$4.5B Heist, Russia accepts Crypto, CPI
The Crocodile of Wall Street & promising market pumps
Well guys the censorship machine strikes again. This time suspending our Twitter indefinitely. Arbitrage Andy is no stranger to censorship and suppression, we’ve received dozens of warnings on a range of media platforms, almost all of which, are absolute BS. We’ve had our reach and engagement throttled and suppressed and have the data and anecdotal evidence to prove it. Wild times we’re living in.
You can help us and the brand out immensely by following the new Arb ARB Letter twitter account while we work to gain access back to our primary twitter. Twitter is a big source of engagement, business, and collaboration so for the time being this sucks. If we can convert just half of our readers we’d have over 6,000 new followers which would work wonders for getting back in the mix!
FOLLOW THE NEW ARBITRAGE ANDY TWITTER HERE
Doing this is a massive massive help guys.
Appreciate all of you who support us by following as we continue to hedge our digital brand and organization against these kinds of absurd instances of censorship and suspension.
Thank you all for your support - it means a great deal that I have the availability to share my writing, memes, and takes with all of you. Seriously no cap.
MARKETS
I have reeled back my aggressive option plays and now sit on the sidelines after adding to $NVDA and $FB positions on red days. Crypto has been performing relatively well despite the traditional market chop.
Equity markets have calmed and rallied a bit over the last week or so despite a violent temporary dip this morning after the CPI report, I think the Ukraine/Russia conflict continues to be the biggest threat to a violent shorter term sell off and it does seem to be escalating day by day.
CPI print came in at 7.5% today, the highest inflation levels in 40 years
Crypto has performed relatively well in the last week, with blue chips BTC and ETH gaining higher than major indices including the Nasdaq. Bitcoin is trading around $44,000 at the time of this draft (9:30am ET) and Ethereum is trading around $3,175.
The Russian government and central bank have reached a preliminary agreement to draft legislation or amend existing laws recognizing crypto as a form of currency
Chipotle Mexican Grill shares rose over 7.5% in Wednesday premarket, the after the company reported quarterly earnings that beat estimates
Peloton (PTON) will cut 2,800 jobs as it looks to control costs with slowing demand. They did give all 2,800 former employees free year long subscriptions though. The CEO John Foley will also be stepping down. PTON went from a COVID favorite of hedge funds and larger institutional investors to a shell of its former self.
PTON bike (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu) Facebook owner Meta closed with a market cap sub $600 billion Tuesday for the first time since May of 2020
A husband-and-wife duo were arrested in Manhattan Tuesday morning, charged with an alleged conspiracy to launder $4.5 billion worth of cryptocurrency stolen in the 2016 hack of currency exchange Bitfinex. Ilya Lichtenstein, 34, and his wife, Heather Morgan, 31, both of Manhattan, are due in court Tuesday afternoon. Heather referred to herself as the Crocodile of Wall Street lmao.
You can read the full synopsis on the DOJ website, but this is one of the largest heists of all time lmfao. I have linked the chick’s twitter as well since it is without a doubt the weirdest shit I have ever seen.
Two individuals were arrested this morning in Manhattan for an alleged conspiracy to launder cryptocurrency that was stolen during the 2016 hack of Bitfinex, a virtual currency exchange, presently valued at approximately $4.5 billion. Thus far, law enforcement has seized over $3.6 billion in cryptocurrency linked to that hack.
“Today’s arrests, and the department’s largest financial seizure ever, show that cryptocurrency is not a safe haven for criminals,” said Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco. “In a futile effort to maintain digital anonymity, the defendants laundered stolen funds through a labyrinth of cryptocurrency transactions. Thanks to the meticulous work of law enforcement, the department once again showed how it can and will follow the money, no matter what form it takes.”
“Today, federal law enforcement demonstrates once again that we can follow money through the blockchain, and that we will not allow cryptocurrency to be a safe haven for money laundering or a zone of lawlessness within our financial system,” said Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “The arrests today show that we will take a firm stand against those who allegedly try to use virtual currencies for criminal purposes.”
Take a look at the couple’s TikTok presence. Bizzare doesn’t even begin to describe what’s going on here. Aside from being an illegal size queen, Heather had an amateur rap career as well. Referring to herself as Razzlekhan and the Turkish Martha Stewart.
Absurd. But that’s what the crypto space is known for, absurd shit. Can’t wait to see the memes on this roll out in the coming days, she is probably up there with Martin Shkreli and Elizabeth Holmes as certified psychos.
GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE
Perhaps the most interesting global development outside of the Ukraine/Russia conflict is the backwards stepping of countries and nations on a range of Covid 19 mandates and requirements. Most notably the UK announced they will remove all Covid restrictions recently:
The medal ceremony for the team figure skating competition at the Beijing Winter Olympics was delayed because of what the International Olympic Committee on Wednesday called a legal issue that could affect medalists (NBC)
Russian military forces have continued to bolster in key regions surrounding Ukraine Armored Personel Carriers, Tanks, and Naval Fleets have continued to maneuver and run live exercises in the region
The Russia Ukraine situation continues to build. I will dedicate a piece for the next Arb Letter entirely to the situation as I feel it has the capability to escalate to a serious level very quickly. So far discussions have proven mostly useless and in some instances NATO members are being humiliated by the raw based nature of Russian government officials who exist outside the West’s sphere of Wokeness and Idealism.
"I honestly don't think a decision has yet been taken" by Moscow on whether to attack, Johnson told a news conference with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg in Brussels. "But that doesn't mean that it is impossible that something absolutely disastrous could happen very soon indeed."
"This is probably the most dangerous moment, I would say, in the course of the next few days, in what is the biggest security crisis that Europe has faced for decades, and we've got to get it right. And I think that the combination of sanctions and military resolve, plus diplomacy is what is in order." (Reuters)
Russian’s foreign minister treated his British counterpart like an absolute play toy yesterday.
Russia’s foreign minister gave his British counterpart a frosty welcome in Moscow on Thursday, accusing her of grandstanding at a rancorous encounter that highlighted the gulf between them over the Ukraine crisis (Al Jazeera)
Talk to you guys this weekend.
Andy