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They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

If that’s true, then the Fed and the banks must really like crypto because they’re copying DeFI’s homework and not even changing a couple of answers so it’s not obvious.

But it’s like that slogan once used by Porsche, Coca-Cola, and Nerf. When it comes to crypto, “Accept no substitutes.”

But with TradFi looking to adopt some of our favorite features, is this an endearing case of copycat or a threat against the genuine article?

Espresso Shots

☕️ Argentina’s Bitcoin Bump

Javier Milei has won the Argentinian presidential election, defeating Argentina’s Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa.

99% of the votes have been counted and Milei won with 56%, defeating the incumbent Massa’s 44%, according to reporting from Bloomberg.

Milei is a libertarian and outspoken proponent of Bitcoin. As a result, Bitcoin popped up 3% in the 24 hours following the news of Milei’s victory, up to $37,350.

"We have to understand that the central bank is a scam," said Milei as reported by CoinDesk. "What Bitcoin is representing," he continued, "is the return of money to its original creator, the private sector."

This price increase is a far cry from the traditional Argentinian bump, which is 80% pure coca leaf and snorted off the end of your house key.

☕️ The End of Clyde

Discord has announced its intention to phase out Clyde, the platform’s AI chatbot.

Starting December 1st, users will no longer be able to chat with Clyde.

However, it doesn’t appear that there was anything wrong with Clyde, so much as Clyde was always intended to be a short-lived experiment.

“Clyde is an experiment shared with a small percentage of servers,” said Kellyn Slone, director of product communications at Discord, in a conversation with The Verge. “Discord is constantly working on bringing users new features and experiences. Clyde is one iteration of this work, and we look forward to unveiling new user experiences in the future.”

Though if the team wants to deactivate Clyde, they’ll have to catch him first. We believe the fearful AI will flee through Discord servers in the ultimate game of “Clyde and Seek.”

☕️ Tokenized Knowledge

Hong Kong-based crypto startup, Sleek, has raised over $5 million in seed funding for their platform in which experts from any field can tokenize their knowledge on the blockchain.

Sleek seeks to create an online repository of expertise and turn that knowledge into “liquid and accessible assets.” 

“Knowledge-based businesses like research firms and expert networks generate $100B+ of revenue per year, along with a new wave of creators who monetize their time by converting knowledge into online courses, [YouTube] videos, expert calls and content through subscription platforms like Patreon,” the company stated in an interview with The Block.

Establishing this creator-based platform may be crypto’s latest step into SocialFi, Web3’s answer to social media. 

It’s an interesting concept, but how much will Sleek pay for my knowledge that this is just the Web3 version of MasterClass?

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Spilling the Beans

🏦 Why Banks Want to Be Bitcoin 😍

If you’ve seen the film Borat, you’ll remember a warm, touching journey through the American heartland, full of cultural learning and human generosity.

But amidst the many lessons that Borat provides, there’s one that’s particularly relevant to our topic today.

Nursultan Tuyakbay, Borat’s neighbor who is a “pain in his assholes,” is constantly aping Borat’s choices.

Borat gets a glass window, Tuyakbay gets a glass window. Borat gets a step, he must get a step. Borat gets an iPod, Nursultan Tuyakbay gets an iPod mini, which everyone knows is for girls.

The point of their competition is that Nursultan Tuyakbay needs to learn how to be himself, not just some rip-off version of Borat.

But the imitation game playing out in the Khazak village of Kuzcek in 2006 is now occurring on a much larger stage, between crypto and the banks.

Crypto has offered an entire suite of ease and new capabilities when it comes to managing finances.

Even if banks are suspicious or resentful of DeFi’s innovations, they have to admit that some of these ideas have merit.

For instance, the crypto market is open 24 hours. Yes, that can result in some sleepless nights and some scary phone alerts.

But to reflect that nocturnal activity, you can generally deposit or withdraw crypto 24 hours a day.

And rather than the traditional, frustrating 9-5, holidays excluded, hours of traditional banks, some institutions are changing their tune.

Yes, there’s Customers Bancorp in Pennsylvania, a small bank that offers 24-hour crypto services, but even the Fed is catching on.

The Federal Reserve announced FedNow back in 2019, a 24/7 instant payment process that, without explicitly stating it, would make traditional finances a lot more like crypto.

“The Federal Reserve built the FedNow Service to help make everyday payments over the coming years faster and more convenient,” said Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell. “Over time, as more banks choose to use this new tool, the benefits to individuals and businesses will include enabling a person to immediately receive a paycheck, or a company to instantly access funds when an invoice is paid.”

And we see that same intention, this one with an explicitly DeFi bent, in the fundraising for Fnality, a blockchain-based instant payment and transfer platform.

Fnality has received $95 million in seed funding, primarily backed by Goldman Sachs and other blue chip companies.

But it’s not just the hours or availability that are changing, we’re already seeing companies like MasterCard demo CBDC rails for inter-bank transfers.

The big banks may be wary of crypto investments, but they clearly don’t have any problems with crypto functionality.

We all know that the coming ETF verdicts may mean a world where TradFi pours a ton of money and time into crypto, but maybe TradFi is inching toward becoming a DeFi unto itself.

So yes, despite the countless morality tales that tell you the most important thing is “being yourself,” we say, “Why stop there? Why not be better?”

If crypto envy is starting traditional finance on the long, probiotic and mindfulness-retreat-filled road toward self-improvement, we’re all for it.

Crypto 101

SocialFi: The ongoing, decentralized effort to combine social media with DeFi and Web3.

The aim is to grant both customers and creators more control while offering more direct paths to monetizing social media.

The Last Sip

The Last Sip: Seems like Snoop got everybody, us included, with his claim that he was giving up smoke.

Turns out, the entire announcement was a publicity stunt for… a fire pit company.

He wins. We fell it for. Snoop Dogg should be feeling extra smug the next time he lights a 3-gram blunt as he warms himself by his backyard, smokeless fire pit.

Stay Caffeinated,

Coffee & Crypto Team

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DISCLAIMER: None of this is financial advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. Please be careful and do your own research.