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GM. This is Milk Road, bringing you crypto scoops with more kick than a Friday happy hour.

Here’s what we got for you today:

• ✍️ Tether: The money printer

• 💰 Funding Friday

• 🎙️ The Milk Road Show: Top 20 Crypto Tokens by Marketcap w/ Kyle Reidhead

• 🍪 MicroStrategy now holds 226,500 BTC

TETHER: THE MONEY PRINTER 🤑

Is Tether secretly one of the most profitable companies on the planet? 🤫 

Well, if their latest report is anything to go by, they’re swimming in cash like Scrooge McDuck.

Get this: For the first half of the year, they've raked in a jaw-dropping $5.2B net profit. 💰

Yep, you read that correctly. 

This means they're pulling in:

• $867M a month

• $29M a day

• $1.2M an hour

• $20K a minute

Their profits are comparable to some of the biggest companies in the S&P 500. 

Don't believe the Milk Man on this one? Take a look for yourselves:

But wait, there’s more to this 8th World Wonder. 

Tether's efficiency? Absolutely next level!

Check out these profit stats per employee:

Ya, you read that right… With fewer than 100 employees, Tether is crushing it with $124M in profit per employee. Mind-blowing. 🤯 

But revenue isn’t the only thing that Tether has going for them… 

Peek at these stats:

• In Q2 alone, the supply of USDT grew by a staggering $8.3B 💵

• They’re sitting on a treasure chest of 75,354 $BTC, worth around $5B, making them the 8th largest $BTC wallet. 👜

• They’ve got $3.8B in gold, just because they can. 👑

And brace yourselves: they’re holding a colossal $97.5B in U.S. Treasuries.

To put that into perspective, Tether’s U.S. debt holdings put them at 20th in the world rankings. 

Fun fact: Tether’s closest competitor, Circle, is set to IPO at $5B this year. 

Tether has already made that amount in profits in just the last 6 months, and they have the same amount in their $BTC stash 🤯.

So now, the million-dollar question: Who do you think is gonna be the future king of stablecoins?

A/ Tether
B/ Circle
C/ Paypal
D/ Maker
E/ Ethena

Hit “reply” to spill the tea and let us know your thoughts!

ITS FUNDING FRIDAY 💰

Welcome back for another round of Who Got the Crypto Dough! 🤑 

Funding is the secret sauce that turbocharges crypto innovators and hustlers, turning wild dreams into the next big onchain breakthroughs.

To keep you in the loop, the Milk Man has brewed up this chart tracking year-to-date funding, updated every Friday just for our loyal Roaders.

So far this year, a staggering $4.66B has been raised, with an average of $145.5M pouring in each week.

This week, we saw a small decrease with only $108.55M raised by crypto companies.

1/ Morpho raised $50M

• What they do: Morpho is a decentralized lending protocol that enhances efficiency in DeFi lending by integrating with protocols like Compound and Aave.

• Who led the round: Coinbase Ventures and a16z

2/ Layer2 Financial raised $10.70M

• What they do: Layer2 Financial focuses on improving financial and banking services through scalable Layer 2 solutions.

• Who led the round: Galaxy Digital

3/ Daylight Energy raised $9M

• What they do: Daylight Energy is working on decentralized infrastructure for renewable energy.

• Who led the round: Framework Ventures

Honorable mentions:

• Mezo raised $7.5M to enhance the Bitcoin ecosystem and infrastructure, led by Cathay Innovation.

• Hyperbolic raised $7M to develop AI solutions in the crypto space, led by Polychain Capital.

So that’s who raised the most money this week, but who’s been funding the most crypto projects year-to-date?

This leaderboard breaks down how many times the major investment firms have opened their wallets and what sectors they’ve been focusing on.

Animoca Brands and OKX Ventures are leading the herd, each having invested in 64 projects this year.

While Animoca is diving deep into GameFi, OKX is pouring more into infrastructure and blockchain projects.

But the real standout in this chart? DeFi.

Which should come as no surprise if you’ve read our recent PRO Report where the Milk Road Research team breaks down why they believe DeFi will hit $700B market cap by EOY 2025.

That’s it for this week, Roaders! Stay tuned for more funding highlights next Friday. 🚀

BITE-SIZED COOKIES FOR THE ROAD 🍪

Marathon Digital reported a net loss of $199M in Q2 2024, a significant increase from a $9M loss in the same period last year. The company's shares fell 8% as it cited unexpected equipment failures and Bitcoin halving impacts.

MicroStrategy now holds 226,500 BTC, valued at around $14.5B, and introduced a new BTC yield metric targeting 4-8% annual growth. The company also raised $800M through convertible note offerings to support its Bitcoin strategy.

Polymarket has surpassed $1B in cumulative trading volume. The platform saw its monthly traders increase from 4,000 in January to over 44,000 in July. Political markets have become a key indicator of trends.

Do Kwon, founder of Terraform Labs, will be extradited to South Korea following a final ruling by the Montenegro Appellate Court. This decision concludes a lengthy legal battle involving multiple appeals and international requests. The US request for his extradition was denied.

Intel shares tanked, wiping out a third of its market cap. This comes after revealing a $7B foundry loss and announcing massive cost cuts, including slashing 15% of its workforce. Tough times ahead for the chipmaker!

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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.