gm. gm. In the most "sign of the times" moment ever, BNPL giant Klarna is letting users pay for gas in installments when they fill up at the pump.

That's IRL gas, not ETH gas...although, that's not a bad idea either.  

HACKTIVISM

Clinton rallies the keyboard warriors

If news about Russia interfering abroad is taking you back to 2016, wait till you hear this: Hillary Clinton’s emails are back in the news. Nope, not those emails; hacktivists have unearthed 79 gigabytes worth of data from Transneft, a Russian state-owned oil pipeline company, and dedicated the haul to the former presidential nominee.

A political statement?

Not exactly. The hackers don’t appear to be referring to the firestorm surrounding Clinton’s private email server, but rather to a February interview in which she encouraged cyberattacks against Russia. Ukraine’s government has endorsed these attacks, but it’s a pretty unconventional stance for an American politician to take.

Not their first rodeo

The Transneft hack has gotten a lot of attention because of its association with Clinton, but hacktivists—amateur hackers who hack in the name of political causes—have been waging war against Russia and its allies since the outset of the invasion:

• Anonymous took credit for a DDoS attack against the website of RT, a state-controlled TV network.

• The group also claimed responsibility for leaking 200 gigs worth of emails from Tetraedr, a Belarusian arms manufacturer.

• …and for taking control of TVs in Russia to expose the country’s devastation of Ukraine. Quite a resume.

Zoom out: The invasion of Ukraine has put the spotlight on cyberattacks by civilian volunteers, but hacktivism was already trending upward before the war began. In the past decade alone, hacktivists have breached a domain registrar for hosting far-right websites, stolen unreleased films and employee data from Sony Pictures to halt the release of The Interview, and even accessed sensitive data from the CIA to protest American involvement abroad.

TOKENS

ApeCoin debuts, does its best slinky impression 

Degens, rejoice: you can now ape into ApeCoin after Yuga Labs finally unveiled a token for its mega popular BAYC community. Trading under the $APE ticker, the token seesawed wildly in its first day of trading, jumping quickly to $39.40, then sliding at as low as $6.48, before eventually settling into the $7 range. 

• The initial use case for ApeCoin will be as an in-game currency for one of the gaming titles that Yuga Labs is developing to leverage their IP. But Yuga also has broader ambitions for ApeCoin to grow into a more general-purpose currency. 

In order to achieve this, ApeCoin is actually managed by a separate DAO called, you guessed it, ApeCoin DAO. Token holders will get a chance to vote on future IRL and URL initiatives that will be funded by sales of the token.

Got all that?

Not really? That’s okay. The full scope of ApeCoin’s utility is still a little murky. As such, the crypto community at large was a bit divided after its shaky launch. Scott Lewis, the founder of DefiPulse, summed up two plausible outcomes for ApeCoin in a tweet saying that “On one end, it could be the end of the brand, 10000 toxic and bagholders down big could ruin everything forever. On the other end, it could create a scalable shared universe for all Yuga Labs IP, and out scale everyone else.”

QUICK HITS

Seed round

Stat: Bye-bye Silicon Valley, hello West Virginia. According to data from PitchBook, West Virginia saw the largest gains in VC activity of any US state since the beginning of the pandemic. Its deal value rose 443%, and its deal count was boosted by 250%. These numbers are so eye-popping because exactly four deals happened in the two years preceding the pandemic, but still: country roads > sand hill road.

Startup: Plenty of companies have tried to usurp Google calendar. Amie might actually succeed. 

Rabbit hole: Using hamburger menus? Try sausage links (tdarb.org)

WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON

• Spotify posted job listings looking for candidates with web3 experience, signaling a possible move into the NFT sphere.

• Amazon finalized its $8.45 billion acquisition of MGM.

• Maserati pledged to phase out all gas-powered cars within a decade.

• Netflix began testing a fee for sharing an account among multiple households.

• Russia avoided defaulting on its debt by making a $117 million payment.

TRIVIA

For years, the Guy Fawkes mask has been a symbol of the hacker collective Anonymous. The mask is supposed to resemble a member of the Gunpowder Plot, a failed 1605 assassination attempt against King James I. Which of these British actors is a direct descendent of Robert Catesby, the ringleader of the Gunpowder Plot?

A. Kit Harington

B. Benedict Cumberbatch

C. Christian Bale

D. Colin Firth

FUN CHART FRIDAY

This will either motivate or scare you. 

TIDBITS

🩺  The doctor that performed in-flight surgery with a coat-hanger and silverware. 

⚛️ A journey to the center of our cells

🦫 Beavers back in London after 400-year absence. LFG!

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TRIVIA ANSWER

A. Kit Harington even starred as his ancestor in a miniseries about the Gunpowder Plot.