CRYPTO

Diamond Hands Under Pressure

It’s possible we upset the cryptocurrency gods when we bragged about only mentioning “crypto” once in yesterday’s newsletter. As the Brew entered your inbox early yesterday morning, many cryptocurrencies crashed, including the big two:

• Bitcoin’s value fell to nearly $30,000 per coin, down from over $50,000 a week ago, before bouncing back to about $38,000.
• Ether, the second-largest crypto, slid from over $3,350 to about $1,900 before also ticking back up. 

During the plunge, both cryptos hit their lowest levels since January, and experienced one-day drops not seen since March of last year—you know, when we thought drinking “quarantinis” was cute and shiba inu owners weren’t stopped on the street because “lol dogecoin.”

Any reason why?

On Tuesday, the People’s Bank of China reminded financial institutions that they cannot conduct business with cryptocurrencies following China’s 2017 ban of bitcoin exchanges. It added that virtual currency is “not a real currency” and called recent surges in the space “speculation.” 

Investors interpreted it as an omen of future government regulation on crypto—and not just in China. 

Some other reasons investors could be hopping off the crypto coaster: 

• New crypto investors may have learned Monday that the IRS treats cryptocurrency as property, not currency, and taxes it as such.
• Elon Musk, who can send crypto prices soaring or dipping with the stroke of a key, made bitcoin boosters nervous when he said last week that Tesla would no longer take bitcoin as payment due to environmental concerns. But yesterday, amid the market chaos, Musk confirmed his support for bitcoin with a tweet: “Tesla has ” 

On a crazy day for crypto, everyone had something to say

Let’s pass the mic...

PwC’s global head of crypto Henri Arslanian: “I would not be surprised to see other regulators and policymakers do the same [as the Chinese rules] over the coming weeks as they warn investors over the risks of speculative trading or crypto market volatility.”

Major crypto investor Mike Novogratz: “Now we’ve got a liquidation event...Humpty Dumpty never gets put back together in two days...when he cracks. It’s going to take a while. The market will consolidate. It will find a bottom somewhere.” 

Tom Brady tweeted, “Over here we just buy the dip!”

And that's pretty much crypto investing in a nutshell. Some are concerned retail traders will get hurt, some are extremely bullish, and others are treating it like a game.

AUTO

Ford Hopes Lightning Strikes

In an extravagant event last night, Ford unveiled its all-electric F-150 Lightning. The F-150 has been America’s top-selling vehicle for decades, and there’s a lot more riding on it than a bunch of teens coming in from a long day of loading hay bales.

Speaking on Tuesday at a Ford plant in Michigan, President Biden used the release of the new F-150 to drum up support for his proposed $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan, specifically the part that allocates $100+ billion to EV manufacturing and battery development.

Big picture: The reveal of the F-150 Lightning, whose base model starts near $40,000, is a watershed moment in the auto industry's dramatic pivot to electric. Since EVs are sometimes considered the domain of the Berkeley crowd, Ford hopes that an electric version of the ubiquitous F-150 could change perceptions.

Looking ahead...transportation contributes 29% to the US’ total emissions, per the EPA, but an electric truck won’t lower that number if no one wants to drive it. A crucial test for Ford awaits.

TRAVEL

The EU Opens Up About Summer Travel

If you’ve been craving a currywurst, you’re in luck because the European Union just agreed to let fully vaccinated non-EU travelers head on over. The decision yesterday streamlines the hodgepodge of travel restrictions across different countries in Europe.

Back stateside: While some American travelers are waiting for the final EU approval that will likely come later this month or next before booking international flights, domestic travel has already taken off. Southwest, the airline that ensures you’ll always be in the last boarding group, noted that fares for leisure travel are almost to 2019 levels and the company expects its May capacity to be down only 18% from 2019.

Looking ahead…Dr. Anthony Fauci said yesterday that travelers who are fully vaxxed could safely fly without a mask, but because there’s no vaccine passport system in the US, it’s a “complicated issue.” So until a better solution arrives, we’ll have to find more creative ways to shovel Biscoffs into our mouths.

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GRAB BAG

Key Performance Indicators

Stat: The highest bid for a seat on Blue Origin’s New Shepard spacecraft was $2.8 million, as of last night. It’s received more than 5,200 bids from 136 countries in the first round of the auction. The mission, which will send six passengers into suborbital space, is set to launch July 20.

Quote: “I know that’s a highly controversial decision. I didn’t make it lightly. I will admit that I wasn’t comfortable seeing money go out the door to people like this. But it was the right thing to do for the country.”

Joseph Blount, the CEO of Colonial Pipeline, explained to the WSJ why he reluctantly paid $4.4 million to the criminal group DarkSide, which had hacked the company’s computer systems and caused a six-day shutdown of the largest gasoline pipeline in the country.

Read: Hundreds of PPP loans went to fake farms in absurd places. (ProPublica)

TECH

Internet Explorer Gets Edged Out

That little “e” icon you always passed over with your mouse before clicking on another browser is being sent to the Recycle Bin of history. 

Microsoft said yesterday it is retiring its Internet Explorer desktop application on most versions of Windows 10 on June 15, 2022. 

The Buzz to Internet Explorer’s Woody is Microsoft Edge, the browser Microsoft first introduced in 2015 on Windows 10 and Xbox One. After Edge’s release, it was a matter of when, not if, Internet Explorer would be retired.

• "Not only is Microsoft Edge a faster, more secure, and more modern browsing experience than Internet Explorer, but it is also able to address a key concern: compatibility for older, legacy websites and applications,” Microsoft said in a blog post.

Zoom out: Internet Explorer has been around for more than 25 years, but it's steadily lost ground to competitors. In 2013, Google Chrome overtook Internet Explorer as the most popular browser in the US and hasn’t looked back. According to NetMarketShare, Chrome owns 69% of the market, Edge 7.8%, Firefox 7.5%, and Internet Explorer 5.2%.

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• The CEO of TikTok owner ByteDance, Zhang Yiming, is stepping down and moving to a new role. 
• Target picked up what other retailers were putting down, growing sales overall 23% and apparel sales more than 60%.
• The New York tristate area ended most Covid-19 restrictions yesterday; businesses can once again operate at full capacity.
• New chicken sandwich alert: Burger King is rolling out its new “Ch’King” sandwich on June 3.

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Smell that? Here’s a list of 52 fragrances and how to think about them.

BLACK WALL STREET

Why Banking With Greenwood Is About More Than the Money

Greenwood Financial’s digital banking platform plans to offer everything you’d expect from a bank: spending and savings accounts, a mobile app, a sleek card that’s heavy enough to make a good thwap sound on a table after a fancy meal with your parents while you say, “I got this.” 

But there’s one notable difference: Greenwood’s mission is “modern banking for the Culture.”

In today's installment of our series Black Wall Street, 100 Years Later, we profiled Greenwood and explored the challenges and opportunities for digital platforms to give more access to the unbanked. Give it a read here.

+ For more context on the event we're commemorating this week, the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921, check out Part 4 of our TikTok series.

GAMES

Three Headlines and a Lie

If you thought the Dear Evan Hansen movie photos were outrageous, just wait until you read the headlines we found for today’s game. Here are four news stories, but one of them is a lie, a faker, a bigger scam than Ben Platt playing a 17-year-old. See if you can figure out which one isn’t real:

1. “Philadelphia lost race for Amazon HQ2 because new CEO is a Giants fan: report”
2. “Gender reveal party with 38 exploding watermelons causes $5 million in property damage”
3. “Meet the marine worm with 100 butts that can each grow eyes and a brain”
4. “High traces of Viagra in Seoul's sewers, research shows”

ANSWER

We made up the gender reveal one, though it is extremely plausible.