Unusual Whales

Elon Musk Wants Paid Subscriptions to Result in 50% of Twitter Revenue

Per Business Insider and NYT Elon Musk wants half of Twitter's total revenue from paid subscriptions. The new CEO believes this decision would help with conversations, and credit card payment could help eliminate bots. Before shutting down, Twitter Blue already had 140,000 paying subscribers as of November

Bahama's Attorney General Says Country is Still Safe to Operate Business In While Urging Authorities to Exercise Restraint

Per CoinDesk Bahama's attorney general Ryan Pinder stated to investors and tourists saying the country is still a safe place to visit and operate business. The attorney general said they decided not to engage with speculation or gossip but instead "proceed methodically and deliberately" in accordance

Elon Musk Predicts Over a Billion Twitter Users by 2024

Per Business Insiders Elon Musk predicts that Twitter could have over a billion users by 2024. The CEO replied to a tweet pointing to "what failure looks like to the left," saying he sees the platform on the path to exceed a "billion monthly users in 12

Numerous areas in China are protesting the Covid zero lockdowns

Per Fox: Chinese protesters reportedly fought against Chinese Communist Party's zero-COVID policy increased. Thousands have been reportedly sent to Covid camps. Numerous protests popped up in Beijing and Shanghai. Doors were reporteldy welded shut. In Guangzhou, officers fought with protesters, per various social media films. Read more from

Prices for the most popular pre-owned Rolex, Patek Philippe and Audemars Piguet watches will fall further

Per Bloomberg: Pre-owned Rolex, Patek Philippe and Audemars Piguet watches will drop further, analysts at Morgan Stanley said in a report. It is estimated they will drop by at least 21%. Patek Philippes are down 19% themselves. Prices will probably keep falling due to a “dramatic” increase in supply, Morgan

Home buyers need to make tens of thousands of dollars more now to afford a typical home

Per Inquirer: Households needs at least 100K to buy a typical home for sale, according to a report by Redfin. In October, people needed to make $107,000 annually, 46% up from from about $74,000 a year earlier,  according to Redfin. Increases in home prices and mortgage interest rates

Buy now, pay later is driving Gen Z into debt

Per Bloomberg: Reports that numerous Gen Z are going into debt. The numbers aren't exactly clear, and largely anecdotal. Notes that this surged in popularity in Covid. AFRM is down largely this year. See full article: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-10-28/buy-now-pay-later-loans-drive-gen-z-into-debt-hurting-credit-scores

IRS has stated that Americans must report payments on Venmo, PayPal over $600

Per MarketWatch: The Internal Revenue Service will charge up $600 on Venmo and PayPal. Individuals must fill out a Form 1099-K. Reportedly the attempt is to focus on gig work.  Previously 1099-K report was at least 200 transactions totaling an aggregate of at least $20,000. Now it is $600.

FTX donated $1 million to the Super-PAC linked to Mitch McConnell, The Senate Leadership Fund, on October 27 just days before FTX declared bankruptcy

Per Bloomberg: FTX US gave a $1 million donation on Oct. 27 to the The Senate Leadership Fund. The super-PAC spent $239 million in the midterms on behalf of Republican candidates, according to OpenSecrets. FTX US also gave $750,000 to the Congressional Leadership Fund and $150,000 to the

Elon Musk has said he’d "make an alternative phone" if Google and Apple remove Twitter from their App Stores

Liz Wheeler said to Elon: If Apple & Google boot Twitter from their app stores, @elonmusk [https://twitter.com/elonmusk] should produce his own smartphone. Half the country would happily ditch the biased, snooping iPhone & Android. The man builds rockets to Mars, a silly little smartphone should be easy,

DCG Founder Reveals $2 Billion Debt While Trying to Calm Investors After FTX Fiasco

Per CNBC DGC founder Barry Silbert tries to address the "noise" about DGC's subsidiaries; Genesis, Grayscale Investments, and Foundry. The founder tries to calm investors by saying the company is on pace to generate $800 million in revenue this year while having a $2 billion debt.

Barry Silbert has reportedly revealed crypto firm has $2 billion in debt

Per CNBC: Barry Silbert, the founder of crypto conglomerate Digital Currency Group, has reportedly $2b in debt. He founded DCG in 2015. He said that despite the crypto winter, the overall company is on pace to generate $800 million in revenue this year on the back of just $25 million

Elon Musk Cuts Holiday Pay for Remaining Contractors

Per Business Insider Platformer reported Zoë Schiffer said Elon Musk decided to scrap holiday pay for remaining contractors starting Thanksgiving. Musk also laid off additional engineers due to their code being unsatisfactory. Twitter sent "performance warning" emails to other engineers saying they should restore the company's

Apple Supplier Foxconn Offers Workers $1,400 to Stop Protests

Per The Verge Apple supplier Foxconn offers workers $1,400, the equivalent of one to two months of work, to stop protesting and leave the "iPhone City." The company claimed a miscommunication on pay was due to a "technical error." Violent protests broke out over withheld

Alameda Research invested $11.5 million in the parent company of Farmington State Bank, which has a single branch and, until this year, just three employees

Per NYT: FTX has owned an $11.5 million stake in a small Farmington State Bank, the New York Times reported. New York Times reports it had three employees.  It's original net worth was reportedly $5.7 million. See original article: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/23/

Tesla Full Self-Driving Beta Software is Now Available in All of North America

Per Reuters Elon Musk announced that Tesla's Full Self-Driving (FSD) Beta software is available to everyone in North America. Musk says the feature is "available to anyone in North America who requests it from the car screen, assuming you have bought this option." The Tesla CEO

MetaMask Revises Privacy Policy Agreement to Collect Ysers' IP and Ethereum Addresses During On-Chain Transaction

Per Cointelegraph ConsenSys, the crypto wallet's creator, revised MetaMask's privacy policy on Nov 23 to enable the collection of users' IP addresses and Ethereum addresses. The creator explained that data collection only applies when using MetaMask's default Remote Procedure Call (RPC) application. Only

JPMorgan and Deutsche Bank sued in alleged cover-up of Epstein's crimes

Per NYP:  JPMorgan and Deutsche Bank have been sued with separate lawsuits, that they covered up Epstein crimes. The Post reports the damages are unknown, and amount sued is unknown. They allege that the banks enabled payments for sex acts. “We believe this claim lacks merit and will present our

Americans have to Pay 20% More for Thanksgiving Dinner

Per Bloomberg The cost of a traditional thanksgiving dinner has increased by 20%, per Farm Bureau. The average US thanksgiving dinner includes turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, cranberries, peas, rolls with butter, a veggie tray, pumpkin pie with whipped cream, and milk and coffee. In 2021, the average cost for the

Blockchain Venture Capital Inflows Dropped by 48.6% in One Month

Per Cointelegraph Blockchain VC inflow continues to decline, dropping from $1.64 billion in September to $843.5 million in October. The 48.6% decline is spread throughout deals, mergers and acquisitions, investors, crypto communities, funds, and more. From 93 deals in September, only 69 deals happened in October. Web3

FTX Hires Ex-SEC and CFTC Enforcers to Investigate Errors in What Happened

Per WSJ FTX declared bankruptcy and is now hiring former senior US regulators from the SEC and CFTC. Steven Peikin, former SEC co-director of the Commission's enforcement division, was hired along with James McDonald, former CFTC director of enforcement. Both are partners at the Sullivan & Cromwell LLP

US Mortgage Rates Dropped the Most Since 2008 as Recession Concerns Mount

Per Bloomberg Mortgage rates fell by half a percentage point in the last two weeks. This is the fastest drop since 2008. As borrowing costs slightly declined, home applications rose by 2.8%. This happened as the contract rate of 30-year fixed mortgages dropped by 23 basis points to 6.

China reports the highest number of daily COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic began nearly three years ago

China on Wednesday provided the highest figure for their COVID 19 cases on a daily scale. This is since the start of the pandemic, state data has shown.. The number of new officially reported local cases was 31,444 on November 23 3,927 were symptomatic and 27,517 were

Corporate credit cards for Twitter employees have reportedly been shut off

Elon Musk is refusing to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in travel bills accumulated by Twitter employees before he took over the company, The New York Times has reported. The company is on a drastic cost-cutting campaign and Musk has reportedly issued orders to slow or even halt payments

Amazon plans to spend $1 billion a year on theatrical film releases

Per Bloomberg: Amazon plans to spend $1 billion a year on theatrical film releases. The tech company plans to make between 12 and 15 movies for movie theaters each year, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter. A smaller number of films will be produced in 2023 as Amazon