Today’s edition is brought to you by PayPal - the PayPal stablecoin PYUSD is live on Solana.

GM. This is Milk Road, your daily dose of crypto caffeine on a Monday afternoon.

Here’s what we got for you today:

• ✍️ June recap: WTF happened to crypto?

• ✍️ June recap: The highs

• ✍️ What to watch for in July 

• 🎙️ The Milk Road Show: The future of payments is here! w/ Tyler D

• 🍪 Circle earns EU license to issue stablecoins

JUNE RECAP: WTF HAPPENED TO CRYPTO? 🤔 

June hit crypto harder than a heavyweight champ. Full of punches and knockouts. 

Let’s churn through the numbers:

• Bitcoin? Down -7%

• Ethereum? Down -9%

• Solana? Down -12%

• The total crypto market cap? Down -9%

Ouch. That's a whole lot of blood. But why… Why did prices take a 💩 in June?

And can July be the comeback kid that finally takes all of our portfolios to Greenland? 🟢 

Let's find out. 👇

1/ Macro 

The Fed in the U.S. decided not to lower rates this month, despite inflation coming down. 

For risk markets like crypto to do well, we need macro tailwinds — interest rates 📉 or liquidity 📈 will do the trick. 

But not in June, my friends.

2/ Mt. Gox

Remember that old exchange that was handling 70% of all Bitcoin buys/sells worldwide? Well, in 2014 they were hacked for 25k $BTC and shut down. 

They just recently moved up their repayment date for creditors to July 2024 (from October). 

Mt. Gox creditors are set to receive 142,000 $BTC from July to October, worth around $9 billion in today's prices.

Investors fear this will dump a lot of Bitcoin on the market.

3/ Governments are offloading their Bitcoin

The German government began selling $3 billion worth of Bitcoin in June. Just today, they’ve reportedly sent another 1,500 $BTC ($94.7M) to exchanges. 

Moreover, the U.S. government is following suit. They’ve sold 3.94K $BTC (worth $240M), which they’ve previously seized from Silk Road (not to be associated w/ Milk Road 😜). 

(Milky note: It's ironic that while the SEC is suing Coinbase, the government is using the exchange to sell their Bitcoin.) 

If only Germany and the U.S. learned from El Salvador… 🤦

As a result of these shenanigans, prices dumped hard in June, and the Fear and Greed Index hit 30 to the fear side last week – a level we haven’t seen since the bear market. 😳

If you've been an active investor this past month, you're probably feeling the pinch. June wasn't kind to any crypto asset.

You're likely feeling desperate, scared, and thinking about selling everything and going on vacation. Don't!

This is the worst time to panic and exit. Instead, it's the perfect time to hunker down and build a solid portfolio. 

Why? Because we believe crypto is headed to $10 trillion in the next 18 months. 

That’s a 5x increase from today’s prices, and if you pick the right assets, you might do even better.

JUNE RECAP: THE HIGHS 🔼

Let’s move on from fear, panic, and sadness. Let’s look on the bright side... 

Here’s 4 positive things that happened last month:

1/ Ethereum was deemed not a security 

Huge!! While we knew it was coming, it’s a relief getting the confirmation. 😌

This follows the approval of Ethereum ETFs, confirming that $ETH is officially not a security.

According to Bloomerg’s Eric Balchunas, we expect $ETH ETFs to go live on or after July 8th.

2/ Robinhood acquired Bitstamp for $200M

Bitstamp is a top European exchange founded in 2011 that holds 50 licenses globally. 

It used to be one of the most popular back in 2017 and has fallen off since — but maybe Robinhood can give it a good ole revival. 👀 

It’s clear that fintech companies are starting to take crypto very seriously. Here are 2 other cool fintech x crypto news from June:

• PayPal launched its stablecoin $PYUSD on Solana

• Stripe integrated with Coinbase’s Base blockchain

3/ Solana signals: Blinks and ETF applications

Imagine being able to stake your $SOL, buy tokens, and interact with the Solana blockchain without having to leave Twitter (or any other website).

Well, that’s now possible thanks to Blinks. 🤩

Oh, and VanEck filed for a Solana ETF in the U.S. a few days after an institution, 3IQ, filed for SOL ETF in Canada.

There’s a lot going on with Solana right now!

If you’re interested in the full Bull Case for Solana and learning more about Blinks you can check out our Friday’s episode of The Milk Road Show. 

4/ Coinbase held their annual State of Crypto Summit 

The largest institutions and their leaders gathered to talk about the state of crypto. 

This was an invite-only event and Blockworks co-founder, Yano, joined us on The Milk Road Show recently to break it down.

The biggest takeaway? Institutions are not in crypto yet. Not even close. But they’re coming. Fast. 

In hindsight, we could argue that June was actually a bullish month. But prices do not reflect that.

That means you have an opportunity. Moreover, we have reason to believe that July could be kind to crypto prices.

So let's see what's on the horizon for this month. 🌅

WHAT TO WATCH FOR IN JULY 👀

June was like a stab in the back for crypto prices. Now, everyone’s wondering: will prices go up 🔼 or down 🔽 in July?

Let’s see what history has to share with us:

July is the 3rd most bullish month for Bitcoin (after October and Februrary), based on historic median returns.

Every time we have a bad June, we have a good July. Notice how each time June is red, it's followed by a green July. 

Just like the saying… After rain, comes the sunshine & rainbow. 🌈

Here's what else you should look out for this month that may impact prices. ⤵️

1/ Macro stuff 📊

• Powell's Speech - July 2: Get ready for some Fed wisdom from Jerome Powell. 

• FOMC Minutes - July 3: Dive into the details of the Fed's latest decisions for insights galore.

• Non-Farm Payrolls - July 5: The big jobs report. Keep an eye on this one for clues about the economy's health.

• CPI Data Release - July 11: Inflation check! See how consumer prices are moving and what it means for your wallet.

• PPI Data Release - July 12: Producers' price changes to follow CPI. This one's a sneak peek into future consumer prices.

• FOMC Meeting - July 31: The big Fed meet-up. Will we see cuts? Hopefully. 🤞 Expect some major market moves based on their latest policy updates.

2/ July Unlocks 🔒

July's token unlocks are off the charts, totaling $630M! 

$ALT tops the list with $127.25M, which is unlocking 42% of its circulating supply! 

Meanwhile, on July 24th, $WLD (Worldcoin) starts a daily $18.4M unlock that will go for a whopping 730 days. 

We’re in for quite the month, friends. Let’s hope it’s a bullish one. 🚀 

BITE-SIZED COOKIES FOR THE ROAD 🍪

Jumper Exchange is an excellent example of a protocol that makes cross-chain DeFi easy. Jumper ties together all of the most popular blockchains, bridges and decentralized exchanges. Check out our review! *

Sony ventures into the crypto realm with potential exchange relaunch. The Japanese multinational is whipping up WhaleFin, a crypto exchange it acquired last year. Sony is transforming it into a new entity called S.BLOX Co. Looks like they want a piece of the blockchain bakery! 

Circle earns license to issue USDC and EURC in Europe. The stablecoin issuer is the first to comply with MiCA regulations, allowing it to issue USDC and EURC. Circle's CEO announced this at a Paris-based press conference. 

Japan's Metaplanet buys another $1.2M worth of Bitcoin. The Japanese investment adviser acquired more than 20.2 BTC. This purchase is part of their plan to accumulate $6M worth of BTC. Looks like Metaplanet's cookie jar is filling up with bitcoins!

Abra launches treasury service for corporates that want to hold crypto. The service will provide corporates, family offices, and non-profits with a range of digital asset treasury management solutions. Abra's offering combines custody, trading, borrowing, and yield services.

*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.