All hands on deck! We’ve got a rogue crypto whale breaching off the starboard bow!

If you can’t grab a harpoon and help, at least get a bucket and start bailing.

But don’t despair: A whale like this won’t sink us. In fact, it may bring a rising tide that lifts all ships.

That’s right: A crypto whale just sent one lucky coin up 40% in 24 hours.

So get ready, because it’s a whale of a tale.

Espresso Shots

☕️ Caroline Ellison Testifies

Caroline Ellison, the former head of FTX’s sister exchange Alameda and Sam Bankman-Fried’s former business partner and ex-girlfriend, took to the stand on October 10.

Ellison pleaded guilty to fraud and was prepared to speak candidly against Bankman-Fried, according to Inner City Press’ courtroom reporting on X.

Ellison claimed that SBF set up the systems that allowed Alameda to take $14 billion from FTX.

“Alameda took several billions of dollars from FTX customers and used it for investments,” Ellison testified, according to subsequent X posts reporting from the Inner City Press. “I sent balance sheets that made Alameda look less risky than it was.”

Unlike the urban legend that spawned so many mafia marriages where your wife can’t testify against you in court, it turns out that ex-girlfriends are extremely willing to testify.

☕️ Web3 Gaming Breakout

“SAGE Labs”, a browser game from the game developers behind “Star Atlas,” has surpassed the entire Polygon network in transaction volume according to data from Flipside Crypto.

SAGE Labs, which is built on the Solana network, saw 2.29 million transactions last Sunday — roughly 256,000 more than Polygon.

SAGE Labs is a wildly different game than the upcoming Web3 MMORPG Star Atlas. SAGE Labs is a 2D game that mostly involves spaceship management and resource collection.

But SAGE Labs’ simple interface has in no way detracted from its success. SAGE Labs has prompted more than 16 million transactions since its launch last month.

Unfortunately, SAGE Labs and Star Atlas will both be far more popular than the videogame developed by Luke Skywalker’s aunt and uncle, “Space Farmer’s Almanac.”

☕️ UK Warns Noncompliant Firms

The United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has warned 146 resident crypto firms that they’ve run out of time to register with the regulatory body.

This registration is a part of the FCA’s new promotional rules intended to curb illegal, financial advertising in the U.K.

“We take a risk-based approach, so not all firms of potential concern will be added straight away. This list will be continually updated as we identify firms which may be illegally communicating crypto asset promotions and are failing to engage with us constructively,” reads the official warning.

Crypto exchange OKX and Binance have both announced their registration and intent to comply with England’s guidelines.

When the FCA noticed all the firms that had yet to register, they likely replied with Britain’s stereotypically high-pitched “What’s all this then?”

Polled Brew

Spilling the Beans

Whale Watch: Mass Purchases Make Waves 🌊 👀

Waves across crypto are exactly what happened when a single wallet acquired millions of Bancor Network (BNT), the native token of the Automated Market Maker, over the weekend.

The movement of this whale sent the value of BNT surging over 40%, based on data from X posts from the blockchain tracking platform, Lookonchain.

The Lookonchain account holder is associated with the industry-leading blockchain data and markets intelligence platform, Glassnode.

Now, the whale in question was dormant for six years before acquiring 4.71 million BNT.

The massive acquisition sent BNT from $0.39 to roughly $0.62 at its peak — a whopping 60% gain.

Additionally, the activity sent the blockchain infrastructure provider, Orbs, up 40% as crypto investors flocked to get involved.

Unfortunately, BNT has since fallen to $0.50 as of writing, a drop caused by sell-offs prompted by the unexpected price bump.

The whale wallet behind all this action is also believed to belong to the South Korea-based exchange Upbit.

Upbit’s a titan in its native country, and we just covered the exchange’s indefatigable defense against tens of thousands of hacks in the last edition of Coffee & Crypto.

But let’s be real: You and I don’t have millions in crypto stuffing our wallets. And maybe you weren’t fortunate enough to already be hodling BNT.

So what does all of this mean for rank-and-file crypto investors?

Well, the awakening of crypto whales like these could be an early sign of a coming bull market.

Like suckerfish, blissfully latched to the bellies of colossal sea whales, all of us have a shot at riding the upward inertia to greatness.

However, while the whales can catapult crypto into more bullish market conditions, the impact of whale movements isn’t always positive.

While we like to be optimistic, we also try to be realistic. The accumulation of millions of these tokens could indicate a coming mass sell-off or swap, instead of a long-term HODL.

But we’re hoping that this whale does a flying, National Geographic-style breach, sparkling with iridescent globules of seawater.

This may be the leap that takes us into the next bull market, rather than a SeaWorld-style belly flop.

Crypto 101

CLOB Platform: “CLOB” stands for “Central Limit Order Book.”

This is a system used by exchanges around the world to transparently match and prioritize trades based on “price-time priority.”

Within a CLOB system, trades may go down betwixt dealers and customers, dealers and dealers, and, most importantly, customers and other customers.

The Last Sip

The Last Sip: It should be noted that the Bancor Network has no connection to the “Rancor” Network, a platform dedicated to the trading of underground monsters for crime lords’ lairs.

Stay Caffeinated,

Coffee & Crypto Team

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