Nicole Alonso’s Post

How I Went from Procrastination to Profits $$ An International Student’s First Steps into Investing... It took me 3 years from the day I landed in the United States and 6 months from the day I convinced myself to start investing, to actually open a Robinhood account. I dreaded that feeling of “the unknown” all along the way and kept waiting for the “right moment”. The referral links my friends sent me were buried down somewhere. I kept telling my younger brother that I will sign up, but it just didn’t happen. My friends kept talking about the market and it was all moons and stars for me. Then, one day after grocery shopping, a friend literally forced me to sign up on Robinhood and invest as little as $50 in a blue-chip stock. It took me 30 minutes (felt like a lifetime!), and I spent the next hour exploring the app. That friend guided me then and still does. I started watching YouTube videos, reading news articles, and experimenting along the way. And hola! Today, after months of practice, I can say that I feel confident—though there is still so much more to learn, and I keep growing every day. If this sounds familiar, let me reassure you: it’s never too late to start! The key is to begin with baby steps (step one: sign up on a trading app), experiment, and learn as you go. Resources: 1.    Start Investing in Stocks: https://lnkd.in/eKEFzr7A 2.    Strategies from Robinhood itself: https://lnkd.in/e7mKDC4Y 3.    Understanding Candlestick Charts: https://lnkd.in/ekjCF-7Z 4.    Cryptocurrency Basics: https://lnkd.in/eez7Z5rY Tips: 1.    Before diving into investing, ensure you have an emergency fund with 3-6 months’ worth of expenses.  2.    Day trading Restrictions on International Students: F1 Visa: https://lnkd.in/eRCApypK H1b Visa: https://lnkd.in/eapfF4jE 3.    Spread your investments across global or international assets: https://lnkd.in/ekFZ6uJ7 Remember, investing is a great way to build wealth and take control of your finances. If you’re ready, don’t let the fear hold you back—start today and learn along the way! PS: This isn’t any financial advice. #Investing #PersonalFinance

Bitcoin ETFs are good news on Wall Street and Main Street and will benefit the FOUND3R community of independent creators, builders, innovators and early stage startups in Web3. 1. The ETF opens the floodgates - Big Money on Wall Street means more resources for everyday creators building on Main Street. Increased investment fuels innovation for all. 2. Validation is Opportunity - With Wall Street's stamp of approval, doors of opportunity swing open for Main Street's risk-takers. Legitimacy empowers a new generation of digital dreamers. 3. Rising Tides Lift All Boats - Valuations in startups increase and entrepreneurs gain more resources and support to go further, faster. 4. Bitcoin as Technology - With big players now in the crypto game, interest and curiosity skyrockets. Discovery fuels future founders and deeper understanding of the tech empowers tomorrow's pioneers today. 5. AMERICA WINS WITH WEB3 🇺🇸🫡 Bitcoin ETF approval drives a spirit of bipartisanship and immediacy on Capitol Hill to come together and move forward on clear and fair policies and regulations enabling Web3 to thrive in America and ensure small business on Main Street can meaningfully participate alongside Wall Street. Be a part of the FOUND3R movement of small businesses, independent creators and early stage startups creating the future.

This is an indicative sign-post; after $120B has been invested in the web3 space over the past 5+ years in over 4,000 companies, we are entering the exit/consolidation phase, which is good and part of any market maturation. Watch this space, more to come

Welcome to Chain Venturer, a series of intriguing conversations with crypto investors. This week, we have Lai Yuen from Fisher8 Capital. Fisher8 Capital is a proprietary crypto fund that consists of a trading desk running systematic and discretionary strategies across global markets as well as a venture desk that backs innovative early-stage companies. On the other side, Fisher8 Labs functions as the incubation arm of the company, partnering with founders to evolve ideas from concept to product. If you're active on crypto Twitter, it's tough to miss Fisher 8. The band of extremely crypto-native individuals is always at the forefront of web3 innovation. Here's my conversation with Lai Yuen. -- If you only have 30 seconds, here are the takeaways: • Fisher8 comprises two main divisions: Fisher8 Capital, the proprietary (prop) trading fund, and Fisher8 Labs, the incubation team. • Fisher8 maintains a sector-agnostic approach. The firm's investment decisions are influenced not only by market trends and sector potential but also by the collective insights and preferences of its analysts. • Fisher8 prefers to invest in the early stages of a company's development, typically pre-seed to pre-Series A. • Lai observes that the majority of the deal flow predominantly consisted of equity and token warrant structures during the bear market. • Lai believes there's space for newer, more risk-tolerant teams to establish themselves as the leading CDP provider on new chains. #venturecapital #web3 #token https://lnkd.in/gqraTt7Y

ZKX shutdown caught investors and market maker by surprise After the closure of the StarkNet-based ZKX protocol, investors and market maker criticized the management decisions of the project, accusing the management of secrecy. "When ZKX closed, we as investors received no warning. The team claimed they ran out of money, refused to provide any financial or spending data, and did not want to communicate with us," Ye Su, founding partner of venture capital firm ArkStream Capital, wrote. He said ZKX founder Edward Jubani Tour said in private correspondence that he was not obligated to provide expense information, and the funds being used now "are not from investors." In announcing the closure, the protocol's co-founder cited economic hardship and low community engagement. "[The project head] took money from early backers without any communication, showing no moral fiber and losing his right to future business in the industry," Su added. HashKey, as an investor, has also experienced a "lack of transparency and accountability" from ZKX in the context of financial disclosure, fund allocation and operational plans. Market maker and investor in the project, Amber Group, said it still holds about 3 million ZKX native tokens after paying back half of its initial loan of 2 million coins and purchasing another 2 million through MM operations. "Due to the lack of organic buying interest post-launch and our commitment to ongoing liquidity, we have been making net purchases of ZKX tokens since listing, even as prices have declined. This approach is consistent with our commitment to support projects and their communities by providing stable market conditions, even potentially at our expense," the Amber Group wrote. The company's representatives clarified that the ZKX team was no longer in contact with them after the closure was announced. The decision itself was also made without prior notice. Recall that in June, the Yield App platform ceased operations after "realizing" the losses incurred from the collapse of FTX.

Price doesn't matter in Bitcoin investing - really? Some people say price doesn’t matter. “1 BTC = 1 BTC” is how they like to put it. It’s not bitcoin that is volatile; it’s that the world is volatile around bitcoin, man. I have a handful of key metrics that I personally look at when assessing the health of the Bitcoin network. Market Cap and Liquidity Number of Conversion Points Technical Security and Decnetralization Quality of User Experience Legal Acceptance and Global Recognition Market Cap and liquidity Bitcoin has a fully diluted supply of 21 million bitcoin (technically 2.1 quadrillion sats, which are the smallest denomination of on-chain bitcoin), created and distributed in a pre-programmed decreasing pattern, produces blocks on average every ten minutes thanks to an automatic difficulty adjustment, and has operated with remarkable consistency since its inception. I don’t know what the dollar supply will be next year, but I know what the bitcoin supply will be and can directly audit its exact supply at any time. The Bitcoin network itself might be serving as a heartbeat of clockwork order in a world of chaos, but price is nonetheless a measure of its adoption. Bitcoin is competing in the global marketplace of monies now, against more than 160 different fiat currencies, gold, silver, and various other cryptocurrencies. As a store of value it’s also competing with non-monetary assets like equities and real estate or other things we can own with our limited resources. Perhaps In some years, bitcoin holders can buy a lot more property, food, gold, copper, oil, S&P 500 shares, dollars, SwissFrancs or whatever else compared to what they could buy in the prior year. Fortunately, bitcoin’s price keeps making higher highs and higher lows, cycle after cycle. It’s one of the best-performing assets in history. And I would say it has held up rather well given the aggressive tightening of central bank balance sheets and the sharp rise in positive real rates over the past couple of years. And then there’s liquidity. How much daily trading volume is happening on exchanges? How much transaction value is being sent around on-chain? Bitcoin has been ranking very well in this metric too, with billions or tens of billions of dollars worth of daily trading volume against other currencies and assets, which puts it on par with Apple (AAPL) stock in terms of daily exchange liquidity. And unlike Apple where the vast majority of volume is on the Nasdaq exchange, bitcoins trade in many exchanges and currencies around the world including some peer-to-peer marketplaces. There are also billions of dollars worth of on-chain transfer volume in a given day. A way to think about liquidity (and it’ll likely make you more bullish when you realize it), is that liquidity begets more liquidity. For money, that’s a big piece of what the network effect is. Want to learn more: Join our SFTL Angel Training

Ethereum Preps For Primetime, With An Official TV Commercial. Ahead of ETF Launch, By Bitwise... 📺 📺 Bitwise has again beaten the competition, by being the first to release an ETF ad, and if that wasn't nice, they’re minting it as an NFT on Ethereum too. Accordingly, leading to the second wave of the crypto ETF marketing blitz having officially begun, with crypto index fund manager, Bitwise, releasing a “national TV ad” on Thursday, about the Ethereum network. “Unlike Big Finance, Ethereum doesn't clock out at 4pm,” the company wrote in a tweet on Thursday with an accompanying video. The 40-second commercial featured an old man role-playing as the traditional stock market that’s only “awake” from 9:30am to 4pm, contrasted with a young man representing Ethereum, a blockchain that never goes offline. “Stablecoins, NFTs, loans... people can access me 24/7,” the young man tells his elder...You’ll get after it again on Monday.” Bitwise revealed, half of the ad’s proceeds will go directly to the commercial’s two actors. The simple, short pitch mirrors, the array of Bitcoin ETF commercials that hit the airwaves late last year. Promoters like Galaxy Digital said Bitcoin “embodies empowerment in the digital age,” while HashDex pitched it as the next “disruptive innovation” in financial tech after the credit card. Bitwise was also the first of many issuers to run a Bitcoin ETF ad at the time, recruiting help from Johnathan Goldsmith, the most interesting man in the world. That influx of ads preceded the Bitcoin Spot ETF rollout that occurred roughly a month later, attracting billions of dollars in investments. As of today, expert analysts believe Ethereum ETFs are weeks away from going live, with Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas forecasting a simultaneous launch on July 2nd. Grayscale ran a TV commercial about Ethereum in March in support of its existing $10 Billion Ethereum Trust (ETHE), which it intends to convert into an Ethereum ETF. However, Bitwise's ad is the first to go out for a proper Ethereum ETF after regulators officially approved them for public trading in late May. While no other Ethereum ads have emerged yet, future ETF providers have been talking up the asset’s investment thesis. Much like Bitwise, VanEck in early June pitched Ethereum as a new and improved set of global financial rails, forecasting that ETH would hit $22,000 by 2030. Likewise, Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan posted a thread on Thursday arguing why investors may want to diversify into Ethereum alongside Bitcoin. “Adding ETH to a portfolio over a full crypto market cycle has historically boosted both your absolute and risk-adjusted returns compared to adding BTC only,” said Hougan. #YESunlikeBIGFINANCEEthereumdoesnCLOCKOUTat4PMasitRUNS247... 📌📌 #GOODMORNINGtotheETHEREUMETFmarketingBLITZ... 👋 👋