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- đ„ A crypto engineer and FBI agent walk into a court room... âïž
đ„ A crypto engineer and FBI agent walk into a court room... âïž
PLUS: the most expensive object on Earth is being used to mine Bitcoin đ
Todayâs edition is brought to you by Arrived - the fractional real estate investing app backed by Jeff Bezos and other world-class investors.
GM. This is Milk Road, the crypto newsletter that always air-drums Phil Collinâs solo whenever âIn the Air Tonightâ plays in public.
If you know, you know.
Hereâs what we got today:
Day 10 highlights: The U.S. vs. Sam Bankman-Fried âïž
The most expensive object on Earth is being used to mine Bitcoin đ
BlackRock CEO: âBitcoin is a flight to qualityâ đŁïž
Binance.US shuts down fiat withdrawals đȘ
DAY 10: THE U.S. VS. SAM BANKMAN-FRIED âïž
Yesterday was Day 10 of cryptoâs trial of the centuryâŠ
The United States vs. Sam Bankman-Fried. (formerly known as SBF, or fkSBF for short)
It had:
An FBI agent
Cell site analysis
And a rare legal win for fkSBFâs defense
(Btw, I say ârareâ because fkSBFâs defense has looked worse than the Denver Broncos this season)
Hereâs everything you need to know in 90 secondsâŠ

Two witnesses took the stand yesterday:
WITNESS #1: Nishad Singh - fkSBFâs high school friend and head of engineering at FTX
Nishad testified on Monday, but yesterday was his turn to get cross-examined by the defense.
Howâd it go? The defense turned Nishadâs testimony into Swiss cheese - full of holes.
On Monday: Nishad testified (in great detail) about a lot of events that led up to FTXâs collapse in 2022.
Yesterday: Nishad struggled to answer the defenseâs questions and had a âsurprising amount of haziness when trying to recall eventsâ.
On Monday: Nishad testified that he was strongly against fkSBF buying a $35M penthouse in the Bahamas.
He called the purchase âostentatiousâ and said he âconsidered moving out many timesâ.
Yesterday: The defense exposed that Nishad not only never moved out, but he (and his girlfriend) lived in the nicest room in the penthouse - the master suite.
On Monday: Nishad testified that he felt terrible when he found out that FTX was misusing customer funds.
Yesterday: The defense exposed that Nishad took out a multi-million dollar loan from the company after he found out about the misuse of customer funds.
Nishad ended up buying a $3M+ house right before FTX collapsed.
Why this matters: Many thought that Nishad was the strongest witness after his testimony on Monday...
He highlighted fkSBFâs (lack of) character and made it seem like fkSBF was the leader, while everyone was forced along for the ride.
Turns out that wasnât completely true. And even if Nishad was sad and upset with his friendâs actions, he had plenty of money to wipe his tears with.
WITNESS #2: Richard Busick - FBI Agent
Next up, the prosecution called their first expert witness to take the stand - Richard Busick.
Heâs an FBI agent with a special power⊠cellular site data analysis. And heâs compiled 14,000 pages of cellular data related to fkSBF.
The goal? Use the data to show how fkSBFs was using customer funds to get access to politicians. This includesâŠ
Eric Adams - the Mayor of New York City
Bill Clinton - Former United States President (and Mr. I-Did-Not-Have-Sexual-Relations-With-That-Woman)
Khalid A. Al-Falih - Finance Minister for Saudi Arabia
Philip Davis - Prime Minister of Bahamas (side note: the Securities Commission of the Bahamas let FTX operate without a license for more than 2 years. Was it because fkSBF was âbuddy-buddyâ with the PM?)
The defense also had a chance to cross-examine Agent Busick. It looked a little bit like thisâŠ
fkSBFâs lawyer: Impressive data, Agent Busick. But can you prove that my client, fkSBF, was actually the one using the cell phone during those times?
Agent Busick: No.
fkSBFâs lawyer: I rest my case. No further questions.
Wow. I knew the âhow do you know it was me?â tactic was used by high school boys who get caught cheating, but I didnât know lawyers used it in court too.
So, whatâs next? Prosecutors hinted they would be calling in their second expert witness to take the stand today - Peter Easton (a financial forensics expert).
And of course, weâll keep ya updated on any big news from Day 11!
Milk Road fact of the day: According to a Harvard study, real estate has outperformed the S&P 500 over the past 20 years.
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THE MOST EXPENSIVE OBJECT ON EARTH IS BEING USED TO MINE BITCOIN đ
Let me tell you about the Itaipu Dam.
(Btw - Iâd tell you how to pronounce it, but every video I clicked on said it in a different way. So I guess weâll all just sound like idiots trying to figure it outâŠ)
Itâs a hydroelectric dam
Itâs located on the border between Brazil and Paraguay
It cost $27B to build
It has the Guinness World Record for âthe most expensive object on Earthâ
Hereâs what it looks like:

Well, guess whatâŠenergy from the dam is now being used to mine Bitcoin.
Sazmining, a Bitcoin company, just opened up a 100% renewable energy facility in Paraguay
The mining facility will be powered by surplus power from the Itaipu Dam
The surplus energy will be bought instead of being wasted for a loss
The dam earns additional $$. And Sazmining gets cheap energy.
Itâs a win-win for everyone.

BLACKROCK CEO: âBITCOIN IS A FLIGHT TO QUALITYâ đŁïž
Larry Fink is the CEO of BlackRock - the largest money manager in the world.
$9,000,000,000,000 in assets under management (AUM). Yup, 9 gazillion dollarsâŠ
And Larry Finkâs had a love-hate relationship with Bitcoin over the years.
Rewind to 2018 and he was saying stuff likeâŠ
Bitcoin is an index for money laundering - thatâs all it is
None of BlackRockâs clients were interested in Bitcoin
Fast forward to today and heâs saying stuff likeâŠ
Bitcoin is digital gold and could revolutionize finance
Lots of BlackRockâs clients around the world are interested in Bitcoin
Larry is changing his tune like it was a Kidz Bop album.
Well, check it out. This recent clip of Larry on Fox earlier this week is going viral. In it, he calls Bitcoin a âflight to qualityâ.
P.S. - turns out âflight to qualityâ is an actual term in the investment world.
This whole time I thought it was something Larry saw in his fortune cookie from Panda ExpressâŠ
According to the Internetâs Bible of Finance (aka Investopedia.com), âflight to qualityâ is when investors move their money out of risky investments and into safer ones.
A common example is shifting money from stocks (higher risk) â bonds (lower risk).
Now, looks like our little olâ Bitcoin is being added to the lower risk list.

BITE-SIZED COOKIES đȘ
Binance.US has halted fiat withdrawals. Customers will need to covert their USD â stablecoins to withdraw money from their accounts.
Animoca Brands subsidiary, Forj, is launching a new $APE accelerator. The program will be powered by the ApeCoin DAO and will give participating companies access to 200,000 members.
The owner of Bitcoin Magazine is launching a new investment fund called Unbroken Chain. It plans to raise $5M and will focus on investing in Bitcoin Ordinals and other BRC-20 tokens.
Reddit is getting rid of its blockchain-powered Community Points tokens. The social media app said it was due to regulatory and "resourcing" concerns.
The Open Metaverse Alliance for Web3 (OMA3) is working with a handful of popular projects to develop new NFT royalty standards. Good initiative, bad name. Open Metaverse Alliance? What is this, the next failed Marvel movie?

MILKY MEMES đ€Ł

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2:58 PM âą Oct 18, 2023
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.
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