GM. This is Milk Road, the crypto newsletter that dishes out tea and opinions faster than your chatty British aunt.

Here’s what we got for you today:

• ✍️ Circle and Stripe to launch L1s

• ✍️ More investor dollars are about to hit $ETH

• 🥛 Milk Road PRO Portfolio updates

• 🍪 Do Kwon pleads guilty to wire fraud

Chainlink is the global standard and platform integrating the world to the onchain economy. They just announced the “Chainlink Reserve”, read more about it here.  

CIRCLE AND STRIPE TO LAUNCH THEIR OWN L1 CHAINS (FOLKS ARE MAD) 🤬

Everyone wants to go to the beach in the summer.

No thanks. 

I know what works for me: an inflatable kiddy pool in the backyard, a cold beer, and a hot dog or twenty – all sand-free and accessible within the bounds of my own property.

I’m not against others' choice to go to the beach – but I know what works for me.

The same can be said for these recent announcements from Circle and Stripe.

They’re both launching their own L1 blockchains.

Circle’s will be designed to support stablecoin payments (shocker), foreign currency exchange (FX), and capital markets applications (think: big-dog-level investing and trading).

Stripe’s is a little more opaque and is simply said to be a high-performance, payments-focused blockchain (makes sense – payments are their whole shtick).

But some folks are up in arms over their choice to launch new L1s, and are wondering why they don’t just build on Ethereum…

If we had to make an educated guess – the answer, in a single word: control.

In multiple words?

They want to be able to change and tweak how their L1 works based on their own (very specific) needs, without having to lobby the Ethereum community to update the network.

Say you’re Stripe or Circle…

• Wanna make transaction costs free ‘cause you make your money outside of blockchain fees? You can.

• Wanna build your network on crazy expensive (but lightning fast) hardware, sacrificing decentralization in the process? Go right ahead. 

• Wanna bake highly niche functionality into the L1? Be your own guest.

(And you can do it all without risk of changes from a third party impacting your chain – like you might find with the Ethereum L1 and the effects its updates have on the L2 ecosystem.)

Plus…

Missing out on the massive network of users offered by Ethereum doesn’t hold as much weight for these two.

Stripe already has an established user-base that they’ll funnel into their L1, while Circle looks like they’re going to build a client list that is largely chain agnostic (they don’t care what it's running on, they care about its features).

And that’s ok!

Ethereum is the beach: the choice for most.

But some (like Circle and Stripe) will opt for something specifically tailored to their wants/desires.

…their very own ‘inflatable kiddy pool in the backyard’.

MORE INVESTOR DOLLARS ARE ABOUT TO HIT $ETH 🌊

If you’re still worried about competing L1s hurting Ethereum – don’t be.

$ETH is doing just fine.

Hell, it’s doing better than fine – check this out:

1/ The $ETH ETFs took in $1B of net-flows yesterday

For context – that’s more than double what the Bitcoin ETFs have done in net-flows over the past 7 days combined.

2/ $ETH treasury companies are refusing to let up…

$BMNR recently upped their total planned investment into $ETH from $4.5B to $24.5B…moar buying, incoming. 👇

(Get a closer look at the ever-growing Ethereum treasury landscape here)

3/ CPI inflation just came in below expectations

Less inflation = higher chance of rate cuts in September.

And rate cuts tend to benefit risk asset prices (e.g. $ETH).

That feeling you’ve got right now?

That’s a mix of inner calm and jittery excitement.

(Strange, right?)

P.S. If you find yourself itching to allocate to $ETH all-of-a-sudden, Milk Road Swap has you covered.

PRO ALL ACCESS PORTFOLIO UPDATES 📊

Betting markets are telling us there’s an 80% chance of rate cuts coming in September… 

81% of S&P 500 companies beat expectations in Q2…

Billions of dollars are flowing into crypto each day…

So how’s this bullish momentum affecting the Milk Road PRO All Access Portfolio? 

Disclosure: We are not a day trading portfolio so don’t expect a high volume of trades. Read our “How To Build a Crypto Portfolio” report to learn more about our portfolio strategy.

Portfolio performance 📈 

The Milk Road PRO All Access Portfolio saw a significant increase over the past 7 days. Our portfolio value is at $203.8K, up 9.01% since last week.

This past week has been a one-man show or rather, a one-asset show.

And it’s not Bitcoin. The “digital gold” has had the spotlight long enough; now, it’s Ethereum’s turn to steal the attention.

Right now, it feels like nothing else even matters. 

Ethereum keeps getting hit with wave after wave of bullish news, and demand is exploding. Wall Street is finally waking up, and all that sidelined money with zero exposure to the top blockchain is starting to move in fast.

And with recent inflation coming in below expectations, the odds of a September rate cut have jumped to an all-time high of 80%. That’s another strong tailwind for risk-on assets like $ETH.

Portfolio changes 👀

BITE-SIZED COOKIES FOR THE ROAD 🍪

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

The call is coming from inside the house! New Trump-appointed Fed governor is against Fed independence…here’s what that could mean for the future.

Gobble gobble. ETFs and treasuries now hold 8% of Ethereum’s total supply!

Do Kwon pleads guilty to wire fraud. The DOJ will recommend a maximum sentence of 12 years for the founder of the failed Terra Luna.

Okto is launching an exclusive trading club called HyperOne. It’s an invite-only club that gives you $HYPE tokens for every futures trade you make.*

*this is sponsored content.

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