The holiday season means the holiday rush when it comes to shopping, the mall, and getting all those presents delivered in time.

As if there wasn’t enough stress with either travel or being the one to prep your house for relatives, American consumerism had to add this fun, Hunger Games sort of competition to getting your holiday shopping done.

But what if there was an easier way?

What if crypto wasn’t just the alternative to centralized finance, what if it was the answer to all of your holiday shopping woes?

Espresso Shots

☕️ Decrypt and Rug Radio Merge 📻 🤝 

Crypto news site, Decrypt, and decentralized media firm, Rug Radio, are merging to become the largest DeFi publishing company to date.

The developing company is currently codenamed [REDACTED]. And no, that’s not us being censured. That’s what they’re going with. That’s the name. [REDACTED].

 "We stand on the brink of a new media era,” said Loxley Fernandes, the future CEO of [REDACTED]. “By fusing Decrypt's journalistic credibility with Rug Radio's trailblazing platform, we're poised to pioneer the future of decentralized media."

Based on the current projections, the merger of these two entities anticipates a reach of around 10 million people, every month.

We just wished they had gone with a less gimmicky codename. Decrypt and Rug Radio should have taken our suggestion, “Under De Rug.”

☕️ The Bipartisan Presidential Crypto Forum 💼 🇺🇸

Presidential hopefuls from both sides of the aisle met at St. Anselm’s College in New Hampshire for the first bipartisan presidential crypto forum.

The event was hosted by the Stand With Crypto Alliance and afforded participants the opportunity to discuss both their future hopes and their current views on the state of crypto.

In attendance were American entrepreneur and Republican hopeful, Vivek Ramaswamy, Representative Dean Phillips (D-Minn), and Republican and former governor of Arkansas, Asa Hutchinson.

Though this was a bipartisan event, it still took place in New Hampshire, so, naturally, the tires on all the Democrats’ cars were slashed.

☕️ Bitcoin Ethereum Dip ⬇ 🪙

After a two-month rally, both Bitcoin and Ethereum have dropped around 7%.

Bitcoin fell below $41,000 and Ethereum dropped beneath $2,200 when the crypto market dipped on Monday, December 11th.

This price dive occurred after $330 million in liquidations on Monday morning. After the drop, those liquidations increased to around $516 million, according to data from Coinglass. 

We wouldn’t go into full panic yet, crypto’s just slowing down because it’s still taking its time to reflect on the anniversary of Pearl Harbor.

Spilling the Beans

Ho Ho Hodl 🎅 💰

The landscape of the mall has changed drastically over the years.

In the 80s and 90s, it was the de facto hangout for teens and the place to get your holiday shopping done.

Because of the latter, to this day, most malls across America become muzak-piping Santa’s workshops from late November until early January.

But with the advent of the internet, shopping has changed drastically.

Black Friday has long been outshone by its ambitious, younger cousin, Cyber Monday.

In fact, many of the brick-and-mortar stores in American malls don’t even turn a profit, they’re just there to serve as physical reminders of your favorite brands, little more than expensive billboards for their online stores.

But what if we told you that the shopping landscape was going to be completely terraformed, yet again?

Because it seems that everybody’s favorite retailers aren’t just interested in taking your money, they’re interested in taking your crypto.

A new study conducted by the crypto tax software company, CoinLedger, compiled a list of three hundred major, popular companies that are willing to do business in crypto.

And the participants may surprise you. We never expected Yankee Candle to be on the cutting edge of decentralized finances, but there they are, as well as some other holiday favorites such as H&M, Ralph Lauren, and Adidas.

But the spirit of crypto inclusivity isn’t just limited to retail, in true holiday cheer, it’s crossed over to hospitality.

Based on Coinledger’s findings, Chipotle, Domino’s, The Hard Rock Café, and Chuck E. Cheese have all demonstrated a similar willingness toward working with crypto and crypto merchants.

Now, you may be wondering, why does any of this matter? You’re still using your money, just a slightly different, more complex flavor of your money.

Well, if you can’t get excited about a new kind of currency and transaction system, that’s on you, Scrooge.

We’re kidding.

“The increasing number of companies accepting cryptocurrency payments reflects the growing acceptance and adoption of digital currencies in the mainstream economy.

This trend not only aligns with the evolving preferences of tech-savvy consumers but also offers benefits such as reduced transaction fees and increased security.” wrote CoinLedger’s CEO, David Kemmerer.

And what does this mean for crypto?

Simply put, more mainstream acceptance of crypto payments means there is an increasing adoption of crypto by average people.

And we’re quite excited about this supply & demand snowball effect.

The more average people there are holding crypto, the more institutions that will be incentivized to take it as payment.

The more institutions are willing to do business in crypto, the larger awareness of crypto grows, and the more average people will accept holding crypto as the norm.

That’s good for all of us.

So maybe this holiday season, don’t just check off those gifts on your shopping list and pay with fiat currency, pay with crypto, and bring all of us one step closer to the dream of de-Santa-lization.

Crypto 101

The Santa Claus Rally: This is a well-documented but somewhat mythological stock phenomenon.

The Santa Claus rally refers to the potential uptick in an asset’s price from late December to early January.

The Last Sip

The Last Sip: Just to be clear, when we say “De-Santa-lization,” we’re not trying to get rid of Santa Claus. This newsletter isn’t sponsored by the Grinch of Krampus. We merely want St. Nick to cut his ties to traditional finance and maybe also Hess gasoline.

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.presi