What's landed these YouTubers in hot water?

GM, GM. What a week it’s been. From banks collapsing, to a hacker-man exploiting Euler for $100M, it may seem like a lot, but it’s just another week in the weird and wonderful world of Crypto. Speaking of Crypto, let’s see what’s in the pod for today shall we?

How we looking today?

This seems uhhh…underserved? Oh well, we’ll take it.

YOUTUBE STARS FACE THE MUSIC

A new class action lawsuit has emerged. Among other financial YouTubers, Graham Stephen, Andrei Jikh, Jaspreet Singh have been named as defendants, with the class action lawsuit highlighting that those who promoted FTX should be held responsible. But…there’s more! The lead plaintiff is Edwin Garrison, the same Edwin Garrison that filed a similar lawsuit against celebrities like Tom Brady, Stephen Curry and Kevin O’Leary. Not only that, the madman also filed a lawsuit against SBF.

Despite this seemingly being a long-shot, it might actually have some legs. According to the FTC guidelines for social media influencers, creators must clearly disclose when they are being paid to promote a product. To add fuel to the fire, Kim Kardashian settled with the FTC for $1.25M for a failure to do so. Applying that logic to the FTX scenario, it seems that those who did not disclose that their FTX shilling was a paid promotion, may actually have landed themselves in hot water.

To add even more fuel to the fire, Kevin Paffrath, one of the influencers named in the lawsuit, recently came out denying the allegations, claiming that any promotions done, were done so in accordance with the law. One final twist in this whole saga, Edwin Garrison alleged in the lawsuit that those named as defendants conspired with FTX to purposely deceive and mislead customers. Yikes… Maybe I won’t start that YouTube career after all.

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER. BUT NEVER LATE IS BETTER

The biggest player in Ethereum’s layer 2 landscape, Arbitrum, is finally getting a token. According to the Arbitrum Foundation, the token (ARB) will mark Arbitrum’s transition into a DAO. Yes, the same DAO structure that we may or may not have dissed in an edition of Bean Boy we will not mention. As for the reason for the move? It’s simple, Arbitrum wanted the DAO to have the power to control key decisions at the core protocal level, from how the chain’s technology is upgraded, to how the revenue from the chain will be used. Essentially, they’re marking themselves as a service provider. You know, the old “if people ask, we will build it" service.”

As a result of this move, Arbitrum has worked with Nansen, the crypto analytics firm, to snapshot user activity for an upcoming airdrop of ARB tokens. With a total circulation of 10 billion ARB, 11.5% will be used in the airdrop, with those eligible able to redeem ARB based on how a number of factors, including how many transactions occurred, how many applications were used, and how long one has been using Arbitrum.

Whilst this move has garnered the attention of many, especially on Twitter, this move may be more business-motived than at first thought. Optimism (OP), Arbitrum’s main competitor, recently made it’s own transition to DAO governance. With Arbitrum following suit, we wonder if this will be a stepping stone to greater things, or a decision to rue in the future.

THE RISE AND FALL OF BLUE-CHIP NFT’S

Last year, NFT’s were the hottest thing going around. From amazing pieces of arts, to brands expanding their online presence, everything was going NFT’s way. At one point, it almost seemed like every NFT you bought would be like a money printer, infinitely gaining value as each day passed. But those days are long gone, especially for projects that were one considered “blue-chip.” Whilst they still may have an amazing active community, volume has dried up considerably, and the problems faced by Crypto as a whole over the last year has led to floor prices dropping dramatically. Now, in 2023, we’re at a point where floor prices for blue-chip NFT’s are actually less than that of their mint price, aka the price someone would originally pay to mint the NFT from the founders. Let’s take a look at some examples…

Whilst maybe we’re doom-posting and making it out like NFT’s are dying, we have faith. The last year in Crypto has been turbulent to say the least, but those who are committed to building value, whether it be via a function of the NFT, or the community itself, will always prevail. Needless to say, it’s those people who we’re betting on.

PEAS IN THE POD

• LinkDAO wins bid to buy its first golf course after 88.6% of LinkDAO holders voted in favour of the proposal. Where do I sign up?

• Over $55M of shorts have been blown out in the last 12 hours, as Bitcoin crosses $26,000.

• A recent report revealed Vietnam has over 16.6M Crypto holders, with 31% of those holding BTC.

• Crypto assets to become a seperate category in UK Tax forms. Sounds complicated, I’m out.

HOW YOU BEAN - A READERS CONFESSION

I’m the guy from an early confession where I was panicking whether or not to add to my underwater alt longs. Luckily, I said f*ck it and added, BIG SIZE. Now I’m up 40% and planning to exit shortly, never paper hand 🤝.

PEE-PEA OF THE DAY

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.