Welcome to the Beluga Brief, where we deliver data-driven insights to your inbox every day of the week, spending our time in the crypto trenches and combing through thousands of crypto news feeds so you don’t have to.

What happened today?

A big update in the FTX trial comes today as we find out the details of former Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison’s sentencing: after pleading guilty to 7 charges, the Judge awarded a sentence of just 2 years in prison for her role in FTX. The Judge said quote “I’ve seen a lot of cooperators in 30 years. I’ve never seen one quite like Ms. Ellison.” Ellison’s ex-boyfriend Sam Bankman-Fried also made headlines today, when the public found out he is now housed in the same unit of a Brooklyn jail as Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs… I wonder what their conversations are like? We also saw a settlement between the SEC and the team behind TRUECOIN and TRUSTTOKEN around allegations over how their stablecoin program was managed, which is pretty hilarious given their names.

In the market BTC has just surged past $64,000 at time of writing after reversing from a small nuke this morning, seemingly on news that the People’s Bank of China will be launching a robust stimulus program to revive the country’s economy. Alt-coins continue to perform well and the latest addition to the Beluga Trading Wallet $CRV sits up a few percentage points on the day. The biggest winner of today however has been Solana memecoin dogwifhat $WIF, which is up almost 15% and back to $2. The major run of Bonk and Wif are what sparked the Solana memecoin ecosystem to go ballistic earlier this year, so this is something to keep an eye on if you’re trading in the trenches.

Biggest Headlines

The Beluga intern has been hard at work gathering all the most important crypto news stories so you have them in one place!

The Majors

• Bitcoin ETFs set to attract liquidity and speculation as IBIT options trading gains approval

• BlackRock Crypto Head Mitchnick Sees Bitcoin as ‘Risk-Off’ Asset

Regulatory

• Former Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison sentenced to 24 months in prison

• Gensler says DEBT Box case ‘not well handled’ by SEC

Alt Coins

• Research Unlock: An overview of Avalanche DeFi ecosystem and BOOST campaign

• Long-time CT trader Sisyphus sheds more light on ‘recent’ $100M Celestia raise

New Launches

• Hong Kong starts second phase of e-HKD pilot to explore tokenization, offline payments

• Coinbase lists CoW DAO token for limit orders on spot trading

Miscellaneous

• No way out: Diddy stuck in Brooklyn prison dorm with crypto crook Bankman-Fried

• Polymarket bet for 2024 US presidential election winner crosses $1 billion mark

Thread of the Day

A new form of Ethereum L2 has recently been making waves dubbed “Based” rollups, but what exactly are they? Find out more in 0xBreadguy’s thread (with pictures) below:

Recent Beluga Content

Get ready for the highly-anticipated launch of the $HMSTR token, which powers the Hamster Kombat ecosystem with millions of players!

Fun Fact

The first ICO or crowdfunding to raise over $100 million was Filecoin ($FIL) in 2017.

The content on this site is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as investment advice. While Beluga strives to ensure the accuracy and timeliness of information, there may be discrepancies when comparing our data to that of financial institutions, service providers, or specific product websites. Always consult with a professional before making any financial decisions.

Will McKinnon is the Head of Content for Beluga and has spent every day for many years trading coins. For that reason there are too many to name, however his largest holdings by a significant margin are Ethereum and Bitcoin. NFA DYOR