Love him or hate him, the 45th president is always entertaining.

We’ve followed his exploits for years, but we’ve always paid the closest attention to his finances.

And a recent discovery in Trump’s portfolio reveals a deeper involvement with crypto than any of us suspected.

Is Trump Tower building a crypto suite?

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Espresso Shots

☕️ Europe Launches First Spot ETF 🪙 🚀

Europe has beaten the U.S. in the race to the first spot or futures Bitcoin ETF, launching a spot Bitcoin ETF by the London-based Jacobi Asset Management.

The ETF will be available on Euronext Amsterdam. Though Jacobi Asset Management was technically approved for the ETF back in October of 2021, it decided to postpone the release due to fallout from Terra Labs and FTX.

“This fund has been designed to give institutional investors a simple, secure, and transparent access to Bitcoin whilst addressing their sustainability requirements," Jacobi CEO Martin Bednall said in an interview with Decrypt. "We believe this ETF launch will be the catalyst for institutional adoption of digital assets."

Keep your chin up, America. Europe may have beaten us in the race to both crypto regulation and a Bitcoin ETF, but it will never have our flawless healthcare system.

☕️ Binance.US Seeks Protection From SEC 🛡 🏛

Binance.US has filed a protective order to limit the level of discovery sought by the SEC in their case against the firm.

Binance.US has called the SEC’s operation a “fishing expedition” far beyond what was agreed to, according to the official filing.

"The SEC has spent the past 45 days serving incredibly overbroad and unreasonable discovery requests that seek, on their face, every single document in [Binance.US] possession related to customer assets," the filing reads. "The SEC has been steadfast in its belief that the consent order gives it carte blanche to investigate every aspect of [our] asset custody practices without any discernible limitation whatsoever."

Unofficially, some are calling this the most overextended fishing expedition since three men piloted a 29-foot boat to take on a 25-foot shark in the summer of 1975.

☕️ Coca-Cola’s Masterpiece NFT Collection 🪙 🥤

Coca-Cola is planting a firm foot in the Metaverse with the launch of its “Masterpiece” NFT collection.

The collection features classic works of art, including “The Scream” or “Girl with a Pearl Earring,” which features Coke bottles and other iconic imagery.

This release is part of an ongoing campaign to blend Coke with DeFi, in what Coke calls its “Onchain Summer” initiative.

While we’re over the moon for Coke, frankly, some of us are more worried that Coke is forgetting its roots. After all, this is a soft drink that became that way not because of its iconic advertising chops, but thanks to that classic mix of caramel coloring and sweet snowy powder.

Spilling the Beans

Trump's Secret Crypto Stash 😳 💰

Any new and revolutionary development will always have skeptics, and crypto’s no exception.

But what does make crypto unique is its powerful draw. Crypto seems to have an irresistible siren’s song that breaks even the strongest of wills.

And a new development in Trump’s finances has revealed that Trump may have been under crypto’s spell for longer, and to a deeper significance than any of us suspected.

But first, let’s discuss how he got there.

Trump’s relationship with crypto has been all over the place.

On the campaign trail, Trump tweeted that he was “not a fan“ of Bitcoin, and that cryptocurrencies “are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air,” according to a recent Decrypt report.

And by the time he was elected, his anti-crypto stance had only grown stronger.

The SEC Head appointed by Trump was notoriously hard on crypto, and even when he left the oval office, Trump still railed against crypto.

"Bitcoin just seems like a scam," Trump said in an interview with Fox Business, "I don't like it because it's another currency competing against the dollar. I want the dollar to be the currency of the world; that's what I've always said."

But all that anti-crypto rhetoric didn’t stop Trump or Former First Lady Melania Trump from releasing NFT collections.

Melania’s collection features fairly banal landscapes depicting American monuments. Trump’s NFTs, by contrast, are so strange that you’ll have to see them to believe.

Yet, in the midst of all of this both-ways signaling, it would appear that Trump had his hand pretty deep in crypto.

To the tune of half a million.

A recent investigation by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics into Trump’s finances revealed that the former president was holding $500,000 in Ethereum, in a crypto wallet.

Listen, there are those that will call Trump a “hypocrite” now that the official filing has been released.

But we’re not interested in that. If anything, Trump’s just an opportunist (and which politician isn’t?). And that’s what this is all really about: opportunity.

Even Gary Gensler, crypto’s Dr. Evil, couldn’t always resist the call. Gensler at one point was very interested in becoming an advisor to Binance.

It’s fundamentally good for crypto when men like Trump are found to be holding some ETH in their back pockets.

Like it or not, celebrities like Trump are tastemakers. When Bill Clinton went public about his love for McDonald’s, suddenly the nation didn’t feel so guilty when it chowed down on a Big Mac and fries.

No, we don’t think Joe Biden’s holding any crypto, yet. And the lines between personal holdings and political influence on crypto, and whether or not that will constitute a conflict of interest, remain looming questions that will need to be cleared up by further regulation.

But for now, take pride in the fact that for all his initial reservations, in his heart, Trump was as big of a degen as any of us.

Meme of the Day

Even the loudest skeptics have a Crypto bag somewhere... 👀 🪙

Crypto 101

Open Source Framework: This is any code that’s made widely available for use by other developers.

Unlike proprietary software, such as Microsoft Office or Adobe Suite, open source software is available for use and alteration by the public.

The Last Sip

Rather than launch a Coke NFT collection, here are some fun activities you can enjoy, featuring America’s favorite soda.

3. Put Mentos in a Diet Coke bottle and tell your child this is somehow “science.”

2. Throw a screaming tantrum when your waiter asks if Pepsi is okay.

1. Mix Coke with Captain Morgan to create a powerful, seafaring concoction that will warp you to the magical Island of DUIs.

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.