So when Sam says they've got a lot of asset value still on the books, he's just saying:
(today's price) * (the number of tokens we own)
>
(the hole in our customer deposits)
But he couldn't sell all those tokens even if he wanted to!
So the true realizable value of those assets is far, far lower.
So let's go back to $FTT.
FTX supported $FTT price in 2021 to the tune of ~$300 million / year in purchases.
But in exchange they got Alameda's collateral value of FTT to $5.8 billion (based on the @CoinDesk balance sheet).
So if you treat FTX + Alameda as one entity, then they're roughly paying a 5% cost of capital ($300m against $5.8b in collateral).
Even if you assume a big haircut of 50% or whatever, they're still only paying 10% on capital.
Which sounds like a lot!
Until you look at Alameda's ability to raise capital.
It pursued pretty non traditional counterparties, which included an insanely lenient underwriter in Voyager (who also did 3AC if that’s any indication of their credit standards).
Making an announcement soon? Don't hire a PR agency.
Definitely not through Series A, and maybe not ever.
You can execute PR internally with a junior resource without having to pay a $50K / month retainer.
Here are the basics in <5 minutes (bookmark this):
First, I take it when we're talking about public relations, we mean just the part that means "relationships with journalists" and not marketing or social media or "comms."
So to understand PR, you have to understand journalism and what makes something newsworthy.
Journalists are typically underpaid and overworked.
They enter the business for noble reasons (truth seeking, justice, accountability) but are constantly pushed to act against those ideals in order to drive ratings and views.
Hearing from a few teams who are scrambling to get a marketing strategy in place before we go parabolic.
You're fine. If you're struggling with narrative and positioning here's what to do in the next 30 days.
Plus 1 thing you absolutely should NOT do:
1) Founders: start tweeting every single weekday.
Four single posts, one long post.
No excuses. Drop whatever it is you're doing, stare at the screen, get it done. Marketing leaders: literally sit next to your CEO and encourage them.
Pat them on the head. Give them treats.
An A++ personal feed should look varied, with some mix of:
- explainers
- insights / "takes"
- shilling your project
- media (video, pictures)
- retweets of your partners & ecosystem
If you are just doing 1 content vertical, challenge yourself to vary it up. Do one type a day.
"White House confirms US has intelligence on Russian anti-satellite capability"
Here's what would happen if an adversary took out America's global positioning system:
(+ why you should have 30 days of supplies)
People are sleeping on the threat of anti-satellite weapons.
Even the White House downplayed the threat.
Spokesman John Kirby said it was "troubling," but claimed no immediate threat and that anti-satellite weapons couldn't cause physical destruction on Earth's surface.
So why then are anti-satellite weapons so "troubling?"
Because destroying GPS--a constellation of 31 satellites owned and operated by the US government--would send us back to the stone ages.