GM. This is Milk Road. Remember getting home after school to eat fruit roll-ups & watch Cartoon Network? Reading us is even better.

Here’s what we’ve got cookin’ today:

• Graphs of the Day: Total locked ETH hits ATH 📊

• Major ETH whale alert 🐋

• Grayscale’s Solana version of GBTC💲

• Satoshi’s hidden message 🍪

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GRAPHS OF THE DAY 📊

1/ ~200K Bitcoin inscriptions were created on April 23

That’s the most inscriptions ever created in one day. It’s not even close:

Why? Bitcoiners have been texting. No really, almost 99% of inscriptions created on the 23rd were text-based.

This is probably because of BRC-20 tokens. They let people launch fungible tokens on the Bitcoin blockchain. Just like how you can deploy a token or Dapp on Ethereum.

First it was Bitcoin NFTs and now it’s Bitcoin meme coins:

So what? After months of hype, it seemed like interest in inscriptions was waning. BRC-20 tokens might be a nice energy boost.

But don’t jump in too quickly. They are being used as an experiment and even the creator called them “worthless”.

2/ USDT approaches all-time-high market cap of $83B

It’s been up only for the market cap of USDT in 2023, rising more than 18% since the start of the year.

And its dominance of the stablecoin market share just reached its highest level in two years.

Why? Crypto folks are avoiding the U.S. like it’s a guy in a white van handing out candy.

USDC’s market cap is down 10% this month with the SEC and its crypto witch hunt. And BUSD has it even worse: Theirs just hit a 2 year low.

Tether (USDT) has been able to avoid these concerns because they are located outside of the U.S. and are not regulated.

Looks like investors would rather deal with USDT’s backing issues instead of murky regulation.

Why is this important? A year ago, Tether was said to be one of the biggest risks to the crypto market. Several frauds & collapses later, it’s the golden child of stablecoins.

3/ There were $30M in digital asset outflows last week

That means a 4-week streak of inflows has ended. Womp womp

The outflows started on April 14, when BTC reached $30K.

So what? People were likely cashing out since BTC is higher than it’s been in months. #gainz

But don’t worry, ETH saw the opposite. Investors were so giddy about the network’s Shapella upgrade that there were $17M of inflows.

You win some, you lose some.

4/ Total ETH staked hit an all-time-high since Shapella

There is 18.88M ETH ($34.6B) staked. That’s the most ETH that’s been staked since April 12.

So what? This is good! Shapella let holders unstake their ETH. And turns out people didn’t turn around and sell their newly-unstaked ETH. 

There wasn’t a major sell-off - ETH even hit a months-long high of $2K ~1 week ago.

Instead, holders are re-staking it. Although, Nansen said withdrawals may start outweighing deposits soon.

Watch this space…

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AN ETH WHALE WOKE UP 🐋

The BTC whales are waking up… but so are the ETH whales.

The latest? A wallet involved in Ethereum’s initial DEX offering (IDO) almost 8 years ago just sent 1 ETH ($1,833). This was the first time it ever transacted.

An IDO is like an IPO. Crypto companies raise funds through a token sale, and if you get in early, you may be able to make some major Dough.

This whale bought 2,365 ETH in the IDO for $0.31 per token. That ~$750 investment is worth around $4.5M today.

Why does this matter? 2 reasons:

1/ The blockchain is the ultimate spyglass. Real-time info lets people watch what early adopters are doing.

2/ It’s another old wallet that woke up. They could either be cashing in OR avoiding a wallet drainer that’s targeting OG holders.

Nothin’ like a crypto thief to chase the whales out of nap time.

GRAYSCALE’S NEW SOLANA TRUST💲

GSOL is officially on the market. And no, that’s not a new decentralized K-pop group…

It’s Grayscale Solana, a new public trust from the world’s largest digital asset manager.

Retail investors can buy shares in it (GSOL) to gain exposure to Solana without having to buy/store the asset directly. The trust is supposed to stay pegged to Solana’s price.

But wait… why does that all sound familiar/give me the ick?

Because this is just like GBTC, Grayscale’s $14B Bitcoin trust.

It’s been dicey:

• Investors bought GBTC for the same reason. BTC exposure with less direct risk.

• But then GBTC depegged from BTC’s price by ~40%. GBTC plummeted in value.

• People lost money because Grayscale doesn’t have a redemption plan. Investors couldn’t redeem their GBTC for anything, including BTC.

Same thing happened to its ETH trust - it was selling at a 49% discount. And yet, here comes…*DJ Khaled voice* another one.

The Milk Road Take: You might want to avoid this with a ten-foot pole.

Who’s to say GSOL won’t pull a GBTC & depeg from SOL’s price/leave you rekt?

Plus, Grayscale charges folks to invest with them - it makes ~$300M a year from those fees. Even though its funds are trading at a steep discount 👀

And don’t forget Grayscale is locked in a messy legal battle with the SEC right now.

*sniff sniff* smell that? A little too fishy for our taste.

MILK & COOKIES 🍪

Our partner Metronome just launched their Smart Farming tool, making diving into DeFi easier than ever before. If you have been looking to explore the world of DeFi and didn’t know where to turn, look no further! [Sponsored]

A message was hidden in the Bitcoin network’s 666,666th block. “Do not overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” - Romans 12:21. Who knew Satoshi was so poetic?

South Korean court rules $LUNA not a security. Do Kwon continues to deny fraud allegations from prison in Montenegro.

Binance unveils Sensei, an AI powered Chatbot. Sensei will act as a personal mentor and tutor when exploring Binance Academy. The AI race is hotter than ever.

Visa announces “ambitious crypto product roadmap” along with plans to hire more engineers. Builders keep building…

MILKY MEMES 🤣

That's a wrap for today. Meet us on Twitter to talk all about it. It’s kinda like a family BBQ but better - no screaming kids, awkward photos, or drunk uncles telling weird stories (@MilkRoadDaily)

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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.