Arizona almost made history… almost

Plus: Warren Buffett hands over the keys

GM. Consider this your daily dose of market fiber: fresh, packed with facts, and low in nonsense.

👎 Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs is NOT a degen: confirmed.

🍋 News drops: Warren Buffett stepping down, Donald Trump dodging questions about TRUMP + more

🍍 Market flavor today

Investor greed has chilled out a bit – after riding high all weekend, the Fear and Greed Index has dropped back to Neutral today.

Why the mood swing? Well, traders are preparing for what could be a bumpy week.

The big focus is Wednesday’s FOMC meeting, where we’ll find out if the Fed plans to cut interest rates.

That decision could have a big impact on prices, which explains why crypto and stock markets tend to dip ahead of FOMC meetings. Traders don’t want to risk holding too much in case the Fed announces something unexpected.

This time seems no different. And analyst Michaël van de Poppe pointed out that if the usual pre-FOMC drop happens, Bitcoin might slide into the $91.5K – $92.5K range.

And will the Fed cut rates? Very unlikely.

Even though Donald Trump’s been pressuring Fed chair Jerome Powell to do it, the economic data just isn’t backing him up.

• Quarterly inflation increased to 3.6%, way above the Fed’s 2% target – big red flag;

• The labor market is still going strong: job growth beat expectations, and the unemployment rate held steady at a very low 4.2%.

Solid hiring and low unemployment tell the Fed that the economy can handle higher rates for a while – especially since inflation’s still too high.

Oh, and also: Coinbase drops its earnings report on Thursday.

Since Coinbase is the biggest publicly traded crypto exchange, its earnings give insights into how much trading and institutional action are happening in crypto.

Earnings week usually brings extra volatility as traders try to guess whether the report will show a booming market or signs of a slowdown.

So yeah, prep yo’ self – it’s gonna be an interesting week.

🧃 Sip of savings

Got any plans for this month? You do now.

Consensus 2025 is taking over Toronto from May 14 to 16, and pretty much the entire crypto world will be there.

If you’re thinking about going, we’ve got you: use code BITDEGREE for 20% off your tickets.

Grab ’em now! 🎟️

🥝 Memecoin harvest

Trading memecoins: 10% skill, 90% that dawg in you.

Data as of 06:30 AM EST.

Check out these memecoins and plenty more here.

You know that feeling when you think of a joke, but then overthink it and stay quiet… only for someone else to say it and everyone laughs? (Someone even sheds a tear.)

🥲

Or when you’ve got an idea in a work meeting, but don’t say anything so you don’t sound dumb – then a coworker says it, and the boss acts like they’ve discovered fire?

🥲

Those “so close, but nope” moments. The kind that you randomly remember in the shower at some point and then just stand there like:

Arizona’s governor might be having one of those right now.

The state was this close 🤏 to becoming the first in the US to hold Bitcoin in its reserves.

The Arizona Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Act would’ve allowed the State Treasurer and the state’s retirement systems to invest up to 10% of the public funds they manage into BTC.

But Governor Katie Hobbs vetoed it. Her take:

“The Arizona State Retirement System is one of the strongest in the nation because it makes sound and informed investments. Arizonans’ retirement funds are not the place for the state to try untested investments like virtual currencу.”

Uhh… sure. Imma let you have this one, Julian Fahrer:

Boom. Roasted.

BUT! Arizona’s Bitcoin dreams aren’t totally dead yet – there’s still the Senate Bill 1373. It proposes creating a Digital Assets Strategic Reserve Fund with crypto the state has already seized, plus any extra funds lawmakers decide to throw in.

Basically, no new crypto buys – just holding and managing what they already have. Still, it’s something.

But that bill hasn’t made it to a final vote yet.

So while Arizona probably won’t be the first to build a BTC reserve anymore, it’s still in the race – alongside 19 other states.

For a different perspective, tho’, BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes thinks a BTC reserve isn’t that good of an idea.

(He was talking about the US making a national reserve, but his argument fits for states too.)

His main point: no politician who wants to stay in office is gonna say, “Let’s print taxpayer money to buy Bitcoin.” Especially when the public stereotype of Bitcoiners is guys blowing cash at nightclubs. Not exactly vote-winning optics.

Instead, Hayes thinks if governments do want Bitcoin, they’ll take the “China strategy”: use excess electricity to mine it, without actually buying Bitcoin on the open market.

In other words, he doesn’t think politicians are going to buy Bitcoin outright the way crypto fans hope.

But we’ll see.

🍋 News drops

👋 Investing legend Warren Buffett is stepping down as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. Taking his place is Greg Abel, the company’s vice chairman of non-insurance operations.

🫢 Trump dodged the question when asked if he made money from the TRUMP memecoin. He said, “I haven’t even looked. I’ll tell you what, if I own stock in something, I do a good job, and the stock market goes up, I guess I’m profiting.”

🎬 Ben McKenzie, the actor from The OC, is making his first movie as a director – and it’s about exposing crypto. Everyone Is Lying To You For Money comes out in June and shows clips of FTX’s SBF and Celsius’s Alex Mashinsky.

🚔 French police carried out a raid to rescue a man kidnapped in Paris. The kidnappers were trying to force his crypto-millionaire son to pay ransom.

🚀 Tether’s cooking up something new – Tether AI, a tool that lets people build and run AI agents using blockchain technology. It will be open-source and support payments with USDT and Bitcoin.

🎉 Changelly is throwing a 10-year anniversary party with a $100K+ prize pool! Open the Changelly app, sign up or log in, get a free spin (plus another if you make a transaction), and see what you won.*

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🍌 Juicy memes