GM. This is Milk Road, the crypto newsletter that mixes news and entertainment like it was a red-and-blue 7-Eleven Slurpee.

Here's what we got for you today:

• The first BTC purchase 💸

• NFT leaderboard: 2018 vs. 2023 📊

• LG files a patent for a blockchain-based Smart TV🍪

Today’s edition is brought to you by Vanta - who can save you hundreds of hours of manual work and up to 85% in your compliance costs. Check out their 3-minute demo here!

THE FIRST PURCHASE MADE WITH BITCOIN 💸

Everyone was talking about one thing this weekend: the first purchase made with Bitcoin.

You see, someone went down the Internet’s rabbit hole and found a post on the BitcoinTalk forum from 2010.

In the post, a user named Sabunir put up a JPEG desktop background up for sale.

The price? 500 BTC.

At the time, 500 BTC was worth a whopping $1. Today, that’s worth ~$13.4 MILLION (!!)

Here’s the original post:

This is cool for 2 reasons:

1/ It's the first recorded purchase made with Bitcoin.

This post was 5 months before the famous Bitcoin Pizza transaction where a guy bought 2 pizzas for 10,000 BTC, worth ~$271M at today’s prices.

(Unfortunately, it was Papa John’s pizza too. Yuck.)

2/ Satoshi helped facilitate the Bitcoin JPEG sale.

Some Bitcoin users have been upset with the rise of Ordinals (AKA Bitcoin NFTs) and have claimed that it wasn’t part of Satoshi’s vision…

Well, looks like that might be wrong.

Satoshi actually helped broker the first JPEG deal using Bitcoin. Oh, how the tables have turned…

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NFT LEADERBOARD: 2018 VS. 2023 📊

Check it out. I came across this interesting chart over the weekend on Twitter.

It compares the weekly NFT volume leaderboard from 2018 to 2023…

The top takeaways:

• None of the projects from 2018 are in the leaderboard now

• In fact, most of the projects from 2018 are dead (R.I.P)

• Even though it’s an NFT “bear market” right now, the weekly volume is still 30-40x more now than in 2018

It’ll be interesting to see what the 2028 leaderboard looks like... 👀

MILK & COOKIES 🍪

Today NFTfi launched a brand-new phase in their popular loyalty program. In EARN SEASON 1 you can earn exclusive, non-transferable reward points for NFT borrowing/lending on their platform. Unlock value from your NFTs now! (Sponsored)

LG filed a patent for blockchain-based smart TV’s that lets users trade NFTs. Smart TVs meet NFTs.

QuadrigaCX creditors are set to start receiving their claims from the bankrupt exchange. Creditors are only expected to receive ~13% of their claims. Ooof.

The Assassin’s Creed video game announced it will be launching “Smart collectibles”. These will be NFT access passes that are paid with physical collectibles.

The IRS, Ukraine, and Chainalysis have teamed up to trace crypto transactions that are used to evade sanctions.Talk about an unlikely trio...

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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.