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GM. This is Milk Road. The newsletter that’s always there for you (throughout dips, rips, and cuts of bips).

Here’s what we got for you today:

• ✍️ $BTC: quickest to fall, fastest to recover

• ✍️ The future of crypto is gasless (here's why)

• 🎙️ The Milk Road Show: How Joe McCann Became The Top-Performing Crypto Fund Manager

• 🍪 Bitwise files with the SEC for a spot XRP ETF

BITCOIN: QUICKEST TO FALL, FASTEST TO RECOVER 💪

Uptober is here. 

No more red charts.

Oh wait, the grammar is off on that, lemme just fix it…

If you’ve been keeping off TradingView and Crypto Twitter: 

• First – congrats!

• Second – here’s what you’ve missed:

(Yuh, not a great start to the month).

So what caused it?

Fear. Specifically: fear around rising tensions in the Middle East:

Was it a surprise that markets dumped because of this? Not really.

Markets dump with almost every geopolitical event.

However, the proverbial ‘glass of ice water, in hell’ at this moment is that, in situations like this, Bitcoin is always the fastest major asset to recover.

It has a habit of bouncing back 37.5% on average within a 60 day time frame, following each geopolitical event since 2020.

Check this out:

Five out of six times, Bitcoin has outperformed Gold and the S&P 500 on a 60 day time frame, following each event.

The takeaway – things feel grim right now, but context is key here (so let’s set some):

$BTC crashed to prices we haven’t seen in checks calendar two weeks – and if history is anything to go by, Bitcoin’s recovery should be faster than most any other major asset.

Huh…not so scary now.

THE FUTURE OF CRYPTO IS GASLESS (HERE'S WHY) 🚫⛽

Imagine if Facebook decided to start charging users a fee to cover their hosting costs.

It’d be a widely dumb idea. Dumber than that time our cousin Frank decided to become a ‘leather wristband guy.’  

(And that’s saying something!).

Which is why it’s starting to feel obvious that the future of crypto is gasless – where onchain fees are paid by applications, not users.

It might feel like a foreign concept right now – but we’re already starting to see a move towards this ‘gasless era.’  ⛽️ 

Checkout what Coinbase is offering with their native wallet (this is the first step). 👇

The second step is removing “gas” from the end-user’s lexicon entirely! 

(Similar to how the Immutable gaming ecosystem functions today with Passport - a gasless wallet).

Of course, there will always be the option (for those that choose it) to transact directly onchain, outside of gasless apps…

But the best UX will come from fintech-like applications (think PayPal or Robinhood) who plug into onchain protocols and take care of the whole experience (including paying gas) for the user.

In the coming years, it's very likely that most people using blockchain won’t even know they are using it – and definitely won’t know what ‘gas’ is!

Just like how we all use apps built on AWS today, without even knowing it.

Now, here’s why this is important:

We will not go mainstream until we reach the gasless era.

Users aren’t about to start paying for basic onchain actions (think: making social posts, instant messaging, collecting in-game items, etc.) when there are plenty of web2 counterparts giving the same thing away for free.

(Even if it only costs $0.0001 per transaction).

It’s not about the cost, it's about the pain-in-the-ass user experience – and funding a wallet with a random token to pay “gas” to send money or make a post certainly ain't it.

Go gasless → go mainstream.

THE SECRET TO NAVIGATING THE CRYPTO MARKET W/ JOE MCCANN 🎙️

You know those “If I had a time machine” fantasies that often play out in your head?

E.g. “If I had a time machine, I’d go back to early 2023 and tell myself to buy Solana and Bonk.”

…yeah, well – our guest on today’s episode of The Milk Road Show doesn’t need a time machine.

Joe McCann (Founder, CEO, and CIO of Asymmetric) did both of those things – making Asymmetric the top-performing hedge fund of 2023!

In today’s episode, we pick Joe’s brains on:

• How he built a winning portfolio

• If/how it has changed in 2024

• Asymmetric's strategy after the FTX collapse

This episode is an absolute must watch! Click below to stream it now 👇

YouTube | Spotify | Apple Podcasts

BITE-SIZED COOKIES FOR THE ROAD 🍪

Uniswap Wallet makes it easier than ever to manage your crypto across multiple chains. With self-custody and zero-gas swaps, it’s built for secure and seamless DeFi use​. *

Bitwise has officially filed with the SEC to launch an ETF focused on XRP, marking the first of its kind in traditional finance for the cryptocurrency. XRP has gained increased attention following a partial court victory for Ripple against the SEC earlier this year​.

Aave V3 has surpassed $10 billion in TVL. This milestone signals that the DeFi resurgence is gaining momentum as more users return to lending and borrowing protocols.

World Liberty Financial announced that thousands of users signed up for its whitelist on the first day of registration. This crypto project backed by Trump was first teased in early August with the $WLFI token.

In September, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs experienced significant outflows, with a total of $174 million leaving major funds. Several ETFs saw a net decrease in assets, with notable outflows from major funds like Grayscale's GBTC and Fidelity's FBTC.

*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.