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GM. This is Milk Road. Aka: Sportscenter, for nerds. 

(We bring you the highlights from crypto each and every day!).

Here’s what we got for you today:

• ✍️ Solana is strong right now! 

• ✍️ Bank yields down, crypto yields up.

• 🥛 PRO “Where are we in the cycle?” indicators

• 🎙️ The Milk Road Show: Things You Need to Know Before the Banana Zone Starts w/ Kyle Reidhead

• 🍪 Kraken to launch a new layer 2 on Ethereum

SOLANA IS STRONG RIGHT NOW! 💪

[“Pump It Up” by Danzel playing in the distance] 

Music intensifies 

Good lord – $SOL is on a tear right now! Check this out:

1/ It’s up 16.59% on the week, while the majority of the top 10 projects are trading sideways (or down) 👇

2/ SOL/ETH is at all-time highs

Translation: the amount of $ETH that can be bought with 1 $SOL is the highest it has ever been.

3/ Solana’s Real Economic Value is at all-time highs

Real Economic Value combines all of Solana’s vote, tip, priority and base fees to show how much revenue the chain is generating.

4/ Active addresses are at an all-time high

Active wallet addresses are a muddy metric – ‘cause one person can have multiple wallets. But they’re directionally correct. And right now, that direction is up!

“Cool charts, nerd. Gimme some context – why is this happening??”

Memecoins. Memecoins is why.

77.8% of Solana-based trading volume on Decentralized Exchanges (DEXs if you’re nasty) is coming from memecoin trading right now.

In the past 24 hours alone, there have been more than 40,000 (!!!) new tokens created on Solana.

Here’s how this all translates to $SOL’s price appreciation: 

With each memecoin trade, $SOL is required to pay for transaction fees → increased memecoin trading = increased demand for $SOL.

(And increased demand for a scarce asset = number go up).

Chorus hits

🎵“Don’t you know pump it up! You got to pump it up!” 🎵

BANK YIELDS DOWN, CRYPTO YIELDS UP 📈

This is the best it’s going to get for a while….

The yields on these high interest savings accounts are only set to decrease from here. 👇

Why? ‘Cause a lot of these ‘high yield’ savings accounts use government treasuries to pay interest to their customers.

Government treasuries = Government IOUs (you lend the government money, they pay you interest on that loan).

But as global interest rates drop → so do the yields on these government IOUs → which leads to lower interest on your savings account.

Now, here’s where crypto comes into the picture…

Maker and Ethena return yield to holders of their stablecoins, similar to a high yield savings account, but are detached from this system of “government IOUs as revenue generation.”

Maker and Ethena generate revenue from their own respective crypto businesses (borrowing, basis trades, etc.), and use that money to pay yield to their stablecoin holders.

Here’s the kicker:

As global interest rates lower → the cost of everyone’s loans/lines of credit will lower → giving everyone more disposable income.

Some of which will find its way into crypto, (most likely) lifting the market in the process.

As this happens, the revenues of Maker and Ethena are likely to increase, returning even higher yields to their stablecoin holders.

All while the rates on traditional high-yield savings accounts trend towards zero.

Translation: As bank yields go down, Maker & Ethena’s yields will likely go up, as demand for borrowing and leverage increases.

Want to make your cash work for you as this cycle heats up?

As global interest rates lower, transition to Ethena ($sUSDE) and Maker’s ($sDAI, $sUSDS) stables.

PRO “WHERE ARE WE IN THE CYCLE?” INDICATORS 🤔 

*Knock knock*

It’s the Milk Man, here for our weekly market vibe check.

Knowing where we are in the crypto cycle is crucial for capturing the best opportunities.

The goal is to spot the bull market peak before the inevitable bear market hits your bags hard.

Since timing the top perfectly is almost impossible, we use various indicators to give us a better shot at taking profits before it's too late.

Below are the 5 indicators we track, with a color-coded system to show how close they are to signalling the market peak:

🟢 Plenty of room to run 🏄

🟡 Getting closer to the top signal, but haven’t yet reached the mark ⚠️

🔴 We’ve hit the market top indicator 🚨

Every Thursday, we update these 5 indicators exclusively for PRO members.

Our advice? Don't wait for all of them to hit 🔴. It's better to take profits as they get closer to that point.

Let's dive in and see if we're anywhere near the top of this bull market. 👇

BITE-SIZED COOKIES FOR THE ROAD 🍪

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Kraken to launch Ink Blockchain, a layer 2 on Ethereum, in early 2025. Kraken has selected Optimism to power its new Layer 2 network, joining Coinbase’s Base in leveraging the "Superchain" ecosystem.

Denmark is planning to propose a bill that would tax unrealized cryptocurrency gains. This proposal is part of a broader effort to tighten regulations around crypto taxation in the country. Yikes.

Circle's Euro-backed stablecoin, $EURC, has reached an all time high supply of more than 90 million. This surge has been fuelled by its expansion on Base.

Seems like Trump wants to let crypto fly free, while Harris might throw a few curveballs with tougher regulations. It’s a showdown that could make or break the market, and Milk Road with Gemini are breaking down how it could all shake out for your bags.*

*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.