12th UFO Researcher Found Dead
545: War Headlines, AI Boom, SPLC Fraud
Morning savages.
One of those weeks where there’s just too many stories to cover at once. We have the 12th scientist/UFO researcher to go missing dead in a reported suicide (insert Dr Evil “Righttttt” meme). A major breaking story about fraud within the Southern Poverty Law Center, who was, wait for it, sending millions to far right groups to help finance demonstrations and activity. Bitcoin seems like it has zero intention of ever leaving the high 70’s range.
We have continued tensions over the Strait of Hormuz and pending peace talks between Iran and the US and we have markets that look coiled chugging higher and higher despite all of this chaos.
If you missed our guide that dropped on Tuesday morning, make sure you give it a look before end of week.
We covered 60+ of my top picks in equities, crypto, and commodities. Many of the names like MSFT 0.00%↑ QUIK 0.00%↑ and ONDS 0.00%↑ have been on solid rips the last two weeks.
Markets
Even with the non stop chop from the Iran conflict and the next batch of tweets or headlines from Iranian leadership and the Trump administration, markets have climbed higher.
The Nasdaq just closed at fresh all-time highs, up roughly 1.5–2% yesterday, driven once again by strength in tech and semis. Semis have been on a godly run with AMD 0.00%↑ breaching the $300 level this week.
What stands out to me is the backdrop this is happening in. Oil remains elevated and tensions around the Strait of Hormuz haven’t fully cooled. Officials are still saying it will take 6 months to de-mine the strait (remove seaborne mines).
Polymarket odds currently sit at about 36% that a US x Iran diplomatic meeting takes place by April 29th.
This comes as mixed messages come out of Iran on whether or not they are willing to engage in peace negotiations WITHOUT the inclusion of a partial lift on sanctions.
Lufthansa is set to cut 20,000 European flights this summer to save on jet fuel
Six senior Coinbase COIN 0.00%↑ marketing executives, including its former CMO, have joined OpenAI over the past 18 months (CoinTelegraph)
Tesla TSLA 0.00%↑ beat earnings and ended up soaring +4% after-hours
Lyft is set to purchase London ridesharing app Gett
Raising a child to age 18 now costs more than $303,000, an increase of 27.8% since 2023 (FOX/Unusual Whales)
The Trump administration is reportedly nearing a rescue deal for Spirit Airlines that would loan the discount carrier as much as $500 million (WSJ)
Good news for defense kings.
The Pentagon is floating a massive $1.5 trillion defense budget, signaling one of the most aggressive military spending ramps in modern history.
It’s a sharp jump from current levels and points to a clear shift toward a more hardened and conflict ready posture in the coming years.
The bulk of the funding is aimed at three areas.
First, next-generation military systems, including advanced aircraft, naval expansion, and a layered missile defense shield designed to counter evolving threats.
Second, a heavy push into drones, autonomous systems, and AI, reflecting how modern conflicts are being fought and where the battlefield is headed. It appears $75B is set aside JUST for drone tech. Imagine that….
Third, a major rebuild of munitions and weapons stockpiles, which have been depleted after years of global tensions and proxy conflicts.
Here is your short list of drone plays that benefit if this goes through:
The U.S. is doubling down on hard power, industrial capacity, and technologically driven warfare as the foundation of the next decade.
PLTR 0.00%↑ Palantir announced this week that the company is partnering with the US Department of Agriculture to modernize services for American farmers:
"Protecting America’s farmland is protecting America itself, and this work gives USDA the visibility and speed needed to safeguard our food supply,” said USDA Chief Information Officer Sam Berry. “Our farmers sustain this nation, and modern tools help us support them with greater precision. I look forward to working with Palantir as we continue serving the American farming community, which serves all of us every single day.”
The name is up almost 6% this week.
Big year for defense tech.
Crypto
My gut tells me crypto is on the cusp of surprising us. Bitcoin has held a solid level for a while now and most recently ripped up to the $79,400 range amid mixed headlines coming out of Iran.
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo raised some eyebrows when he recently told Congress the military is currently running a Bitcoin node for network security tests and called Bitcoin a tool for American power projection.
Bitcoin now solidifying some position in defense circles.
Blockchain Capital seeks $700 million for two new funds (The Block/Bloomberg)
A coalition of 100+ crypto firms including Coinbase, Ripple, Kraken,
and a16z are urging the Senate Banking Committee to advance the CLARITY Act (CoinDesk)
Morgan Stanley bought $11,300,000 worth of Bitcoin yesterday in MSBT
Sweden’s H100 Group AB signed a binding deal to raise its Bitcoin holdings to ~3,500 from about 1,000 (CoinTelegraph)
Bridgetower adopted Chainlink to tokenize $11B+ in securities from the DOM X Arizona Copper-Gold Project (Chainlink)
Chainlink continues to gain momentum throughout this bear period. Arcamids on X highlighted the activity from major institutions via the Grayscale Chainlink Trust ETF.
Check out the names on the left side (hopefully you can see them. Citadel, Royal Bank of Canada, Jane Street, and others. Arcamids pointed out the two highlighted shifts below:
Accurate Wealth Management ($1.7B AUM): +40,009 shares (160% increase)
McElhenny Sheffield ($663M AUM): +30 shares
This product is essentially a wrapper for Chainlink, meaning any meaningful inflows translate into direct demand for LINK itself. Unlike broad crypto funds, this is a targeted allocation into a single piece of infrastructure, not just general market exposure.
I know we all tend to lose our day to day interest in crypto (and alt coins) when we’re not ripping to new highs but Chainlink sits at the center of a much bigger narrative: connecting real-world data, financial systems, and blockchains.
It’s not competing as a currency or even just a smart contract platform, it’s positioning itself as the plumbing layer between traditional finance and on-chain markets which is why I have been talking about it for 5 years.
So if institutions are stepping in here, they’re not just chasing price action. They’re hungry for fat gains and positioning around:
Tokenization of real-world assets
On-chain settlement rails
The continued integration of banks, funds, and data into blockchain systems
In other words young kings, they’re betting on the infrastructure behind the next financial system, not just the assets that sit on top of it. Own the plumbing and toll booths.
Sounds pretty bullish.
Global News - SPLC Fraud Bust
In some insane (but not necessarily surprising news) The US Department of Justice announced an indictment against the Southern Poverty Law Center ("SPLC"). Their indictment alleged that the SPLC secretly funneled more than $3 Million in funds to members of white supremacist and extremist groups including:
-Ku Klux Klan
-American Nazi Party
-Aryan Nation
-United Klans of America
-Unite the Right
Why?
Well to stage fake events to justify being around.
According to prosecutors, the organization misled donors, raising money to fight extremism while financially supporting individuals inside those same networks.
If true, this flips the entire model and what we’ve been told for years on its head.
It casts significant doubts on Charlottesville and other events in which the media had a field day pointing to instances of supposed “white supremacist aggression”.
Turns out these events were likely funded by the same organization condemning and “fighting” them lol.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said "The SPLC is manufacturing racism to justify its existence. Using donor money to allegedly profit off Klansmen cannot go unchecked."
"They lied to their donors, vowing to dismantle violent extremist groups, and actually turned around and paid the leaders of these very extremist groups — even utilizing the funds to have these groups facilitate the commission of state and federal crimes."
—FBI Director Kash Patel
The SPLC has always been full of true extremists views.
In this video from years ago an SPLC employee (Mark Potok) is seen speaking with an interviewer and we get a glimpse of his wall in his office.
On it, you can see he has a calendar/tracker of sorts following the decline in White populations in Europe.
Pretty absurd shit.
Other headlines:
UFO researcher David Wilcock was found dead at the age of 53 in Boulder County, Colorado, authorities confirmed. This marks the latest in a string of deaths involving individuals connected to the UFO disclosure and research community. Wilcock said on stream shortly before his death "People are disappearing. Scientists are going missing. The President himself is looking into this. It's a little bit scary." Gets weirder though, his biographer died 48 hours before him. We may have to expand on this in a schizo rant. Comment “Thiccc Alien Cheeks” in the comments if you want that
Map of missing or dead scientists via FoxNews The US Department of War announced on X this morning: Overnight, U.S. forces carried out a maritime interdiction and right-of-visit boarding of the sanctioned stateless vessel M/T Majestic X transporting oil from Iran, in the Indian Ocean within the INDOPACOM area of responsibility
The US Senate has voted to advance $70 billion funding plan for ICE and Border Patrol agencies (InsiderPaper)
Germany is committing to building Europe’s strongest conventional military by 2039, expanding forces to 460,000 troops to bolster deterrence against Russia (SolidIntel)
Trump's acting attorney general has reclassified state-licensed medical marijuana as a less-dangerous drug in a major shift (AP/NewsWire)
President Trump ordered the U.S. Navy to “shoot & kill” any boat laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz this morning (InsiderWire)
Have a great rest of the week guys.
We will be back on our regular schedule next week unless something truly bonkers happens over the weekend, in which case we will be right back at it.
Don’t forget to check out the Arbitrage Andy store if you want some new T Shirts for Spring and Summer.
Godspeed
Andy