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GM. This is Milk Road. We’re like Frank’s Red Hot, but for crypto news.

(We add flavor and heat).

Here’s what we got for you today:

• ✍️ Coinbase launches $BTC-backed lending

• ✍️ Markets could get crazy this weekend

• 🎙️ The Milk Road Show: How Will Trump’s Tariffs Impact Crypto Markets? w/ PaperImperium 

• 🍪 Sui to sponsor Trump’s inauguration

COINBASE LAUNCHES BITCOIN-BACKED LENDING 💰

Damn, Coinbase just dropped a banger of a new product!

Ok, ok – Bitcoin-backed lending in general isn’t new – but this version of it is! Lemme paint you a picture of how it works, and why it’s worth getting excited about. 👇

Say you’ve accumulated a bunch of Bitcoin, and have it sitting on a centralized exchange.

First of all: hell yeah! Second, what’re you going to do with it (spend it, or hold it)?

If you wanted the best of both worlds (to spend your $BTC, without actually parting with it), you could take a loan against your holdings using a DeFi platform.

…but it ain’t easy. You gotta know your stuff.

For example:

1. You’ll need to move your $BTC to a decentralized wallet…

2. Bridge it into a wrapped token…

3. Do some research on the different DeFi lending platforms…

4. Find one you can trust, and take out your loan…

5. Reconfigure your yield curve expenditures…

If some/all of that doesn’t make sense – that’s because:

• DeFi is NOT user friendly, and…

• ‘Reconfiguring your yield curve expenditures’ isn’t a thing (we just made it up).
  But you considered it for a split second, ‘cause DeFi is a rat’s nest of complexity and jargon!

Now, here’s how Coinbase is about to make that experience feel what we can only describe as  “illegally smooth”.

All you’ll need to do is type in how much $USDC you want to borrow against your $BTC (max $100k) within the centralized Coinbase app, and click a button.

Everything else we listed above will still happen (minus the yield curve expenditure reconfiguration), but you won’t have to do or know anything about it!

It will all happen seamlessly in the background. 

It’s what you call a ‘DeFi mullet’ product…

Now, here’s the kicker:

Lending is probably just the beginning of Coinbase’s DeFi mullet offerings. The new regulatory landscape in the US is going to allow them to expand this kind of functionality waaay further.

In the coming months/years, we wouldn’t be surprised to see Coinbase create mullet products that allow its users to buy tokens that aren’t listed on its centralized exchange.

E.g. Want to buy a token that’s only available onchain, like $VIRTUAL or $AI16Z?

Click a button on Coinbase, and they’ll do all the heavy lifting in the background!

The takeaway? 

In 2025: Mullets are in!

MARKETS COULD GET CRAZY THIS WEEKEND, HERE’S WHY… 👀

Just do it. Now.

Text your friends, family, loved ones, and tell them you’re going to be unavailable this weekend.

‘Cause there’s a high likelihood you’re going to be glued to your phone, refreshing your portfolio tracker in 20 second increments all weekend.

Why? ‘Cause Trump takes office on Monday, and is said to be issuing ~100 executive orders right out of the gates!

(Some of which are expected to ease the regulatory strain on the US crypto industry).

And with that kind of anticipation, comes speculation. Hell, it’s already starting! 

Ranging anywhere between:

A Bitcoin Strategic Reserve being approved on day 1…

To altcoin season kicking off…

Is any of this going to happen? It might, it might not – nobody freakin’ knows!

The point is: everyone wants to believe it will.

Now, take all of that itching anticipation → add it to the fact that crypto is the only asset class that can be traded on weekends → and you have a potential powder keg of volatility on your hands!

And that’s just this weekend – beyond Monday, there’s still a huge amount of questions to speculate on, like:

• How Trump's tariffs could impact crypto markets

• What the Trump administration will do on the legislative side

• The potential for credit markets to get tokenized under a Trump presidency

Good news is, we just sat down with PaperImperium on today’s episode of The Milk Road Show to talk about just that!

(The first in a series of episodes we’ll be running over next week about the new Trump presidency, and its potential impact on crypto).

Check it out below! 👇

YouTube | Spotify | Apple Podcasts

BITE-SIZED COOKIES FOR THE ROAD 🍪

2025 is jam-packed with crypto conferences and events. Not sure which conference to attend? Our crypto conference guide has got you covered.

Sui to sponsor Trump’s inauguration. A crypto company backing the US President’s inauguration event? It doesn’t get more bullish than this.

Phantom wallet raises $150M. We’re a huge fan of the Phantom wallet so a huge shoutout to them!

Ethereum devs aiming for Pectra upgrade in March. Could this be the key catalyst needed for $ETH?

We’ve added a new job opening! We now have 4 job positions available, the latest one being a social media manager here at Milk Road.

Crypto cards are a surefire way to grow your crypto holdings. Just go about your normal life, swipe for your usual purchases and then get crypto rewards for free. Simple enough.

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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.