SEC Hands Out Free Whistles 😗

Welcome to the WealthUnion Insider newsletter. Crypto news, financial market moves, & company spotlights.

What we're covering this week...

• Get paid to be a Whistleblower

• Is Aptos a dumpster fire?

• Creative ways to survive a recession

• Why the bottom might be in

• Cash in your Bitcoin with a comic

😗 GETTING PAID TO BLOW WHISTLES

Need some extra cash in the bear market? The SEC’s Office of the Whistleblower offers monetary rewards for qualifying whistleblowers who disclose violations of securities laws.

The SEC will pay you 10% to 30% of the funds they collect from law breaking crypto bros that you tell them about. If you’ve had your eye on a Lambo during the bear market, just find a crypto bro to throw under the bus. The SEC will be your only friend left, but you’ll drive away happy.

Since the SEC whistleblower program was established in 2010, more than $1.3 billion has been awarded to over 280 whistleblowers. Over the past three years, the SEC received over 1,400 whistleblower submissions related to cryptocurrency.

And don’t worry, the SEC does not disclose any information that could identify a whistleblower, so blow away! To learn more and claim your whistle, click here.

🔥 APTOS: $1B+ DUMPSTER FIRE OR...?

Last week, Aptos, a new proof-of-stake layer-1 blockchain, was on fire during their token launch. Things got off to a rocky start when the token price crashed 30% within the first hour of trading.

The project got heat for:

❌ Failing to disclose that the team and the Aptos Foundation own over 50% of the token supply (a bit greedy).❌ Listing the Aptos token on crypto exchanges while failing to explain the tokenomics (that’s shady).❌ Claiming the blockchain can process 100,000 transactions per second (TPS) when it can only handle 4 TPS (turtles move faster).❌ Ignoring their community by muting the Aptos Discord channel (so rude).

Aptos Labs was co-founded by Mo Shaikh (CEO) and Avery Ching (CTO). Both worked on Meta’s never launched blockchain called Diem.

Diem was built upon Move, Meta’s new programming language designed to bring more safety and scalability to smart contracts. Since Meta abandoned Diem, Aptos is the first blockchain to launch that uses Move.

What a score for the VCs! First, Meta pays to develop a programming language and a blockchain. Then the US government gets afraid a Diem stablecoin could usurp the US dollar and pressures Meta to change course. Meta bows to the pressure from Uncle Sam, and it's goodbye Diem.

Then key team members from Diem start Aptos. And finally, the VCs, including Coinbase Ventures, A16Z, FTX Ventures, and Binance Labs, bang down the door at Aptos Labs and hand the team $400 million.

The VCs love this project. They won't let a few negative comments ruin their yacht party. In its first week of trading, the Aptos market cap is hovering over $1 billion, and the price is consolidating. So instead of a dumpster fire, we think this project might be on fire in a good way, and maybe the next stop is the moon.

🤔 THIS WEEK'S CHAIN CHALLENGE

What is the first known commercial Bitcoin transaction?

• A man bought two pizzas with it in 2010.

• A woman used it to rent a bike in 2009.

• A florist accepted it for flowers in 2008.

You'll find the answer later on in the newsletter!

😲 CREATIVE WAYS TO SURVIVE A RECESSION 

You might need to get creative to survive the recession. Sure, there are obvious ways like paying-off debt, building new income streams, and making sure you have job stability - but what about really juicy ways to earn some extra cash? Let's look, shall we?

1. Start an OnlyFans

OnlyFans still has room for growth. If you think people will pay to see you in your birthday suit, this revenue stream could be what you need. And for an even greater income boost, consider selling your loyal fans “extras” such as dirty bath water or two-day worn underpants.

2. Sell body parts you don't need

This untapped market is HOT! There are not enough donors for body parts these days, so the sky is potentially the limit when it comes to earning extra during this recession. And it's a double-win - the less of you there is - the less it costs to feed and maintain your body. Wondering where to sell your body parts? Look for potential “collectors” on Craigslist and for science laboratories paying big $.

3. Launch a crypto newsletter

If you've already tried the first two things without much success, be like us at WealthUnion and start a crypto newsletter! Even though most readers will just scroll to the comic at the bottom - it’s still so much fun to write a newsletter - you'll forget about the recession entirely.

"The four most expensive words in the English language are, ‘This time it’s different." 

- Sir John Templeton

📈 THE TRADING CORNER

The Dow Jones Index gives us easy-to-read signals for the monthly open in October. These signals show the low is likely in since the high of January 2022, and potentially for this bear market cycle. 

Let’s take a look at the signals:

• Price closed perfectly on monthly support at 28,700 at the end of September and saw a massive reversal in October.

• Monthly RSI closed perfectly on the RSI Trendline from the 2008 financial crisis bottom, which occurred in 2009, and the covid crash of 2020. 

• William Percent Range (William %R) signaled two bear market lows in 2002 and 2009, and now in 2022, at the value of -98.98 (shown by the three red arrows in the chart).

The Dow Jones has been on a bull run since 1981 when the Fed started to loosen monetary policy after a decade of high-interest rates. After the 2008 financial crisis, the market went parabolic due to quantitative easing, which caused the global money supply to increase exponentially. 

As a result, Warren Buffet and every other financial expert in the last 40 years have told you to bet on the stock market for retirement because it seemed like a sure thing. 

Now times are changing. 

We may be entering the end of the macro bull market cycle.

Extreme volatility is typical as we enter near the end of a bull run. The pullbacks are more violent and have a shorter duration than the bull cycle's beginning. 

The WealthUnion analysts believe there could be one last melt-up before a catastrophic collapse.

Historically these collapses have coincided with a new US monetary policy. Every 20-30 years, the US adopts a new policy. 

Here’s a quick summary: 

• 1863 National Bank Act

  • Enabled a centralized banking system

• 1873 First fiat currency called Greenbacks

• 1913 Federal Reserve Act 

  • Created the Federal Reserve to manage monetary policy

• 1933 Suspension of the gold standard 

  • Allowed US dollars to decouple from gold

• 1944 Bretton Woods Agreement 

  • Guaranteed foreign currencies were convertible into US dollars, which were exchangeable for $35 per troy ounce of gold

• 1971 Termination of Bretton Woods 

  • Removed the ability to exchange US dollars for gold 

• 2020 Fed allowing inflation to rise higher than the 2% target 

  • Short-term high inflation rates but targeting an average of 2% over time

2020 wasn’t a policy change but a “kick the can down the road” attempt to battle a failing system. A fiat currency no longer on the gold standard with runaway inflation is a recipe for disaster. 

How long can the US government keep the US dollar propped up? The US is overdue for a monetary policy change. That usually happens during periods of fear, depression, and uncertainty. So is a policy change around the corner?

Chain Challenge Answer: Pizza in 2010.

On May 22, 2010, a man in Florida paid 10,000 Bitcoins for two Papa John's pizzas.

 🤪 JOKE OF THE WEEK

Q.) What is the first question crypto traders will ask their Mom this Thanksgiving?

A.) Hey, is my old room still available?

 😂 COMIC OF THE WEEK

That’s a wrap for this week. If you want more, follow us on Twitter (@Wealth_Union)

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