🎯 Hindenburg Has A New Target

Image: knipsdesign

📜 Backstory: Launched in 2014, Tether quickly became the world's largest ‘stablecoin’ – a digital currency pegged to a “stable” reserve asset, in this case, USD (meaning the price of one Tether is essentially $1).

• Tether has a current market value of nearly $70 billion and consistently ranks as one of the world’s top five largest cryptocurrencies.
• The firm in charge of issuing Tether claims it keeps cash reserves of equal value to the stablecoins it issues, but regulators say that’s not necessarily true. Last week, they fined the company $41 million after discovering Tether only had reserves worth 27.6% of its issued stablecoins from 2016-2018.

💵 Paper tiger… The Hindenburg report also calls out claims that Tether is backed one-for-one by dollar assets, which would make the company one of the largest holders of commercial paper in the world (on par with the likes of BlackRock & Vanguard).

• Per a recent Financial Times report cited by Hindenburg, many of the biggest players in the industry say they’ve never worked with Tether or seen them in the market.

The firm in charge of issuing Tether published a statement on Wednesday denouncing Hindenburg’s report as “a pathetic bid for attention.”

👃 Zoom out: To date, Hindenburg boasts a fairly good track record at sniffing out corporate fraud:

• The CEO of EV manufacturer Nikola resigned last year after a Hindenburg report alleged widespread fraud. He’s now facing federal criminal charges.
• Shares of Clover Health are down nearly 50% this year after Hindenburg accused them in February of failing to disclose that its business model and software offering are both under active DOJ investigation.
• The CEO and CFO of EV firm Lordstown Motors resigned earlier this year after Hindenburg accused the company of overstating the viability of its technology and misleading investors about production plans.

+One more for the road: This summer, Hindenburg accused sports betting firm DraftKings of operating in black markets and selling to organized crime, prompting SEC subpoenas.

🎁 A criminal organization believed to have built the software that shut off around half the east coast’s gas supply earlier this year has set up a fake company to recruit potential employees, the WSJ reports.

The DONUT’s Power Recipe

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Image: Chris Delmas/AFP

The deal values Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) at up to $1.7 billion, according to a press release.

• Shares of the SPAC, Digital World Acquisition Corp., rose as much as 400% yesterday after trading was halted multiple times due to volatility. Digital World Acquisition went public shortly after the 2020 presidential election.

🤿 A deeper dive… Details about TMTG – such as who will be CEO – and its upcoming “Truth Social” platform are scarce, though the app is currently available for preorder in the App Store.

• The company said its mission is “to create a rival to the liberal media consortium and fight back against the ‘Big Tech’ companies of Silicon Valley.”
• In addition to the social app, the company is planning a video-on-demand service called "TMTG+" that will feature entertainment programming, news, and podcasts. It'll be run by Scott St. John, a former exec producer of “Deal or No Deal" and “America’s Got Talent."

📱 Zoom out: Trump has spoken about launching his own social media site ever since he was barred from Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube following the January 6th riot in the U.S. Capitol. A previous attempt to launch a blog on his existing website was quickly abandoned due to low viewership.

• At the time of his ban, Trump had nearly 90 million followers on Twitter. Three months later, social media analytics company Newswhip found online interactions about the former president had decreased by 91 percent.

👁️ Looking ahead… TMTG said the Truth Social app will initially launch for invited users next month and is expected to be available nationwide in early 2022.

🎁 Chinese streaming platform Tencent appears to have taken the NBA’s Boston Celtics off the air after center Enes Kanter tweeted a video on Wednesday in support of independence for Tibet.

🌐 Can Internet From the Moon Grant Universal Access ?

Image: NASA

• The Artemis program, unveiled last year, aims to land people on the moon for the first time since 1972. While there, the crew, rovers, instruments, etc., will need a reliable way to communicate with a lunar basecamp and ultimately back to Earth – where it can also be used as a potential solution for digital inequality.

🐦🐦🪨 Two birds, one stone: Most of us take access to fast, reliable WiFi for granted, but in some communities it can be elusive – for instance, close to a third of Clevelanders (31%) have no high-speed internet access.

• The Greater Cleveland Partnership believes internet from the moon could help. Engineers found that attaching WiFi routers to approximately 20,000 lampposts or utility poles in Cleveland could allow every household in a given area to access the world wide web for free.

✋ Yes, but... At 7.5 MB/s, we’re not talking about speeds fast enough to play COD or binge-watch Adam Sandler movies in 4k – but it’s enough to do schoolwork, bank, shop, and access information.

• Plus, that speed occurs when the routers are spaced no more than 100 yards apart. Researchers discovered if they’re moved up 25-50 yards, “that greatly improves bandwidth.”

📝 Bottom line: This idea is still pretty conceptual, so don’t expect it overnight. But whether it’s for school, work, or just cycling through Omegle trying to get to Harry Mack, high-speed internet access in today’s world is becoming a must.

Images: Facebook

Julius Caesar the turtle has spent years recovering from a bout of hypothermia after getting caught in the wrong current and ending up in the cold North Atlantic waters.

• The endangered loggerhead turtle washed up on the shores of Ireland in 2019 at only nine months old, freezing and weighing less than a pound when he was discovered.

⏩ Fast forward: Two-and-a-half years and fifty-five pounds later, JC got a first class seat on a flight from Europe to Spain to be released back to the wild.

How many Amendments have been made to the U.S. Constitution ?

A) 18
B) 22
C) 27
D) 31

(keep scrolling for the answer)

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C) 27

Since it entered into force in 1789, the U.S. Constitution has been amended 27 times.

The 27th Amendment – which requires any salary change for Congress to take effect only after the subsequent election – was initially submitted alongside the Bill of Rights in 1789, but wasn't ratified by enough states to become law.

• It was largely forgotten until 1982, when Gregory Watson, a 19-year-old sophomore at UT Austin, wrote a paper for a government class in which he claimed the amendment could still be ratified.
• An unconvinced teaching assistant graded the paper poorly, motivating Watson to launch a nationwide campaign to complete its ratification, which eventually occurred in 1992.