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Hi there 👋,
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We just received another reminder of how vulnerable Web3 marketplaces are to cyber attacks.

Hackers breached the Ronin Network, an independent blockchain developed by Axie Infinity, and stole ~$625MM.

And, nobody noticed for 6 days!

Even worse, Ronin Network says that the hack started in November 2021 when an influx of players created a load on their systems.

What did they do back then?

They loosened security procedures to cope with the increased demand. When things calmed down, Ronin ‘forgot’ to retighten its security, and the hackers took advantage of the open backdoor.

The lesson: Don’t trust money-hungry crypto startups to worry about the security of your funds.
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In this issue:

• 📈 Market Moves
• 📰 News & Views
• 🤝🏿 Deal Summary
• 🍿 Domain Snacks
• 🧰 Cool tools
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Don’t miss: Investing vs speculating, digital cash, 2 hefty dot com sales, 25 crypto startups, and a family office for non-billionaires.
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As always, thanks for being here.
Juliet Lyall

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📈 Market Moves

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👍 Bitcoin | $47,164.80 | +0.18%

👍 Ethereum | $3,411.33 | +0.73%

👎 Shopify | $705.60 | -5.16%

👎 Coinbase | $196.70 | -3.83%

👎 Meta | $227.85 | -0.87%

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📰 News & Views
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Recent stories that resonated with us.

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Investing vs Speculating

What’s the difference, and is one strategy better than the other?

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When it comes to investing, everyone has their own style, and there are numerous ways to trade assets in an attempt to turn a profit.

The important factor that differentiates investment from speculation is the level of risk attached to your transactions.

Typically, effective portfolio design demands that investors diversify their assets to lower risk and boost overall profitability. Still, the rapid spike in the popularity of cryptocurrencies is a prime example of speculative investing on the part of crypto enthusiasts.

Investing vs Speculating: Key Differences
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• Decision-Making Criteria
• Level of Risk
• Time Horizon

If you want to give your investing style a health check or need to weigh up the merits of each strategy, check out this article from Grit Daily.

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Testing Digital Dollars

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When you think about digital cash it’s likely that payment apps and cryptocurrencies come to mind. But, unlike paper money, these options require both an internet connection and a bank account to use.

They lack what has long made cash the preferred medium of civil libertarians, dissidents, and criminals alike: privacy.

The only kind of money that leaves no paper trail is paper.
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A bill introduced in Congress on Monday seeks to re-create the virtues of cash, privacy and all, in digital form. The Electronic Currency and Secure Hardware Act (ECASH) would direct the US government to experiment with issuing digital dollars that are stored on hardware, not in bank accounts, and can be used without an internet connection.

The idea is to mimic cash’s high level of privacy, its ease of use, and its lack of fees or processing hurdles — but subtract the physical bills.

While the bill’s odds of passing likely remain low, it demonstrates governments’ increasing interest in launching alternatives to cryptocurrency.

​A new bill would launch a large-scale test of digital dollars.​

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🩳 The Shorts

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🔹 A family office for non-billionaires: The exclusive club of family offices just got one comma shorter. For the paltry sum of $350,000, or just over five times the median U.S. household income, individuals can invest with Equi in complex strategies focused on alternative assets.

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🔹 The Y Combinator Demo Days over the past 2 days comprised 424 startups from 42 countries. YC is betting big on NFTs and DeFi. Here’s a roundup of the 25 crypto startups that Y Combinator is backing in its W22 batch.

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Meanwhile in Europe…

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🔹 Lowering barriers: Moonfare is a German fintech that aims to lower the entry barrier for investment in private equity funds. Equipped with a fast and easy-to-use digital platform, the startup offers retail investors access to select, top-tier private market funds and venture capital funds that were previously only available for institutions. Moonfare just snagged $35 million in funding to fuel its global expansion.

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🔹 Ecommerce intelligence: Munich-based Klar has raised €2.3 million in a seed funding round as the company wants to put an end to running an e-commerce business from spreadsheets. Co-founder Cillié Burger stated: “Our goal with Klar is to provide 95% of e-commerce brands with 95% of the value a world-class in-house team could generate, in 5% of the time and cost.”

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🔹Alternative funding: ArK Kapital offers startups non-dilutive, long-term loans which are tailor made for each company based on specific data. ArK is so confident in their AI-powered analysis, that they’re willing to offer repayment terms of up to 6 to 7 years beginning 2 to 3 years after disbursement. The company announced a raise of their own on Tuesday. They scored €165 million led by LocalGlobe.

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🤝🏿 Deal Summary

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🔒 = Accredited Investors Only

None of these deals is a recommendation from investing.io. This content is for information purposes only. All returns listed are estimations from the respective platforms, and not advice from investing.io. Do your own research. 

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➽ Flying Ship Technologies, Corp.: Venture Raise. Flying Ship Technologies, Corp., is building unmanned, autonomous, green wing-in-ground-effect vessels to deliver goods efficiently to hard-to-reach destinations. Startengine.

Minimum: $111.00​
Offering Type: Equity, Reg CF
​Pre-money Valuation: $100MM

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➽ Hudson County Condo Financing: Invest in a levered mortgage and mezzanine loan secured by 65 newly-built units in a condominium building located in North Bergen, NJ. Yieldstreet. 🔒

Minimum: $10,000​
Potential Return: 10.70%
​Term: 2 years

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➽ M2 Mutant Ape #9114 (NFT): This MAYC was mutated using the rare M2 serum, resulting in seven M2 traits, including the M2 Stunt Jacket attribute, found in only 0.4% of the MAYC collection. Rally.

Minimum: $5
​Market Cap: $87,500

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👩🏽‍🌾 Top Yields on Stablecoins

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• USDO/BUSD - PancakeSawp (BNB) -94.21% APY
• USDC/UST - Pangolin (Avalanche) -76.85% APY
• BUSD.e/DAI.e - Pangolin (Avalanche) - 59.00% APY

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💲 DeFi Yields

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• ​Hundred.Finance (Fantom Chain) *note: We list the fully-boosted yields here MIM: 12.39%, DAI: 24.17%, FRAX: 19.08%, USDC: 23.77 % fUSDT:18.86
• ​Hundred.Finance (Arbitrum Chain) *note: We list the fully-boosted yields here MIM: 23.92%, DAI: 17.99%, FRAX: 10.71%, USDT: 11.55 %
• Pangolin via YieldYak (Avax Chain) axlUST-USDC:
  20.2 %
• Stargate via YieldYak (Avax Chain) USDT: 17.0 %
• Stargate via YieldYak (Avax Chain) USDC: 15.6 %

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Random Tweet

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🍿 Domain Snacks

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⚇ The LA .com domain name has been sold. The domain was acquired by Tribune Publishing in 2016 for a reported $1.2 million, and was most recently listed at MediaOptions for $5 million. No word on the sale price or what the domain will be used for—yet.

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⚇ GCP .com sells for $550,000. This sale will rank as one of the top ten public domain name sales of 2022 to date. It is the largest publicly reported 3 letter .com domain name sale of the year. Elliot Silver noted: “I would be surprised if it wasn’t Google acquiring it for its Google Cloud Platform.”

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⚇ Meta domain sales: Meta was a popular and sought after keyword in 2021, but little has been done to develop sites on these domains. It seems that the majority of buyers were domain investors and not end users.

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🧰 Cool Tools

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»» RandomUsers: This simple tool allows you to generate random user profile pictures and names to use as placeholders in your prototypes and design projects. You can generate male and female profile pictures as well as pixel avatars. RandomUsers lets you apply B&W or sepia filters to achieve the look you want. Simply copy the links and paste them into the src tag of your web image.

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»» Elements is a new collection of free abstract elements and sketches from the maker of Streamline 4.0. You’ll see 1,300+ vector organic shapes, geometric elements, sketch elements, and brushes. It’s packed with features like a global recolor, precise resizing, adjustable strokes, and a Figma plugin. Free in beta.

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💯 The Steph Curry of sanitation: FREE ROLL​

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Not financial, investing or tax advice. This newsletter is strictly for information, entertainment and education purposes. Nothing in here is investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. This newsletter is not tax advice. Talk to your professional advisors. Do your own research.

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