The Emoji that Legally Must Not Be Named • CEO Letter #87

Taylor Culbertson -

Well well well, fancy meeting you here. In your own inbox. Hi, it's Taylor, CEO of Hedgehog, the handy all-in-one crypto portfolio manager. Sign up here for early access to the mobile app as soon as it drops 😎

At the end of every newsletter, there's a giveaway question you can answer for the chance to win Hedgehog merch. Last week I asked, "If you could prevent the entire world from hearing a single album, and keep it all to yourself, what would it be?"

Favorite answer: "The soundtrack from TMNT 2: The Secret of the Ooze. It featured that horrible rap from Vanilla Ice (Go Ninja Go)." What a throwback… certainly an unforgettable cinema experience.

My second favorite answer came from Brian, who simply asked if I was hacking him. Props for staying vigilant.

Creating bugs and fixing bugs

My colleagues Moe and Pete, who work on Hedgehog's frontend, talked about how to build a product at a startup and work together as a team. Many pearls of software engineering wisdom in this one! And there's an audio version, if you'd rather listen than read.

"Like Moe said, communication is unbelievably important," Pete agreed. "I think when I came onto the team, I was used to the more corporate culture where you do things more formally. But [at Hedgehog] we move really quickly, so you have to not be afraid to be annoying. I struggled with that at first, but now I constantly pester people if I need something from them."

If you're never annoying, you're probably not speaking up enough 😉 Read or listen to "Move Fast and Fix Things" on the HedgeBlog.

Tldr: "If it ain't broke, it might still need to be fixed" — words to code by.

The birth of the Hedgehog podcast

First episode: We discuss the never-ending regulatory crusade against crypto. Okay, that's a tad dramatic, but… well, listen to the podcast and you'll understand!

Second episode: Hedgehog co-founder and CTO Colton chats with Jon about crypto investing and Hedgehog's approach to making it easy.

Tldr: Coming soon to a podcast app near you! Once we figure that out.

🚀📈💰

Folks, the law has spoken. While evaluating whether NBA Top Shots NFTs count as securities,  federal court judge Victor Marrero addressed the usage of emoji in promotional posts on social media:

And although the literal word "profit" is not included in any of the Tweets, the "rocket ship" emoji, "stock chart" emoji, and "money bags" emoji objectively mean one thing: a financial return on investment.

See for yourself in the full document — fair warning, it's a big ol' PDF.

Tldr: I wonder if hashtags count. #SpaceExplorationEmoji #RedLineGoesUpEmoji #BagOfPaper

Quick Hits

"Jump Crypto Just Counter-Exploited the Wormhole Hacker for $140 Million"

A Fenbushi Capital investor summed up what happened:

So basically hackers deposited to Oasis. Jump asked Oasis to coordinate and stole the money back via proxy contract upgrade done by Oasis. Amazing. But also, scary stuff if you really think about it....

He added, "Would I call a system whose contract upgradability is governed by a few people trustless? Not really."

I guess Oasis agrees: "Oasis To Patch Vulnerability That Allowed It To Recover $150M Of Stolen Crypto" ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Tldr: "Counter-hacking" is a cool phrase.

"Coinbase unveils its Ethereum Layer 2 network that won't have a token"

"Our goal with Base is to launch a platform that makes it really easy for developers to build apps that users actually want to use and then plug that into the Coinbase product suite to make it really easy for users to use those apps," said Jesse Pollack, senior director of engineering.

Tldr: Honestly, the fact that they're not launching a token here feels like the right move.

"Blur Blows Away OpenSea and Wins 82% of NFT Trading Volume"

Also: "Collector Sells $18M in NFTs on Blur — Then Buys Some Back." Apparently the frenzy is driven by Blur's airdrop incentive.

Tldr: I'm surprised that so many people are buying blurry NFTs. Could they not handle higher-definition images?

"Binance Can't Keep Its Story Straight on Misplaced $1.8B USDC"

Why you gotta be so sketchy, enormous crypto exchanges??

Tldr: "Someone received a loan of something like $1 billion for about 100 days."

Giveaway

Question of the week: What would you do with a 100 day, $1 billion loan?

Personally, I'd probably go buy some new socks. But like… they'd be expensive socks.

Reply to this email with your answer for the chance to win three of the following prizes:

  • insulated stainless steel water bottle with Hedgehog logo
  • official Hedgehog team baseball cap
  • snazzy Hedgehog socks
  • cozy Hedgehog hoodie
  • comfy Hedgehog baseball tee

In closing, 🚀📈💰,
— Taylor

To get future newsletters delivered straight to your inbox every week, sign up here! Check out past newsletters in the complete archive.