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GM, this is Milk Road. Crypto is like an onion - hard to peel and guaranteed to make you cry.

Let us do the peeling for you…

Here’s what we got for you today:

• Happy BTC ETF Approval Day! 🎉

• Super Nintendo 🤝 Bitcoin

• Blockchain daily addresses are on the rise 📈

• The results are in… 👀

• Goodbye, Twitter NFTs 🍪

HAPPY BTC ETF APPROVAL DAY 🎉

It’s been 3,845 LONG days and nights, but it finally happened…

THE FIRST SPOT BITCOIN ETFS HAVE BEEN APPROVED (!!). 

In case you missed it, here are the details:

• 11 Bitcoin ETFs were approved. The first chosen ones are… BlackRock, Grayscale, Hashdex, Bitwise, VanEck, WisdomTree, Fidelity, Invesco, Valkyrie, ARK Invest and Franklin Templeton. 

• These ETFs will go live for trading starting today. It’s game day, baby!

• Many of the ETF issues are expecting billions of dollars in inflows. Valkyrie says it expects $4B-$5B in the first few weeks, VanEck estimates $1B in the first few days, BlackRock estimates $2B in the first week, etc. 

It’s official. The 10-year wait is over.

Here are some of our favorite reactions from Twitter:

P.S. - Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss were the first ones to apply for a Bitcoin ETF back in 2013.

They were mocked, laughed at, and (verbally) spit on for trying… but that didn’t stop them from getting the ball rolling.

10 years later, history has been made. 

The Winklevoss twins may have lost Facebook to Zuck but, damnit, they won our crypto hearts. 

BTW - Franklin Templeton has $1.53T in assets under management (AUM).

Now the trillion-dollar firm is rocking Benjamin Franklin with BTC laser eyes as its profile pic. Wild.

BITCOIN 🤝 SUPER NINTENDO

We’re back with another segment of… Cool People Building Cool Sh*t™. 

On today’s episode:

• A group of developers inscribed a Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) emulator onto the Bitcoin blockchain.

• Emulators let you play old-school video games on modern devices. Think of it as a time machine for gaming nerds.

• The SNES emulator was inscribed by Ninjalerts using Bitcoin Ordinals (i.e. Bitcoin NFTs). 

• The new Bitcoin Ordinals project is called “Pizza Ninjas.” Which also happened to be my nickname in college. 

• Pizza Ninja NFT holders will get access to the browser-based emulator. Unlike traditional emulators, no need to download and install any software. 

Here’s a demo of someone playing the 90’s classic, “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles In Time.” 

Ninjalerts said they did this for 2 main reasons…

1/ It’s awesome. (We concur).

2/ A study recently found that 87% of classic video games are “critically endangered.” 

This means a large percentage of old-school games (and childhood memories) are at risk of being lost forever. 

That’s where the Bitcoin blockchain comes in. It gives the gaming community a way to preserve historical artifacts.

BLOCKCHAIN DAILY ACTIVE ADDRESSES ARE ON THE RISE 📈

Check it out. Daily active addresses across blockchains have been booming over the last 3 months.

Here are some of the biggest winners over the last 3 months:

• Solana (+299K)

• NEAR (+279K)

• Polygon (+238K)

• BNB Chain (+161K)

• ZK Sync (+89K)

So what? It further shows that this next cycle will be the most multi-chain one we’ve seen yet. 

Crypto users are moving away from the historically popular chains, like Bitcoin and Ethereum, and experimenting with new ones. 

With that being said, this multi-chain cycle is gonna get real crazy, real fast. 

You’re gonna hear about A LOT of blockchains - new Layer 2’s, parallelized EVM chains, etc. - and it’s gonna get overwhelming to keep up with.

Our advice? Remember that blockchains are like cities - find one with people/products you care about and can call your “home.”

WOULD YOU RATHER HAVE…$500K NOW OR $5M IN 10 YEARS 👀

Yesterday we ran a poll… would you rather have:

a) $500K today

b) $5M in 10 years

Well, the results are in… **drumroll**…

• 51.41% - $5M in 10 years.

• 48.59% - $500K today.

Here are some of our favorite responses…

Ian: “I might be dead, disabled, or (god forbid) I might have more kids. So I’ll take $500K now, thanks.”

Matty: “Broke as f*ck right now anyways. What’s another 60 months, b*tch…”

Samantha: “Rather have no cookies today but 10 cookies later.“

Mac: “To be honest I'm not sure, send me 500k and I'll let you know. Here's my ETH address…”

Mike: “$5M in ten years might buy me lunch at Chick-fil-A... but if I get the $$ today, I can invest in crypto/stocks vs. just watch fiat hyperinflate.”

BITE-SIZED COOKIES FOR THE ROAD 🍪

Constellation Network’s Dor Traffic Miner (DTM) just went live for sale. DTM is the world’s first thermal-sensing, people-counting data miner - allowing anyone to passively earn DAG & DOR crypto rewards after setting up their hardware device.*

Twitter (yes, we still call it that under this roof) no longer supports NFT profile pictures. From January 2022 - January 2024…. R.I.P.

CoinGecko’s social media account got hacked. The attackers posted a phishing link promoting a fake token sale. (Milk Road Rule #35: Check the link, before your funds sink).

10 asset managers in Hong Kong are exploring potential spot crypto ETFs. According to sources, “about seven or eight of them have already been in contact with Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission and have formed a team to start designing the investment products.”

Enigma Securities is teaming up with OpenTrade to bring US Treasury bill-backed yield products on-chain. The twist? These RWA-backed products will only be available to clients in Europe, Latin America, and Asia. 

*This is sponsored content

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The cherry on top: We’re giving a Milk Road discount. Same milky rewards. Fewer referrals needed.

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MILKY MEMES 🤣

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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.