Tether's comeback: Real defense or "trust me, bro

🤺 Tether's comeback: Real defense or "trust me, bro"?

Plus: AI and crypto wallets are now best friends

GM. Grab your crypto juice box - the Daily Squeeze is here to quench your thirst for the freshest market updates!

💬 Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino responds to the Wall Street Journal's accusations.

🦾 Coinbase is launching "Based Agent."

🍊 News drops: 1inch's collab with the Bruce Lee Family Company, a new statue honoring Satoshi Nakamoto, Ethereum's "Purge" + more

🍍 Market flavor today

Find out more about the Fear & Greed Index here.

Name	Price	24H %	7D %
Crypto Market Cap $2.37 Trillion 2.26% (24H)
Bitcoin BTC	$68,654.24	2.53%	0.79%
Ethereum ETH	$2,527.24	2.56%	-6.43%
BNB BNB	$594.28	2.41%	-2.17%
Solana SOL	$177.05	1.85%	6.49%

Prices as of 07:40 AM EST. Click here to see live data.

The crypto seas are looking lively ⚓️ The Fear and Greed Index is anchored in the "Greed" zone at 72, and Bitcoin's ship sailed past the $68K mark.

With elections just around the corner, talk of pro-crypto policies, and rising hopes that the Fed might ease up on interest rates, Bitcoin bulls are feeling the excitement.

But beware - the copper-to-gold ratio is flashing some caution lights. It's sunk by over 15% this year - the biggest dip we've seen since 2018. Typically, when Bitcoin's on the rise, this ratio climbs, too. So, this dip has us squinting at the charts, wondering what's on the horizon.

On the bright side, BTC ETFs pulled in a treasure chest with $402M in inflows on Friday.

So, will we find smooth sailing ahead, or are we in for choppy seas? Only time will tell. Keep your compass steady and your crew close ⛵️

🤨 Believe It Or Not: Tether Edition

On Friday, the Wall Street Journal tried to pull a classic gotcha on Tether. They published an article claiming that the company's under investigation for dodging anti-money laundering and sanctions laws - basically painting USDT as the go-to stablecoin for Mexican drug cartels, Russian arms companies, and Middle Eastern terrorist groups. You know, the regular villains.

And it's not the first time that Tether's been side-eyed: a month ago, one consumer advocacy group called out Tether for never actually delivering a proper independent audit of its dollar reserves.

So, what I'm hearing:

- Tether’s recommended by 9/10 criminals in your neighborhood;

- USDT's backed by "trust me, bro".

😀👍 There's nothing I'd rather put all my life savings into.

Naturally, such claims have raised a few eyebrows, and Tether's CEO, Paolo Ardoino, said, enough with this bs. He called the WSJ report "regurgitated old noise" and clarified that there's really no investigation happening. And even if there were, Tether would know - after all, they've been working with law enforcement to keep the bad guys off USDT. In fact, they've reportedly helped more than 145 agencies in over 40 countries, reclaimed over $108M in USDT, and even blocked 1.8K wallets tied to shady stuff.

To further clear the air, Ardoino also pulled back the curtain on Tether's reserves: $100B in US bonds, 82K Bitcoin worth about $5.6B, and 48.2 tons of gold.

In the end, it's still kind of a your word against mine situation, so we're gonna have to wait for some more evidence to pick a side.

🪙 Code Meets Coin

Remember when we talked about Terminal of Truths, the AI agent that took X and the memecoin market by storm? Well, turns out Coinbase wasn't just watching for entertainment purposes - they were taking notes.

They're now launching a tool called "Based Agent," built using Coinbase's software development kit (SDK), ChatGPT, and the software creation platform Replit. And get this: using this tool, you can build your own AI sidekick with your crypto wallet in under three minutes.

These AI agents will be able to handle trades, swaps, staking, and even register their own Base name. And yep, you can make it an X bot, too, so brace yourself for more diabolical AI-generated content clogging your feed.

As we dive into this sci-fi reality, the big question looms: are we seriously ready for this? Are we cool with handing over our financial lives to some code that might not even know what a dollar is? Well, I guess there's only one way to find out.

📰 News drops

🥋 1inch has partnered with the Bruce Lee Family Company for an ad campaign called "Take Crypto SeriousLee." Their goal? To shake off crypto's rep as a speculative investment and bring DeFi closer to the mainstream.

🗽 Artist Valentina Picozzi's new statue honoring Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto just appeared in Lugano, Switzerland. The faceless figure working on a laptop can only be seen clearly from the side, while a front or rear view gives a trippy see-through effect.

📝 Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin dropped part five of his blog series on Ethereum's future, called "The Purge." It's all about cutting down on extra data storage and ditching outdated features to make the network more efficient and faster.

🤖 Hong Kong's Financial Services and Treasury Bureau (FSTB) dropped a policy statement pushing for smart, responsible AI use in finance. Secretary Christopher Hui promised close teamwork with regulators to create a thriving market where financial institutions can responsibly tap into AI's potential.

⚖️ FTX's bankruptcy team settled a lawsuit with Bybit for $228M, aiming to recover funds for former customers and creditors. The deal lets FTX cash out $175M in crypto on Bybit and sell about $53M in BIT tokens to Bybit's investment arm, Mirana Corp.

🇹🇭 Thailand's crypto industry is shifting gears from retail to institutional, says Binance Thailand's CEO. The SEC has proposed new rules to let mutual and private funds invest in digital assets, setting the stage for bigger acceptance and growth in the market.