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It’s Friday! Let’s get it:

• Crypto use case: tokenized carbon credits 👀

• TradFi CEOs’ crypto views: love or hate? ⏪

• Funding Friday: Web3 companies that got money this week 💰

• CNBC had a funeral for Bitcoin 5 years ago 🍪

CRYPTO USE CASE OF THE WEEK 👀

There’s one question that will make every crypto investor tremble…

What are some real-world use cases?

Suddenly, it feels like the final level of “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire”. You start sweating in places you’ve never sweat before.

Well - have no fear, the Milk Man is here.

With the weekend coming up (AKA primetime crypto debate time), we figured it’d be a good idea to give you some ammo just in case you get asked the million-bitcoin question.

And check it out, we just found a cool database of use cases. It’s called The Value Prop.

Here’s one cool use case we came across:

TOKENIZED CARBON CREDITS

I won’t lie to you, we aren’t environmentalists and had no idea what carbon credits actually were so we did a little research… here’s how I'd explain it to a first-grader:

Global warming is getting bad. (Real bad, Michael Jackson).

The good thing: There are a ton of smart people out there building solutions to try to save us.

The bad thing: The smart people trying to save the world don’t get much funding.

So in order to solve this, a carbon credits market was created. This is how it works:

• Every time a project successfully removes 1 ton of carbon from the atmosphere, they get 1 carbon credit.

• These carbon credits are then sold to individual companies.

• The companies buy carbon credits to reduce their carbon footprint and meet regulatory requirements.

• Companies try to buy 1 carbon credit for every 1 ton of C02 they create from factories, trucks, etc. (It’s an “offset”).

But there’s another issue: these transactions are slow and mostly done over the counter.

That’s where the blockchain comes in. By tokenizing the carbon credits and putting them on a blockchain, it makes the market more transparent, liquid, and accessible.

Big corporations get to say they’re net-zero and the environmental projects get some funding. It’s a win-win. Gold stars all around.

Here are a few companies that are doing this today:

• Nori

• KlimaDAO

• Coorest

• Andes

Crypto gets a ton of hate for hurting the environment, so it's good to see a few projects all tackling environmental problems here.

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MEMORY LANE: TRADFI CEOS’ VIEWS ON CRYPTO ⏪

Looking back on TradFi CEO’s comments on crypto can feel like looking back at your old Facebook posts.

Song lyrics, music quotes… Sh*t’s embarrassing.

But it’s fun. Which is why we’re about to “Facebook stalk” CEOs of the TradFi giants that are jumping into crypto right now.

And look at all the crypto hate (and love!) they spouted back in the day.

Let’s dive in…

Larry Fink, BlackRock CEO

How it started: 

• Said “Bitcoin just shows you how much demand for money laundering there is"

• "Bitcoin is an index for money laundering - that's all it is."

• And in 2018, said none of the company’s clients were interested in buying crypto

How it's going:

• Said in late 2022 that tokenization is the “next generation for markets”

• BlackRock applied for a Bitcoin ETF this week that would allow its customers to invest in Bitcoin.

Milk Road H8er Meter: 11/10

Ken Griffin, Founder of Citadel

How it started:

• Called crypto a “Jihadist call" against the dollar and that he “wished young people would use that energy to make the US dollar stronger instead”

• Said people who own crypto are "stupid"

How it's going:

• Called crypto one of the greatest finance stories over the last 15 years

• His company co-launched a new crypto exchange this week (w/ Fidelity & Charles Schwab)

Milk Road H8er Meter: 12/10

Walt Bettinger, CEO of Charles Schwab

How it started:

• In 2021, said was looking “cautiously” and “closely” at the crypto market

• Was waiting for regulatory clarity. If it came, the company would “be a player in the space” & “disruptive”

How it’s going:

• Co-launched a new crypto exchange this week

Milk Road H8er Meter: 3/10

Now for the one on this list that’s actually been bullish for ~a decade…

Abigail Johnson, CEO of Fidelity

It’s like that only friend in the group who’s been saying aliens were real and no one believed them. Until UFOs started landing everywhere.

She:

• Is a big digital asset advocate

• Has mined ~200K satoshis

• Oversaw a small mining operation launched within Fidelity that makes it a lot of money

• Led Fidelity as 1 of 3 companies that launched a new crypto exchange. It’s also rumored to apply for a Bitcoin ETF…

Milk Road H8er Meter: 0/10

Milk Road Take: You’re not entirely defined by that Evanescence song lyric you posted on Facebook in 2012.

Just like these execs and their companies aren’t entirely defined by the smack they’ve talked about crypto in the past.

Once a h8er ≠ always a h8er.

FUNDING FRIDAY 💰

It’s Funding Friday! This week, ~$38M was raised by crypto companies.

Here’s who secured the money:

Kaito got $5.5M to build an AI-powered search engine for crypto. There are more AI crossovers than in the NBA during the early 2000s. If you know, you know.

TaxNodes got $1.6M to create crypto tax and accounting solutions. Crypto taxes made easy.

TapiocaDAO got $6M to develop a multi-chain money market. Users can borrow, lend, and leverage up across 20+ different blockchains.

Check out the full database of companies that have raised money this week, right here.

MILK & COOKIES 🍪

Five years ago, CNBC said it was having a funeral for Bitcoin. BTC was $6,027 at the time - now it’s at $30K+.

Microstrategy turned profitable yesterday with its $4B in Bitcoin. Michael Saylor’s company is in the green with BTC higher than Microstrategy’s average purchase price of $29,803.

Pepe (memecoin) came back to life and jumped 35% in one day. Bitcoin’s rally & major accumulation is behind the rise.

Binance is being investigated in Brazil over pyramid scheme allegations. Parliament will decide soon if Binance Brazil’s chief will testify.

MILKY MEMES 🤣

HIT THE INBOX OF 250K+ CRYPTO INVESTORS

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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.