In today’s newsletter we discuss the U.S. is getting a strategic crypto reserve, the U.S. falls in love with gold again, The Vampire Diaries stars create their own bourbon, Firefly Aerospace’s “Blue Ghost” lander successfully landed on the moon, Microsoft is shutting down Skype, and Stephen Curry dunks for the last time.

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WHAT WE’RE READING

🪙 The U.S. Is Getting A Strategic Crypto Reserve!

The U.S. is getting a cryptocurrency strategic reserve, and it’ll be more than just Bitcoin. On Sunday, March 3, 2025 President Donald Trump announced an Executive Order calling for “the creation of a strategic crypto reserve for the United States” according to CNBC. The crypto reserve will include Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Cardano, and Ripple’s XRP.

This is what many of us in the crypto industry have been waiting for, and what even some people voted for Donald Trump solely on this issue. What we are seeing here is the fulfillment of President Trump’s campaign promises to direct the SEC to stop its persecution of cryptocurrency companies, and the creation of a strategic cryptocurrency reserve.

The overarching goal of these crypto friendly initiatives is to make the U.S. the most friendly country for cryptocurrency, with Donald Trump saying in a truth on his Truth Social platform “I will make sure the U.S. is the Crypto Capital of the World.”

Cryptocurrencies rallied on Sunday, with XRP gaining 33%, and Bitcoin jumping over 9% on the news. It’s still unclear what an actually strategic crypto reserve will look like, and where the money will come to fund it. Some have suggested the U.S. use the digital assets that have been seized from crimes to fund the reserve. As of December 2024, the U.S. held 207,189 Bitcoins, worth roughly $19,320,778,268 billion dollars with Bitcoin currently trading at $93,251.95 at the time of this writing.

We’re going to need a lot more than that if we’re going to make the United State’s Strategic Crypto Reserve the largest in the world!

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🟨 Business

To quote Goldmember from the 2002 Austin Powers movie, “I love gold!” and it would seem so does the United States. So much so that it is sucking the gold reserves of many countries in Europe, and ingesting them into New York City’s gold vaults to the tune of more than 600 tons equivalent to 20 million ounces of gold since December 2024 according to the World Gold Council.

If you’re wondering why so much gold is being moved to the U.S., you only have to go as far as to think about Donald Trump’s tariffs to understand gold bug’s logic.

The 25% tariffs that are about to be imposed on Canada and Mexico could have a dramatic impact on the price of gold, since those two countries are the largest exporters of gold to the United States.

Right now gold is trading at approximately $2,876.96 per ounce, down from it’s high last week of $2,954.72 per ounce set on February 20, 2025.

Expect gold prices to break through the $3,000 mark and never look back if the 25% tariffs are imposed on Canada and Mexico on Tuesday, March 4, 2025.

🥃 Entertainment

There has been a massive influx of celebrity-owned companies in the spirits industry in the last few years, some with better success than others. For all the Casamigos tequila by George Clooney, and Aviation American Gin by Ryan Reynolds, you have celebrity brands that just haven’t caught on quite as much like Margot Robbie’s Coastal Gin, and Jason Momoa’s Meili Vodka.

Now we have celebrity owned Brother’s Bond Bourbon by actors Ian Somerhalder and Paul Wesley, who were two of the stars from The Vampire Diaries show on the CW network back in 2009.

The duo recently raised $7.5 million in funding to expand their market share in the U.S. and internationally.

I was a big fan of The Vampire Diaries, and I’m not ashamed to admit I had a bit of a crush on Nina Dobrev, who played Elena Gilbert in the series, but my favorite actor from the sho was by far Paul Wesley, who played Stefan Salvatore as the younger brother to Ian Somerhalder’s Damon Salvatore.

I love that they’ve remained friends long after the series ended, and that they’ve taken their passion for bourbon, and channeled it into Brother’s Bond Bourbon. Can’t wait to try it when they’ve expanded their distribution to Upstate New York.

🚀 Space

The lunar surface just got a new roommate! Firefly Aerospace’s “Blue Ghost” lander made history over the weekend, achieving a thrilling and successful touchdown on the moon. This landmark achievement marks the first fully successful commercial lunar landing.The mission is carrying vital NASA payloads for conducting lunar subsurface drilling, sample collection, X-ray imaging, and dust mitigation.

According to the CEO of Firefly Aerospace, the technology in their “Blue Ghost” lander, and the experience they’ve gained from successfully landing on the moon, could be harnessed for a future Mars landing mission.

📞 Tech

Microsoft is shutting down Skype.

That headline tells you everything you need to know. When I read that, I thought back on how I used Skype a few times, but I was never a big user. It was an ends-to-a-means for me to be able to chat with friends far away for free. There was nothing special about it from my recollection, but Skype did have a hell of a history. Skype was created by Niklas Zennström, Janus Friis, and four Estonian developers, then they were acquired by eBay in September 2005 for $2.6 billion dollars. After that Silver Lake, Andreessen Horowitz, and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board bought 65% of Skype for $1.9 billion from eBay, according to Wikipedia. Then in May 2011 Microsoft bought Skype for $8.5 billion, but since then they’ve used some Skype’s technology to create their Microsoft Teams platform

I think the most impressive things to come out of the creation of Skype was the tremendous skills of the Estonia developers who created it, and how the acquisition of Skype by eBay helped to put the tech industry in Estonia on the map.

🏀 Sports

Stephen Curry did something he hasn’t done in a game in more than 6 years – he dunked!

During a NBA game on Saturday between Steph Curry’s Golden State Warriors and the Philadelphia 76ers, he threw down a massive one-handed dunk with just seven minutes left on the clock.

After the game Steph said “That will probably be my last dunk. I’m calling it right now. That was the last one you’re going to see.”

Dunking in the NBA isn’t that big of a deal, but for Steph Curry he hasn’t dunked since February 21, 2019 against the Sacramento Kings. When asked why he decided to dunk, he said his knees have been feeling pretty good, and the Golden State Warriors’ assistant coach Jerry Stackhouse said before the game to Steph that he wanted to see him dunk. So there you have it.

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irl Media NEWSLETTER is written, edited, and published by Chris Thompson.


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