Welcome to Q4 2023, the period in which we are all going to pretend to have gotten enough done this year.

Here’s what we got into on the show today:

• Stocks are mixed around the world while crypto tokens are enjoying a nice price-upswing in recent days.
• A recent article argues that Apple has all the ingredients it needs to build a search engine to take on Google and Microsoft. At issue? The fact that Apple makes so much money not having a search engine. For startups, more competition here could be good.
• EU telcos want to get paid twice, unsurprisingly.
• While the Amazon-FTC case is still big news, this week we’ll see the trial of former FTX maven SBF kick off. TechCrunch is ready.
• And to close out, why are we seeing so many Seed-stage fintech deals? Here’s the answer.

Stick close to TechCrunch this week, it’s going to be busy.

For episode transcripts and more, head to Equity’s Simplecast website.

Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. TechCrunch also has a great show on crypto, a show that interviews founders and more!

Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products.