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. You’d choose to watch us if we were also released on the same day as Barbie & Oppenheimer. We’re that good.

Here’s what we got for you today:

• Q2 Recap: 4 takeaways in 4 minutes 🚨

• Welcome Milk Road Pro 🥛

• Funding Friday 💰

• Mastercard’s blockchain app store 🍪

Q2 RECAP: SHAPELLA, UNCLE SAM CRACKS DOWN, & TRADFI TAKES OVER 📝

Ladies & gents, we're officially halfway through the year.

And it’s been a rollercoaster for crypto (like one of those bigass ones from Six Flags.)

In Q1: the Crypto Coaster kept going up and up, and up to crazy heights.

• BTC finished the quarter +71%

• ETH finished the quarter +52%

At the top, all the haters looked like ants.

But then...

In Q2: all the crazy drops, twists, and turns happened.

Some investors cried. Some vomited. Some passed out.

Lucky for you, the Milk Man held strong and was awake for all the action. (Ok, there were a few tears.)

Here are the top 4 twists & turns from Q2…

1/ SHAPELLA PROVED STAKING IS STILL THRIVING

Shapella was a uber-hyped tech upgrade in April that let everyone unstake their ETH from the blockchain for the first time.

Ethereum went through a major upgrade in April: Shapella. 

It let users unstake ETH for the first time ever. Many people thought everyone would unstake and then sell it all.

The reality: Shapella went so smoothly that…. ETH rallied its ass off after the fact. Shapella sent ETH to a ~1-year high of $2,120 in April.

Plus, there’s more ETH staked than there is ETH on exchanges.

So what? Keep in mind moving forward that Shapella (or Shanghai) was nothing like the “Great Unstaking” that some feared it’d be.

And expect interest in staking, liquid staking, & other ETH deployment projects to keep on rising.

We’ll see if this trend continues into Q3 with other upgrades coming to Ethereum.

2/ UNCLE SAM RAMPED IT UP BIG IN Q2

We knew the U.S. was more opposed to crypto than Leo Dicap is to above 25-year-olds.

But these last few months, the SEC clamped down HARD:

• It sued Binance

• Then it sued Coinbase the next day

• And it called a bunch of altcoin (SOL, ALGO, etc.) securities. That sent the tokens tanking

Bitcoin dropped to $25,400 on the news.

So what? The gov’t is only going to keep cracking down.

Some players will leave (Crypto.com’s institutional trading platform already left). Others will expand to other markets outside of the U.S. 

And our boy Gary G? He’ll remain the most hated guy on Crypto Twitter.

3/ MEANWHILE… TRADFI SWOOPED IN

June 2023 will forever be known as the Great TradFi Takeover.

Established finance giants are now hella in the crypto game:

• BlackRock & Fidelity filed to open Bitcoin ETFs

• Citadel, Charles Schwab, & Fidelity launched a new crypto exchange

• And a bunch of others are wading in too

Turns out investors liked all those recognizable brands - Bitcoin shot up past $30K on the news.

So what? Expect to see major finance corporations going after a bite of crypto market share this year.

PLUS: In Q3, we may have a better idea of if/when Bitcoin ETFs are approved. ARK Invest’s next SEC date regarding its application is on August 13.

T-minus ~43 days…

4/ PEPE & THE DANGERS OF MEMECOINS

Memecoins took over in Q2.

It all started with Pepe. The token soared to a $1.5B market cap in early May and the Memecoin Mania began..

A lot of people got rich. A lot of people lost money too. (Remember Milk Road Rule #49: Only invest what you’re willing to lose.)

There was another big side effect of the Memecoin Mania…

Ethereum gas fees jumped over 50% and the network got clogged.

It’s like when a bunch of college kids go to Miami for Spring Break - local businesses get overcrowded and all hell breaks loose.

And wait! Really quick, before you go:

We’ll share the results next week!

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 2,500 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 went live yesterday, with each NFT priced at 0.1ETH (slightly under $200).

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

SAY HELLO TO MILK ROAD PRO 👋

After a quiet start to the summer, July is shaping up to be an exciting month for crypto.

The most exciting part? Milk Road Pro is arriving.

That’s right, Roaders. The Milk Man is gonna be working overtime this summer, making sure that all premium members take their crypto game to the next level.

Milk Road Pro Includes:

• Market insights and deep dives from Milk Road’s research team 🕵️

• Weekly recaps on everything happening in the space ⏪

• Airdrop guides and walkthroughs on all things crypto 🪂

• Quarterly funding breakdown, monthly NFT reports, and much more to come 💰

We are going to be rewarding our hard-core Roaders who are first to sign up with a sweet sweet dairy deal. Stay tuned for more details next week.

Join the Milk Man’s inner circle and become your best crypto self.

FUNDING FRIDAY 💰

It’s Funding Friday! This week, we saw $94M invested in Web3 companies.

Here’s who secured the bag:

One Trading got $32.7M for its crypto trading platform geared towards institutional investors. This was formerly known as “BitPanda Pro” before rebranding.

Anichess got $1.5M to create a decentralized chess game. It was founded by Animoca Brands and partnered with chess.com.

Mythical Games got $37M to develop Web3 games. It’s already created popular games like NFT Rivals and Blankos Block Party.

PWN got $2M to make a marketplace for peer-to-peer ((P2P) loans backed by digital assets. It can be any digital asset - tokens, NFTs, etc.

Check out the full database of companies that have raised money this week, right here.

MILK & COOKIES 🍪

Mastercard is launching a beta version of a blockchain app store this summer. It will be permissioned and built on the Ethereum network.

Fidelity officially refiled its application for a spot Bitcoin ETF after being rejected in 2022. It’s happening…

The UK passed a major bill that recognizes crypto as a regulated financial activity. The Brits really wanna be the global crypto hub.

Coinbase wants the SEC’s lawsuit against it dismissed out of a lack of regulatory authority. It filed the motion yesterday.

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.