Hey there! Dan DeFrancesco in NYC, and I'm curious why you'd want to spend $70 to dine in complete darkness (either way, this review is worth reading). Imagine if it's actually a way to serve fast food without you realizing it. Did I just blow the cover on dark dining?!
On tap, we've got stories on the key people investing in AI, Citadel continues its run of dominance, and some new potential emojis.
But first, crypto didn't learn its lesson.
If this was forwarded to you, sign up here. Download Insider's app here.
1. Are we really doing this again?
I was trying to come up with a fun lede for this, but sometimes you just need to let the story do the talking.
I'll let Insider's Phil Rosen (a fellow newsletter writer!) kick us off:
Non-fungible token holders are borrowing against their NFT collections at the highest rate ever.
Look, the idea of borrowing against artwork is actually a well established, and smart, way to manage your money. (For more on how the uber rich do this, check out Haley Cuccinello's fascinating story on the process.)
However, we're talking about literal masterpieces from the likes of Picasso and Renoir.
With all due respect to the folks in digital art, I'm not sure any of their stuff rises to that level.
I'm not trying to poke fun at NFTs. Everyone's entitled to spend their money how they see fit. But using these as collateral when they've proven to be incredibly volatile seems a bit ... foreboding.
Crypto's track record with risk management leaves a lot to be desired, and crypto lenders haven't exactly been crushing it.
Click here to read more about NFT holders putting up their digital art as collateral.
In other news:
2. A new top dog at Carlyle. Harvey Schwartz, the former president and co-COO at Goldman Sachs, was named CEO at investment firm Carlyle, and will be granted Caryle stock worth $180 million, Reuters reports. From how a client he trained at a gym helped get him into college to advice from then-Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein that changed his perspective on leadership, here are some interesting tidbits about Schwartz from a 2017 interview.
3. The Rothschilds want to go private. The family behind the French investment bank are interested in taking it private in a deal that would be worth about $4 billion. More on what that could look like.
4. So about that donation ... FTX is asking politicians and political action committees to give back money donated to them by company employees. Here's more on how the bankrupt crypto exchange is trying to take back the $90 million in political donations.
5. All in on AI. Since artificial intelligence is all anyone wants to talk about, we decided to map out some of the top people and firms backing these startups. We've got the 19 top VC investors focused on AI and machine learning along with 13 VC firms dedicated to those areas.
6. Chief Super Important Person. Job titles are getting out of hand as everyone wants to sound a lot more important than they really are. More on why that fancy job title might actually be about screwing you out of money.
7. Citadel keeps crushing it. Billionaire Ken Griffin's hedge fund had a solid start to 2023 after a monster 2022, Reuters reports. More on Citadel's strong January.
8. Elon Musk is putting in 120-hour work weeks. Even the Goldman Sachs' junior bankers were impressed by those numbers. Read more about Musk's "extremely tough" past three months.
9. New emoji alert! Apparently there is an entire selection process for new emojis. Who knew? Here are some new ones that are up for consideration, along with the latest class of 31 new emojis that are coming this spring.
10. Check out which team all 50 states are rooting for during the Super Bowl. This map details the rooting interests of all the states ahead of the Super Bowl this Sunday, which will feature the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles. Read more here.
Curated by Dan DeFrancesco in New York. Feedback or tips? Email ddefrancesco@insider.com, tweet @dandefrancesco, or connect on LinkedIn. Edited by Jeffrey Cane (tweet @jeffrey_cane) in New York.