GM. This is the Milk Road, the crypto newsletter that delivers you a new edition, hot off the press, every day.

If it were still 1995, we’d be throwing it at your door from our bikes.

It's Friday, lets boogie:

• The Merge is coming

• VeeFriends raises $50M

• Funding Friday

• Meme of the day

THE MERGE IS COMING

The Merge is Coming.

We know, we know - “The Merge is Coming” has been ETH’s hit single, and it's been playing like a broken record.

But developers just announced the Goerli testnet merge will be from August 6th-12th. 

It’s the final step before The Merge happens. The real one. Where Ethereum finally goes from proof-of-work → proof-of-stake.

ETH is up 7% since the news broke yesterday.

The best part? Vitalik thinks The Merge isn't even priced in yet.

Straight from the king's mouth in a recent interview with Bankless...

We’ll be watching Ethereum very closely over the next month 👀

TODAY'S EDITION IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY PUBLIC

OK, so as you know at the Milk Road we are all about crypto, crypto with a side of even more crypto.

Well, we have a little confession…

There are more things to invest your money in than just crypto.

Crazy thought but you can also invest in stocks, collectibles, NFTs, trading cards, art & more.

That’s where our sponsor Public.com comes in - they’re an investing platform that helps people be better investors.

Here’s what makes Public different from everyone else out there:

1. Invest in any fractional asset. Whether it’s stocks, ETFs, tokens, or soon-to-be NFTs, you can build your portfolio all in one place with just a few clicks of a button.

2. Invest with more context than ever. IDK about you, but when I’m deciding what NFT or token to buy, I’m opening up like 10 different sites and spreadsheets to look at momentum. With Public, that’s all in one spot.

3. They’ve got great weekly shows about what’s happening in crypto. Where they have analysts in the game breakdown what’s happening and where they’re putting their money.

And if you wanna follow the market trends that we’re following at the Milk Road, join Public now (it’s free) and get up to $300 worth of stock when you make that first deposit.

Disclosure:

Paid endorsement for Open to the Public Investing, member FINRA & SIPC. Not investment advice. Cryptocurrency trading is provided by Apex Crypto LLC (NMLS ID 1828849). Apex Crypto is licensed by the NY DFS. New customers receive free stock with a value of $3-300. 0.3% receive the max value.”

VEEFRIENDS RAISES $50M

VeeFriends is one of the top NFT collections. A16Z is one of the top crypto funds. And now they’re teaming up like Shaq and Kobe did with the Lakers.

A16Z is leading a $50m investment round into VeeFriends, the NFT collection created by the one and only - Gary Vee.

Here are the top reasons A16Z invested:

1/ VeeFriends is the next generation of IP. A16Z believes this is similar to the evolution of classic characters like Mickey Mouse, Hello Kitties, etc.

2/ In-person utility. All NFT holders get access to VeeCon, a multi-day web3 conference.

3/ The team & community. Gary Vee has been a pioneer in the NFT space and is all-in on VeeFriends. He wants to continue building it for 20+ years.

The Milk Road’s Take: VeeFriends Series 1 & 2 have done ~$630m in sales in its first year of existence.

Only 9 NFT collections have more sales according to CryptoSlam.

But long term we're wondering one thing... if the IP succeeds, where will most of the value accrue - the actual liquid NFTs or the holding company that owns the IP?

POLYGON & MERCEDES-BENZ PARTNER UP

Another day, another Polygon partnership. At least that’s what it’s been feeling like recently. Turn on Twitter notifications because Ryan Wyatt is dropping bombs like Woj during the NBA offseason.

This time they’re partnering with Mercedes-Benz to launch a data-sharing platform called Acentrik.

It will let enterprises buy and sell data in the form of NFTs - including insurance data, clinical trials, and more.

Polygon has been on fire this year. They’ve partnered with:

• Adobe - NFT integration for the Behance social platform

• Stripe - USDC payments enabled via Polygon

• Facebook - piloting NFT integration for Instagram

• Nothing - building a crypto smartphone

• Reddit - building an NFT marketplace

• Cheetos - creating the perfect… Just kidding

THE MILK ROAD & FRIENDS REACTIONS

FUNDING FRIDAY

Each Friday, we give you a rundown of Web3 companies that got funded.

This week we saw ~$430M get invested into crypto companies. Here’s who got the money:

Unstoppable Domains got $65M to build digital identities through NFT domains. They’re trying to be the .com of web3. If you wanna scoop one up, we got some deals for you right here.

Space and Time got $10M to develop a decentralized data warehouse for dApps.

Aptos got $150M to create a new L1 blockchain. A bunch of former Facebook employees trying to revive FBs failed project, Diem.

Sweat Economy got $13M for their move-to-earn game.

Stadium Live got $10M to build a sports metaverse. Fans can play games with friends and earn collectibles as rewards.

If you wanna check out the full database of companies that have raised money in 2022, we got 'em for you right here.

MEME OF THE DAY

P.S. if you missed our interview with Martin Shkreli on Monday... go watch it here!

Stay thirsty. See ya next week!

Ben "2% Milk" Levy & Diego "El Lechero" Salinas

A ROADERS REVIEW

VITALIK PIC OF THE DAY

When you run into someone from middle school but can't remember their name...

What'd you think of today's email?

• 🥛🥛🥛🥛🥛 F**king great

• 🥛🥛🥛 Meh, do better

• 🥛 You didn't bring the heat

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.