Good Morning. Hope you drank a glass of water before your coffee and maybe, just maybe, looked at the sky before diving into your phone. You know, those simple things they say are good for you.

It’s Wednesday, which means we’re officially on the downhill slide to the weekend. And today’s news is here to keep you informed and inspired. 

Today’s topics:

• MicroStrategy just bought another 15,350 bitcoins

• Temu — most downloaded app in the U.S. for 2024

• Ethena has launched USDtb, a new stablecoin

• 8 crazy science firsts in 2024

  and more…

The Dow Jones made history on Tuesday, marking its first nine-day losing streak since 1978. It dropped 267.58 points (0.61%), closing at 43,449.90. The S&P 500 wasn’t much better, losing 0.39% to end at 6,050.61, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.32%, settling at 20,109.06. Guess it’s safe to say the stock market is really into making history this year—just not in a good way.

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MicroStrategy Drops $1.5 Billion on More Bitcoin

MicroStrategy just bought another 15,350 bitcoins for $1.5 billion, bringing its total to 439,000 BTC. They snagged the latest batch at an average price of $100,386 per coin. This comes right after selling 3.8 million shares for a similar amount. 

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FTC bans "junk fees" on hotels and tickets. The FTC just got rid of those annoying "junk fees" for hotels, live event tickets, and vacation rentals. No more surprise fees popping up at checkout—what you see is what you pay. Now businesses have to show the full price upfront, saving consumers 53 million hours of hunting for the total price. And yeah, that’s $11 billion in savings over the next decade. 

Ethena launches USDtb stablecoin backed by BlackRock to cut risk. Ethena has launched USDtb, a new stablecoin backed by BlackRock’s $500M BUIDL fund. Most of its reserves (over 90%) will be in BUIDL, a fund investing in U.S. government debt, cash, and repos, with the rest in stablecoins and tokenized Treasury products. USDtb works like USDC and USDT, with every token backed by reserves. It’s designed to reduce the risks faced by Ethena’s other product, USDe, which relies on a complex strategy and can struggle when market conditions turn negative. USDtb steps in as a safety net to protect USDe from these risks.

T-Mobile Users Get Free Starlink Service

T-Mobile just launched a beta for its "T-Mobile Starlink" service, letting users text from areas where cell towers don’t reach. Using Starlink’s low-Earth orbit satellites, the service covers 500,000 square miles of the U.S. with zero cell tower coverage. SpaceX, the parent company, has already launched over 300 satellites to make this happen. So, now you can send texts from the middle of nowhere—for free... for now.

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Temu tops U.S. App Store—bye, TikTok. Temu, the Chinese shopping app, is now the most downloaded app in the U.S. for 2024, bumping TikTok down to No. 3. Temu took the top spot last year and isn't letting go. TikTok, now facing a U.S. ban, slid to No. 3, while Instagram Threads jumped to No. 2. Looks like shopping for cheap stuff is more popular than endless dance challenges now.

8 crazy science firsts in 2024. From reading fruit fly brains to perfecting nuclear timekeeping, here are 8 groundbreaking “firsts” that’ll make your brain hurt (in a good way).

Waymo’s robotaxis are coming to Tokyo. Waymo is bringing its robotaxis to Tokyo in early 2025, making Japan its first international test market. They’re not ready to start charging for rides yet, but they’ve teamed up with Japan’s Nihon Kotsu and taxi app GO. 

Instagram now lets you schedule DMs. Instagram’s latest feature lets you schedule DMs, making sure your messages are sent at just the right time. Just type your message, hold down the send button, pick a date and time, and voilà—you’ve got a message ready to go up to 29 days in advance. Creators and brands can now perfectly time their outreach, while the rest of us can annoy friends at exactly the moment we planned. 

Money Mess? Fix it with FINMATEX

Sick of being financially clueless? FINMATEX app cracks the code to crushing your financial goals. Track, save, invest—no lectures, no fluff, just results. Fix your wallet. Download now for iOS and Google Play

Spherical egg sells at auction for £200

Ed Pownell, after a few pints, bought a "one-in-a-billion" spherical egg for £150 and donated it to the Iuventas Foundation. The charity, initially thinking it was a joke, eventually decided to sell the egg, which fetched £200 at auction. Sometimes, the best decisions come after a drink or two.

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TikTok of the day: watch here