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đŸ„› Halloween: Crypto Edition 🎃

PLUS: Institutional investors pumped $300M+ into crypto products last week 📈

October 31, 2023

Today’s edition is brought to you by Phemex - a top 5 exchange gearing up to kick off its native token launch through a long-awaited airdrop campaign.

GM. This is Milk Road, the daily newsletter that treats you to crypto insights — no tricks, just treats. And absolutely no cavities.

We’ve got a special one for you today:

  • Halloween costumes: crypto edition 🎃

  • Join the festivities with Phemex 👀

  • Institutions invested $300M+ into crypto products last week 📈

  • The tokenized U.S. Treasury market just hit $698M đŸȘ

HALLOWEEN COSTUMES: CRYPTO EDITION 🎃

Here at Milk Road, we zig while others zag.

And since today’s Halloween, we decided to do something a little different.

Introducing
 Halloween costumes: crypto edition.

We picked a few notable crypto players (founders, regulators, etc) and dressed them up for the holiday.

Without further adieu, let’s get started.

1/ Sam Bankman-Fried as “The Grinch”. 

Sam Bankman-Fried (formerly-known-as-SBF, or fkSBF for short) and the Grinch have a lot in common:

  • They both steal things (the Grinch stole Christmas and fkSBF stole everyone’s money)

  • They’re both mean and cranky and have hearts “two sizes too small”

It’s a perfect match.

2/ Brian Armstrong as “Mr. Clean”.

Crypto has been full of dirty, corrupt crypto founders. 

Do Kwon. Su Zhu. Kyle Davies. Alex Mashinsky. fkSBF


**pauses to take a breath**


 Anatoly Legkodymov. Ruja Ignatova. Karl Greenwood
 

You get the point. It’s a long list.

Well in an industry full of dirtiness, one man is doing it the clean way


Brian Armstrong. He’s the founder of Coinbase, a crypto company that:

  • Doesn’t co-mingle customer funds

  • Doesn’t fake financial reports (their balance sheet is completely public)

  • And has been working with U.S. lawmakers to bring safe, fair regulation to crypto

Brian is the Mr. Clean of Crypto. 

Oh, and they’re both bald. So it kinda works out perfectly. 

**static noise**

We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming to bring you a quick word from our sponsor


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  • Accumulate points with deposits, trading, and friend invites

  • Automatically receive PT airdrops based on your points

And get it while you can, users have until November 19 to reap the PT rewards!

**static noise**

And now back to your regularly scheduled programming


3/ Gary Gensler, Elizabeth Warren, and Jerome Powell as “A Nightmare On Capitol Hill”. 

This is one of those group costume ideas. The one where you hit up your friends to match a theme. 

Side note: Back in ‘99, the homies and I showed up to our Kindergarten costume contest as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

(We placed 2nd. Lost to The Spice Girls. Still salty about it.)

Anyways, back to crypto... this year we think Gary Gensler, Elizabeth Warren, and Jerome Powell should team up for a group costume. 

Together, they can be “A Nightmare on Capitol Hill”...

Jerome Powell = Freddy Kreuger. His interest rate hikes give investors nightmares and haunt them in their sleep. 

Elizabeth Warren = Michael Myers. A one-woman army with one goal: end crypto’s life. 

Gary Gensler = Jason. An unstoppable crypto-killing machine.

4/ Bitcoin as “The Grandpa from Up”.

I know, I know. Bitcoin isn’t a person so it can’t dress up for Halloween. 

But if it could, it’d be the Grandpa from the movie “Up”. 

They’re both old, stubborn, and keep going, well, up.

(Bitcoin is up over 100% this year)

Btw, the main thing that’s been lifting Bitcoin? News about a Bitcoin ETF. 

5/ Caroline Ellison as “Snow White and the 7 Balance Sheets”. 

We made this meme last week, but it also happens to be the perfect Halloween costume. Check it out


Caroline Ellison is the former CEO of Alameda Research and fkSBF’s ex-girlfriend.

Well, she recently testified that she created 7 alternative balance sheets for Alameda Research.

The goal? Make the company look less risky to investors/lenders, so they could get more money.

And now, introducing


Like Snow White, Caroline was just a girl looking for love but got a poisonous apple instead. (AKA fkSBF).

Alright, that’s all the crypto Halloween costumes we got today. 

Now we wanna hear from YOU. (Yes, you with that big ol’ grin on your face)

Hit us with your best Halloween costume ideas for crypto people, companies, etc. 

You can reply to this email or, if you wanna be extra milky, create a mockup of the costume idea and tag us on Twitter (@MilkRoadDaily). 

We’ll pick a few of the best ones and share them later this week!

INSTITUTIONS INVESTED $300M INTO CRYPTO PRODUCTS LAST WEEK 📈

The results from the latest weekly Digital Asset Fund Flows Report are in


Crypto investment products saw inflows totaling $326M. It’s the largest week of inflows this year and the largest since July 2022.

Here are some of the top takeaways from the latest report:

  • Bitcoin saw $296M in inflows. This made up 90% of the total inflows for the week. 

  • Institutional investors are pumping money into BTC anticipating a spot ETF will launch soon. CoinShares’ analysts believe this is the main reason for the large inflows last week. 

  • Altcoins continue to see inflows too. SOL led the way with $24M, while other altcoins like Litecoin and XRP saw minor inflows. 

  • ETH had $6M in outflows. While most assets were at the inflows party, ETH didn’t get the invite. 

That’s now 5 straight weeks of inflows. We’ll see if the streak continues next week.

BITE-SIZED COOKIES đŸȘ

Bakkt is taking the Lightning Network mainstream with the alpha program of its UMA-capable Lightning service. What's "UMA," you say? Learn more about it, and Bakkt's partner Lightspark here.*

The tokenized U.S. Treasury market just hit $698M. The market has jumped from $100M → $698M over the last 10 months. 

a16z is planning to raise $3.4B for its new funds. The leaked plan includes launching new growth, crypto, and bio funds.

Visits to Bitcoin’s Wikipedia page hit its highest level in over 16 months. My researchers tell me it’s still not as many views as Travis Kelce’s Wikipedia page recently though.

The UK Treasury published its final proposals for future regulation of crypto assets. The document outlines how firms undertaking crypto asset activities will now have to be authorized by the UK's Financial Conduct Authority. 

OKX released its latest Proof-of-Reserves. The crypto exchange has $12.5 billion in assets and is 103% collateralized with BTC, ETH, and USDT.

*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.

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