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As the Beluga Brief grows we’ll try out new content sections and schedules to find what is best for our readers — since Memecoins are all the rage these days, we’ve added a section to cover all the craziness in the market from Marc Andreessen-funded AI memecoins to the most profitable traders turning $100 into millions. If you have other suggestions for things you’d like us to cover, feel free to leave a reply on our Twitter!

What happened today?

As we now sit only 8 days from the US election, all eyes are on the Polymarket polls which at time of writing show Trump over 30 points ahead of Harris, a massive gap for elections which are usually decided by a few percentage points. Is this wishful thinking on behalf of a crypto market that views Trump as better for their bags, or have voter movements in swing states really pushed the odds this dramatically?

Whatever the explanation is, with Trump’s odds looking better the crypto market is responding positively. In fact, BTC has now reached its highest point since before the Japan carry trade blew up on August 4th this year. More importantly, we’ve now once again eclipsed the legendary all-time-high of $69,420 from last cycle. Interestingly the alt-coin market has not moved with nearly the strength of BTC - the massive inflows from the Bitcoin ETFs could explain its relative strength versus the rest of the market with billions in capital gained over the last few weeks. Even though Ethereum has spot ETFs trading in the US as well, it still has yet to gain much popularity among tradfi investors.

ETH has taken quite a beating in terms of sentiment and price this year as chains like Solana have sucked a lot of liquidity away, however it seems to me that Ethereum’s problem is more with marketing than any kind of fundamentals. Most of the pain points described are either superficial or factually incorrect (ie expensive gas fees, liquidity fragmentation, “bad for memecoins”, etc), and are rather an issue with how the Ethereum Foundation itself communicates with the industry. Nobody wants to read 30+ page reports on the intricacies of how a L2 can become truly “Ethereum Aligned”, they just want to make money. The good news is that marketing is much easier to pull together than the underlying technology and ecosystem, but admittedly I don’t think Vitalik Buterin really cares about the image for the time being.

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

• BTC hits $69k again 8 days from election. What’s next?

• Ethereum mainnet issues drive users to Layer 2’s and Solana, analyst says

Alt Coins and Stocks

• Bitcoin miner stocks surge as AI demand grows, Jefferies issues ‘buy’ rating on Core Scientific

Regulatory

• Hong Kong considering tax concessions for crypto investments

New Launches

• Solana wallets buckle as 2.8M addresses angle for Grass airdrop

Miscellaneous

• Exclusive: Prediction market Kalshi launches crypto deposits as Trump maintains big lead on betting sites

Memecoin Corner

While most of the alt coin market fell behind today, Dogecoin stood apart from the pack gaining over 10% today to reach $0.157. I can’t call Doge a great investment, but it is the one memecoin that every single normie knows from last cycle. It’s consistently in the mainstream because of Elon’s mentions and more, which means everyone hears when it pumps. We haven’t seen much (if any) normie involvement in memes this year aside from some onboarding through Moonshot, however if people see Doge pumping to where it was in 2021 it will at minimum bring more attention to the space. The running theory is Doge is like Bitcoin for memecoins, where it pumping brings the rest of the meme market up with it. I’m not sure whether that’s true, but in an attention market bringing more eyes is everything.

On the other hand, Solana memecoins were relatively weak today while OG Ethereum memes such as SPX and KEKEC push to new highs. We’ve seen a couple small rotations like this from Solana to ETH this year but it has never lasted, so I’m hesitant to call this the big flip. I do however think any surge in onchain activity is a good thing for the ETH ecosystem, so I’m rooting those coins on from the sidelines.

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