You may think that you’ve heard of every get-rich-quick scheme in the book: pyramid schemes, selling your organs, and successfully learning to code.

But there’s one path you probably haven’t even considered, and that’s becoming an influencer. But not just any influencer.

We’re not talking about paid endorsements of a clothing line, or pushing mushroom pills that don’t work. This is the crypto influencer, the mercenary financial endorser, the apex influencer.

And crypto influencers have found a method for making money that’s so effective it should be illegal. Well, actually, it turns out…

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Espresso Shots

☕️ Base Network Surges 🌐 📈

Coinbase’s Layer 2 solution, Base, has been putting up some serious numbers since its launch on August 9th.

The speed of Base’s growing popularity is unprecedented for a Layer-2 network. Base hit 11 million addresses in the 11 days after its launch.

And this isn’t just high engagement we’re talking about, Base has generated $4.9 million in profit so far, well, $3.3 million if you subtract fees from pushing traffic to the Ethereum network.

Base Network has been a bright spot amidst the upcoming SEC lawsuit against CoinBase and larger concerns about the crypto market.

But CoinBase isn’t letting that affect them or their Base Network. Stay Based, Coinbase, stay based.

☕️ UK Calls for Global Cooperation on AI 🤖 🌎

Several members of the British Parliament have advised the government to consider allying with other like-minded nations on regulating AI.

This recommendation was compounded by a report released by England’s Science, Innovation and Technology Committee (SITC), which similarly advocated for international cooperation to establish AI guidelines.

England’s Prime Minister is currently planning a summit where industry leaders and experts can gather to assess the risks and determine a safe path forward for AI.

AI is becoming an exciting world, but like any new world, it won’t be legitimized until England colonizes it.

☕️ Turkey’s Crypto Boom 🦃 💥

Turkey has reached unprecedented levels of crypto adoption since it was revealed that 52% of Turkey’s citizens hold crypto, according to a recent survey by KuCoin.

KuCoin interviewed 500 Turkish citizens as part of its latest report on “Understanding Crypto Users.” Based on that data, it seems 52% of Turkish citizens hold crypto, an increase from 40% in 2021.

But why is crypto booming in Turkey? For the same reasons that it surges in popularity anywhere else: Crypto can help as an inflation hedge.

"Per our findings in Turkey and other previous country reports, for Turkey, the growing number and percentage of crypto investors indicate an increasing interest and acceptance of crypto as a hedge against inflation, especially with the Turkish lira losing over 50% of its value against the US dollar," said a KuCoin representative in an interview with Decrypt.

It’s become a well-documented trend. As faith in TradFi recedes, traffic to DeFi and crypto goes up.

So crypto, like that candy we all wanted to try from “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe,” has become a real Turkish delight.

Spilling the Beans

How They Got Rich Quick 😳 🚀

You would think that we all have a handle on influencers' role in our society.

They make the commercials. With most media consumption on streaming platforms, somebody’s gotta tell us what to buy.

And you know what, we can’t fault that. Does spending weeks on a beach in Bali and delivering unhinged monologues about skin cream and athleisure to the millions of onlookers that live in your phone sound better than commuting to an office five times a week?

Yeah, you bet it does!

I mean, that’s why anybody goes on dating shows. You’re not really interested in becoming the next Bachelorette, you’re thinking that if you cause enough drama on ABC you can quit your job and spend the rest of your life doing paid endorsements on Instagram.

But just like the clothes, hotels, and shoes they hawk, not all influencers are created equal.

In fact, some are worse, more nefarious, and cringier than even your standard influencer. And some of this subset falls under the header of crypto influencers.

It’s one thing to ask consumers to pay $14.99 for some “manly” soap, it’s another thing to urge your followers to deposit thousands or more of their hard-earned cash into the crypto exchange that secured your endorsement.

If Addison Rae suddenly started live streaming from the Capital One Cafe, ranting about how much she loves its coffee and its personal loan rates, it would make our skin crawl.

Because there’s something beyond the pale, almost obscene about endorsing money for money. But that’s exactly what crypto influencers do.

But for some crypto influencers, it seems that being paid gobs of money by crypto exchanges wasn’t enough, they had to up the ante.

In 2022, the SEC charged eight crypto influencers with $100 million in securities fraud for using their influence to… influence the market, dumping stocks they were promoting for a quick payday.

It’s an unseemly practice known as a rug pull, where an endorser or creator of a stock or asset pumps the money that thousands of loyal followers just invested — and it can lead to some serious cash.

But you know what, we can say we’re pretty confident that more than eight crypto influencers are engaging in this practice. Somehow, the SEC didn’t manage to nab all of them.

For example, in the wake of the $16 million PEPECoin rug pull, some crypto influencers, such as Jason William, continued to insist that PEPE is all good.

This isn’t an accusation, but if someone is telling us that an asset is “all good” when it’s clearly not, they either know something that we don’t, or their endorsement is compromised.

And speaking of compromised sentiments: last week, the community of crypto influencers was shaken when their chieftain was cut down in his prime.

BitBoy, whose real name is Ben Armstrong, was forced out of the brand he created. BitBoy Crypto intends to soldier on without Armstrong, alleging its founder had both emotionally damaged his employees and had rampant substance abuse issues.

But is this the end of the crypto influencer empire?

We doubt it. If you cut BitBoy down, a hundred more will rise in his place. There’s just too much money floating around

No, sadly, we’re pretty certain the crypto influencer is here to stay. Permanently.

After humanity is inevitably wiped out by a nuclear disaster, there are only going to be three things left: cockroaches, bone dust, and crypto influencers saying “What up, gang?” into their phones.

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Top 10 Cryptocurrencies (Excluding Stablecoins)

☕️ Our Take:

Meme of the Day

Today Turkey, tomorrow the world! 🗺 👀

Crypto 101

Short Squeeze: In the stock market as well as crypto, a short squeeze occurs when a highly shorted stock undergoes a sudden price increase, going against investors' expectations.

The stock’s rise is accelerated by the short sellers bailing out to try to minimize their losses.

A short squeeze is good for long-term holders, but bad for short sellers, who are under contractual obligation to buy back the stock at some point in the future.

A short squeeze, in general, lasts less than a month.

The Last Sip

With 52% of Turkish citizens potentially holding crypto, crypto has become Turkey’s hottest trend since:

3. Discount magic carpets.

2. Whoever figured out you could incorporate an entire watermelon into a hookah pipe.

1. The Ottoman Empire’s six centuries of warfare.

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.