💿 My beautiful dark twisted memecoin

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Kanye did it. He launched a memecoin on Solana.

Some say this is the top signal for which we’ve been waiting, making Yeezy the Lisan al-Gaib of bears.

Maybe so. Although the top signals were much, much louder last time around.

📉 You wanting a sign is a sign

For one thing, Yeezy has fallen off. I’m not sure YZY on Meteora in 2025 will ever have the same impact as if it was sold at the height of the Yeezy brand circa 2020.

Still, I spent my morning going over archives of crypto headlines from the tail-end of the monster 2021 bull market.

What were the signs that crypto would peak at a $3-trillion market cap in the second week of November? 

Any top signal would need to come within six months of that cycle peak, I decided. You probably remember that 2021 saw two major tops, in May and November, so really any signal that came before May would’ve ultimately pointed to much higher prices (making them bullish signals).

And yeah, hindsight is 20/20. But tell me that these headlines weren’t screaming that a top was soon near.

• “FTX Closes $900M Series B Round Valuing Exchange at $18B” — July 20, 2021 (yes, that’s a $900-million raise).

• “Tim Berners-Lee sells web source code NFT for $5.4m” — June 30, 2021 (132 days until top).

• “CityCoins Community Officially Launches with MiamiCoin, Its First City-Based Token” — August 3, 2021 (remember these?)

• “El Salvador buys bitcoin as the digital currency becomes legal tender” — September 6, 2021.

• “OpenSea admits insider trading of NFTs it promoted” — September 16, 2021 (arguably the most compelling yet).

• “China declares all crypto-currency transactions illegal” — September 2, 2021 (68 days until top).

• “Coinbase’s New Direct Deposit Feature Allows Users to Get Paychecks in Crypto” — September 27, 2021.

• “TikTok Is Auctioning Its NFT Collection Featuring Lil Nas X, Grimes, Bella Poarch, More” — October 1, 2021 (NFT = Nearly Freakin’ Top).

• “Celsius Valued at $3.25B After $400M Raise Amid Regulatory Headwinds” — October 12, 2021 (narrator: Celsius would file for bankruptcy nine months later and its CEO would eventually be sentenced to 12 years’ prison for fraud).

• “Bahamas-based crypto exchange FTX raises a $420.69M Series B-1 at a $25B valuation from 69 investors, including BlackRock and Tiger Global” — October 21, 2021 (I mean, this one was a doozy, especially paired with the Celsius saga).

• “Facebook Changes Company Name to Meta in Focus on Metaverse” — October 28, 2021 (12 days until top).

• “Incoming NYC Mayor Eric Adams: Pay Me In Bitcoin” — November 4, 2021.

• “Crypto Is Cool. Now Get on the Yacht” — November 5, 2021 (all about NFT.NYC, the New York conference that attracted a record 5,000 attendees just four days before the top).

• “About 5% of Sotheby’s, Christie’s Contemporary Art Auctions Are NFTs” — November 8, 2021 (one day before the top).

To cap it off, Coinbase’s Q3 earnings were even released on the exact day that crypto peaked.

Revenue had dropped 39%, from $2 billion to just over $1.2 billion, lower than estimates, and the number of monthly transacting users dipped 16%. COIN tanked 12% in postmarket trading as a result.

So, does a lame ChatGPT 5 release, a new SPAC from Chamath, Meta hiring freeze and a memecoin from washed entertainer stack up to this monumental run of headlines? Not really. 

But then again, it may be another cycle or two before crypto runs back its cultural significance, as it was in 2021. The signals might be quieter this time around.

— David Canellis

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• YZY briefly clipped a $3.16 billion market cap shortly after launch and has since retraced to $1.05 billion.

• DBS, Singapore’s largest bank, has issued tokenized structured notes on Ethereum.

• Don’t sleep: The Empire podcast will be going live on X today at 12PM EST.

It’s the summer of DATs and the party is going strong. 

But when October rolls around, everyone will be looking to DAS: London to hear from these meta-defining voices on where things stand and where they’re headed.

Get your ticket today with promo code: EMPIRENL

📅 October 13-15 | London