GM. This is Milk Road, the trail mix of crypto. A little bit of everything that combines for the perfect snack newsletter.

It’s Tuesday, Roadies. Let’s get after it.

• Recapping the first week of Blend 🔥

• Throwback Tuesday: Bitcoin’s 1st Reddit post ⏪

• Visual of the day: ETH active deposits’ 18-month high 📈

• Burn ETH, burn 🍪

Today’s edition is brought to you by Freeport, who is making investing in fine art easier and more affordable than ever. Their iconic Warhol collection launches tomorrow featuring Marilyn Monroe! 🖼️

BLEND’S OFF TO A HOT START 🔥

Last week Blur launched their lending offering, Blend. And so far, it has had no trouble blending into the NFT scene.

Here are the details:

1/ $35M+ has been loaned out

There have been over 1,500 loans among ~500 borrowers. These loans amount to almost 20K ETH in loan volume.

2/ NFT lending is making up between 20-50% of Blur’s total volume each day

Not too shabby for a new offering. Especially when you consider that Blur accounted for over 50% of overall NFT volume in Q1.

Even with wash trading and incentives, Blur has been a diamond in the rough of NFTs.

3/ Blend launched with 3 popular collections - Milady, Azuki, and CryptoPunks

• Milady has had the most loans (it’s the cheapest collection out of the group)

• Azuki has the most amount of total ETH loaned

• CryptoPunks has the highest average loan amount (as it’s the priciest)

• DeGods was just added yesterday 👀

Across the board, annual yield looks great compared to our fungible friends, BTC and ETH.

Why should I care? A year ago, OpenSea was the king of NFTs and was sitting pretty on its throne.

They took high fees and provided no customer support or loyalty to their customers. The “We can do whatever because where else are you gonna go” approach.

This was all before Blur threw a changeup pitch that would make even Nolan Ryan proud. And now, OpenSea is wearing their rally caps.

INVEST IN FINE ART AFFORDABLY WITH FREEPORT

Move over pixelated monkeys, real fine art collecting has arrived on Ethereum.

Our partner Freeport is here to bring you a next-gen approach to diving into this previously exclusive asset class. Millions of dollars not required.

Freeport gives you access to tokenized blue chip art investments, starting with a collection of iconic Warhols that includes the hot pink Marilyn Monroe. Just select the artwork you like, choose a number of shares (tokens), and invest with as little as $200!

Why fine art?

• Historical performance: The Artprice100© has outperformed the average return of the S&P 500 by 40% since 2000

• Diversification: Don’t keep all your eggs in one basket - especially in uncertain times

• Fun: Invest in pieces of cultural history that you get to view in your virtual gallery - show your friends, trade pieces and be social

The Warhol collection launches to the public on May 10th. However, Milk Road readers can purchase today by using code: milkroad

Invest in major artworks at fractional prices and start your collection today!

Visit freeport.app to view the offering circular

*The Milk Man is not a financial advisor, and we do not provide financial advice

THROWBACK TUESDAY: FIRST BITCOIN REDDIT POST ⏪

The year was 2009. Party in the U.S.A. was playing everywhere. Kanye West had just stolen Taylor Swift’s mic at the VMA’s…

And the first thread about Bitcoin was posted on Reddit.

The post came 4 months after Satoshi released Bitcoin to the world. The price of 1 BTC = $0.01.

So, what did people have to say about the OG crypto at the time? Mostly cold reviews.

The coldest:

• “Wow. That’s amazing. I don’t think anyone’s done a completely digital pyramid scheme before.”

• “This is the sort of thing that seems cool in theory, but in practice only gets used by people buying illicit materials off the internet.”

• “Lol, what an astonishingly terrible system.”

There were some lukewarm responses though:

• “This is a pretty awesome idea. Though I’m sure the government will love anonymous, non-taxable transactions over the internet.” (This person was not wrong…)

• “Holy cow! Seems awesomely creative. But I sure do wonder about security and whether the idea will catch on.”

Fast forward 14 years, and Bitcoin is the largest digital asset by market cap and priced at $~28K.

🎵 Started from the bottom [of Reddit,] now we’re here 🎵

VISUAL OF THE DAY: ETH ACTIVE DEPOSITS AT 18-MONTH HIGH 📈

There were 20K active deposits of ETH to exchanges on Friday. That’s the highest we’ve seen since November 2021, when ETH hit an ATH of $4,500.

Why? Pepe holders are going after 👏 that 👏 dough.

They started selling on Friday, sending the memecoin plunging 50%. Over 640B Pepe (worth >$1.1M) was liquidated over the weekend, Coinglass said.

One whale was left $600K in the red. Ouch.

And sellers are converting these profits to… yep, you guessed it… ETH.

The Good News: ETH might be ready to hit $2K again.

Fingers crossed.

MILK & COOKIES 🍪

Brian Armstrong is in the UAE exploring where to launch Coinbase’s international hub. Coinbase’s world tour continues.

Voyager Digital liquidates after Binance’s buyout falls through. A saga that has put Howie Mandel’s “Deal or No Deal” to shame.

60% of the ETH burnt since the Merge happened in the last month. The effects from the Merge are showing no signs of cooling off.

Arbitrum’s total value locked (TVL) reaches an all time high of 2.4B. The network remains strong 6 weeks after the historic airdrop.

MILKY MEMES 🤣

HIT THE INBOX OF 250K+ CRYPTO INVESTORS

Advertise with the Milk Road to get your brand in front of the Who's Who of crypto. The Roadies are high-income crypto investors who are always looking for their next interesting product or tool. Get in touch today.

ROADER REVIEW OF THE DAY

VITALIK PIC OF THE DAY

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.