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GM. This is Milk Road, your cheat code to crypto (we give you an unfair advantage).

Here’s what we got for you today:

• ✍️ What to look out for

• ✍️ Stock trading is coming to Solana 

• 🎙️ The Milk Road Show: Welcome to the Bull Market That Nobody Believes In (Plus Ethereum vs Solana) w/ Byron Gilliam 

• 🍪 Why is Coinbase not investing in Bitcoin like Saylor?

WHAT TO LOOK OUT FOR THIS WEEK 📆

1/ Trade war cease fire 🤝

It has been a WILD ride of a morning! At ~4am, news broke of a 90 day reduction on tariffs between the US and China. 👇

Unfortunately, roughly 4hrs after the 90 day US-China tariff reduction was announced, the US Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, went and opened his big mouth:

Keep your eyes peeled for clarification/consequences surrounding what that “unfortunate escalation” is – it could have the power to turn markets.

The silver lining: if crypto’s reaction to the 90 day pause is anything to go by – a reversal on the tariff cease fire may have very little effect. 

(Crypto markets hardly budged on the initial news of the pause.)

2/ Macro 📊

It’s a big week for macro data! Here’s what’s on the books:

• April CPI Inflation data - Tuesday - How much did consumer goods go up in April?

• OPEC Monthly Report - Wednesday - What issues are affecting the world's oil market?

• April PPI Inflation data - Thursday - How much did wholesale goods go up in April?

• April Retail Sales data - Thursday - Were consumers still spending in April?

• Fed Chair Powell Speaks - Thursday - Will he hint at the Fed’s plans in this speech?

• MI Consumer Sentiment data - Friday - A vibe check with consumers.

We’ll be keeping a close eye on April's CPI numbers to see if its trailing assessment of inflation is falling inline with Truflation’s real-time numbers. March’s CPI was 2.39%, while Truflation finished the month at 1.75% (and currently sits at 1.57%).

The closer CPI gets to catching up with Truflation and breaking 2%, the more likely rate cuts become.

3/ Price points 💵

If Bitcoin can find its way back to around $109K this week, we should see roughly $2B worth of shorts liquidated from the market.

Translation: $2B worth of Bitcoin will need to be purchased in order for leveraged traders to pay back their loans (and that kind of buy pressure typically equals “number go up”).

4/ Events 📆

• Monday: Byron Gilliam (Market Strategist at Blockworks) joins us live on The Milk Road Show

• Tuesday: The Milk Road Consensus Toronto (use code ‘MILKROAD’) Meetup is happening! Join here

• Wednesday: The Milk Road PRO Portfolio Update is happening live on Discord! 

• Thursday: Matt Hougan (CIO of Bitwise) joins us live on The Milk Road Show from Consensus

Alright, that’s everything we’re looking at this week.

Mark your calendars and brace yourselves for potential volatility!

STOCK TRADING COMING SOON TO SOLANA 😎

If you tear off a Toyota Corolla’s exterior and replace it with the body of a sports car – it’s still a Toyota Corolla at its core.

That’s kinda how most onchain ‘Real World Assets’ (RWAs) work… 

You’re trading stocks that are represented onchain by crypto tokens – meaning at their core, these RWAs are still just traditional stocks, wrapped in a crypto shell.

But the pure-play version of RWAs is to remove the need to start with an underlying stock, and just allow companies to launch shares of their company directly onchain, while being fully compliant.

And that’s why Superstate’s ‘Opening Bell’ is getting us all giddy!

Opening Bell will allow traditional companies to offer their stock directly onchain (no need for double-handling between traditional and digital asset exchanges).

Here’s the “Damn, that’s cool!” highlight reel from their announcement:

• Initial trading will launch on Solana

• This will make shares programmable and available 24/7, globally

• Settlement speeds will massively increase (taking seconds instead of days)

Oh, and the cherry on top: Launches on Opening Bell will be SEC-registered from the outset (no loopholes or work-arounds needed).

Hell yeah!

BITE-SIZED COOKIES FOR THE ROAD 🍪

Which browser wallet do you use - MetaMask, Phantom or Rabby? We’ve put together a page breaking down which wallets we use and why.

ETF providers are getting creative. There are now two ETF filings, one that would go long on $BTC and short on Gold, and one that would do the opposite.

Why is Coinbase not investing in Bitcoin like Saylor? DL News breaks down exactly why Brian Armstrong has steered away from this strategy. - DL News

We now have 3 consecutive weeks of crypto inflows. The two assets catching their attention? $BTC and $SUI.

This DEX solves an actual UX issue! Milk Road Swap supports both Ethereum and Solana tokens in a single interface.

MILKY MEMES 🤣

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