer Matt Fantinel.
Some larger apps are planning to launch on this federated marketplace at a later time after changes to Apple’s commission structure are finalized in the EU. (Due to potential liability issues over payments, these apps are waiting for Apple to replace its Core Technology Fee with its Core Technology Commission, a decision it made after getting pushback from regulators over its prior revamp of its commission system.)
To access the AltStore PAL’s Mastodon server, users can visit fosstodon.org/@altstore. Meanwhile, users can also discover apps and sources on the AltStore PAL’s explore page at explore.alt.store. Alongside this update, the AltStore PAL app has been updated with an iOS 26 Liquid Glass design and icon.
Tech
Hacker broke into FBI and compromised Epstein files, report says
An unidentified foreign hacker broke into the FBI’s field office in New York in 2023 and compromised files related to the bureau’s investigation into the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, according to Reuters.
The newswire cited a source familiar with the breach, as well as court documents, and reported that the hack took advantage of a server at the Child Exploitation Forensic Lab in the FBI’s New York field office that was inadvertently left vulnerable by an FBI special agent working on the case. The breach “included combing through certain files pertaining to the Epstein investigation,” according to a court document.
An FBI spokesperson said that the investigation is ongoing. “Following the 2023 cyber incident, the FBI contained the affected network and determined the incident to be an isolated one. The FBI restricted access to the malicious actor and rectified the network,” the spokesperson said in a statement sent by email to TechCrunch.
A source told Reuters that the hacker did not realize they had broken into the FBI until the agents asked them to join a video call where they showed their credentials to the hacker.
Tech
Poppi founder on TikTok, Super Bowl ads, and her return to Shark Tank
For years, venture capitalists have been skeptical of beverage startups, citing thin margins and brutal distribution as reasons most brands never break out. But a new wave of “functional soda” companies has been challenging that assumption, including Poppi, the prebiotic soda brand that grew from a kitchen experiment into a $1.95 billion acquisition by PepsiCo.
On this episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, is joined by Poppi co-founder Allison Ellsworth to talk about building a beverage startup in a venture world dominated by SaaS and AI. From pitching on Shark Tank while nine months pregnant to going viral on TikTok and buying a last-minute Super Bowl ad, Ellsworth breaks down what it really takes to build a category-defining consumer brand — and what she looks for now that she’s back on Shark Tank as an investor herself.
Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod.
Tech
VC mega-funds are back with General Catalyst, Spark rumored to be raising billions
Following news last month that New York’s hottest venture firm, Thrive, just raised $10 billion for a new fund — its largest ever, double the previous one — another big-name VC firm is attempting to equal that raise. General Catalyst is in talks to raise $10 billion, unnamed sources tell Bloomberg. This firm, which has recast itself as a broader financial services company, raised $8 billion just a couple of years ago in 2024.
Meanwhile, Spark Capital is trying to raise $3 billion, sources tell The Information, which would also be a big boost from its previous funds. And, as TechCrunch just exclusively reported, Founders Fund is about to close a new $6 billion fund, too.
All of this follows Andreessen Horowitz’s $15 billion in new funding announced in January.
Venture firms were already sitting on a record amount of dry powder, meaning money available but not yet invested, at the end of 2025, according to the year-end report by PitchBook and the National Venture Capital Association. But 2026 is already shaping up to be a year of bigger and more, at least for venture firms with name recognition and enviable portfolios.
The obvious prediction is that VCs have plenty of money to keep fueling seed-stage AI startups with huge initial rounds and valuations. Record-breaking funding rounds for startups (as long as they are AI) will likely continue to be the new normal for 2026.
That wild Scarpetta ending, explained
Iran-linked hackers launch cyberattack against U.S. medtech company Stryker
