In the crypto family, it’s easy to forget about the younger siblings when the big guys are doing so well.

Bitcoin and Ethereum have hit eighteen-month highs, but let’s not forget about that younger sister who’s working her way through medical school or the littlest brother who made up, like, a really cool dance.

And same could be said for the stock performance of crypto exchanges when crypto itself is doing so well.

In fact, Coinbase stock is up 280% this year, and we’re going to tell you how that happened.

Espresso Shots

☕️ Record-Breaking Refund

The Bitcoin mining pool, AntPool, received a record-breaking $3 million transaction fee last week… and is agreeing to refund it.

AntPool’s risk assessment protocol reportedly froze the transaction, and the mining firm is reaching out to the unknown user to offer a $3 million refund.

One individual has claimed that the money is theirs and they were victim of a $3 million hack, but that claim is still unverified.

The user will have until December 10 to claim their full, multi-million dollar refund.

It’s worth noting that AntPool has been far more successful than our failed water park for middle-aged women, AuntPool.

☕️ Sinbad Seized

The Fed have seized the website of crypto mixer, Sinbad, as the program was allegedly used by North Korean hacker and other cyber criminals to launder stolen funds.

Among Sinbad’s notable, criminal patrons were members of the Lazarus hacker group and wallets linked to the massive Horizon and Axie Infinity hacks in 2022.

“Mixing services that enable criminal actors, such as the Lazarus Group, to launder stolen assets will face serious consequences,” reads a statement from the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). “The Treasury Department and its U.S. government partners stand ready to deploy all tools at their disposal to prevent virtual currency mixers, like Sinbad, from facilitating illicit activities. While we encourage responsible innovation in the digital asset ecosystem, we will not hesitate to take action against illicit actors.”

This law enforcement action should have no effect on Sinbad the comedian, as he’s both not involved and sometimes a genie.

☕️ KyberSwap’s Hostile Takeover

KyberSwap was hit by a hacker who drained $48 million from the DeFi market maker, but then they had a unique request. They want to be CEO.

The anonymous hacker sent KyberSwap an on-chain letter via Ethereum, detailing both their demands and their plans for the future of the company.

If put in control of KyberSwap, the hacker intends to fire every executive, but double the salaries of employees who choose to stay on.

However, If the hacker is elected CEO, it’s going to be both annoying and time-consuming when the letters for all company memos have to be cut out of magazines.

Polled Brew

Spilling the Beans

Why Coinbase Always Wins 🎲 ♣️

As the crypto space has grown and prospered, there have been countless advancements that have set it further and further away from TradFi.

Yes, the tech is exciting and we love watching our most volatile coins go up and down. But sometimes, we forget about TradFi’s favorite subject.

Stock price.

And it’s not like the stocks of publicly traded crypto companies aren’t constantly fluctuating, it’s just that buying and selling those shares takes a backseat to buying and selling cryptocurrency.

It’s just not quite right, it’s not sexy, it’s not what we’re here for, right?

Well, we say no longer, because this stock is performing so well that we’d be derelict in our duty as a crypto newsletter not to bring it to your attention.

And that’s Coinbase.

Coinbase stock has risen 280% this past year, and 75% in the past month alone, outpacing Bitcoin.

That’s almost unbelievable, but you better believe it. 

Yes, there’s been a slight dip this week as Paul Grewal, Coinbase’s chief legal officer, sold off 29,607 of his shares for a hefty sum.

But how did Coinbase get so successful?

Coinbase has occupied an admirable position in crypto for years. Brian Armstrong has not only cemented himself as one of the most solid CEOs and loudest voices in crypto, but his company also seems to be made of Teflon.

Nothing sticks to Coinbase and the exchange hasn’t suffered from controversy or legal trouble in the same way that similar-sized firms, such as Binance, have taken wallops.

Yes, last summer the SEC sued Coinbase, we just… haven’t seen any symptoms.

Rather, as Armstrong and his firm have done historically, Coinbase is using the lawsuit as a means to point out the ineptitude of the SEC.

When it comes to American regulation, it feels like Coinbase is a little ahead of everyone else, but where Coinbase is the real winner, is in the Bitcoin Spot ETF applications.

Why? Because Fidelity and BlackRock have both appointed Coinbase as the custodian of their potential ETFs.

And not just those giants. Coinbase is currently the designated custodian for nine out of the twelve proposed Bitcoin Spot ETFs.

This means that it will be Coinbase’s responsibility to safeguard the potential billions of dollars at play.

Now, the future of the ETFs is still uncertain, we don’t want to jinx ourselves here by being overconfident.

But the field is wide, growing ever wider, and powerfully backed by the cold, hard fist of Wall Street.

Even with all of the SEC’s bellyaching, there’s a very good chance that one of these suckers will make it through.

But that’s a conservative estimate. Who knows how many ETFs will come to fruition or how many more billions of dollars they’ll bring into the crypto market?

And there will be Coinbase, the diligent custodian, an exchange with a sterling reputation that’s only growing shiner.

But we don’t need a custodian to feel secure in our beliefs about this firm.

In fact, Coinbase’s future is looking so assured we think they need a new slogan.

Back in 2013, it was “Welcome to the Future of Money.” Since 2017, it’s been simply “Buy and Sell Digital Currency.”

We admit, that most recent one is to the point. But we’re pitching “Coinbase: Change Worth Keeping.”

Crypto 101

Custodian: Any individual or firm that safeguards digital assets by storing private keys.

This third party uses layers of approvers and other preventative measures to keep funds safe from malicious attacks.

The Last Sip

The Last Sip: Other than the bitcoin mining firm, AntPool, or our failed water park, AuntPool, the third most successful ant pool was created when I spilled orange soda in the backyard and forgot about it. 

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.