The jury’s still out on seasons. It can get kinda dicey, all those alternating levels of warmth and sunlight.

But would you really want to live in Nevada or Florida? Stuck in an eternal summer, never getting that first, crisp breath of autumn air?

Well, the one thing we can say for seasons is that you can depend on them.

So, when Bitcoin took a tumble on Monday, as reliable as ever, it was suddenly Altcoin Season.

But as seasons change, which blooming Altcoins should you be picking?

Espresso Shots

☕️ The First Bitcoin Bond 🪙 1️⃣

El Salvador has made history by securing regulatory clearance for the world’s first Bitcoin bond.

This Bitcoin bond, dubbed the “Volcano” Bond, was first announced in 2021 by President Nayib Bukele, shortly after El Salvador made a global first by recognizing Bitcoin as legal tender.

After some bureaucratic hiccups, the Volcano Bond release was postponed several times, but now has a definite release date in Q1 of 2024.

Though unfortunately, like any financial agreement with a volcano, periodic payments of virgin sacrifices are expected.

☕️ Warren’s Anti-Crypto Army Grows ❌ ↗

Elizabeth Warren has announced that her five additional senators have pledged to back her Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act.

The new support comes from Senators Raphael Warnock, Laphonza Butler, Chris Van Hollen, John Hickenlooper, and Ben Ray Luján.

As Warren continues to drum up support for her bill, it appears that Warren’s making good on her threat to build an “anti-crypto army.”

But five senators don’t exactly constitute an army, Warren will need at least ten… or fifteen more people.

☕️ FTX vs. The IRS 💲 🚓

The FTX debtor teams are pushing back against a new, $24 billion claim by the IRS.

The IRS initially claimed $43 billion, then nearly halved it to $24 billion. FTX argues that the IRS has no basis for this claim and the months it would take to disprove would just further delay the rightful repayment of victims.

“These cases present a zero-sum game. The only source of recovery for the IRS is by taking recoveries away from victims. As there is no basis to assert any tax claim against the Debtors, the IRS’s reliance on its own processes only serves to delay distributions to those truly injured,” the FTX bankruptcy lawyers wrote.

FTX intends to introduce a referee to this zero-sum game, one who’s just dying to hit the IRS with a five-yard penalty for the delay.

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Spilling the Beans

Picking Altcoins in Season 🍒 🪙

Yes, the crypto market has taken a dive this week, with Bitcoin and Ethereum dipping around 7% on Monday.

But it’s not all doom and gloom, there’s no reason to play sad Charlie Brown Christmas music, yet.

Because on one level, these little stumbles should be expected during a bull run. They are often referred to as resistance barriers, and anticipating when they occur is as much guesswork as it is analysis.

No, we’re not just blinded by holiday cheer. We have a pretty strong sense, at least, that Bitcoin and Ethereum are going to be okay.

Ethereum’s got too much built-in utility to ever truly nose dive, and Bitcoin, well, we’ve got those ETFs coming, so another rally is pretty much assured.

But enough self-soothing, there’s a beautiful, little silver lining to Bitcoin and Ethereum’s recent tumble… and that’s the beginning of Altcoin Season.

Altcoin Season is an unofficial period in which a Bitcoin dip generates big rallies for other cryptocurrencies, and without further ado, we’re gonna give you the five biggest this week.

Osmosis

At the top is Osmosis (OSMO) up 25% in the past 24 hours. 

Osmosis is the native token of the cross-blockchain, Osmosis, and it had a rocky road to the top of the Altcoin pool.

Osmosis fell to an all-time low in June of 2023 after the news came out about the SEC’s lawsuits against Coinbase and Binance.

But Osmosis managed to clamber its way back to the top. When it comes to Osmosis, we’re jonesin’.

Cosmos

Cosmos (ATOM) is up almost 18% today. 

Cosmos is the native token of the Cosmos interchain network.

Cosmos has been trading around a steady $10 for the past five weeks, but this recent rise prompted by the Bitcoin dip may be the breakout rally that analysts have been predicting.

Good to see Cosmos up and ATOM.

Aptos

Aptos (APT) token is up 16% today.

APT is the native token of the Aptos, layer 1 blockchain. Notably, Aptos is one of the few blockchains that builds on “Move,” the programming language developed by Meta.

Interestingly, this week, Aptos also unlocked 25 million APT tokens worth an estimated $200 million.

A token’s unlock naturally leads to nervousness, excitement, and speculation. But we can speculate that Aptos holders should be excited.

KuCoin Token

KuCoin is up almost 16% at the time of writing.

KuCoin Token is the native token of KuCoin, one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges.

And KuCoin made headlines this week for shutting down operations in New York after having to pay a $22 million fine as part of a lawsuit brought by New York state to reign in crypto exchanges and crack down on fraud and money laundering.

Fortunately, that nasty bit of publicity wasn’t enough to stop KuCoin from nabbing some tasty gains.

Celestia

And to finish out these gains, Celestia comes in fifth, but with nothing to be ashamed of, nabbing a 12.% increase in the same period.

Celestia (TIA) token is the native token of Celestia, which is a modular data availability (DA) network.

More on those later.

Celestia’s bump might not just be a classic case of Altcoin Season, it may be at least partway driven by Celestia’s announcement this week that it would integrate with Polygon’s chain development kit.

Well, that about shores up our rogue’s gallery of this week’s top-performing altcoins.

We’re sure that Bitcoin will eventually regain its footing, but in the meantime, it’s not wabbit season, it’s Altcoin Season.

Crypto 101

Modular Data Availability Network: Often referred to as a “DA” network, Celestia was the first of its kind.

A DA network uses data to reduce transaction costs while speeding up transaction times.

How does it work? Rather than downloading entire blocks of data, DA networks can verify transactions through data sampling, without downloading anything.

The Last Sip

The Last Sip: El Salvador has mentioned that some of the proceeds of the Volcano Bond will go toward building a Bitcoin City powered by a volcano. They should have just called them “Villain Bonds” or better yet, “Bond Villains.”

Stay Caffeinated,

Coffee & Crypto Team

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