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GM. This is Milk Road, the daily newsletter that tells you everything you need to know about crypto - all before your coffee gets cold.

Here’s what we got for you today:

• 3 trends to keep your eyes on 👀

• Better bridging: more tokens, less gas 🤑

• Institutional investors dump $250M+ into digital asset funds 📊

• The SEC is struggling to hire crypto experts 🧐

• A CryptoPunk NFT sold for $1M+ 🍪

3 TRENDS TO KEEP YOUR EYES ON 👀

We sent the Milk Man on a mission: find the latest crypto trends. 

He’s been staring at 6 screens trying to find them. (5 screens for “crypto-related stuff, and 1 for old school MTV rap videos”. Respect).

Well, he pinged us last night saying that he found some interesting trends. And also sent this picture…

Let’s dive into the trends.

TREND #1: BITCOIN DOMINANCE IS GOING DOWN, ALTCOIN DOMINANCE IS GOING UP

Crypto is like a game of “Simon Says”, where Bitcoin = Simon. It’s the leader. 

And for the most part, Bitcoin has led the way for crypto this year:

• BTC is up 110% year-to-date.

• Rumors of a spot Bitcoin ETF have brought attention back to the crypto space.

But recently, Bitcoin’s been quietly losing its market share dominance and has been getting outperformed by altcoins. 

In fact, about 30% of the top 50 crypto tokens have outperformed BTC over the last 90 days. 

Tokens like SOL (+78%), LINK (+71%), and Aave (+51%) have all seen bigger gains.

Why this matters: Some people think this is a sign that Altcoin Season could be coming soon.

Historically, once 75% of the top 50 coins outperform Bitcoin for 90 days, it’s officially Altcoin Season. 

(And crypto degens love the Altcoin season more than Mariah Carey loves the Christmas season).

We aren’t there just yet, but this a trend we’re keeping a close eye on.

TREND #2: STABLECOINS ARE SEEING INFLOWS

For the first time in 2 years, stablecoins are seeing inflows. 

This means that instead of investors swapping out their stablecoins for U.S. dollars, the opposite is happening - they’re turning USD → more stablecoins. 

Why this matters: This could mean that investors are getting prepared to make more moves in crypto soon. 

Think of it like a casino - to play the games, you need to trade in your cash for casino chips.  

The more chips you have, the more games you can play (and the more money you’re likely to spend).

Well, stablecoins are like the casino chips of crypto. More stablecoin supply = more money people are likely to spend playing in crypto. 

TREND #3: NFTS ARE SEEING AN INCREASE IN VOLUME

Since the beginning of October, NFTs have seen a consistent increase in daily trading volume.

Btw - the Milk Man also found that NFT gaming projects are hot right now. Many of them are up 100% since the beginning of October and have outperformed most blue-chip projects. 

Alright Roaders, that’s all the trends we got for you today. 

We’ll keep you updated if the Milk Man finds anything else on his radar. But for now, we gotta go restock his snacks. 

P.S. - If you’re seeing any other interesting trends, hit “reply” to this email and let us know!

BETTER BRIDGING: MORE TOKENS, LESS GAS

A lot of the brightest minds in crypto have been working towards one goal: interoperability.

That’s how blockchains communicate with one another, even though they speak different languages. And while bridges have helped to fix this problem, they carry limitations.

Well, MetaMask Portfolio just upgraded their bridge feature to solve one of these issues. 

The upgrade? MetaMask users can now bundle bridging with swaps into one seamless transaction. That’s right, you can now bridge one asset to a new network, while receiving another asset of your choice.

Here’s what you need to know:

• Up to three different transactions that could be required are bundled into one

• Users benefit by saving time and gas fees

• This feature significantly increases the number of tokens available to bridge through MetaMask Portfolio

And it’s all from the convenience of your MetaMask wallet.

Bridge with MetaMask Portfolio!

INSTITUTIONAL INVESTORS DUMP $250M+ INTO CRYPTO ASSETS 📊

Institutional investors have been loving crypto lately. 

Yesterday we shared that digital asset investment products saw $261M in total inflows last week.

That's 6 straight weeks of inflows. 

After we finished chest-bumping, we dug deeper into the report.

Here are a few other things that caught our eye:

• The last 6 weeks of inflows ($767M) are more than the total inflows from all of last year ($736M). Whoa.

• BTC saw the most inflows (again). The OG cryptocurrency saw $229M in total inflows, bringing the year-to-date total to $842M.

• ETH had its largest inflows since August 2022. The streak of outflows is finally broken!

• Other altcoins continue to rally. SOL, LINK, MATIC, and ADA all saw inflows last week. 

CoinShares believes there are 2 main reasons for the recent pump…

1/ The increasing likeliness of a spot-based ETF in the U.S.

2/ Weaker than expected macro data (which leads to investors questioning U.S. monetary policies).

We’ll see if the streak continues this week. 

THE SEC IS STRUGGLING TO HIRE CRYPTO EXPERTS 🧐

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has had a love/hate relationship with crypto over the years. 

(Ok, it’s mostly been hate/hate).

Now the agency is facing a big problem: they’re trying to hire crypto experts, but no one wants to work at the SEC.

The Milk Man is hearing there are 2 main reasons:

1/ Contrary to popular belief, having “SEC regulator” in your bio does not crush on Tinder. 

And most importantly… 

2/ The SEC has a policy that if you’re hired, you can’t own any crypto. If you already own some, you need to sell it before joining the agency. 

All jokes aside, we agree with Jeff here. 

This rule makes no sense. If regulators could own and experiment with crypto, they’d get a better understanding of it and could regulate it better.

BITE-SIZED COOKIES 🍪

A rare “zombie” CryptoPunk sold for $1.1M yesterday. The buyer was one of the co-founders of Bored Ape Yacht Club. #BigBallerBuyAlert

Coinbase is removing support for Bitcoin SV (BSV). Any remaining BSV on the platform after January 9th will be liquidated. 

Binance’s spot trading market share has fallen to 40%. A year ago, it was at 63%. 

Vertu is launching a new web3 luxury smartphone. It includes a built-in crypto wallet, a dedicated decentralized operating system for dApps, and other crypto-related features.

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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.