🍋 Crypto Keeps Crashing

Crypto is down bad. Bitcoin 'Fear and Greed' Index has dropped to 7 – Extreme Fear. Wall Street's bankers are out of the office again, thanks to another Covid wave, badly affecting Pret A Manger sales. Caterpillar is moving HQ to Texas from Illinois. MicroStrategy could get margin called after YOLO’ing everything into bitcoin. Fisher-Price is in trouble too and was warned by the govt after its rocking chair caused at least 13 reported deaths.

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Short Squeez
June 15, 2022

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"The intelligent investor is a realist who sells to optimists and buys from pessimists." — Benjamin Graham

Good Morning! Wall Street's bankers are out of the office again thanks to another Covid wave. It's also badly affecting Pret A Manger sales (popular lunchtime spot). They may want to consider moving locations to Texas, like construction vehicle giant Caterpillar, who's heading to the Lone Star State from Illinois. Things keep getting worse for MicroStrategy who YOLO'd all its money into bitcoin, borrowed money then also YOLO'd that money into bitcoin. Price of bitcoin is approaching $21k, level at which the company said it could face a margin call (thots & prayers). Fisher-Price is in deep trouble too, as they were issued a stern warning by the govt for its rocking chair for babies that has caused at least 13 reported deaths.

As promised, please find the Top 30 Wall Street Intern Stories here.

1. Story of the Day: Crypto Keeps Crashing

The perfect storm has hit crypto. Between the recent blowup of Luna, high inflation and rising interest rates, investors are spooked and looking to move out of the riskier and more volatile asset classes.

Most recently, crypto lending platform, Celsius, announced it was pausing all withdrawals, swaps, and transfers between accounts because of extreme market volatility, and the crypto market took a nose-dive on the news.

While smaller currencies are getting wiped out, even the big boys of crypto are bleeding. Bitcoin is down 69% from all-time highs and Ethereum is down 76%. Bitcoin 'Fear and Greed' Index has dropped to 7 – Extreme Fear.

Even die hard HODLers are feeling the pressure according to strategists at Glassnode. They track the average purchase price of all Bitcoins in circulation, aka the realized price. Bitcoin is currently about $1,000 below the current realized price of $23,430 – the whole market is underwater.

Coinbase is also feeling the storm, but for them it's more of a blizzard. The company is laying off roughly 18% of its workforce, or about 1,100 full time jobs. CEO Brian Armstrong said managing costs will be critical in the face of a possible recession leading to a "crypto winter."

Short Squeez Takeaway: If you've ever watched Discovery Channel, you know that the deeper underwater you go, the darker it gets, and the more pressure you feel. If Bitcoin doesn't find a way back above the surface, it could continue to sink and get even tougher to get back out, as people will feel pressure to unload and salvage whatever value they can. The problem is, given the current macro environment and outlook, it's tough to see where the life preserver for crypto is.

2. Markets Rundown

Equity markets mainly traded sideways in anticipation of some big rate hike news this week, but crypto couldn't even fake confidence, and fell.

Movers & Shakers

  • (+) Continental Resources ($CLR) +15% after announcing an all cash buyout proposal from the family trust of Harold Hamm.

  • (+) FedEx ($FDX) +14% because they raised their quarterly dividend by more than 50% to $1.15 a share.

  • (–) Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment ($CSSE) -18% in a wild trading day after agreeing to buy Redbox in an all stock deal, with short squeezers (ayyy) trying to hold up Redbox.

Private Dealmaking

  • Capital Rx, pharmacy benefit manager raised $106 million in Series C funding

  • Corvia Medical, maker of shunt implants for heart failure, raised $54 million in Series C

  • TestGorilla, assessment platform that can be used to screen for a wide range of job categories, verticals, and skills, raised $70 million in Series A

  • Alice Technologies, construction management software provider, raised $30 million in a Series B funding

  • Atmos Labs, ​​play-and-earn video game publisher, raised $11 million in seed funding

  • Submittable, social good platform, has raised $47 million in Series C funding

A Message from LMNT

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3. Top Reads

  • Sell-everything markets are serving up healthier doses of panic (BB)

  • SEC launches insider trading inquiry into crypto exchanges (Fox)

  • Americans are building vacation-home empires with easy-money loans (BB)

  • Flying cars may actually happen (CNBC)

  • Netflix is now taking ideas from the industry it upended to jumpstart growth (CNBC)

  • Wall Street's favorite recession indicator is flashing red (Fox)

  • Investors worry another crypto collapse will bring down other key players (CNBC)

  • US beef and pork price relief probably won't last (BB)

  • 30-year mortgage rate surges to 6.28%, up from 5.5% just a week ago (CNBC)

  • In reality show ‘Squid Game,’ contestants compete for $4.56 million (BB)

4. Book of the Day: Bending Reality: How to Make the Impossible Probable

Bending Reality is Victoria Song's innovative process used by billionaires, tech founders, and the world's most successful leaders to make the impossible probable.

After achieving success without fulfillment at Yale University, Harvard Business School, and then as a Forbes 30 Under 30 Venture Capitalist, Victoria set off on an unusual quest to study with over 24 of the world's best coaches, therapists, and healers.

She then deployed the skills and tools she'd learned with a diverse group of the world's highest performers. Through it all, she's discovered the codes that enable her clients to bend reality in the direction they want.

By accessing this extraordinary ability, Victoria's clients have sold a company for 4 billion dollars, grown revenue 1,000% during a pandemic, and designed a more effective Covid vaccine. Victoria reveals the meta framework behind peak performance, personal development, and real magic that is accessible to all.

Whether you've studied these areas closely or this is your first book on this topic, you'll have front row seats to how the world's elite use this knowledge to collapse time, change the odds, and receive intelligent downloads to create unimaginable success.

You will learn how to:

* Bend reality by mastering two states of being that most people aren't even aware of.

* Reach your personal peak without burning out.

* Navigate change and face the unknown like the greatest leaders.

* Access creative downloads that artists, musicians, and geniuses receive.

* Find your unique "zone of genius" and live from it every day.

After learning how to bend reality, you will no longer need to memorize rules, tips, or tricks; instead, you will embody the essence of a remarkable leader who can make the impossible probable.

“Make your own luck--there's literally a recipe.”

5. Short Squeez Picks

6. Daily Visual: 5 Tech Giants Ad Market Dominance

Top 25 global advertisers by revenue

Source: Axios

7. Daily Acumen: What’s high school for?

"Perhaps we could endeavor to teach our future the following:

How to focus intently on a problem until it’s solved.

The benefit of postponing short-term satisfaction in exchange for long-term success.

How to read critically.

The power of being able to lead groups of peers without receiving clear delegated authority.

An understanding of the extraordinary power of the scientific method, in just about any situation or endeavor.

How to persuasively present ideas in multiple forms, especially in writing and before a group.

Project management. Self-management and the management of ideas, projects and people.

Personal finance. Understanding the truth about money and debt and leverage.

An insatiable desire (and the ability) to learn more. Forever.

Most of all, the self-reliance that comes from understanding that relentless hard work can be applied to solve problems worth solving."

Source: Seth's Blog

A Message from Sweater Ventures: The Venture Capital Fund for Everyone

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The last decade has seen a rise of retail investors keen on taking investment power into their own hands. Every year, more technology and resources allow investors (like you!) to make well-informed decisions for where their money goes and how it grows.

Venture Capital Shapes the Future and here at Sweater we believe the right to shape the future belongs to everyone.

Sweater VC officially launches today. Download the app here.

8. Crypto Corner by Bonkalytics.com

9. Memes of the Day

 

 

 

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