Today’s edition is brought to you by Hummingbird Momma — a collection of 2500 NFTs by Sophie Sturdevant with a charitable purpose and goal of safeguarding our pollinators, planet, and all of humanity.

GM. This is Milk Road, where we make crypto feel like a party you never want to leave.

Here’s what we got for you today:

• FTX is restarting 🧟

• Numbers of the day 🔢

• We wanna hear from you! 🥛

• Most people have no idea what “Web3” is 🍪

IT’S OFFICIAL: FTX IS REBOOTING 🧟

There are two things that give the Milk Man PTSD:

• Frosted spiky hair circa 2001

• Anything to do with FTX

We’re in the clear on the first (phew.) But not the second…

John J. Ray III (current FTX CEO and bankrupt company cleaner-upper) said he’s started looking for investors for FTX 2.0.

That’s right folks, the bankrupt crypto exchange is pulling a Dr. Dre - 🎵“it’s the next episode”🎵

Here’s what we know:

• FTX would probably rebrand as part of the plan.

• Customers would be paid back. Possibly via stakes in the restarted exchange.

• Figure (a blockchain tech firm) is interested in helping FTX reboot. That’s the same company that bid for Celsius (and lost) btw. Talk about a Bankrupt Company Hunter™ over here.

• Investor bids end at the end of this week.

Does it suck to dredge up FTX trauma? Yes.

But at the end of the day, there’s one goal: to repay the customers that lost money.

And believe it or not, a relaunched exchange might actually get them more of their money back.

At least it won’t be called “FTX.” Our money’s on another three-letter combo.

SUPPORT THE PLANET WITH NEXT-LEVEL ART

It’s not every day that you can collect next-gen art and help make a difference in the world.

Well, the Hummingbird Momma collection has it all: Next level AI-generated art, the creative direction of Sophie Sturdevant, charitable partnerships, and real-world value in all-natural USDA organic hummingbird food discounts for token holders.

Here’s some info on the collection:

• It’s made up of 2500 AI-generated NFTs that showcase our planet’s three essential pollinators: Hummingbirds, Bees and Butterflies — Each is a 1/1

• 20% of all primary sales are donated to credible environmental programs — The Hummingbird Conservancy, Pollinator Partnership, and Earthjustice — which also means that you receive a tax deduction on 20% of your purchase

• NFT holders receive up to 20% off of Hummingbird Momma’s webstore based on token rarity

The sale goes live today at 12PM EST, with each NFT priced at 0.1ETH (slightly under $200).

Join a community of philanthropic tech lovers and support important causes today!

NUMBERS OF THE DAY 🔢

$5.5M - how much trading volume BITX saw on its first day

Last week, the first leveraged Bitcoin futures ETF (talk about a mouthful) was approved.

It’s called 2x Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITX) and it’s issued by a company called Volatility Shares.

On Tuesday, BITX had its debut. “Yo Alexa, play the Rocky theme song.”

So, how’d it go? Here are some highlights…

• $500K in trading volume during the first 15 minutes

• $5.5M in total trading volume on the first day

• Ranks 30th out of the 195 ETFs launched this year (in terms of day 1 volume)

Not great, but not terrible. (Or as the French say: comme ci, comme ça. I took 5 years and that’s the only thing I remember.)

Either way, it’s another milestone for crypto as it was the first leveraged Bitcoin futures ETF launched in the U.S.

Now all eyes are on whether a spot Bitcoin ETF will get approved next.

100 - how many Teslas have been tokenized

Check it out, a car-sharing service called Eloop just partnered up with Peaq Network (a blockchain built on Polkadot) to launch a new project.

The goal? Tokenize cars for ridesharing services.

Here’s how it works:

• Ownership of the car gets tokenized and put on the Peaq Network

• This lets users buy the token and own a fraction of the car

• Token holders split the revenue the car generates from daily rideshare operations

So far, 100 Teslas have been tokenized and are driving the streets of Vienna.

We’ll check back in a couple of months to see how successful this ends up being, but this is a pretty cool use case.

$38M - how much Azuki made on its latest NFT drop

Azuki has been a top NFT collection since it launched back in Jan 2022.

It’s one of the few projects that has seen $1B+ in sales volume, according to CryptoSlam. #ThreeCommaClub

Earlier this week, the team launched a new collection called “Azuki Elementals.” Here are some highlights:

• Each NFT was priced at 2 ETH (~$3,800)

• The collection of 20K NFTs sold out in 15 minutes

• It sold out during the “pre-sale” (i.e. it didn’t even make it to the public sale)

• Azuki made $38M from the launch

$38M. 15 minutes. Holy sh*t.

But there was one big problem: when the art was revealed for the new collection, it was almost identical to the original Azuki collection.

Same art. Same style. New traits (i.e. different hair, accessories, etc.)

To make things worse, the original Azuki collection was priced at around 14 ETH (~$27,000) when the Elementals collection launched.

7x price difference, but basically the same art.

Needless to say, the Azuki community was pissed. The floor price of the original NFT collection dropped from 14 ETH →9.5 ETH (-32% drop.)

**Enter narrator's voice: it was at this moment, Azuki knew they f*cked up**

We’ll see how quickly Azuki bounces back from this sh*show, but let this be a lesson to other NFT collections on what (NOT) to do.

WHAT WILL THE REST OF 2023 BRING? 🥛

Well Roaders, somehow 2023 is halfway over.

Seems like just yesterday the Milk Man was ringing in the new year (with flutes of 2%, of course. No bubbles for him.)

We’re over here trying to figure out what the rest of 2023 is gonna look like. And we wanna hear what y’all think too!

• How do you think the market will finish the year?

• What are your plans for crypto investing?

• What are your thoughts on the regulatory environment?

Let us know by filling out our 2H outlook survey.

MILK & COOKIES 🍪

A ConsenSys survey found that 92% of 15K people from 15 countries have heard of “crypto.” Just 8% are familiar with what “Web3” is. Lose👏 the👏 jargon.

Ledger (hard wallet leader) is launching a new crypto trading platform for institutional investors. Welcome to the bandwagon.

GBTC (Grayscale’s Bitcoin trust) hit a 1-year high on Tuesday. The digital asset manager wants to launch a Bitcoin ETF, so GBTC is soaring on news of BlackRock’s application for one.

There is now 23M ETH staked, an ATH since the Shapella Upgrade in April. “Great Unstaking” my ass.

MILKY MEME 🤣

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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.