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GM. This is Milk Road, your crypto news espresso – a small shot, packed with a wake-up punch.

Here’s what we got for you today:

• Satoshi’s long-lost emails 👀

• 70% of tokens die after the bull run ☠️

• When should you sell your airdrop tokens? 🧐

• This Bitcoin miner made $280M+ in revenue 🍪

SATOSHI’S LONG LOST EMAILS 📊

The year was 2009…

“I Gotta Feeling” by Black Eyed Peas was the world anthem. 

Girls were mastering the “duck face” for their early Facebook posts. 

A new super-basic-dance-move was going viral… the Jersey Fist Pump. 

Ah, the simple days. 

And somewhere in the depths of the internet, a new concept was being introduced…Bitcoin. 

Well, check it out. 120 pages of emails were just released from the early Bitcoin days. 

The emails are 14+ years old and were sent between:

• Martti Malmi (an OG Bitcoin developer) and…

• Satoshi Nakomoto (the creator of Bitcoin)

Here’s the most interesting stuff from the emails:

1/ Satoshi explains the root problem of conventional currencies. 

There’s one question that still makes most crypto investors sweat…

“Why Bitcoin?”

Well, here’s the best (and most simple) answer you’ll need:

2/ Satoshi’s explanation of what Bitcoin is. 

Side note: it’s interesting to see how early convos about Bitcoin were centered around being a “peer-to-peer network” for digital currency vs. being a “store of value” (a popular narrative today).

3/ Satoshi on non-financial use cases for Bitcoin. 

Even though Bitcoin was originally created for finance, Satoshi acknowledged there could be other future use cases for the network. 

One of those is… time-stamping.

4/ Satoshi on Bitcoin’s energy consumption…

One of the biggest complaints about Bitcoin today is that it uses a sh*t ton of energy.

The big reason? The network uses Proof of Work. 

And, even in 2009, Satoshi predicted this would be a big counterargument for Bitcoin. 

Here’s what he had to say about it:

“Junk mail credit card offers.”

In the rap game, some would say Satoshi had “bars” for lines like this. 

P.S. - If you want to check out the emails yourself, here they are. 

P.P.S. - If you want more quick highlights, check out this Twitter thread.

70% OF TOKENS DIE AFTER BULL RUNS ☠️

There are 3 certainties in life…

1/ Death

2/ Taxes

3/ Most cryptocurrencies will shut down, even ones that do well during bull runs

Don’t believe me? Here are some stats for ya…

• In the 2017-2018 bull run, there were ~3k tokens… ~70% died after the run.

• In the 2020-2021 bull run, there were ~11k tokens… ~70% died after the run.

The lesson: don’t marry your shiny new objects, not everything that glitters in a bull run is gold.

WHEN SHOULD YOU SELL YOUR AIRDROP TOKENS? 🧐

Check this out. CoinGecko just dropped a new report on airdrops. 

The study analyzed the days it took the top airdrops to achieve their peak returns. 

The results? 46% of the top 50 airdrops hit all-time highs within 2 weeks. 

Here were some of the biggest performances:

• MANTA: +72% by Day 12 of trading

• ENS: +73% by Day 2 of trading

• X2Y2: +121% by Day 2 of trading

• LOOKS: +192% by Day 10 of trading

• MAVIA: +217% by Day 13 of trading

BITE-SIZED COOKIES FOR THE ROAD 🍪

EtherMail just launched its Email-as-a-Wallet. Diving into Web3 doesn't mean grappling with complex wallets anymore; it's as easy as having an EtherMail account. This innovative feature bridges the Web2 and Web3 worlds, making digital asset management seamless and secure.*

A new fee switch proposal was submitted for Uniswap’s decentralized exchange. If passed, UNI token holders who stake and delegate their staked tokens will receive a portion of the protocol’s fee earnings. —DL News.

Riot Platforms revealed it generated $281M in total revenue last year. The Bitcoin miner produced 6,626 BTC throughout the year. 

Grayscale says it's open to M&A-related opportunities. “Our eyes and ears are open, and sometimes people are approaching us about strategically working together.” - Grayscale’s CEO. 

A U.S. federal judge has signed off on Binance’s $4.3B plea deal. Under the deal’s terms, the exchange would pay $4.3 billion, appoint an independent compliance monitor, and have its CEO (Changpeng Zhao) step down.

OANDA is launching a new crypto trading platform in the UK. The global brokerage firm will offer trading in over 63 cryptocurrency pairs, including Bitcoin, Ether, and Ripple, with plans to add more tokens and features over the year.

*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.