It's a new day, it's a new week, it's a new newsletter. This is the BitDegree Insider, and we track web3's pulse.
Today's topics:
- ⚡️Tennessee Man's 'Oopsie'
- ⚡️Celsius Network's Victims
- ⚡️Nonfarm News
- ⚡️Selected Meme of The Day
- ⚡️Bite-Sized News
Tennessee Man's 'Oopsie'
Tennessee man (finally it's not a Florida man that's stealing the headlines) has been sentenced to prison, and ordered to pay a fine of $680,000 for something just ridiculous.
You see, the man in question, George Thacker, 59, was serving as the elected County Executive for Rhea County. And while carrying the responsibilities of a public official, he decided to… use the access to the COVID-19 funds, and spend that money on… crypto.
Between May 2020 and February 2021, Thacker spent a total of $650k of not-his-money on crypto (Bitcoin, Ether, and other coins).
For having the audacity to take advantage of his position, he'll be spending 33 months in prison (as well as paying the financial fine). Well, the abuse of power is bad. It's especially bad when it comes to stealing from those who are in need. He should be given a pickaxe and told to go mine BTC in real life.
Celsius Network's Victims
Okay, so by now everyone pretty much knows the notorious, infamous bankrupted crypto lender Celsius Network. After pretending that they were fine... they... froze the withdrawals. And filed for bankruptcy.
That's the main story. But… Have you ever wondered about individual financial losses that Celsius took down with them?
This website shows how much money Celsius' users lost as a result of Celsius's bankruptcy. This data is collected from the document which was provided in Celsius's court. And… The list looks painful. There are people who have lost from over $12M to over $40M.
The Titanic (Celsius) was heading toward an iceberg. The captain (SEC) did not foresee it. Yet Kim Kardashian's case got enough attention. The fact that individuals lost such colossal amounts of money and no one prevented this collapse… Just shows that strict crypto regulation is unavoidable.
Nonfarm Payrolls
On Friday, October 7, data on Nonfarm payrolls (the number of new jobs in the non-agricultural sectors of the US economy) was released.
And there's something interesting about this. When the data is positive (increased number of new jobs)... The markets fall. Wtf?
So, the data presented that there are 263K new non-agricultural jobs in the US economy. This was higher than expected (250K). This means positive.
And that means… Unemployment is falling down, which in its turn should increase the consumption rate to go up again. Which means… The Fed will take this as a signal that their policy works (aka keeping a tight grip on high interest rates).
This points to… the fact that we can expect Fed to introduce yet another 75 bp rate hike in November. We'll be more than sure about this after October 13th, when the latest data on inflation will be announced. The current indicator of the index is 8.3%, and the forecast is 8.1%. Inflation is expected to decrease. But so it happens… Sometimes reality ignores the professionals' expectations.
Selected Meme of The Day
Bite-Sized News
With close to a decade of experience in the FinTech industry, Aaron understands all of the biggest issues and struggles that crypto enthusiasts face. He’s a passionate analyst who is concerned with data-driven and fact-based content, as well as that which speaks to both Web3 natives and industry newcomers.
Aaron is the go-to person for everything and anything related to digital currencies. With a huge passion for blockchain & Web3 education, Aaron strives to transform the space as we know it, and make it more approachable to complete beginners.
Aaron has been quoted by multiple established outlets, and is a published author himself. Even during his free time, he enjoys researching the market trends, and looking for the next supernova.