🇷🇺 Russia’s spy whale found dead

Today’s market performance 🏆️

S&P 500: -0.16% 📉
Nasdaq 100: -0.20% 📉
Dow 30: +0.09% 📈 
Russell 2000: -0.19% 📉

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TOP STORY
🇷🇺 Russia’s spy whale found dead

Over the weekend, Russia lost a national hero, Hvaldimir.

• Hvaldimir was an “alleged” agent for Russia’s infamous intelligence agency, the KGB, and was trained in covert tactics to conduct surveillance.

• Sounds like things every spy should know how to do, so why’s Hvaldimir special?

• Oh, my bad, I forgot to mention that Hvaldimir is a beluga whale.

The beloved beluga, named after the Norwegian word for whale (hval) and Russian President Vladimir Putin, first appeared in Scandinavian waters in 2019.

Like any good undercover spy, Hvaldimir donned a GoPro camera and a harness marked 'Equipment of St. Petersburg,' which definitely didn’t serve as great disguise nor help deny that he was a secret agent.

But Moscow, unsurprisingly, never confirmed or denied Hvaldimir having a role with the KGB.

Before you ask why a beluga whale was working as a spy, it's not as odd as you may think: both Russia and the U.S. have a history of training sea mammals for military purposes.

Why call on these sea mammals? 

Thanks to their echolocation and agility, dolphins and beluga whales can quickly and accurately detect underwater objects, like mines and enemy divers, in places where human divers or vehicles may struggle.

Damn, even a whale would make a better soldier.

SOCIAL MEDIA
📈 X's replacement takes over in Brazil

(For those who didn’t read our last edition, like morons).

Over the weekend, Brazil began blocking the X platform throughout the country, “making it largely inaccessible on both the web and through mobile apps.”

Bummer. 

And with a daily fine of 50,000 reais ($8,900) for users or companies using VPNs to access the platform, 40 million Brazilian monthly users are now left X-less with nowhere to share their uncensored thoughts.

Until… One social platform, called Bluesky, began making the most of Brazil's ban on X.

• Bluesky has added a whopping 2 million users over the past four days, up from 500,000 as of just Friday.

• The app has grown so quickly that Bluesky engineers have been scrambling to keep the servers stable under the surge of new sign-ups.

• Bluesky even became the No. 1 app in Brazil over the weekend.

Poor Bluesky, too many people want their app!

Some Numbers:

• Bluesky’s total downloads soared by 10,584% this weekend compared to last, according to app intelligence firm Appfigures.

• Downloads in Brazil were up by a mind-boggling 1,018,952%.

• Bluesky Downloads outside Brazil increased by 584%, including in 22 countries where it had previously seen minimal traction.

• As of Monday, Bluesky gained 2.11 million users in the last four days, compared to just 26,000 in the same period a week ago.

Engagement Surge:

• Likes on the social network have grown to 104.6 million over the past four days, up from just 13 million a week ago.

• Follows increased from 1.4 million to 100.8 million.

• Reposts grew from 1.3 million to 11 million.

• “Significantly more than a 100% [daily active users] increase.”

How have they been able to capitalize so quickly? Because they are very similar to X.

• Like X, Bluesky offers features such as likes, reposts, lists, direct messages, and search tools.

• The difference, and what adds to its appeal, is that Bluesky is a decentralized social network.

• This means users can set up their own servers, customize feeds, subscribe to third-party moderation services, and share “starter packs” of recommended users.

• Plus, given that X was banned in Brazil becabuse of political reasons, some Brazilians might be drawn to Bluesky because it gives users more control over their platform experience. 

Unlike X, where the company's owners control content decisions, Bluesky’s decentralized setup lets users manage their own content and moderation, making it harder for any authority, including the government, to censor users.

Talk about swooping in; these guys know exactly what they’re doing.

GAMBLING
🎲 DubClub wants to help bettors win more 

DubClub is a 3-year-old startup from San Francisco, of course, with an incredibly ambitious goal: helping amateur bettors win more money.

• The American sports betting market, which brought in nearly $11 billion in 2023, is undoubtedly a cash cow.

• In fact, it’s one of the country's most consistent cash cows, along with sports, fast food, and, of course, self-help books.

But, if the gambling sites and casinos usually win, the bettors themselves usually lose.

Right, they have more data and know the algorithms like the back of their hand, so what can DubClub do?

DubClub’s solution is to help amateur bettors win more by connecting them with expert "cappers" who pick winners using their own strategies.

The platform vets these professionals and delivers their picks to the amateurs via text, email, or Discord. 

• The capper connection (coined) was a perfect solution because handicappers online were willing to share their picks, but finding them was very difficult, and paying them was even more sketchy.

• Gosh, it’s just so hard to find trustworthy people to give you gambling advice these days.

But the solution became simple:

Cappers want to get paid for their insights, and amateur bettors want to make more money.

It’s definitely an interesting combination, not PB&J level yet, but it could work.

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