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GM. This is Milk Road – happy “Crypto just crossed $3T in market cap again” day, to those that celebrate.

Here’s what we got for you today:

• ✍️ Is BlackRock about to pump $ETH?

• ✍️ 60% of US wealth is restricted from BTC

• 🥛 PRO “Where are we in the cycle?” indicators

• 🎙️ The Milk Road Show: Why Bitcoin Is the Only Asset That Will Survive the AI Era w/ Jordi Visser

• 🍪 Stripe continues building in the stablecoin space!

IS BLACKROCK ABOUT TO PUMP $ETH? (LORD PLEASE MAKE IT SO) 🙏

It’s hard to get excited about crypto sometimes.

And it’s not because crypto isn’t exciting! 

But because many of the major announcements in the space are buried beneath 6ft of jargon – e.g. this: 

BlackRock just filed to offer tokenized shares of its $150B Treasury Trust fund.

(What the hell does that mean??)

Lemme explain…

BlackRock has a big-dogs-only fund that holds government I-owe-yous (aka: ‘treasury assets’) on behalf of their clients.

(Boring, but safe – ‘cause anyone that holds treasury assets gets paid a fixed interest rate from the government.)

And the fund in question? It’s a minimum $3M buy-in (after which clients can buy/sell in any amount they choose).

Ok, what does this have to do with crypto?

They’re about to start ‘tokenizing’ these treasury assets – meaning, every time they’re traded, the trade takes place onchain.

And the consensus amongst thought leaders in the space is that Ethereum is the most likely blockchain to be used to pull this off.

Here are three key reasons why this could be giga-bullish for Ethereum:

1/ Total Value Locked (TVL)

Right now, the total value locked up in the Ethereum blockchain (whether deposited into apps, platforms, or smart contracts in general) is roughly $52B.

If BlackRock were to tokenize the entire Treasury Trust fund, that would push Ethereum’s total value locked (TVL) to ~$200B (4x from where it is today).

And just for context: Ethereum currently has a solid lead in TVL – the next closest ecosystem is Solana at $8B (one sixth that of Ethereum).

...another 4x in TVL would make Ethereum damn-near untouchable!

2/ Narrative

“The world’s largest asset manager moves $150B worth of assets onto Ethereum, quadrupling its TVL” is the kind of headline that will breathe new life/hope into the $ETH brand.

3/ The snowball effect

If BlackRock finds success in tokenizing this fund – other institutions are likely going to follow…and there’s a good chance they’ll use whatever blockchain BlackRock uses.

(‘Cause if it ain’t broken, why fix it?)

See what we mean? Super exciting stuff! 

…it just gets blurred with industry babble.

60% OF U.S. WEALTH IS CURRENTLY RESTRICTED FROM $BTC 💣

Feeling bullish after that first article? Let’s dial that up a notch…

You know how everyone said 2024 was ‘the year of institutional adoption’ for Bitcoin?

A better way of phrasing that would be ‘the year of initial institutional adoption’... 

‘Cause Tephra just dropped a chart that shows most of America’s top wealth platforms are restricting clients’ access to Bitcoin.

Translation: the REAL party is still yet to begin! 🎉

Here are the three ‘OH SH*T!’ moments we had when combing through these numbers:

1/ Around 60% of capital locked up in top U.S. wealth platforms is either: 

👉 Straight up barred from accessing Bitcoin by the platform…

👉 At the very least restricted on how much they can allocate…

2/ That ‘60%’ is roughly equal to $31.16T of wealth, which is currently restricted from accessing $BTC!

3/ If or when that $31.16T is unlocked – it’s not like 100% of it is going to flow to $BTC…but it doesn’t need to! 

👉 A 1% allocation of the $31.16T prohibited/restricted in US wealth platforms would lead to a total of $311B entering $BTC ETFs (roughly 2.7x the total amount held by ETFs today).

👉 A 5% allocation of the $31.16T prohibited/restricted in US wealth platforms would lead to a total of $1.56T entering $BTC ETFs (or roughly 13.45x the total amount held by ETFs today).

If anyone needs me I’ll be in the corner, shadow boxing the drywall and trying to burn some of this excited energy off.

PRO “WHERE ARE WE IN THE CYCLE?” INDICATORS 🤔 

Checking the market right now feels like checking in on a buddy who’s going through a break up.

They say they’re doing fine…but are they really?

‘Cause not all that much time has passed since the trade war fears first hit, and very little has actually changed since then…

But instead of guessing – why don’t we check in with our trusty crypto cycle indicators instead.

‘Cause knowing where we are in the crypto cycle is crucial for capturing the best opportunities. The goal is to spot the bull market peak before the inevitable bear market hits your bags hard.

Since timing the top perfectly is almost impossible, we use various indicators to give us a better shot at taking profits before it's too late.

Below are the 6 indicators we track, with a color-coded system to show how close they are to signalling the market peak:

🟢 Plenty of room to run 🏄

🟡 Getting closer to the top signal, but haven’t yet reached the mark ⚠️

🔴 We’ve hit the market top indicator 🚨

Every Thursday, we update these 6 indicators exclusively for PRO members.

Our advice? Don't wait for all of them to hit 🔴. It's better to take profits as they get closer to that point.

Let's dive in and see if we're anywhere near the top of this bull market. 👇

BITE-SIZED COOKIES FOR THE ROAD 🍪

We just dropped an article about crypto-backed loans vs. traditional loans. It explains why crypto-backed loans (offered by platforms like Ledn) might be the better choice.* 

Be careful — new scam just dropped! Physical letters are being sent to Ledger users requesting that they scan a QR code and 'validate their recovery phrase'.

Stripe continues building in the stablecoin space! Stripe/Bridge just partnered with Visa to launch a stablecoin debit card.

Borrowing limits: raised. Access: widened. The Coinbase x Morpho DeFi mullet just kicked into high gear!

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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