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GM. This is Milk Road, serving crypto insights hotter than a coffee you forgot on the car roof.

Here’s what we got for you today:

• 2-for-1 special: crypto use cases 👀

• The top 15 NFT traders made $299M in profits 💰

• 19% of New York residents own crypto 🍪 

2-FOR-1 SPECIAL: CRYPTO USE CASES 👀

We’ve got a 2-for-1 special for you.

For a limited time, we’re giving you one (free) use case with another (free) use case.

That’s because we want you to know more real-world examples than just “Make Nerds Rich”.

Capiche? Cool. Let’s dive in…

USE CASE #1: RESEARCH FUNDING

There are 3 big problems in the medical industry right now:

• There are 7,000+ rare diseases that affect 8-10% of the global population.

• Getting funding to develop cures for these rare diseases is hard as f*ck. (Big pharma companies won’t fund these projects because they won’t make as much profit.)

• If a cure does exist, it’s often too expensive for patients to afford

You can boil it down to one core issue: big pharmaceutical companies are in charge.

And while the main priority should be developing treatments and cures to help people, the reality is it’s to make money.

In the words of the great Wu-Tang Clan:

🎵 “Cash rules everything around me. (C.R.E.A.M)

Get the money. Dolla dolla bill y’all” 🎵

The solution:

• Create a community of patients, scientists, medical partners, and other people who truly care about curing rare diseases

• Raise money through a governance token

• Let members vote on which proposals get funded & developed

Smaller projects get money and community members get a say in where the money goes. It’s a win-win.

USE CASE #2: TRADEABLE MEMBERSHIPS

Memberships come in all shapes and sizes.

Basic gyms can cost $250/year. While other country clubs can cost $250,000/yr. You get exclusive access to facilities, equipment, services, interesting people, etc.

(btw - for $250K/yr I better have cashmere towels and grapes fed in my mouth)

But no matter what the membership is, they all have the same issue - they aren’t tradeable.

Let’s say you move away from the country club. Suddenly, your membership card is useless. All the fees you paid go down the drain and you’re only left with *distant memories*.

The solution: turn memberships into tradeable assets using NFTs.

• You can buy the NFT to unlock the perks and benefits

• You can sell the NFT when you don’t need the perks and benefits anymore

Not only do you make some of your money back, but you could also make a profit. (if demand for the membership increases → the price could increase too)

There are a handful of companies that are already trying this out.

Etihad Airways recently released an NFT that gives holders benefits like Etihad Guest Silver Tier Status, priority check-in, lounge access, and the ability to stake their assets to earn miles. Pretty cool stuff.

Well, that’s a wrap for today’s use cases. Til next time my friends.

P.S. - You might’ve just felt a tingling sensation. Don’t worry, that was just you jumping up to the top of the Pyramid of Intellect™.

LEVEL UP YOUR TRADING EXPERIENCE

Trading tools are kinda like a new pair of shoes: There’s no shortage of them, but you want to make sure you’re getting the perfect fit. (The Milk Man is a Jordan guy)

Well, when it comes to the perfect fit in trading, look no further than Kraken Pro.

Their customizable dashboard allows every trader to lean into their strengths and trade like a pro in minutes.

It’s not just the top-tier design that gets us excited. Traders have access to advanced trading tools and analytics, putting you ahead of the competition.

And with a competitive fee schedule that rewards high-volume traders, you won’t want to be trading anywhere else.

Customize your trading experience on Kraken Pro today.

Disclaimer: Not investment advice. Crypto trading involves risk of loss. Kraken does not offer services to residents of Washington or New York.

THE TOP 15 NFT TRADERS HAVE MADE $299M IN PROFITS 💰

NFT trading is a lot like playing an arcade game. Everyone wants the #1 score, but there can only be one.

Side note - ya boy held the Pac-Man record at the local Pizza Hut back in ‘03.

But I always wondered who the true #1 in the world was.

Well, the cool thing about the blockchain is it’s an open book - transactions, account balances, profits (and losses) are all public.

Turns out the #1 NFT trader is a pseudonymous whale that goes by SethS.

Realized profits: $101.63M. (Seth needs to legally change his name to $eth)

Here’s what the rest of the leaderboard looks like:

Here are some of the top highlights from the rest of the analysis:

• The top 15 traders combined for $299M in realized profits

• 94.5% of total profits came from blue chips like Yuga Labs, Larva Labs (creators of CryptoPunks), and Art Blocks (generative art) collections

• CryptoPunks was the #1 money maker for the top traders. It accounted for 70.6% of profits and made 11 of the top 15 traders into millionaires.

• The fifth most profitable trader made the list off of one single trade. Talk about the trade of the decade.

BITE-SIZED COOKIES 🍪

19% of New York residents own crypto, according to a recent report. It’s a NY State of Mind.

Maple Finance is opening up its lending pool to accredited U.S. investors. The pool generates a ~4.7% yield with U.S. Treasury Bills and will be open to investors with an average income of $200,00 per year, or already working in the financial industry.

Microsoft is teaming up with Aptos blockchain. The partnership has been in the work for 5 years and will integrate Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI Service into the layer 1 blockchain.

18 VC firms got named in a lawsuit for aiding and abetting FTX’s fraud. Some of the big names include Temasek, Sequoia Capital, Sino Global, and Softbank.

SpiritSwap will shut down on September 1st. The decentralized exchange on Fantom is ceasing operations after it was affected by the $126M multichain hack in July. **pours milk out for the fallen homie**

MILK ROAD’S PUBLIC WALLET IS LOCKED & LOADED 🤑

Last week we re-introduced and set up the Milk Road public wallet. And now, we’re just a few days away from taking the training wheels off.

It’s the calm before the storm.

The final step? Getting our wallet funded.

We loaded our wallet with $10,000 of stablecoins last week.

We told you we were bringing you along every step of the way, so we created the Milk Road Declassified Guide to Crypto.

The first section: How to fund a wallet. In it, we breakdown:

• how to buy crypto using a centralized exchange, like Coinbase

• how to buy crypto using a decentralized product, like MetaMask Portfolio

• how to transfer funds between the two

You can check it out here.

Next up, we have our eyes set on token swapping and staking… 👀

MILKY MEMES 🤣

HIT THE INBOX OF 250K+ CRYPTO INVESTORS

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DISCLAIMER: None of this is financial advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. Please be careful and do your own research.