💵 California’s reparations proposal

150+ years and counting... Monday marks the second official celebration of Juneteenth in the US, after President Biden declared June 19 a federal holiday commemorating the end of slavery. On that day, in 1865, troops marched into Texas to take control of the state and free the enslaved people. This year more than half of all states and a growing number of companies will recognize Juneteenth as a public holiday.

• Last year a third of private employers offered Juneteenth as a paid holiday, up from just 8% in 2020, and more said they plan to offer it this year.

• Corporate titans including Nike, Target, Apple, and Best Buy have participated in setting the Juneteenth standard.

Reparation nation… While lawmakers have talked about how to make amends for the financial effects of slavery, more attention is being paid to reparations — compensating descendants of Black American slaves for their labor, an idea that dates to the Civil War. In May, House lawmakers passed a historic bill that established a committee to develop reparations proposals. This month, committee leader California will release the extensive proposal, which calculates payouts for qualifying people in the state. (FYI: some reports say it could be as much $1.2M/person).

• Up next: CA lawmakers will review the report and decide whether to adopt, amend, or dismiss the suggestions. From there, CA’s government would need to pass it.

• FYI: Cities including Boston, Detroit, and St. Louis have approved their own programs or are considering proposals. Last week New York lawmakers passed a bill considering reparations for slavery.

Having a moment… bitcoin. While the OG crypto's current market cap of $487B+ represents a three-month low, bitcoin's share of the total cryptocurrency market has climbed to nearly 46%. That's the highest level in nearly two years, and suggests that traders are selling their altcoin bags (like: solana, cardano) more quickly than their BTC holdings. A changing regulatory landscape may be at play.

Who's at faultcoins… After FTX's blowup last year, the SEC has hit industry players like Coinbase and Binance with lawsuits. As part of the crackdown, the regulator identified 19 additional cryptocurrencies as securities, meaning they’d need to follow the SEC's rules. (FYI: the SEC has said that, in total, nearly 70 tokens are securities.) If the courts agree, those altcoins could become much harder to trade in the US. The suits could take years to resolve, but we may already be seeing the fallout:

• This month eToro and Robinhood said customers would soon no longer be able to purchase some altcoins on their platforms. (Snacks is part of Sherwood Media, a subsidiary of Robinhood.)

• Bitcoin has managed to stay mostly out of the fray because many regulators (even the SEC) agree it's a commodity. A possible reason: it's considered sufficiently decentralized.

📸 Flashy… Miami "bitcoin mayor" Francis X. Suarez filed paperwork to run for US president. The pro-crypto Republican, who said that he takes his salary in BTC, made headlines promoting the now failed MiamiCoin.

🤹‍♀️ Quirky… Metaverse Beauty Week kicked off with brands like Neutrogena dipping their blush brushes into “Decentraland,” an ethereum-based digi world. Despite waning hype, businesses continue to explore web3 ways to reach customers.

🌶️ Spicy… Famed VC a16z said it’s opening a crypto-focused office in London, touting what it says are the UK's friendlier regulations. The move adds to an industry-wide crypto exod-US as companies look abroad.

• Pass: The EU moved forward with draft legislation of what could be the West’s first AI rules. The “AI Act” would regulate how companies like OpenAI train their models, including how they use copyrighted data.

• Deduct: Health-insurance stocks plunged after UnitedHealth said its costs have been rising as older adults get surgeries they delayed during the pandemic. Insurers benefited when people avoided hospitals.

• Hole: The Senate Finance Committee is investigating the planned merger between the PGA Tour and Saudi-backed LIV Golf. The DOJ also plans to look into the controversial deal, a source told NBC.

• Bot: Snap wants to capitalize on billions of messages users have sent to its pinned AI chatbot (“My AI”) by including sponsored links in some convos. Google, Meta, and others are already working on AI ad opportunities.

• Hail: You may’ve noticed ads popping up in your Uber app as you try to book a ride. Soon you’ll be served full-length video ads too. Uber said its ad biz is on track to hit $1B in revenue by 2024.

• Results of UPS strike-authorization vote expected

Authors of this Snacks own bitcoin and ethereum and shares of: Apple, Google, Robinhood, Snap, and Uber