DeepSeek and Fred Krueger. If you were offline this weekend, you missed two, unrelated stories about AI and the ethics of Bitcoin maximalism, both of which we’ll cover in today’s Monday issue.

Time to read is 5 minutes.

Krueger’s weekend massacre

A hallway pass for curiosity? This past weekend, Bitcoin Class of 2024 alum Fred Krueger launched a memecoin, plummeting the timeline into an online frenzy over the perceived ethics of token launches–even those just for the fun of it.

Dubbed ‘StupidCoin,’ Krueger launched his token Saturday on Solana market Pump Dot Fun. Due largely to his online following, the token quickly pumped to a $20 million marketcap, later to break over $50 million. 

“Someone give me their Solana address, and I will send you some StupidCoin. I want to show you how easy it is,” Krueger said in a later livestream explaining his token launch.

The feedback was less forgiving than the Solana trenches purchasing his token. The online stewards of Bitcoin discourse quickly pilloried Krueger for his involvement in launching a memecoin. Bitcoin First–a Twitter-based Bitcoin talkshow–quickly cancelled their affiliation with Krueger. 

Krueger was unrepentant until later in the weekend, deciding to vest his allocation of StupidCoin on a two year schedule. “A rug is mathematically impossible,” he followed up in a Tweet.

Twitter’s weekend audience had a few takeaways, from repeating the belabored line “never meet your heroes” to “the Overton window is broken, expect more maxis to launch tokens.”

Over at Blockspace, we’re less interested in the fall out for Krueger and more concerned with the eventual pace of tokens over the next 61-2 months. With the administration taking a decidedly pro-token position, it’s difficult to see a Twitter timeline without a lot of stupid coins.

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DeepSeek puts Wall Street on notice:

AI-tied tech stocks are puking back gains this morning as Wall Street digests a new competitor's claims. Chinese AI-startup DeepSeep became the top downloaded app on the Apple App Stores over the weekend after claiming better results and faster benchmarks for users. The Information claims Meta is scrambling to reverse-engineer the emergent competitor. 

Thorchain pauses withdrawals:

Decentralized finance (DeFi) stalwart Thorchain is pausing lending services for its THORFI app for 90 days due to discrepancies between its assets and debt. One of the more well known multi-chain lending applications, Thorchain’s token–necessary for helping buoy the ecosystem–fell 30% over the weekend.

The Gwart Show: What’s Ethereum worth? 

Kevin Mills from Triton Liquid Fund joins The Gwart Show to examine the fundamental value of Ethereum through multiple analytical frameworks. Building on John Pfeffer’s influential 2017 paper, Kevin explores cash flow models, equation of exchange, and the internet bond theory to assess ETH’s true value.