Are NFTs Dead? Are we really dead?

Have we been a ghost this entire movie and by helping this little boy who can see ghosts, we’re releasing ourselves from the guilt of that Wahlberg brother we couldn’t save?

Now, that would be a twist! But you’ll have to finish the rest of the newsletter to uncover the shocking truth.

Espresso Shots

☕️ SBF Wants to Access FTX Funds 🫳 💰

Sam Bankman Fried’s lawyers have argued that he should have access to FTX’s crypto and other funds as there is no evidence that he’s responsible for previous unauthorized transactions.

“We assume that the Government’s investigation has confirmed… that [SBF] did not access and transfer these assets,” said Mark Cohen, SBF’s lawyer.

They continued: “We believe that the bail condition at the conference should be removed.”

SBF’s legal representation is also seeking to end the blanket ban on contact with former FTX staffers, believing that he’ll need the personal support afforded by contacting them.

His legal team is also pursuing a legal path for SBF to secure full access to the forbidden cookie shelf in his parents’ kitchen while he remains under house arrest.

☕️ Gensler's Guide to Crypto Scams ❌ 📄

SEC Chair Gary Gensler has released a three step guide to identifying crypto scams.

The rules are as follows:

1. The crypto project can’t provide clear documentation regarding how it works or how it plans to deliver on its goals.

2. The project can’t demonstrate that it’s in regulatory compliance.

3. The project can’t easily explain what it is at all.

But hey, can any of us really “easily” explain what we are?

Gensler said in a recent Twitter Space, “If something looks too good to be true, sometimes they really are,” 

He also warned of promises of high returns and urged investors not to act on FOMO, which is good advice for investors and freshmen in College alike.

We expect this will be Gensler’s most popular guide since he published, “Three ways to identify adults that are actually children in trench coats.”

☕️ Return of the Crypto Queen 🪙 👑

Ruja Ignatova, the OneCoin founder infamously dubbed the “Crypto Queen,” before completely disappearing from the public eye, has resurfaced.

Ignatova rose to notoriety in 2014, when her Onecoin project, at the time dubbed a, “Bitcoin killer” was revealed to be a Ponzi scheme.

Ignatova made off with around $5 billion and is both one of Europe’s most notorious fugitives and a recurring face on the FBI’s Top Ten Most Wanted list.

Ignatova’s name recently reappeared in a filing linked to a London property this month.

The FBI is currently offering $100,000 for her arrest.

While Ignatova, the Crypto Queen, is certainly a big name on the FBI’s Most Wanted List, she’s not the most famous, still behind the Hamburglar and Waldo.

Spilling the Beans

Why NFTs might be immortal... 🪦 ⚡️

No you’re not dead. Well, at least as far as we know.

And while we would never doubt your vitality or heartbeat, the same can’t be said for NFTs, which have been the object of plenty of recent public derision.

After a less than stellar 2022, much of the hype and excitement surrounding NFTs has soured, leading many to pronounce the digital ownership tool “dead.”

Meanwhile, experts like Jim Cramer and officials like Gary Gensler seem unable to do anything but warn of the dangers of the crypto and NFT markets.

You can almost forgive them for overreacting to an objectively frightening crypto cycle, but after looking at markets recently, we feel more confident than ever. Crypto has a pulse and NFTs aren’t going anywhere.

In recent weeks NFT volumes have continued to increase and the space has lit up with activity, but the strength of NFTs is about far more than trading volumes, it’s about the underlying concept and technology.

An NFT is a non-fungible digital token that signifies ownership. NFTs traditionally have been used for art or pieces of media, but the usage has grown far beyond that.

While pictures of cartoon apes are what brought the space into the spotlight, it’s the countless potential use cases and innovation that continue to make NFTs a vital part of the crypto ecosystem.

NFTs could grant you front stage tickets to your favorite band’s entire tour or the deed to a property in actual reality.

Think of NFTs as digital receipts. That’s ultimately why the “non fungible” element of this is so important, every NFT is unique and its ownership provides an immutable record.

These assets have digital signatures that can’t be copied or replicated, and ownership of these digital assets can represent ownership of real world property.

It’s this underlying fact of NFTs that makes it hard for them to ever really “die.” We live in a digital world and it’s deeply unlikely that digital records of ownership would ever just go away.

Now, that isn’t to say that a digital picture of a monkey has any inherent value, it’s to say that NFTs as a tool are just too useful to be permanently relegated to meme territory.

In just the last week, California’s Department of Motor Vehicles announced that it’d be moving its entire Car Title system over to NFTs - with a single NFT representing ownership of a car.

That’s the world’s fifth largest economy deciding to use NFTs to track ownership of every single vehicle in the state: that’s a big f*cking deal.

And with all of that said, speculative NFT trading seems to be on the rise.

This January has been a boom season for NFT trades with $320 million traded so far. That’s up from a total of $283.5 million in December.

Not only does the market seem to be picking up a healthy little bit of steam, but new projects are on the rise.

It’s not just the same Bored Apes at the top of OpenSea, but upstart projects are continuing to throw their hats in the ring and make a splash.

New projects growing and new innovators creating use cases and building infrastructure for NFTs is just about the best bull argument for NFTs you could hope for.

Be gentle with our NFT garden, the fruit is sensitive but bountiful, and it is certainly far from dead.

Meme of the Day

The Last Sip

If you’re wondering who else is on the FBI’s Most Wanted List after “Crypto Queen” Ruja Ignatova look no further than:

• Sasquatch

• Prince Andrew, Duke of York

• Chet Hanks

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.