Chinese Hackers & Crypto Resurgence
319: Gains Persist With Geopolitical Tension at All Time Highs
Good afternoon all — hope the week is going okay. Free post for all subscribers today, we’re closing in on the 30,000 mark and I anted to once again thank all of you for your support and readership.
We got a good one today.
Before we hop in a quick note — given the amount of time we are taking each week to put these guides/posts together and the demand on the direct message front I ask for patience in us getting back.
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Before we dive in today a quote from our friend
— if you follow us and them, you know there’s reasons we stress entrepreneurship, business building, and investing regularly in the current environment.
Financial Markets
This week, the stock market is performing relatively well, with the S&P 500 and Dow Jones reaching new all-time highs following the Federal Reserve’s decision to cut interest rates by 50 basis points. Investor sentiment was boosted by this move, as it signaled a shift toward more accommodative monetary policy.
Gains were led by sectors like manufacturing and consumer durables, while healthcare and consumer non-durables lagged behind. NVDA 0.00%↑ saw another big surge due to comments by the CEO. AMD 0.00%↑ is starting to move again.
Gold also hit a new ATH.
The market's rally reflects optimism about the Fed’s actions easing concerns of an immediate recession, though some uncertainty remains around upcoming earnings and the U.S. election.
Caroline Ellison, infamous FTX goblin and side piece, has been sentenced to two years in prison for her role in FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, crypto fraud — (Axios)
FTX will begin to distribute around $16 billion to its creditors next week — could end up seeing some panic dumps as a result for people looking to get out of crypto for good
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway has sold an additional $863 million of Bank of America stock (Unusual Whales)
Visa is announced it is set to help banks test tokenized assets and smart contracts on the coming months
BlackRock has purchased 359,279 Bitcoin worth over $23 billion since January 2024 (WatcherGuru)
The US consumer confidence index has declined to 98.7 points, marking the steepest decline in 3 years. The index significantly missed expectations of 104.0 points and is near levels seen during 9%+ inflation (Kobeissi Letter)
Southwest Airlines is planning to reduce service to and from Atlanta next year, cutting more than 300 pilot and flight attendant positions, with more cuts on the way across the US (MacroEdge)
Crypto Popping
This week in crypto, Bitcoin is hanging around $63,000, like that lit friend who just won’t leave the party even after puking a few times. It’s up over 8% for the week, but it’s eyeing that $65,000 mark like it’s the last zyn in the can. If it doesn’t break through soon, we might see it drop to $59,000, though I am bullish right now and think a stronger move to the upside is coming.
Ethereum is flexing, too, with a solid 14.8% gain, now chilling at around $2,643. But it’s also juggling some weird vibes—while whale investors are scooping up ETH, ETFs saw $79 million in outflows. Transaction fees continue to climb.
PEPE is looking great right now — we’ve covered PEPE before and it’s proving to be one of the strongest meme coins in terms of resiliency.
I am convinced once this bull run truly starts PEPE will be an easy 2/3X.
Other alts I am scrambling to pack my bags with are AAVE, AVAX, and of course my resident favorite LINK. Don’t sleep on ZYN either.
The truth is — many people doubted crypto and are now panicking to get into markets just as tidbits of major institutional news are dropping while prices rises. The big boys have been and are buying, custody conversations are being had with banks, and risk on appetite has returned for the time being.
Don’t get left behind — BTC over $100,000 is coming.
Geopolitics & Global News
In a move that would be sure to calm down tensions in the Middle East, Israel is aid to be gearing up for a potential ground operation/invasion of Lebanon as its conflict with Hezbollah intensifies — though this is being denied by US Officials. Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, Chief of the General Staff, emphasized that the military will continue its strikes with the goal of securing the safety of northern residents.
US forces are growing in the region in anticipation of escalation on multiple fronts — this comes just a few weeks after Kamala Harris said in a debate that their aren’t US soldiers in any warzones around the world.
Lol.
The operation would involve Israeli forces entering Hezbollah-controlled villages, which have been fortified with military infrastructure. On Wednesday, Israel ramped up its offensive, hitting 260 targets in southern Lebanon and the Begaa region.
A judge had ordered the sale of Alex Jones' show InfoWars — Judge Christopher Lopez states he will approve the auctions
Putin is planning to hold a meeting of his Security Council focused on nuclear deterrence today, (Interfax)
The entire party leadership of Germany's Green Party, infamous for the massive renewables transition in Germany, is resigning after the recent election results — (Focus)
"Aggression against Russia by any non-nuclear state, but with the participation or support of a nuclear state, is proposed to be considered as their joint attack on the Russian Federation."
— Putin
Most Americans (65%) expect another assassination attempt against former President Trump before the upcoming Election Day, according to a new Rasmussen survey (LeadingReport)
Trump said this week on Iran:
“If I were the president, I would inform the threatening country, in this case Iran, that if you do anything to harm this person, we are going to blow your largest cities and the country itself to smithereens.”
China has test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile — this marks the first since 1980 (@DEFCONWSALERTS)
Earlier this week Sean 'Diddy' Combs, on the heels of his arrest, was moved to same Brooklyn jail unit that houses Sam Bankman-Fried, the FTX scam goblin. Will Diddy survive? There are reports he is refusing food for fear of being poisoned. One thing is for sure, if you take a look down the Rabbit Hole all types of celebrities are implicated with Diddy — from Ashton Kutcher, to Usher, to Justin Bieber, to Taylor Swift, to Ben Stiller — the list is exhaustive.
Will we ever get to the bottom of this web of degeneracy? Likely not. The same blow over that occurred with Epstein will likely occur.
But I do want to say — if we knew the extent of this deviance and who was involved, there would likely by mass rioting and unrest, which is the exact reason it’s so desperately kept under wraps. MASSIVE people from all corners of government, society, corporate America, and the academic world would likely be directly implicated.
Illegal Migration Hits Nantucket
In a shocking new update to the illegal immigration chaos in the US — Bill Melugin, known for his outstanding coverage on Southern Border issues provided a wild update from the island of Nantucket in Massachusetts (a sanctuary state).
4 men by the names of Elmer Sola, Bryan Daniel Aldana-Arevalo, Gean Do Amaral Belafronte, Felix Alberto Perez-Gomez were arrested by ICE’s Boston office for sexual crimes including raping and sexually assaulting Nantucket natives, including 2 children.
Where is the outrage?
Bill mentioned:
According to internal CBP data, there have been over 1.9 million known gotaways who successfully evaded apprehension & snuck into the U.S. during the Biden administration, tracked via cameras, sensors, footsign, etc.
If you want to understand the expanse and breadth of this issue in our country and other Western nations today, check out the last 5 posts or so in the Arb Letter archive.
Put bluntly — it’s completely unsustainable. A large amount of these individuals are sick pups. They are harming and killing Americans and they don’t give a shit about our laws, rules, or societal values.
Foxes directly into the chicken coop. Except most of the chickens are woke losers who can’t call out the threat of the foxes for fear of being racist or fox-phobic. Consequently they are harmed and killed. More foxes come in.
This should be the single most important and agreed upon election issue — the fact it isn’t and the fact that a Democrat victory in November means this continues or gets worse, is extremely unsettling.
Chinese Hackers & Cyber Attack
The NYT broke a story today centered around new efforts to hack US systems.
Hackers linked to the Chinese government have broken into a handful of U.S. internet-service providers in recent months in pursuit of sensitive information, according to people familiar with the matter (NYT).
Whether it was related or not (assume it could be) — I actually got a disruption service notification from my internet service provider earlier today (Xfinity).
Recent reports have revealed over and over again that Chinese malware has been discovered embedded within critical U.S. infrastructure, posing a serious threat to national security. This malware has the potential to disrupt essential services such as power, water, and communications, especially in the event of increased tensions between the U.S. and China, particularly over Taiwan.
The malware, attributed to the Chinese hacking group "Volt Typhoon," has been strategically placed to remain hidden for long periods. It could be activated to cause widespread disruption to civilian and military operations. The discovery has raised concerns about the vulnerability of U.S. infrastructure to foreign cyberattacks, and efforts are being made to identify and eliminate the threat.
This comes amid growing anxieties over China's cyber capabilities and its potential to use such access to paralyze vital systems if geopolitical conflicts intensify.
The capacity for disruptive cyber attacks is large in the coming months — either to strike at the US economically or to interfere with elections. We’ve covered cyber extensively in paid posts — it will eventually happen, and when it does Americans will be shocked at just how disruptive it can be to modern life.
Election Update
Predictably the second Trump assassination attempt (which we formally predicted in Arb Letter premium) has been forgotten by the media — despite the fact we have fewer answers than before.
As we covered yesterday the DOJ let us know that the man accused of attempting to assassinate former President Donald Trump last week had left a note months earlier, urging others to "finish the job" and offering $150,000 to anyone who succeeded in killing the Republican presidential candidate.
They chose to post this letter in a highly charged political climate where violence seems to be the new norm. Funny how they can eagerly release this but sit on something like the Nashville shooter’s manifesto for months, makes you think.
Just this week, Ryan Routh’s son was arrested in connection with the second alleged assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump and faces federal charges for child pornography possession.
Then this week Donald Trump was informed by U.S. intelligence about assassination threats from Iran, according to his campaign. The Republican presidential candidate was reportedly briefed on "real and specific threats" from Iran, aimed at destabilizing and creating chaos within the United States, the campaign state (see statement below).
We’d all do well to be highly critical and skeptical of major headlines surfacing in the coming weeks ahead of the election. Nothing is likely what it appears at first glance. I have no doubt that Iran does not want Trump to return to the White House but
Censorship Update
I kind of wish we’d stop getting these updates on censorship because they’re so insidious and wide reaching — confirming what we and others said was true for years. It started with the Twitter Files, then we got Zuckerberg’s admission of censorship of Covid, the 2020 election, and Hunter Biden’s laptop, then we saw Google censor images of Trump after being shot, and now we get a new report expanding on the granular details of what was actually done.
America First Legal (AFL) has released new documents from its lawsuit against the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), shedding light on Facebook’s role in training CDC employees to use its platform for government censorship related to "Covid & Vaccine Misinformation." During 2021, the Biden-Harris Administration was heavily criticized for widespread censorship, with constantly changing public health guidelines leading to suspensions for posts that had previously been considered accurate.
The documents reveal that, under pressure from the White House, Facebook developed a special portal where government officials could request the removal of specific content. Only authorized government and law enforcement personnel had access, and the system streamlined censorship by allowing up to twenty links to be flagged at once. The move from email-based requests to a Facebook-hosted portal made it more difficult to monitor individual censorship actions. Each request generated a tracking number to ensure Facebook complied with the government’s demands.
Additionally, the documents detail how Facebook communicated with the CDC about what content would be removed under its "community standards." These revelations follow previous disclosures that highlighted the influence of the UK on the administration’s censorship policies and admissions from Mark Zuckerberg that Facebook acted under significant pressure from the White House. AFL has now released the full on-boarding slide deck for the first time, after earlier partial disclosures by The Intercept.
The censorship machine is in full effect ahead of the election during a crucial period in US and Global politics. Should globalist and left leaning individuals retain or gain new government roles — we will without a doubt see this phenomenon expand rapidly.
That’s all for today.
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Disclaimer - I am a former trader, enterprise sales rep, and current entrepreneur with a monkey brain. Nothing I say should be considered formal financial advice or life advice, these are my opinions - always do your own research and diligence before investing and ensure you have a good understanding of your personal risk tolerance.