In this issue:

OVERWORLD:
-A Quick Recap of Bitcoin’s All-Time High-
-Mini-Stories: Lacoste Is Tennis, More OpenAI Drama, Why It’s Good That Teenagers Are Crazy-

THE DEPTHS:
-How Christian Dior Won Over The Nazis With Fashion-

“Resist much, obey little.”
— Walt Whitman

✦Top Trends✦

Crypto

Bitcoin Breaks $69,000, Explained.

It’s been a difficult, difficult ride. But here we are, $69,000 Bitcoin.

Here’s a quick recap of the roundtrip:

✦Why are people surprised?✦

This 12-month rocket jump has got traditional analysts and investors scratching their heads. When FTX filed for bankruptcy, even the low price of $16,310 seemed risky to traditional investors - some expected Bitcoin would never recover.

Scrambling to figure out exactly how BTC beat the odds, traditional know-it-alls are generally pointing to the introduction of ETFs, and a few are pointing to the upcoming halving, as per WSJ.

Those same analysts are probably very resistant to giving any credit to the die-hard anti-establishment philosophy of crypto owners and BTC symbolizing a fight against the banks. But WSJ is the Wall Street Journal, and acknowledging BTC as an alternative to traditional banking would not be practical - especially since said fight is going well.

✦Let’s talk ETFs.✦

Instead, WSJ claims that it is because of traditional institutions that BTC is pumping - all it took was for the ETFs to be approved. Which, isn’t a lie, just not the full truth.

Since they launched on January 11, the ETFs have been a hot ticket for casual investors, and now there's nearly $50B worth of BTC sitting in 10 U.S. Bitcoin funds.

Actually, people are buying at a record pace. BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust reached $10B faster than any ETF in history.

Fidelity's fund is also doing well, with $6B in assets it’s quickly becoming Fidelity’s third-largest ETF.

But they’re still misjudging: Analysts initially predicted that the ETFs would have a big splash, but that this would slow down - this has not been the case. Instead, Bitcoin has steadily accelerated to all-time highs.

✦The appeal? Perceived safety.✦

This highlights the traditional investor’s general sentiment toward buying crypto: exchanges are shady, banks are better. With ETFs, investors can buy BTC through good ole’ brokerage accounts with their good ole’ trusty banks without ever having to swipe their thumb inside a nasty crypto exchange.

✦Facing the old-school heavyweights.✦

These new Bitcoin ETFs are now facing off with the giants: As per WSJ, Blackrock’s Bitcoin ETF brought in the third most money from any U.S. exchange-traded fund in February, just “narrowly edging out” Blackrock’s SP500 offering for flows.

Hooray for that.

✦Mini Stories✦

-Lacoste Is Tennis, Tennis Is Lacoste -
-OpenAI vs. Elon-
-Why It’s Good That Teenagers Are Idiots-

🐊 Somebody woke up the crocodile

“Lacoste is tennis, tennis is Lacoste”, has been a long-standing mantra over at Lacoste. But what happens when opposing powers try to change that narrative? Because that’s what’s happening.

Just last summer LV and Gucci signed Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner - tapping into the star power of these two up-and-coming tennis players is the luxury house’s tactic to stay top-of-mind with the opulent tennis scene. This, with no doubt, pushes Lacoste to the margins.

But remember, Lacoste is tennis. They don’t mind going back and forth.

Enter Pelagia Kolotouros, Lacoste's newly appointed creative director, whose debut collection premiered yesterday, marking Lacoste’s first fashion week since 2021 - an obvious response to LV and Gucci treading into the territory of the crocodile.

In the show, Kolotouros blended the brand's classic athletic roots with a modern flair. It was a reinterpretation of an era when blazers and travel coats were as much a part of tennis attire as the racquets themselves.

History reigns: The venue was Roland-Garros, home of the French Open, and sole competitor of Wimbledon. Actually, Roland-Garros is just a few blocks from Lacoste’s headquarters and was built in honor of founder René Lacoste, so that he and his fellow French players could defend the Davis Cup after a historic win in New York in 1927.

Which reminds us, Lacoste has something Gucci and LV never had: an intimate, intimate historical relationship with tennis. Don’t get it twisted: Lacoste is tennis.

🤖 OpenAI responded to Elon Musk’s lawsuit with spicy email receipts.

The drama unfolds! OpenAI just posted a blog post in response to Musk’s lawsuit. Apparently, Musk has been (as he often is) very self-contradictory:

OpenAI also took measures to clear up how their intentions are good and only good with some examples of their accomplishments:

OpenAI says that they’re going to simply “dismiss all of Elon’s claims.”

But Elon rarely goes down without a fight, so we’ll see how that goes.

🤔 How idiot teenagers might have saved us from extinction.

Vapers, Robloxers, Olivia Rodrigo worshippers, and rizzers… Yes, the teenage brain is one of a kind in the animal kingdom. Most animals bounce from the nest by puberty, but human teenagers… nesting with mommy and daddy for a little longer is probably for the better.

Science knows why: The cerebral cortex (where processing and cognitive control happens) continues to develop until our early to mid-20s. At the same time, the teenage brain’s reward system is bananas - they love abusing their reward systems; unhealthy food, scrolling, Netflix, porn, marijuana, etc, etc.

Which is the perfect cocktail of cognitive imbalance that makes a teenager want to drop school for a hip-hop and/or dropshipping career. You’ve been there, you know know the drill.

But new research says this isn’t a glitch, but an evolutionary edge:

What does this mean? Teenager’s edge is that they try new things, which means they can more rapidly gather information about how to perform well in the future.

Historically, society is volatile: famines, droughts, disease, and natural disasters might wipe out a whole tribe. Infusing young, healthy, and strong members of human society with a cognitive disposition that would rather try new things, may have been the reason as to why human society has managed to survive so well.

But that doesn’t mean we should let them ditch school to become streetwear designers. Or…?

✦Quick hits✦

• Dodge’s first muscle-car EV is here. The 2024 Dodge Charger Daytona holds a 400-volt system and a 100.5kWh battery capable of putting out up to 670 horsepower. This car shoots from 0-100 km/h in 3.3 seconds. Also, fake exhaust sounds, which is controversial. The price is yet to be unveiled.

• Scientists are throwing an orgy for giant underwater snails.

• Nintendo Switch emulator Yuzu folds and pays $2.4M to settle its lawsuit with Nintendo, who sued them for “facilitating piracy at a colossal scale.”

• Drake and LeBron are one of many investors who are pouring $3B into the PGA golf tour. 

• Ex-Twitter executives are suing Elon Musk, claiming that they’re owed more than $128M in severance.

• Watch: Inside Nvidia HQ: What a $2T Company’s Office Looks Like

• Listen: MIKE just dropped a very, very good album with Tony Seltzer. Here’s a single, “Underground Kingz”.

• Read: The Reading Obsession

THE DEPTHS

/Architecture

How Christian Dior Fought the Nazis with Fashion

After the Nazi occupation, French fashion was a hull of its former self. This was much thanks to the orders of one Adolf Hitler.

Nazi ideology feared that naturally strong Aryan women would be corrupted if they started idealizing their bodies - which trendy Parisian fashion very much enabled.

And so, the führer took drastic measures to decapitate Parisian haute couture. Women were expected to adopt a prude, drab, and boxy style that expressed the practicality and nationalist quality of German dress (pictured below).

✦Christian Dior’s rebellion✦

Dior, who had just gotten funding for his own label in 1946, did not care. He had been an esteemed designer under other labels, but this time it was different. For the first time, it was going to be his designs, with his name on them - bending to Nazi ideology was not representative of his ethos.

In 1947, his debut collection shook the world. It crystallized everything the Nazis opposed: feminine, soft, exaggerated, colorful silhouettes.

Harper's Bazaar’s editor-in-chief famously said to Christian, "It is quite a revolution, Dear Christian. Your dresses have such a new look.” And that’s how the collection got its famous name: Christian Dior’s New Look.

Most importantly, a statement was made with the fabrics used. Dior’s pieces used tons of fabric. So many fabrics. Luxury fabrics, no less. The message was clear: optimism.

Remember, this collection comes in a post-war period. Resources were scarce, the economy was hurting, and the future looked bleak. For Dior to ignite such a bright fantasy about what’s possible in France's grim reality, was so, so radical.

✦Broke husbands protest.✦

As is typical of France, there were protests. How could Dior take all the best materials and overuse them to create clothes for the rich? A very meme-ly titled protest group named “the League of Broke Husbands” led an especially aggressive movement.

✦‘Twas worth it.✦

But the price is the price, the importance of Dior’s first collection for France’s economy might just have been worth it.

Two years later, by 1949, Dior fashions were literally 75% of Paris's fashion exports and 5% of the entire nation's export revenue. Today, fashion is still France’s largest export - much thanks to the domino effect of Dior’s efforts in 1947.