Alpha Schedule #18 - Anthony Hopkins About To Buy The Dip
Hi Fellaz,
Hope y'all had an amazing week?
I'm writing this newsletter while waiting on my NFT NYC flight, which gave me the opportunity to deep dive into a few Twitter threads. Below are a few of them that caught my attention and made me think. I hope they can be as inspiring for you, as they were for me.
For everyone who's interested to meet up in NYC, feel free to send me a tweet or a Telegram DM. ✌️
— 🩸💀 AMERICAN RADASS
THREE ARROWS CAPITAL (3AC) FACING INSOLVENCY
Digital currency hedge firm Three Arrows Capital (3AC) may face insolvency, according to sources who spoke to The Block. According to reports, the 3AC “liquidation” reached at least $400 million, and the hedge fund’s founder, Su Zhu, tweeted Tuesday night about “communicating with relevant parties”.
According to The DeFi Edge and Danny8Bc, 3AC is said to have lost a considerable amount of money in the aftermath of the Terra ecosystem crash.
A new report has even revealed that venture firm Three Arrows Capital (3AC) has reportedly failed to meet margin calls from lenders.
ANTHONY HOPKINS ABOUT TO BUY THE DIP
Academy Award winner Anthony Hopkins bought his Ethereum domain name, joining a number of other public figures using their ENS names as Twitter usernames.
In addition, Hopkins asked fellow celebrities Snoop Dogg, Jimmy Fallon, and Reese Witherspoon for recommendations on which NFT he should snap up during the crypto dip.
Since then, Anthony Hopkins posted a few other tweets aimed at the NFT community and its collectors.
CELSIUS PAUSES WITHDRAWALS AND TRANSFERS
Crypto lending firm Celsius said Sunday that it would pause withdrawals on its platform, citing market conditions as the price of Ether and other cryptocurrencies tumbled.
The firm, which sources told The Block earlier in the week only had a few more weeks' worths of financial resources to support customer withdrawals, took to Twitter to announce the suspension of withdrawals, transfers, and swaps.
As you can imagine this caused a public outcry, after which experts like Joshua Browder started to explain how people could get their money back.
In the meantime, Celsius has hired a legal team to advise on restructuring its business after facing liquidity issues, The Wall Street Journal reported,
📰 OTHER NEWS FROM THE PAST WEEK
Elon Musk held his first full meeting with Twitter employees where he discussed his plans for cryptocurrency following his planned takeover of the social network.
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao has said that the bear market is a great time for crypto companies to hire more people and increase investments.
BAYC went to NYC and started tagging their logo on top of work from legendary graffiti artists in preparation for Apefest. After some public outrage, their marketing agency apologized.
Julia Landauer is making her NASCAR Xfinity Series debut for Alpha Prime Racing, thanks to sponsoring from the Boss Beauties and Garage XYZ NFT collections.
Coinbase is firing around 1100 employees "to prepare for recession and crypto winter"
Kraken CEO Jesse Powell lashed out on Twitter against some employees for going against the company’s crypto-first culture.
Michael Saylor’s MicroStrategy Bitcoin Investment is Down by Approx $1.04 Billion and might face a Bitcoin margin call.
OpenSea announced the launch of a new feature aimed at improving platform security and user protection: it would render suspicious NFT transfers invisible. They also announced low gas fees (-35%) and are removing the setup fee.
Logan Paul broke his hand and turned it into an NFT
✨ NEW IN THE SPACE
French fashion brand Lacoste has launched a collection of NFTs in a move it says aims to build an online community and engage with customers in a new way.
Tag Heuer will now let customers display NFTs on the face of certain smartwatch models.
FTX US, the US affiliate of the crypto exchange at the center of a major scuffle over US regulation, has registered its first in-house lobbyist to work on Congressional relations.
Digital fashion collectibles startup SKNUPS has raised $3.5 million in pre-seed funding.
Derby Stars, a blockchain-based Triple A play-to-earn horse racing game, is migrating to the Polygon network, backtracking on the earlier plans to launch on Terra ecosystem.
💀 HOW TO RECOGNIZE A RUG PULL
ZachXBT, a self-proclaimed Rug pull survivor turned 2D detective, posted a lengthy blog post about Machi Big Brother, a former Taiwanese-American musician and tech entrepreneur who embezzled over 22,000 ETH.
The post was received with mixed reactions by the community.
OTHER POSSIBLE RUG PULLS
A recent investigation completed by security company Uppsala Security indicated that the wallet behind the attack is connected and managed by Terra itself.
A lawsuit has been brought against Elon Musk, Tesla, and SpaceX for participating in the promotion of Dogecoin, which the accuser claims is a pyramid scheme.
A deep dive on how 0xstudio is exploiting artists for maximum profits and how the bear market and the LonelyPop NFT release was their unraveling.
MetaMask, Phantom, and a few other browser wallets disclosed that they patched a critical security vulnerability.
Crypto Leaks launches a platform that reveals scams and corruption in the crypto space.
✨ HOW YOU DOIN' NFTNYC?
It's coming close! We are currently traveling to New York to meet various fellow NFT collectors and experience the vibe of WEB3 communities hanging out.
To make it easier for everyone, I created a google document that tracks interesting NFT community events and parties. Additionally, I also created a dedicated NFT NYC Telegram group which now has over 350 subscribers!
🔮 LOOKING FORWARD
It’s no financial advice, but you might want to start doing your research and grinding for these allowlists before it’s too late.
📖 LEARN HOW TO DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH
Jon HQ, an NFT collector specializing in Discord audits and security, created a Twitter thread around security during NFT NYC. It includes tips like Don't wear NFT swag, don't give personal info (hotel number), leave your cold wallet at home, bring a burner phone/laptop, use VPN, and so much more.
😂 LAUGH OUT LOUD
Other notable jokes and memes:
😊 ENJOYED THIS WEEK'S ALPHA?
Please do keep forwarding this email to friends, family, gaming buddies, or colleagues you think would benefit from receiving this newsletter in their inbox every Friday. For free!
You can also …
Share this link on your favorite discord server.
🤓 DISCLAIMER: NFA & DYOR
This newsletter is a curated overview of the most interesting things I’ve read the past week, the projects I’ve researched, and the NFTs I’ll be trying to buy.
This means I’m - per definition - biased, so don’t consider this as financial advice and keep doing your own research if you see something you like.