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GM. This is Milk Road, the newsletter that's the Iceman to your Maverick in the world of crypto.

(We’ll be your wingman.)

Here’s what we got for you today:

• ✍️ Base just saw a surge in new tokens 

• ✍️ 3 takeaways from 72 crypto ETF filings

• 🥛 Milk Road PRO Portfolio updates

• 🎙️ The Milk Road Show: Did BASE Rug Everyone? Plus Is Crypto Legislation Moving Too Fast?

• 🍪 Will a new SEC be good for crypto?

WHY BASE SAW A SURGE IN NEW TOKENS LAST WEEK 📈

New token creation on Base just hit new daily, weekly, and monthly ALL-TIME HIGHS!

Over 239k tokens were launched just last week. 👇

…but the market is in the toilet.

So HOW is this happening?

In a word: Zora.

Lemme toggle the previous chart to show you where most of this new token flow is coming from. 👇

Yuh. Zora (a portfolio company of Coinbase Ventures) is printing new tokens like there’s no tomorrow.

Zora = onchain Instagram. 

You post content to the feed → Zora mints a token representing that post → instead of ‘liking’ a post, users will buy its token.

And last week, Zora was used to launch the “Base is for everyone” memecoin (which blew up).

Our armchair analysis of what happened here (with timelines):

• Apr 16: Base posts “Base is for everyone” image on Zora (minting a token alongside it)

• Apr 17: “Base is for everyone” token pumps from $0 to $20M+ in market cap overnight

• Apr 18-19: a slew of people decide to try their hand at launching tokens via Zora

• Apr 20: Zora announced the coming launch / airdrop of the $ZORA token

• Apr 21-22: even more people use Zora in an attempt to qualify for the airdrop

Here’s the math on that:

A whooole bunch of attention + a heavy dose of financial incentives = everyone launching tokens on Zora/Base over the past week or so.

Now, if you’ve been following the story on X/Twitter, you’ll know there are a WHOLE lot more questions around all of this…

(E.g. Was “Base is for everyone” a pump n’ dump orchestrated by Base? Were Coinbase Ventures trying to boost interest in Zora ahead of its token launch? Etc.)

Which is why we just sat down with Laura Shin, host of the Unchained Podcast, to dig deeper on Zora and the “Base is for everyone” debacle, on today’s episode of The Milk Road Show!

Check it out below! 👇

YouTube | Spotify | Apple Podcasts

3 TAKEAWAYS FROM 72 CRYPTO-RELATED ETF FILINGS 👀

The further you read down this list, the WILDER it gets!

There are now 72 crypto-related ETF filings waiting for approval from the SEC, making for one helluva cramped list. 👇

Don’t worry – we squinted real hard at this image, so you don’t have to!

Here are three things you will have missed at first glance:

1/ Ripple and Solana lead the pack

Right now there are 18 applications for ETFs including $XRP and 17 applications for ETFs that include $SOL – giving both tokens a solid lead over the remaining top 5. 👀

2/ Crypto degeneracy is coming to TradFi

There are applications for $DOGE, $PENGU, $TRUMP, $MELANIA, and $BONK ETFs (with the last three having applications for 2X leveraged funds).

3/ We’re about to find out how lenient this new SEC chair is

According to his latest financial disclosures, the newly appointed SEC Chair, Paul Atkins, holds approximately $6M in crypto-related investments.

…but exactly HOW bullish will this make him on crypto?

(Bullish enough to pass a 2X leveraged $TRUMP ETF?)

We’re about to find out.

MILK ROAD PRO PORTFOLIO UPDATES 📊

Bitcoin has been making moves over the past week!

…but that’s to be expected.

What’s surprising is that there’re a handful of major altcoins that have actually outperformed $BTC in the same time frame (?) 🤨

So what gives – are these tokens just playing catch up after over correcting? Or are we about to see an alt season come straight from left field??

We’re answering exactly that (and more) in this week’s Milk Road PRO Portfolio update! 

Go PRO and keep scrolling to find out. 👇

Disclosure: We are not a day trading portfolio so don’t expect a high volume of trades. Read our “How To Build a Crypto Portfolio” report to learn more about our portfolio strategy.

Portfolio performance 📈

The Milk Road PRO Portfolio saw a slight increase over the past 7 days. Our portfolio value is at $114K, up 2.6% since last week.

Not a huge shift in the markets this week, but here’s something interesting: Bitcoin seems to be breaking away from the S&P 500 and Nasdaq.

Could this finally be the long-awaited decoupling we’ve all been hoping for? Or is it just another blip in the usual short-term market noise?

We’re rooting for the real deal, but we’ll need a few more weeks of data to know for sure.

And let’s not forget about gold as it’s been on fire lately, hitting all-time highs almost daily. 

PS: It's not in our portfolio, so we’re just cheering from the sidelines. 😂

Portfolio changes 👀

BITE-SIZED COOKIES FOR THE ROAD 🍪

Deposit your Bitcoin as collateral and get USD in just 18 hours with Ledn. We’ve just put together an article outlining all the key details about Ledn’s Bitcoin-backed loans.*

Fartcoin is on a tear. It’s now overtaken $BONK to become the largest memecoin on Solana.

Will a new SEC be good for crypto? Pro-crypto Paul Atkins was just sworn in as the new SEC chair. Let’s hope he lives up to the hype.

Funds are flowing from Ethereum to Solana. Galaxy Digital has swapped over $100M worth of $ETH for $SOL in the past two weeks.

We’re hosting meetups, baaaby! In case you’re heading to Consensus Toronto or Permissionless in New York, come grab a beer with the Milk Road crew. We’ll see you there!

What do stock trading, sports betting, and crypto baskets have in common? They’re all available on Crypto.com.**

*this is sponsored content.
**this is partner content.

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ROADIE REVIEW OF THE DAY 🥛

VITALIK PIC OF THE DAY (FROM THE LATEST MOVIE)

The Vitalik film is now live! You can now watch “Vitalik: An Ethereum Story” across multiple digital platforms worldwide.