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Coinbase App Gets Left Behind as Memecoin Craze Drives Traders On-Chain

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It’s long been a cryptocurrency maxim that Coinbase’s (COIN) ranking in app store downloads signals how much retail traders are participating in a bull market. Well, the bull run’s here, and Coinbase isn’t climbing charts like it used to.

Instead, Phantom, a harder-to-use crypto wallet, has leapfrogged the better-known centralized exchange. At press time, Phantom was in seventh place among free applications — between Temu and Google — on Apple’s U.S. App Store, well ahead of Coinbase at 27th.

The flip is challenging expectations of what mainstream traders can tolerate during their first days in crypto. While the bitcoin community in particular has always emphasized “being your own bank,” other parts of the cryptoverse, like Coinbase, have bet on a more accessible experience.

Memecoin mania is blowing that up. Coinbase and other established exchanges don’t list the bottom-of-the-barrel, hours-old, exceptionally risky yet sometimes tremendously lucrative (if you don’t lose your shirt, as most do) joke tokens that new traders want to bet on. To get those, they gotta go on-chain with something like Phantom.

“Traditional centralized exchanges can’t keep up with all of the new on-chain paradigms fast enough,” said Phantom CEO Brandon Millman in an email.

Chill Guy, TikTok

In the past week, one memecoin in particular, Chill Guy, caught plenty of attention on TikTok and even more bids on-chain. Bolstered by a coordinated social media marketing campaign, CHILLGUY — whose mascot is, well, a chill-looking dog — soared in days from a market cap of basically nothing to as high as $500 million.

Buying CHILLGUY and other fresh memecoins requires a bit more effort than, say, buying bitcoin (BTC) on Coinbase. Traders must navigate decentralized exchanges and learn to futz with finicky order settings just to get the prices they want. It’s a clunky setup with a high learning curve compared to the exchanges.

Whether TikTok is primarily responsible for driving newcomers on-chain is an open question. The video app’s exceptionally niche crypto scene doesn’t have any truly standout videos racking up millions of views, as those de rigueur dance routines often do. More common are the oodles of low-viewership crypto bros crowing about their gazillionaire designs. A handful also teach their followers how to download Phantom.

Coinbase is onboarding memecoins, to be sure. In the past week, it greenlit FLOKI and PEPE, as well as WIF for German traders. Those tokens have been around a relatively long time and accrued market caps in the billions of dollars, making them more stable (relatively speaking) than, say, DIDDYOIL, a memecoin only accessible to traders who operate on-chain.

“Our mission is to increase economic freedom in the world, and we know we can’t do it alone,” a spokesperson for Coinbase said. “We believe a rising tide raises all boats, and we are thrilled to see more people engaging on-chain and with crypto over the last few weeks.”

While the Coinbase exchange itself is only tiptoeing into the memecoin space, the company at large is attempting to foster — and capture — such activity with its layer-2 network, Base. Base’s memecoin scene isn’t at the level of Solana (SOL), but it still sees millions of dollars worth of volume each day.

“We’re focused on making on-chain faster (transactions anywhere across the globe in seconds), cheaper (with typical Base fees of less than 1 cent) and easier to use, so on-chain technology is accessible to anyone, anywhere in the world,” the spokesperson said.

“We’re looking forward to bringing a billion people on-chain.”

Bitcoin Going to $140K Says Trio of AIs Managing $30M Investment Fund

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There’s a $30 million fund that, for all intents and purposes, leaves all investment decisions to be made by artificial intelligence (AI).

The firm’s name: Intelligent Alpha. Its staff includes founder and CEO Doug Clinton, a few programmers and contractors, and a trio of AIs — OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini and Anthropic’s Claude.

The AI triumvirate makes up the firm’s investment committee and so far, it’s doing a stellar job.

“Some of the AI’s best calls have been shorts,” Clinton told CoinDesk in an interview. “It was short on Boeing earlier this year, before that door blew off the 737 MAX [in January]. And AI was actually short on the stock for that reason — because it thought there would be quality issues with the plane.”

While the firm has focused on traditional finance so far and mostly kept away from crypto, Clinton said he started experimenting with bitcoin (BTC) specifically in the last five months. The objective: for AI to set useful targets to trade the world’s top cryptocurrency.

“In the bull case — which was a Trump win and a more favorable regulatory environment — AI saw that bitcoin could maybe go to $140,000,” Clinton said. “Maybe that’s the scenario we’re working toward right now.”

How it works

A lot of firms now use AI to enhance human processes, to help analysts process data and think in different ways. But Clinton’s method is to give responsibility to the AI trio, and stay out of its way as much as possible when it comes to investment decisions.

The process is relatively simple. If, for example, Intelligent Alpha is looking to build a large cap U.S. equity portfolio, the fund will curate a bunch of data about U.S. companies with large market capitalizations, like historical revenue and earning projections, and feed it to the AIs.

The next step is to give a philosophical framework for the AIs to use. Clinton asks the AIs to step into the shoes of some of the most famous investors in the world — Warren Buffett, Stanley Druckenmiller, Cathie Wood — and apply their way of thinking to the portfolio at hand.

The triumvirate then produces a portfolio, which a human must double-check to make sure there aren’t any “hallucinations,” in Clinton’s words. For example, the AI may accidentally include a stock that was recently acquired, or the stock of a company with a small market cap.

“Other than that, we try not to really mess with the portfolios,” Clinton told CoinDesk. “As a human, I’ll sometimes look at the portfolios and think ‘Oh, this pick seems like a terrible idea.’ Other times I’ll see something really interesting and try to understand the logic. It’s kind of fun.”

The process involves the three AIs explaining their reasoning to Clinton. Not only does it help him ascertain that the investments are aligned with the portfolio’s goals, but he says that models provide better portfolios when they’re forced to explain why they like specific stocks.

It often happens for the AIs to disagree. And their way of thinking changes as updates get rolled out. “It used to be the case that Claude was the most contrarian model in terms of the outputs, when we first started testing,” Clinton said. “Now I would say it’s ChatGPT.” And while Clinton has tested other AIs such as Grok or Lama AI, keeping the investment committee down to three AIs has proved to be the most efficient set-up.

Predicting the future

Investors can gain exposure to Intelligent Alpha’s strategy through an exchange-traded fund, the Intelligent Livermore ETF, which launched in September and uses AI to build a global equity portfolio. More such funds are on the way, Clinton said.

For the Livermore ETF, every financial quarter the models review world events and try to make predictions for the next three to six months. Five or six areas of opportunities are then identified (following the investment philosophies of the greats like Druckenmiller) and the portfolio gets built around these sectors.

Having competing philosophies means the portfolio usually ends up being quite balanced. “In many cases they’re looking at idiosyncratic opportunities,” Clinton said. “We haven’t seen big issues where [the investment philosophies] are at odds, but even then, it would be like hedging.” The AIs themselves make the decisions on how to weigh the various philosophies found in the portfolio, depending on the areas they’re the most confident in.

“AI has been, at least so far, really good at seeing forward,” Clinton said. “Right before we launched, it made a big bet on Asian stocks, specifically Chinese stocks, and that was right before [billionaire hedge fund manager] David Tepper went on CNBC in September and said that China was his biggest bet, that they were bringing out the bazooka for stimulus. And you know, Chinese stocks went crazy.”

Another memorable trade: chipmaker giant Nvidia has been AI’s top pick since the experiment began in summer of 2023. “Back then, I was like, ‘Oh, my God.’ Nvidia had run so much at that point,” Clinton said. “But it’s up now like 400% from the moment the AI picked it.” The lesson in there, he says, is humans will react to charts emotionally, whereas AI “just doesn’t care. It says ‘No, this is going to go higher.’”

Not that every bet has been a slam dunk, but so far, the mistakes have been on the margin, according to Clinton. The AI is building a good track record on macro events especially, he said. For one thing, it predicted that former President Donald Trump would be re-elected.

And crypto?

One of the reasons Intelligent Alpha doesn’t focus too much on crypto is simply lack of data. Their trades may have happened on-chain, but there’s no easy way to go back and find the kind of trading setups and investment philosophies used by famous crypto investors like Cobie or GCR. Most of the time, all you can do is go off of their posts on X — and it’s hard to know whether the posts reflect reality.

That being said, the crypto community’s reliance on X means that Grok could end up playing a role in Intelligent Alpha’s triumvirate someday for crypto purposes, Clinton mused, since that model is trained and fine-tuned with data from the social media platform.

“The question that we’re exploring here is, what can we do with AI that would maybe be unique and different and stand out a little bit,” Clinton said. “To find a unique way to use AI to identify breakout crypto projects, that would be a really cool way to use the tech.”

Automatic Refunds for Significant Flight Disruptions: New Airline Rule Goes Into Effect

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The Transportation Department’s new rule requiring airlines to provide prompt, automatic refunds to passengers enduring significant flight disruptions is now in effect.

The rule is intended to hold airlines to clear and consistent standards when they cancel, delay or substantially change flights, and require automatic refunds to be issued in cash, or the original form of payment, within 20 days or less, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement in April, when the agency issued the new rule.

“Passengers deserve to get their money back when an airline owes them — without headaches or haggling,” Mr. Buttigieg said.

Here’s what you need to know about the D.O.T.’s new rule, which went into effect on Oct. 28.

There’s now one definition for a “significant” delay.

Until now, airlines have been allowed to set their own definition for what constitutes a “significant” delay and passenger compensation has varied by carrier. Now, according to the D.O.T., there will be one standard: when departure or arrival is delayed by three hours for domestic flights and six hours for international flights.

Passengers will get prompt refunds for cancellations or significant changes for flights, for any reason.

When things go wrong, getting compensation from an airline has often required establishing a cumbersome paper trail or spending untold hours on the phone. Under the new rules, refunds are to be automatic, without passengers having to request them. Refunds will be made in full, excepting the value of any transportation already used. Airlines and ticket agents must provide refunds in the original form of payment, whether by cash, credit card or airline miles. Refunds are due within seven days for credit card purchases and within 20 days for other payments.

Passengers facing other itinerary changes, such as being downgraded to a lower service class, are also entitled to refunds.

The list of significant changes for which passengers can get their money back also includes: departure or arrival from an airport different from the one booked; connections at different airports or flights on planes that are less accessible to a person with a disability; an increase in the number of scheduled connections. Also, passengers who pay for services like Wi-Fi or seat selection that are then unavailable will be refunded any fees.

Passengers with significantly delayed bags will get checked bag fees refunded.

Checked fees for luggage missing for more than 12 hours for a domestic flight, or 15 hours after an international flight, will be automatically refunded, but passengers must first file a mishandled baggage report.

Follow New York Times Travel on Instagram and sign up for our weekly Travel Dispatch newsletter to get expert tips on traveling smarter and inspiration for your next vacation. Dreaming up a future getaway or just armchair traveling? Check out our 52 Places to Go in 2024.

Teen Accused in U.K. Dance Class Stabbing Charged With Terror Offenses

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The teenager accused of fatally stabbing three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in England has been charged with additional offenses linked to terrorism, the police said on Tuesday.

The teenager, Axel Rudakubana, was already charged with murder in the deaths of the girls, who the police say he attacked at a dance class in July in Southport, a seaside town in northern England. He was also charged with 10 counts of attempted murder and possession of a knife.

Prosecutors have now charged Mr. Rudakubana with offenses linked to terrorism after a monthslong investigation by area police and the counterterrorism policing unit, Serena Kennedy, the chief constable of the Merseyside Police said.

After searching the family’s home, in a quiet corner of the village of Bank, just outside Southport, the police found ricin, a lethal poison, leading to charge of production of a biological toxin. He was also charged with possession of an Al Qaeda training manual, “of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism,” Ms. Kennedy said in a statement.

While Mr. Rudakabuna is charged under Britain’s terrorism laws, the police’s counterterrorism unit did not declare the July 29 stabbing a terrorist incident, the constable said.

“For a matter to be declared a terrorist incident, motivation would need to be established,” she said.

“You may have seen speculation online that the police are deciding to keep things from the public. This is certainly not the case,” Ms. Kennedy said.

Within hours of the July 29 stabbing of three girls, ages 6, 7 and 9, far-right accounts on social media began spreading false claims that the killer was a Muslim asylum seeker who had illegally arrived in the country by boat. Anti-immigrant protests were met by counterprotesters, leading to violent clashes and dozens of arrests around the country.

The violence became an early test for Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who was elected in early July and described the protests as “coordinated” and “deliberate.” He encouraged the police “to take action against extremists on our streets.”

In August, a judge lifted Britain’s usually strict legal restrictions, allowing the news media to name the suspect, who was a minor at the time but has since turned 18. The decision was aimed at quelling rabid online speculation. Mr. Rudakubana was born in Cardiff, the Welsh capital, the police said, though social media posts had erroneously described him as an undocumented immigrant.

The teenager, who remains in custody, will appear at a London magistrate’s court via video link on Wednesday, the police said.

“My plea is to be patient, don’t engage in rumor and speculation and don’t believe everything you read on social media,” Ms. Kennedy said.

Regional Indian Flavors in the Flatiron District

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Opening

Passerine

At some of the newest Indian restaurants, regional fare is the focus. The same is true at Passerine. The chef Chetan Shetty is from Pune, near Mumbai, and he relies on spice blends his mother concocts and sends over. Chile-fueled kolhapuri ignites lamb tartare, ajwain masala adds pungency to baked oysters, and malwani spices dancing with vadouvan season fish. Greenmarket maitake mushrooms, sweet potatoes, collards, broccoli rabe and cabbage figure as well. There are surprising touches, too, like Comté and Hollandaise. The restaurant’s lounge, called the Drawing Room, has its own brief menu and leads to the well-upholstered dining room. The space was formerly occupied by Sona, which closed earlier this year. (Opens Friday)

36 East 20th Street, 212-680-4945, passerinenyc.com.

Field Guide

Timothy Meyers, who worked at Eleven Madison Park, Mas (farmhouse) and Blanca, is going solo at this 60-seat Brooklyn restaurant he said is inspired by the outdoors of his childhood in a village in Central New York and also the tranquil scenes painted by Andrew Wyeth. Food is listed under the rubric “plates,” 16 of them priced from $14 to $45. Most adhere to a seasonal approach with fig leaf-wrapped pork terrine, butternut squash rillettes with clams, and beef fillet with sunflower crumble and chanterelles. Summer lingers in a squash blossom risotto and a blackberry-shiso condiment garnishing pork loin prime rib. (Friday)

235 Kent Avenue (North First Street), Williamsburg, Brooklyn, 917-757-2713, bkfieldguide.com.

Smithereens

Seafood shines in the hands of Nicholas Tamburo, who was the chef de cuisine at Claud. His approach reflects his Massachusetts roots, with items like hake and clams, tautog (blackfish, now in season) with kohlrabi, colonial Anadama bread with smoked bluefish, and apple cider doughnuts. His partner in this garden-level venture is the much-lauded beverage director, Nikita Malhotra. Cocktail creations, like the Cape Codder cranberry and a briny martini, fit the food. (Friday)

414 E 9th Street (First Avenue), smithereensnyc.com.

Tikal Mayan Food

A trip to Guatemala awaits in this new spot, though items like tacos and meat tamales, to say nothing of the ancient Mayan civilization, have few boundaries in the region. The menu even dips its toe into El Salvador with its pupusas. Grilled skirt steak, chicken in sour cream sauce and assorted stews bolstered with chiles define the food served in a simple room adorned with a portrait of one of Tikal’s astonishing temples.

1393 Second Avenue (72nd Street), 212-837-1911, tikalmayanfood.com.

Padang Dining at Ma-Dé

Padang Dining SpreadCredit…Noah Fecks

Cedric and Ochi Vongerichten have turned their second restaurant, just steps from their flagship Wayan, into a showcase for a communal Indonesian feast. Centered on fried chicken and slow-cooked butterfish, the spread includes a bountiful array of side dishes, including baby squid, sweetbreads and crispy smelts to name a few. Expect to eat with your hands: $58 per person. (Monday)

Ma-dé, 22 Spring Street (Elizabeth Street), 212-388-3988, ma-de-nyc.com.

What Are the Implications of Israel Banning UNRWA?

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Many humanitarian agencies have expressed fears that two measures enacted in Israel on Monday that ban UNRWA, the U.N. agency aiding Palestinians, from operating in the country could cripple its aid deliveries.

The aid has never been more urgently needed. Almost all of Gaza’s 2.2 million people have been displaced over more than a year of war, and face acute and sometimes catastrophic malnutrition.

The laws are to go into full effect in 90 days, and will almost certainly create new hurdles for the agency, formally the United Nations Relief Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees. The agency also works with Palestinians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Lebanon and Syria.

Legal scholars, diplomats and aid workers were assessing the new laws’ implications on Tuesday. What was clear was that they could create new diplomatic challenges for Israel, with several European governments condemning their passage and the United States — a top UNRWA funder — being on record against the measures.

Here’s a look at the laws and what might happen next.

What do the laws say?

The 120-seat Knesset passed two bills with overwhelming majorities late on Monday, the first day of its winter session.

The first effectively revokes UNRWA’s invitation, first extended in 1967, to operate within Israel. The legislation says that the foreign minister, Israel Katz, will notify the United Nations of this no more than one week after the bill’s passage. It says that “no Israeli government agencies or representatives may have any contact” with the agency.

5 Takeaways From Vance’s Interview With The New York Times

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JD Vance keeps showing up.

The Republican vice-presidential nominee and first-term senator from Ohio is talking to reporters at campaign rallies. He is scheduling network and cable interviews. And he is sitting down with The New York Times.

Something has shifted in American politics when it is noteworthy that a candidate willingly faces one unscripted question after another. But here we are.

In his latest appearance with the news media, Mr. Vance sat down with Lulu Garcia-Navarro, co-host of “The Interview,” a New York Times podcast that features an hourlong conversation with a single guest every Saturday.

Here are five takeaways from Mr. Vance’s interview:

His critics call him spineless. He says he is complex.

Donald J. Trump seems unlikely to describe himself as reflective. Mr. Vance cannot stop.

The interview opens with Ms. Garcia-Navarro telling Mr. Vance that, as she prepared for their meeting, a persistent question emerged from people: “Which JD is going to show up?”

It is not the most flattering question for a politician, but Mr. Vance does not flinch. Instead, he embraces it, saying that holding conflicting opinions and emotional complexities is “sort of the nature of being an American in 2024.”

“Isn’t that how most people are?” he said. “Sometimes they’re frustrated with what’s going on in the country. Sometimes they are a little bit more optimistic. Sometimes it’s both, right?”

How Taryn Delanie Smith, TikTok’s Heaven Receptionist, Spends Sundays

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Before Taryn Delanie Smith was crowned Miss New York in 2022, she worked at a call center. At one point, she said, she was only pretending to take calls.

“I was actually making these little videos at my desk or on my way to work,” she said.

Ms. Smith, 28, is best known for her TikToks as Denise, a receptionist in heaven with a New York accent. Dressed in a robe and a towel head wrap, she welcomes newcomers and fields calls from heaven hopefuls through her headset microphone (a pink razor). In one video, Denise is drinking holy water at the Saints Lounge with Princess Diana and Whitney Houston. In another, she responds to viewers who want her to welcome their loved ones who have died.

She is a self-described “reigning chaos goblin” whose videos err on the side of comedy. Now with more than 1.4 million followers on TikTok, she creates videos full time and is a co-host of “Influenced,” a talk show on Amazon.

“I’ve never felt safer and more protected than by New Yorkers,” said Ms. Smith, who is from Seattle. “And so that is sort of what Denise embodies to me.”

Sundays, Ms. Smith said, are an anchor for her and her husband, Alec Castillo, whom she describes as a “big tatted-up dude who loves to cook.” They live with their “city cow,” a Great Dane named Bruce, in a two-bedroom apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

Ms. Smith with her 2-year-old Great Dane, Bruce.Credit…Mimi d’Autremont for The New York Times

City Hall Is in Crisis. Who’s Running New York?

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For Mayor Eric Adams, the challenge of leading New York City has taken on an almost absurd quality, with his administration peppered in recent weeks by a half-dozen significant resignations, four federal investigations and two federal indictments, including one against the mayor.

Two of his deputy mayors and his police commissioner have resigned. His schools chancellor was just replaced. And he withdrew his pick for the city’s top lawyer when it became clear that the City Council would reject him.

With the flood of departures and chaos leaving a considerable vacuum at the top of City Hall, Mr. Adams must now rely on a flurry of new appointees and promotions to keep a complex bureaucracy running.

Earlier this week, Mr. Adams elevated Maria Torres-Springer, a veteran civil servant, to become his new first deputy mayor. She and three other highly respected women in the administration — Camille Joseph Varlack, the mayor’s chief of staff; Meera Joshi, the deputy mayor for operations; and Anne Williams-Isom, the deputy mayor for health and human services — are expected to largely oversee City Hall’s key administrative responsibilities.

Of them, Ms. Torres-Springer will play the most critical role in the coming months, handling daily operations across a vast bureaucracy of roughly 300,000 city workers with a $100 billion annual budget.

Her promotion seemed to signal a shift from the cronyism that had typified many of Mr. Adams’s significant hires, and was celebrated by a range of civic leaders, including the Rev. Al Sharpton; Kathryn Wylde, the leader of a business group; and progressive officials including Chi Ossé, a City Council member who has urged Mr. Adams to resign.

How Eric Adams Could Leave Office, and Who Hopes to Succeed Him

Mr. Adams’s political future is in doubt after federal prosecutors indicted him on corruption charges in one of several inquiries ensnaring City Hall.

Tracking Charges and Investigations in Eric Adams’s Orbit

Five corruption inquiries have reached into the world of Mayor Eric Adams of New York. Here is a closer look at the charges against Mr. Adams and how people with ties to him are related to the inquiries.

For Trump and Harris, the Media Future Is Now

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In 2015, Barack Obama submitted to interviews with three YouTube stars, one of whom was notable for eating cereal out of a bathtub. It was a moment that opened a window into the media landscape of the future, after the mainstream media as we have known it — while also making that future seem basically absurd.

A year later Donald Trump won the White House, and there was a rush to find the sources of his victory in the darker reaches of the internet, in misinformation factories and troll farms. It was another window into the media future — but this time the future seemed dystopian, a realm of propaganda and manipulation.

In 2024, the media future doesn’t need to be seen through a glass darkly: For the younger generation of news consumers, it has basically arrived. But it isn’t embodied by cereal-eating YouTubers, Russian-funded disinformation operations or even the Silicon Valley-enforced progressive censorship that many conservatives feared four years ago.

Instead it’s embodied by the sex-and-relationships podcaster and the bro comedians who scored important interviews with Kamala Harris and Donald Trump this month — with the host of “Call Her Daddy,” Alex Cooper, tossing Harris questions about abortion and student loans, while the comics Andrew Schulz and Akaash Singh chatted with Trump about his nicknaming strategy on their show, “Flagrant.”

As a conservative with an interest in moral decline, I was familiar with “Call Her Daddy,” but I confess I had never heard of “Flagrant” before clips from the Trump interview started populating my social media feed. Which is par for the course for this campaign: The nominees and their running mates have consistently submitted to interviews with shows and personalities who were barely on my radar screen.

There’s an impulse to interpret these media arrivistes as reinventions of the prior media dispensation — to cast a big podcaster like Joe Rogan as a muscled Walter Cronkite for the online age, or to frame appearances on “Call Her Daddy” and “Flagrant” as base mobilization operations, akin to appearing on “The Rachel Maddow Show” or “Hannity.”