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GM. This is Milk Road, where we knit the complex threads of crypto into a comfy sweater of understanding.

It’s Friday. Yesterday was a light news day. Let’s not waste any time!

Here are today’s quick hitters:

• Bitcoin ETF, today? 🧐

• Ethereum L2’s just passed all L1 chains in combined TVL 📈

• NFTs aren’t dead, they just moved blockchains 🧳

• Digital asset investment products saw $2.5B in inflows last year 💰

• Our weekend watchlist 👀

• Watch out for these Solana drainers 🍪

QUICK HITTERS FROM TWITTER 👀

1/ BITCOIN ETF, TODAY?

There are rumors that multiple spot Bitcoin ETFs could be approved today… 

I know I know… if you got a dollar after every “Bitcoin ETF approval incoming!” rumor, you could probably buy like 3 BTC at this point. 

But Jacquelyn:

• Is a kick-ass reporter.

• Works for TechCrunch. They have a ton of insider sources and are always breaking news. (In the great words of Ludacris, they’ve “got hoes in different area codes”).

• Is a fellow Milk Road subscriber.

I trust her word more than the Cointelegraph intern or Matrixport guy.

But like all rumors… don’t hold your breath hoping they come true. 

2/ ETHEREUM L2’S JUST PASSED ALL L1 CHAINS IN COMBINED TVL

Check it out. Josh Stark (no relation to Tony Stark) works at the Ethereum Foundation.

Back in Sept 2021, he created a poll…

When will the total value locked in Ethereum's L2 exceed the total value locked in all applications & protocols on other L1 chains combined?

The majority of people guessed Q1 2022. And boy were they spot on wrong as hell. Right quarter. Wrong year. 

But almost two and half years later, it finally happened… 

• Ethereum L2s = $20.7 billion

• Other L1s = $19.67 billion

Pretty crazy. And we expect this trend to continue:

• Ethereum’s 2024 roadmap has a large focus on Layer 2’s. 

• The Dencun upgrade is coming soon. One of the main goals is to make L2 gas fees cheaper. (You can check out the expected price differences here).

P.S. - congrats to Arbitrum! It just became the first L2 to cross $1B+ in daily volume on Uniswap.

3/ NFTS AREN’T DEAD, THEY JUST MOVED BLOCKCHAINS

Shhh… you hear that?

*crickets*

That's right. Silence. The hype around NFTs has died down… 

…. or has it?

The reality is NFTs haven’t died, they’ve just moved to other chains. 

• Historically, most of the NFT action happened on Ethereum.

• Today, most of the NFT action is happening on Bitcoin and Solana.

Milk Road Take: This next cycle is looking increasingly multi-chain. 

And while a few blue-chip NFT collections will remain on Ethereum, the average trader probably won’t want to deal with Ethereum’s high gas fees and might look at other, cheaper chains. 

4/ DIGITAL ASSET INVESTMENT PRODUCTS SAW $2.5B OF INFLOWS LAST YEAR

Each week, CoinShares drops a report on how much institutional money flows in and out of crypto-related products.

It’s a good way to gauge institutional interest. 

Well, CoinShares’ latest report is for the entire 2023 year. And there were some big takeaways:

• $2.5B was invested into digital asset investment products last year. That’s 2.7x more than 2022 and is the 3rd largest year for inflows.

• Bitcoin had $1.9B of inflows. That’s 87% of the total flows. (!!)

• Total assets under management (AUM) rose 129% over the year. Total AUM is now the highest it has been since March 2022. 

• Solana had $167M in total inflows. It was the second most popular asset behind Bitcoin and saw 2x more than Ethereum. 

• The US saw the largest inflows ($792M). Germany was second ($663M), then Canada ($543M), and then Switzerland ($434M) to round out the top 4. 

Milk Road Prediction: 2024 will be the biggest year for digital asset investment products ever. (For reference, 2021 saw $10.7B).

OUR WEEKEND WATCHLIST 👀

We always get asked what stuff we’re watching, reading, and diving deeper into. 

Well, here’s what’s on our weekend watchlist:

1 THING WE’RE READING/DIVING DEEPER INTO: 2024 VC predictions. 

VCs invested $10.7B into crypto and blockchain companies last year. 

And sure, that’s down 68% from 2022 (ouch), but I think we can all agree… $10.7 BILLION is still a sh*tton of money. 

So it’s a good idea to see what the investors with a sh*tton of money are looking at next. 

We’ve already started diving into a few of their predictions here… 

… but there are still plenty more we need to get through. Luckily, the Milk Man just upgraded his prescription glasses. 

We’ll dive deeper into them this weekend and report back with anything interesting we find! (Btw, here’s another quick summary of VCs and research outlet predictions).

1 THING WE’RE WATCHING: Bitconned.

There’s a new Netflix doc I keep hearing about called Bitconned. 

Here’s the setup: 

• A group of guys are trying to create a debit card for crypto. 

• The problem: none of them the first thing about debit cards or crypto. (shooters gonna shoot?)

• But they know A LOT about scamming. (scammers gonna scam?)

• A few fake LinkedIn profiles, fake partnerships, and paid celebrity endorsements later… they had a business raking in millions of dollars a day. 

It looks WILD. Just watch the trailer and see if you don’t “HOLY SH*T” yourself…

BITE-SIZED COOKIES FOR THE ROAD 🍪

Solana-focused wallet drainers are on the rise. They enable fraudsters to covertly drain wallets after deceiving victims into approving malicious transactions. Losses are already mounting into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Visa is piloting a new web3 customer loyalty program. The customer engagement platform, named the Visa Web3 Loyalty Engagement Solution, will let brands create digital wallets where they can store reward points and experiences on behalf of consumers. 

Financial advisers want a bitcoin ETF, but less than half expect approval. According to Bitwise’s recent survey, only 39% of financial professionals believe a spot Bitcoin ETF will be approved in 2024.  

South Korean regulators are looking to ban crypto purchases using credit cards. Regulators want to expand the scope of prohibited credit card payments to add crypto exchanges to prevent foreign currency outflow and prevent money laundering.

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.