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GM. This is Milk Road, we’re like a beta blocker in newsletter form.

(We keep you cool under pressure).

Here’s what we got for you today:

• ✍️ What the hell happened yesterday?

• ✍️ $SOL vs. $XRP: which ETF comes first?

• 🎙️ The Milk Road Show: Crypto AI Expert Reveals Top Projects & Trends for 2025 

• 🍪 Bhutan’s new city now has a crypto strategic reserve

WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED YESTERDAY? 📉

You’re walking down the street with your wife and kids…

You hear a loud BANG! (Was that a car backfiring or a gunshot??)

Do you:

1. Use your first born as a human shield.

2. Jump in front of your family to defend them.

3. Not react at all (‘cause you’re cool as hell and ain’t scared of nuthin’)

If you were the market, you would have answered A) – ‘cause you react poorly in moments of even light stress.

Hell – that’s exactly what we saw happen yesterday:

And it wasn’t just crypto traders that panicked – the traditional market had a melt down as well:

… so what the hell happened?

Short answer: job openings went up.

Long answer: 

Job openings went up → indicating companies are healthy enough to keep hiring → raising fears that because everyone will have money to spend, inflation could rise again → leading to the Fed pausing rate cuts (or even raising them) → keeping everyone’s mortgages/credit repayments high, stemming the flow of disposable income entering stocks/crypto over the long term.

Now, here’s why we’re not worried about any of the above:

Yes, when you look at it in the short term, job openings (aka: JOLTS) are growing. But when you zoom out – you realize the latest rise in JOLTS is a small bounce in a multi-year down trend.

The takeaway?

Capital markets = the kind of mf’er that will use its first born as a human shield.

$SOL VS $XRP - WHICH ETF COMES FIRST? 🕵️‍♂️

You know that ‘old man strength’ all dads have?

The dude will complain about his back hurting every time he gets off the couch, but once he’s had a few beers at the family cookout, he’s all of a sudden challenging you to an arm wrestle.

(And somehow winning?).

That’s kind of what it feels like to have watched $XRP absolutely smoke $SOL of late. It’s flexing its old man strength. 

And not only has $XRP been outperforming $SOL in percentage returns, it might even beat it to the punch as far as US-based spot ETFs go.

‘Cause sure, multiple Solana ETFs have the chance to be approved on their first filing deadline on the 25th of Jan (five days after Trump and the new SEC Chair, Paul Atkins, take office).

But next in line after that, there are three Ripple filings (first deadline date TBD) – check it out, $SOL is in yellow, $XRP is in red:

Now, I know what you’re thinking – if Solana doesn’t get approved, what’s tipping the scales in favor of Ripple?

Well, possibly this:

Aaaand this:

Now, is wagering which will be approved first a little pre-emptive at this point? 

(Given that neither token has had a futures ETF running for two or more years, which has traditionally been a requirement to launch a spot ETF).

Maybe. But we wouldn’t be surprised if the Trump administration throws that requirement out the window in the near future.

And in the long run, it won’t really make that much of a difference if one ETF has a few months head start on the other.

The PRO tip here is: watch who is filing for these ETFs.

‘Cause if either launch without a Blackrock or Fidelity ETF (the two ‘big dogs’ as far as ETF flows go) – the results are probably going to be bearish.

Because as we've seen at different points with $ETH and $BTC: 

Low ETF flows = bearish sentiment.

New Year, New Referral Program 🥛

We just launched our upgraded referral program. There’s big prizes up for grabs and the rules are simple:

• Refer Your Friends

• Stack Rewards

That’s it. No brainer huh? 

Oh and did we mention the Top Referrer by the end of the week gets a whole year of PRO and our Investing Course for FREE? 

* No fake referrals though. We’ll be checking. And you’ll be disqualified.

For the full run-down you can read more here.

Otherwise, click below to copy your unique referral code and share it with your mates!

BITE-SIZED COOKIES FOR THE ROAD 🍪

Forta Firewall launched just a month ago. Leveraging AI, it can stop onchain attacks before they even happen. Pretty impressive, right?*

Sol Strategies plans to invest $25M in $SOL. You now have a Solana proxy in the Canadian equity market. Wild.

Bhutan’s new city (GMC) now has a crypto strategic reserve. No, not a Bitcoin reserve but a whole crypto reserve. They plan to hold $BTC, $ETH and $BNB.

Phuket now allows tourists to pay in Bitcoin. First Bhutan and now Thailand? These Asian countries are really getting a move on.

We’re hiring! We’re now down to just 3 positions - so hurry before someone beats you to it.

CoinStats is offering 80% off its annual subscription. We fully vouch for this portfolio management tool because we use it everyday. Spoiler: it’s fkn awesome. But hurry, there’s only 1 day left to grab this deal!*

* 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.