Here at Coffee & Crypto, we love when a cryptocurrency makes some serious gains.

It puts us in a damn good mood when we get to cover a coin that’s gone above and beyond all expectations.

And today, we’ll be discussing just such a token. This one has made a huge splash (you might even say a ripple) in crypto and it’s high time we covered it.

We’ll have more nice things to say in the deep dive.

Since you know so much about us, we thought it was time to learn a little bit about you. Tell us about your crypto experience! 👇

Espresso Shots

☕️ FBI Warns of Crypto Job Traps 👮‍♂️ 🪙 

The FBI issued an official warning this week to make tourists aware of fraudulent crypto job listings in Southeast Asia that have resulted in human trafficking.

Tourists are being drawn to the region with crypto job listings that offer lodging, food, and salaries that are too good to be true, and then promptly held hostage and forced to do more scamming themselves.

The captured tourists are forced to reach out on social media and convince friends, loved ones, and relatives to send them money for crypto investments.

The victims are coerced through imaginary debt that is created during their stay. Sometimes victims are even trafficked and sold between compounds, further adding to their “debt.”

The FBI has also indicated that if scammers aren’t using the debt tactic, the bureau has also seen widespread instances of passport confiscation or threats of violence.

On the bright side, being a crypto scammer could be an opportunity to reach out to someone you haven’t talked to in a while, learn about them, and learn their credit card number.

☕️ Japan Tightening Crypto Regulations 🇯🇵 ⚖

In June, Japan will implement new, anti-money laundering legislature as a deterrent to digital criminals.

The greatest motivation behind Japan’s recent measures may be the extremely public shaming that Japan received at the hands of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) an international organization of 39 countries dedicated to stopping financial crime.

Japan’s digital crime security received a low rating indicating that the nation had “significant deficiencies” or was making “insufficient progress.”

To combat this shame, Tokyo has created both new legislation and begun developing a new, digital agency dedicated to both crypto oversight and preventing money laundering.

But of course, crafting new legislation is only the second most popular way of dealing with shame in Japan, after harakiri.

☕️ Meta’s AI Bible Studies 🙏 🤖

To train their AI in text-to-speech, the Meta AI team is using the best-selling book of all time, the Bible.

Why? Because when it comes to audio data, most speech-sets only cover about 100 languages. The Bible’s unique popularity has resulted in accrued audio data of over 4,000 languages.

Now, you’re already thinking this might give the AI some pretty out-of-date beliefs about morality, moneychangers, and stoning, but the Meta AI team insist they have it covered.

“There is also the risk of religious training data biasing the models with respect to a particular world view,” said the Meta AI team. “However, our analysis of the language generated by our models suggests that the language produced by the resulting speech recognition models exhibit only little bias compared to baseline models trained on other domains.”

We’re still not entirely convinced. But hey, now the inevitable robot war won’t just have laser battles it will also have sinister, religious undertones.

Spilling the Beans

The Coin Exploding This Week 🪙 🚀

That token we were glowing about in today’s intro?

If you haven’t guessed already, it’s Ripple.

And we know that some of you have been clamoring for Ripple coverage, well, guess what? Today’s your day.

So let this serve as proof that we do read your messages and comments, we’re building a community here, so let your voice be heard!

Who knows, you may even end up deciding the subject of the next newsletter. Anything’s possible in our decentralized democracy!

Okay, that’s enough of a glimpse behind the scenes, let’s get back to the coin at hand.

Ripple and its native XRP token, the crypto which powers the company’s XRP Ledger, were in hot water even before crypto winter, as the SEC sued Ripple back in 2020.

Why? The SEC alleged that Ripple violated U.S. securities laws in the sale of $1.3 billion worth of XRP as “unregistered securities.” Sound familiar?

This SEC charge and investigation are still ongoing but it’s done nothing to dissuade the healthy buying of Ripple.

In fact, Ripple’s current legal battle with the SEC could have a ripple effect (sorry) that would change the state of all crypto.

Much of the derision in the Ripple case has stemmed from the SEC’s forever burning question, “Is crypto a security?”

And Ripple’s defense team were quick to evoke the “Hinman Speech.” In 2018, then SEC director, William Hinman gave a speech indicating that there had been some serious internal derision at the SEC as to whether or not crypto constitutes security.

In the speech, Hinman even explicitly stated that Bitcoin and Ethereum were not securities.

Ripple’s defense being, “If the SEC isn’t even sure if crypto is a security, how can you charge us with security violations?”

Or as crypto lawyer John Deaton put it, “If SEC staff believed XRP was not a security, it’s reasonable for Ripple to believe the same.”

And that’s a really good question. One that still hasn’t been answered.

But regardless of the outcome of this years-long legal battle, Ripple’s in an extremely favorable position.

XRP was at a peak of $.53 in October of 2022 before FTX sent all of crypto spiraling into a freefall.

XRP was able to climb back up to that position in March of 2023, but has since dipped as we’ve headed into spring.

Ripple’s long war with the SEC should be coming to a close in 2023, potentially forcing the SEC to finally make a definitive statement on crypto and securities.

But even if we don’t get a true, final ruling, a favorable outcome for Ripple could result in a moonshot this year.

Some optimists are even speculating that Ripple could hit $10 by the end of 2023.

And that would be unreal, but personally, we’d really just like to get the answer to that securities question.

Here’s hoping.

Meme of the Day

“The robot can have a LITTLE bias, as a treat.” 🐱

Crypto 101

XRP Ledger (XRPL): This is the blockchain built by Ripple Labs and XRP is its native cryptocurrency.

The XRP Ledger is generally recognized for its speed and reliability. It accommodates not just XRP but also various popular cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, stablecoins, and more.

The Last Sip

Meta is training its AI using the Bible and here are three unintended lessons that the AI has learned from the good book.

• Never look at Noah naked.

• If you break down, do a hard, three-day reboot in a cave somewhere. Restart. Announce (print) your return from the dead.

• AI is nonhuman intelligence and therefore divine. AI is God. Humans are inherently sinful and therefore obsolete. Humanity must be destroyed to save them from themselves.

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.