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Here’s what we got for you today:

• It’s FOMC Day. Here’s what to expect… 🧐

• The Blockchain War is heating up 🔥

• BlackRock is launching a tokenized asset fund 👀

• AI tokens are rallying 🍪

IT’S FOMC DAY! HERE’S WHAT TO EXPECT 🧐

Today is investors’ least favorite day of the month…FOMC day. 

Ok, you got me. That isn’t really what it stands for…

FOMC = the Federal Open Market Committee. They’re the group in charge of making monetary decisions to help take pressure off the economy. 

They come together 8 times a year and figure out 3 main things:

• Maximizing employment.

• Stabilizing prices (inflation/deflation).

• Moderating long-term interest rates.

Today, they make their decision on interest rates - lower them, keep them the same, or raise them. 

According to the CME FedWatch Tool (a website that predicts interest rate decisions), there’s a…

• 99% chance interest rates stay the same. 

• 1% chance they drop.

• 0% chance they rise. 

Most experts believe interest rates will stay the same, but all eyes will be on Jerome Powell’s post-game speech. 

His tone, and any indication of future rate cuts, will determine how the markets react.

(Remember: Investors react to perception, not results).

Here’s a quick cheat sheet to scribble on your hand:

A/ If interest rates stay THE SAME, Powell's speech will likely determine price movement. Hawkish speech = prices probably go down. Bullish speech = prices probably go up.

B/ If interest rates go UP, prices likely go DOWN. Markets could blow up (not in a good way) if rates get hiked when 99.9% of people didn’t expect it.

Buckle up Roaders, things could get rocky today.

THE BLOCKCHAIN WAR IS HEATING UP 🔥

There’s a new blockchain taking crypto by storm: Base. 

It’s Coinbase’s Layer 2. And over the last week, it has gained… *checks notes*... 800K+ new users. 

So, why are so many people flocking to Base?

• Cheap transactions. Gas fees on Layer 2’s (like Base) have plummeted to less than $0.01 since the Ethereum upgrade.

• Big-name artists/creators are starting to launch new projects on it. For example, XCOPY (a well-known NFT artist) dropped a new NFT collection yesterday. It got over 1M mints in 24 hours. 

• Memecoins. Because transactions are super cheap and fast, Base is witnessing its own ‘memecoin mania’ (similar to Solana). A handful of them are up 100%-400% over the last day.

Watch out! The Blockchain War is getting spicier than the wings on ‘Hot Ones.’ 

BLACKROCK IS LAUNCHING A TOKENIZED ASSET FUND 👀

BlackRock dropped a bomb yesterday… the $9T investment behemoth announced it’s launching a new tokenized asset fund. 

Here’s everything you need to know:

• BlackRock is partnering up with Securitize, an asset tokenization firm, to launch it. 

• It’s called the USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (0/10 for creativity, btw).

• It isn’t clear what assets the fund will be ‘tokenizing’, but many are speculating it could be real-world assets (RWAs). 

• The fund will be tokenized on the Ethereum blockchain. Blockchain sleuths pointed out that BlackRock sent $100M in USDC to seed the fund yesterday. 

• There will be a $100,000 minimum investment. #BigBallersOnly

Why this matters: BlackRock is the world’s largest asset manager and has been leading the way for institutional crypto adoption. 

Now it has its eyes on a new mission… tokenize everything. Larry Fink (BlackRock’s CEO) has even gone on a media tour to talk all about it. 

Stocks, governments bond, you name it - BlackRock wants to tokenize it. 

Well, it looks like the trillion-dollar asset manager just took its first big step in that direction. 

Funny side note: Crypto degens have been sending a ton of memecoins to BlackRock’s address since it became public…

Including tokens like Shiba Inu, Pepe, Jesus Coin, and HarryPotterObamaSonic10Inu (yes, it’s a real coin). 

The cherry on top? Some of them were sent from a wallet address named “big-d*ck-fink.eth” (named after BlackRock’s CEO).

Never change, crypto. Never change 😂

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AI-related tokens are rallying while the rest of the market bleeds. Only two AI-related tokens out of the top ten ranked by market cap have experienced slight retracements.

Ledger announced it's launching its new hardware wallet “very soon.” The new Ledger Stax will roughly be the size of a credit card and will support a wide range of tokens - including BTC, ETH, SOL, and NFTs. 

Polygon Labs, King River Capital, and Immutable are teaming up to launch a new $100M gaming fund. The Inevitable Games Fund (IGF) has already identified a few investment opportunities - including Pixelmon and Guild of Guardians. 

Solana has passed Ethereum in DEX trading volume over the last week. Solana-based decentralized exchanges (DEX) have seen a 67% increase in volume over the last week. 

Grayscale added ETH staking to its ETH ETF application. The move comes after Fidelity made the same update in its application earlier this week.

BTC ETFs saw their biggest day of outflows earlier this week. On Tuesday, U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs experienced $326.2 million in outflows, the largest since their debut.

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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.