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GM. This is Milk Road, where we make the crypto market sound like a bedtime story, minus the sleeping part.

Here’s what we got today:

• Bitcoin re-enters the top 10 most valuable assets in the world 📈

• Digital asset funds see 10 straight weeks of inflows 💰

• 23 years ago, the news was calling the internet a “fad” 📰

• MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin holdings pass $2B in profit 🍪

BITCOIN IS THE 10TH MOST VALUABLE ASSET IN THE WORLD 📈

Ladies & gents, Bitcoin is now the 10th most valuable asset (by market cap) in the world.

It’s honestly pretty crazy to think about. Over the last 10 years, Bitcoin has…

• Plummeted by 80%, multiple times. (btw, you can check out the top 7 biggest BTC crashes of all time here).

• Survived multiple “industry nukes”. The largest crypto exchange (Mt.Gox) collapsed. The fastest-growing stablecoin project (Luna) imploded. Multiple exchanges and hedge funds went belly up and filed for bankruptcy. 

• Been blamed for funding illicit activities. “Little Jimmy used doggy coin to buy pot last week.”

• Been banned by multiple countries. If “China Bans Bitcoin” was a movie series, it’d have more sequels than Fast & Furious. 

… and through it all, Bitcoin still has a $800B+ market cap and is one of the top 10 most valuable assets in the world. 

Impressive.

DIGITAL ASSET FUNDS SEE 10 STRAIGHT WEEKS OF INFLOWS 💰

CoinShares is a European asset manager that specializes in digital assets.

• Launched the first regulated Bitcoin hedge fund.

• Launched the first exchange-traded Bitcoin product.

• Holds $2B+ across its two crypto-exchange-traded products.

And each week, CoinShares drops a report on how much money gets put into digital asset investment products. It’s a good way to gauge institutional interest in crypto.

Well, the latest results are in…$176M in total inflows.

Here’s everything you need to know about the latest report:

• It’s the 10th straight week of inflows. In that span, there’s been $1.76B invested into digital asset products. 

• It’s the largest run of inflows since October 2021. Which also happens to be the same year the first futures-based ETF launched in the U.S. 

• BTC led the way with $133M in inflows. Another week, another big inflow.

• ETH saw another week of inflows. That’s now 5 straight weeks of inflows, totaling $134M. 

Milk Road Prediction: Not only will next week be another week of inflows (making it 11 straight) but it’ll be the largest weekly inflow of the year. You heard it here first. 

23 YEARS AGO TODAY, THE INTERNET WAS A “FAD” 📰

Today’s a historic day. It’s (unofficially) National “Laugh-At-Everyone-Who-Said-The-Internet-Was-A-Fad” Day. 

You see, 23 years ago, Daily Mail published this…

P.S. - in case you don’t know, Daily Mail is one of the most popular newspapers in the U.K. 

P.P.S. - if you don’t know what a newspaper is, it’s how people used to get the news back in the day. No emails. No phones. It was all on paper, baby! And some kids would ride their bikes doing drive-bys, tossing the newspaper at people’s front door steps. 

Anyway, here are some of my favorite quotes from the article:

• “Teenagers’ use of the Internet has declined. They were energized by what you can do on the net but they have been through all that and then realized there is more to life in the real world and gone back to it." 

• “The internet may be only a passing fad for many users.”

• “The future of online shopping is limited.” (Hmm.. my wife’s credit card statement begs to differ).

In the 2000s, it was the Internet being called a fad. Today, it’s crypto.

BITE-SIZED COOKIES 🍪

MicroStrategy’s BTC holdings surpassed $2B in profits. The software company (that no one knows for being a software company) holds 174,530 BTC. 

El Salvador’s Bitcoin investment is in the green zone. According to recent data, El Salvador has accrued an unrealized profit of $3.6M.

Societe Generale issued its first “green bond” on the Ethereum blockchain. The bond has a maturity of three years and amounts to $10.8M. 

Franklin Templeton’s CEO, Jenny Johnson, says she’s personally invested in multiple cryptocurrencies like BTC, ETH, UNI, and SUSHI. Here you go queen, you dropped this… 👑

Blur is now dominating ~80% of NFT trading volume. OpenSea’s market share has plummeted down to ~17%. 

The Sandbox is teaming up with Notorious B.I.G.’s estate to launch a new metaverse experience. It’s called “Breakin’ B.I.G.,” and allows players to navigate various “quests” like helping out around the virtual Brooklyn community and confronting B.I.G.’s rivals. 

Brazil’s largest private bank, Itau Unibanco, is launching crypto trading services. The bank announced it will start with buying/selling BTC and ETH.

MILKY MEMES 🤣

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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.