🍋 YouTube Crypto Influencers No One Asked For

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Good Morning! Stock market bounced back bigly yesterday driven by tech stocks. Nasdaq scored its best gain since March 9 (+3%). It was a rough day at the Short Squeez headquarters tho, as Alexa was down bad. Amazon Web Services (cloud hosting platform where most of the world's data is stored) faced widespread outages. UAE is officially switching to a 4 ½ day week (half day on Friday) and also changing its weekend from Friday – Saturday (which is popular among other Gulf nations) to Saturday - Sunday to better align with global markets. In some more good news for workers across the globe, omicron is sending work holiday parties back to Zoom (phew).

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1. Story of the Day: YouTube Crypto Influencers No One Asked For

The great thing about crypto is that everyone can get involved. The worst thing about crypto is also that everyone can get involved. Crypto influencers and scammers are flooding streaming sites and in many cases they are the same people.

Influencers, who have gained massive traction on platforms like YouTube or TikTok, are often times just 21-year old Gen Z'ers with no background in finance or economics saying things like : "Bitcoin is about to hit $100k this year." "DOGE is going to $1!" "Ethereum MASSIVELY Undervalued!" “Bitcoin 15x gains coming, it’s the new gold!” 

Brian Jung is a 24-year-old YouTube creator who has amassed a big following with his 1 million subscribers. He makes at least $40k/month from video ads/sponsorships and when the market gets hot he can top $200k/month. The niche audience means advertisers are willing to pay more than they do for other industries (as high as $50 per thousand impressions).

Other than legit influencers (if we are calling them that) the space is also full of legit scammers. Jung once tallied 15 accounts stealing his name on Instagram. “There are scammers everywhere. So watch out, bro," says the ex. Call of Duty influencer.

Other than ad sponsorships, influencers can also be paid to pump sh*tcoins. Ryan Scribner, a finance YouTuber, says he gets requests from altcoins willing to pay $25k for a single mention. This is really the celebrity version of pumping an NFT that they know absolutely nothing about.

Short Squeez Takeaway: It's truly wild to us that Brad from your local pastry shop, spending an hour doing technical analysis on Bitcoin price and predicting what it will be 14 days from now, can amass thousands of views on YouTube. The sad thing is that these influencers will only gain larger followings as more people learn about crypto and the Google algo sends them to the scammy influencers. (oh & don't even get us started on TikTok influencers)

Source: Bloomberg

2. Markets Rundown

• Stocks extended a powerful two-session rally Tuesday, as omicron fears receded.

Movers & Shakers

• (+) Designer Brands ($DBI) +15% after reporting better-than-expected quarterly earnings

• (+) Bumble ($BMBL) +10% after JPMorgan upgraded the stock to overweight

• (+) Acadia Pharmaceuticals ($ACAD) +10%  after announcing positive results in a late-stage trial of its experimental treatment for Rett Syndrome

3. Top Reads

• Uber to deliver Xmas trees (MarketWatch)

• Space infrastructure company Loft Orbital raises $140 million (CNBC)

• The 2021 Cash Gifts Guide: From Crypto to Tungsten Cubes (WSJ)

• What we know about the creator of Bitcoin (WSJ)

• Volkswagen exploring IPO of luxury carmaker Porsche (Reuters)

• Facebook failed to remove free speech, now it is being sued for $150 billion (CNN)

• Chris Cuomo book cancelled by publisher HarperCollins (CNBC)

• The key to fundraising for startups is alumni networks. Here's the surprise (InstitutionalInvestor)

• Managing the world's biggest sovereign wealth fund is about to get complicated (Economist)

• America's gambling addiction is metastasizing (Atlantic)

A Message From Masterworks: How to Invest Like a Hedge Fund Billionaire (Without Actually Being One)

Most investors don’t realize hedge fund billionaires invest a large portion of their wealth in assets outside the stock market. On average, billionaires allocate 50% of their portfolios to alternative assets according to KKR. That’s because data shows investors who diversify with alternatives outperform those who don’t.

Take hedge fund legend, Steve Cohen— he’s invested over $1 billion in art. 

Here’s why:

• Art has a 0.01 correlation to public equities 

• WSJ called the art market “one of the hottest on Earth,”

• Contemporary art prices increased by 2,518% since 1995

But, you don’t need to spend $300M to buy a Picasso anymore. You can invest in the same paintings collected by billionaires like Cohen with Masterworks.io, the $1B fintech platform.

They let you diversify your portfolio with multimillion-dollar paintings by artists like Picasso and Van Gogh in just a few simple clicks.

And it’s not just talk: their investors saw a net IRR of 30%+ in 2020 and 2021.

The best part? You can skip their waitlist*

4. Book of the Day: Black Edge: Inside Information, Dirty Money, and the Quest to Bring Down the Most Wanted Man on Wall Street

The hedge fund industry changed Wall Street. Its pioneers didn’t lay railroads, build factories, or invent new technologies. Rather, they made their billions through financial speculation, by placing bets in the market that turned out to be right more often than not. 

In hedge fund circles, Steven A. Cohen was revered as one of the greatest traders who ever lived. But that image was shattered when his fund, SAC Capital, became the target of a seven-year government investigation. 

Prosecutors labeled SAC a “magnet for market cheaters” whose culture encouraged the relentless pursuit of “edge”—and even “black edge,” which is inside information—and the firm was ultimately indicted and pleaded guilty to charges related to a vast insider trading scheme. 

Cohen, himself, however, was never charged. Black Edge is a riveting legal thriller that raises urgent questions about the power and wealth of those who sit at the pinnacle of high finance and how they have reshaped the economy.

“Listening to the wires was generally considered a crappy job, but Kang didn’t see it that way. He understood it as a matter of patience; if you put in the work, it eventually paid off."

5. Short Squeez Picks

• Patrick O'Shaughnessy talks with the creators of gaming company Second Life Podcast

• Reese's keeps getting weirder

• Apes, rocks and the future of finance

6. Daily Visual: Most Popular Passwords Around The World

Most popular passwords appearing in leaks in 2019/2020

Source: Statista

7. Daily Acumen: Helium Blockchain

There are over 8.4 billion connected devices online. Most of these devices need to connect to the Internet to function. However, current solutions such as cellular, WiFi, and Bluetooth are suboptimal: they are too expensive, too power hungry, or too limited in range.

The Helium network is a decentralized wireless network that enables devices anywhere in the world to wirelessly connect to the Internet and geolocate themselves without the need for power-hungry satellite location hardware or expensive cellular plans.

Helium, the crypto coin, is one of the strongest performers (+3,000%) within the Web3 sector year-to-date as its global wireless hotspot network continues to attract huge partners like DISH, who announced that they would begin to deploy Helium’s new line of 5G hotspots. 

Source: Messari

8. Crypto Corner

• MetaMask: The hero crypto deserves (RTG)

• This Bitcoin price metric just hit 'oversold' for only the 7th time in 8 years (CoinTelegraph)

• Bored Apes’ generous copyright approach besting stricter Crypto Punks (DeFiant)

• AOC says US lawmakers shouldn't hold crypto to 'remain impartial' (CoinTelegraph)

• ‘Decentralization illusion’: Central bank group urges regulation of DeFi crypto platforms (CNBC)

9. Memes of the Day

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