Today’s edition is brought to you by Bakkt, the company behind Bakkt® Custody - an institutional-grade solution to custody your digital assets.

Have confidence in your crypto custody!

GM. This is Milk Road, we churn out milky crypto updates faster than a barista slinging lattes during the morning rush.

Here’s what we’re serving up today:

• Ethereum hits $10B in all-time revenue 💸

• Crypto’s billion-dollar opportunity: CS skins 👀

• Ride this bike and get paid in Bitcoin 🚲

• MoneyGram is launching a crypto wallet 🍪

ETHEREUM HITS $10B IN ALL-TIME REVENUE 💸

The Ethereum network recently passed a big milestone…$10B in all-time revenue.

According to a recent report from Caleb & Brown:

• The Ethereum network has generated $16.8B in fees

• 60% of that has turned into revenue

The craziest part? Ethereum reached $10B in revenue faster than Facebook.

And Microsoft. And Shopify. And Zoom. And Salesforce.

In fact, the only company to do it faster is… Google. 

The cool thing is Ethereum isn’t even a company.

It’s a decentralized network. So, all that revenue goes back to network stakers that help keep Ethereum up and running.

It’s a win-win for everyone.

COMPROMISE NOTHING WHEN IT COMES TO CRYPTO CUSTODY

Crypto custody is a lot like building a home: there’s no cutting corners.

The big difference? There’s no easy fix at the store if you lose your digital assets.

That’s why you need solid infrastructure from the start. And that’s where Bakkt comes in.

Bakkt® Custody:

• Operates under Bakkt Trust Company LLC, an NYDFS Qualified Custodian 

• Is backed by multi-layer security and a seasoned team dedicated to continuous improvements

• Never lends clients’ assets – what’s yours is yours

Bakkt has been at it since 2018 with a proven track record. And at a time when hacks and scammers are more prevalent than ever, you can never be too careful.

Have confidence in your crypto custody!

CRYPTO’S BILLION-DOLLAR OPPORTUNITY: CS SKINS 👀

Counter-Strike (CS) is one of the most popular video games out there.

• ~900,000 active players on the game, right at this very second.

• ~6M active players over the last month.

• ~44M hours of Counter-Strike content has been watched on Twitch over the last 30 days.

It’s huge. And one of the things that makes it so popular is… skins.

These are in-game assets that have no functional purpose, but they make you look cool.

Skins are in a lot of games (like Fortnite and Call of Duty) but there’s a big difference with Counter-Strike… the skins can be traded.

And the market is lucrative. My researchers tell me some of these Counter-Strike skins are going for $100K+.

The most expensive one? This knife skin had a $1.5M bid on it last year. (btw, the bid was rejected)

As a result, trading Counter-Strike skins has turned into a billion-dollar market.

Well, turns out that one of the most popular trading platforms is actually a blockchain-based marketplace, called DMarket.

• It uses the Mythos blockchain

• Users purchase a skin and get an on-chain receipt which can be used to redeem the asset in-game

• Assets are technically off-chain, but the receipts are recorded on-chain

According to CryptoSlam, DMarket has seen $220M+ in total sales volume, with most of it coming from Counter-Strike skins.

Why this matters: Gamers HATE anything (and everything) related to crypto.

Blockchains. NFTs. Web3.

You name it. They despise it.

The funny thing is that NFTs and digital collectibles are pretty similar.

But when gamers see NFTs, they freak the f*ck out. (in a bad way)

When they see digital collectibles, they also freak the f*ck out. (but in a good way)

So, what DMarket is doing is pretty clever. It’s what I call a Trojan Horse.

Instead of throwing fancy buzzwords at gamers, they created a Web2 user experience on the front end and hid all blockchain technology in the back end.

It’s like when my mom used to make me mac & cheese growing up. She always said it was made from scratch and with love. Lots of love.

Then when I got older, she told me the secret…

I’d been eating Kraft Easy Mac my whole life. She just hid the boxes it came in.

Well, the same thing is happening with DMarket and Counter-Strike skins.

The result? People are trading hundreds of millions of dollars worth of digital collectibles using a blockchain-based platform - and they have no idea.

Checkmate.

RIDE THIS BIKE AND GET PAID IN BITCOIN 🚲

Check it out. This is one of the coolest things I’ve seen all week…

A few nerds developers built a bike that mines Bitcoin as you exercise.

The harder you peddle, the more mining power you get.

Pretty cool.

After doing a pros/cons list between this and my Peloton bike, I might have to switch teams…

BITE-SIZED COOKIES 🍪

Kraken Pro has become the one-stop shop for Pro Traders. Packed with new trading and analytics tools, a polished UI, and a fully customizable trading interface, it’s Kraken’s most powerful trading platform—ever.*

MoneyGram is launching a non-custodial digital wallet next year. The wallet will let customers move from fiat—> digital currency —> back to fiat, seamlessly.

Pudgy Penguins’ toy collection will be available at 2,000 Walmart stores in the U.S. Physical Toys 🤝 Digital Collectibles.

The SEC has delayed its decision on Ark’s Bitcoin ETF filing. The new deadline is set for January 10, 2024.

Chase U.K. announced it will ban all payments related to crypto assets. Starting on Oct. 16, Chase U.K. customers will no longer be able to purchase crypto via debit cards or bank transfers.

A crypto wallet tied to the Sinaloa Cartel was been sanctioned by the U.S. government. The wallet is tied to a money laundering operation that transfers profits from fentanyl sales to the Mexican cartel.

*This is sponsored content

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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.