Gm. This is Milk Road, the Men’s Warehouse of crypto:

You’re gonna like the way you learn.

Here’s what we got for ya today: 

• “I didn’t steal funds” -Samuel

• Inflation down, crypto up

• Nexo is raided

• Yuga Labs announces new NFT mint and an update on Genesis

SAMUEL STARTS A NEWSLETTER

Disgraced crypto exec. League of legends stan. 

And now… blogger?

Yesterday, SBF spoke in-depth for the first time since he was arrested. He wrote a tell-all post on his shiny, brand new Substack blog.

Here are Samuel's 5 biggest claims:

1/ FTX could repay customers if it rebooted today

Samuel said there’s a “real possibility” he could make customers whole if he could get FTX up and running again. 

Back in November he claims there were “billions of dollars in funding offers.”

But the law firm Sullivan and Crowell pressured FTX into filing for bankruptcy instead of accepting the new funding. 

2/ He said didn’t steal funds or stash money away

The co-mingling of funds. Personal real estate purchases. Billion-dollar passbook loans (when you loan money to yourself).  

Samuel tried to put it all to bed when he said he “didn’t steal funds, and I certainly didn’t stash away billions.” … Right

3/ He repeated for the 643,875th time that he didn't know what happened with Alameda

Samuel has said he wasn’t involved in his firm’s sister company. Claiming he hasn’t run the hedge fund “for the past few years.” 

“I DON’T RUN ALAMEDA” is to Samuel what “WE WERE ON A BREAK” is to Ross.

Remember, homeboy owned 90% of the company and last August, he shared the firm’s financials with Forbes to prove he was a billionaire. Oops.

4/ FTX US is solvent

Samuel insists FTX US is unaffected, because its funds and customers were separated from the international FTX.

He even included a handy dandy spreadsheet showing FTX US still had $350m of cash on hand before passing the torch to John Ray lll (new FTX CEO, professional bankrupt company cleaner-upper.)

5/ Samuel took a jab at current FTX CEO, John Ray III

Samuel said it was “ridiculous that FTX US users haven’t been made whole and gotten their funds back yet.”

Listen, we get that he has to shift blame away from himself for legal purposes.

But... dissing the bankruptcy lawyer that’s cleaning up your $8B mess? Maybe a bit much.

Besides living in an alternate reality between sanity and solvency, the weirdest part of Samuel's Substack? 

He asked people to financially support his new blog...

We already financially supported your exchange, we ain't doing it again.

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INFLATION DOWN, PRICES UP

Yesterday we got the CPI report for December. 

CPI is inflation's scoreboard in the U.S. It measures how expensive things are and explains why I can't make my morning omelet. (The Milk Man's got a mean garden omelet.)

The Fed's goal is to keep CPI at 2%. But last June, inflation reached a 40-year high of 9%!

This forced the FED to raise interest rates. Higher interest rates mean less lending. Less lending means less spending, and less spending = people aren't buying as much crypto.

So how did December CPI look? 

It came out to 6.5%. 

This is the fifth month in a row that inflation has fallen, so it looks like inflation is slowing down.

The President of the Philadelphia Fed says the days of .75% rate increases, “have surely passed.” Going forward he expects .25% rate hikes. 

Smaller rate increases means good news for the economy and great news for crypto. Right after the announcement, ETH rose 3% and Bitcoin shot up 4%. 

But before we break out the champagne, we need inflation to get closer to 2%. That's when the party starts again. 

NEXO IS UNDER INVESTIGATION

Crypto lender Nexo is under fire again. 

Bulgarian law enforcement raided 15 different offices tied to Nexo this week. 

Why? Bulgarian authorities are investigating the crypto lender over money laundering, computer fraud, and other criminal activities. According to them:

• At least one person used Nexo to finance terrorism

• Crimes include violating international sanctions against Russia during its war with Ukraine

What’s Nexo saying? That Bulgaria is the “most corrupt country in the EU,” and some regulators like to “kick first, ask questions later.”

Nexo’s co-founder said the Nexo-linked group under investigation is a Bulgarian entity that isn’t customer-facing.

The company also called its money-laundering policies “very stringent.”

What next? Nexo is the latest target for crypto FUD, and customers are headed for the exits:

COOKIES AND MILK

Custume of the day: Miss El Salvador wore a costume during Miss Universe 2023 complete with a gold Bitcoin-themed prop. El Salvador became the first nation in 2021 to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender.

Rumor Mill: Genesis owes creditors $3b, so DCG is offloading assets to pay that debt. Their portfolio includes over 200 crypto-related projects, such as exchanges, banks, and custodians. 

Job cuts: Crypto.com cuts 20% of workforce due to "significant damage" to the industry. Hey, they still got the naming rights to the Lakers Arena. Speaking of arenas ...

Arena of the Day: A federal bankruptcy judge terminated FTX’s deal with Miami-Dade for the Miami Heat arena naming rights. Until a new sponsor is found, the Heat will call their stadium, “The Arena.” 

NFT mint: Yuga Labs, the creators of Bored Ape Yacht Club, announced a new free, skill-based NFT mint. 

MILKY MEMES

🤣🤣

That's a wrap for today. Stay thirsty & see ya tomorrow! If you want more, be sure to follow our Twitter (@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.