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GM. This is Milk Road, your daily dose of crypto caffeine. We bring you electrifying market updates that'll keep you wide awake and HODLing strong.

Here’s what we got for you today:

THE STATE OF CRYPTO 📊

Let’s talk about the state of crypto. *dun dun duuuun*

But instead of throwing a boring 60-page PDF at you, we’re gonna do it in 5 pictures.

Why? Cause pictures make everything easy.

And we like to make our industry reports the same way we make our rice - quick, easy, and in under 90 seconds. (Shoutout to Uncle Ben.)

Alright, let’s dive in.

1/ BTC IS DECORRELATING FROM TECH STOCKS

“If tech stocks pump, so does crypto. If tech stocks bleed, so does crypto.”

This has been a tale as old as time. But ladies & gents, 2023 has been different…

Bitcoin’s correlation with the Nasdaq 100 has been under 50% for almost the entire year.

This month, the correlation plummeted to 3%, a three-year low.

This is big as crypto attempts to separate itself from other traditional assets like tech stocks, gold, etc. And so far this year, it’s doing a good job…

We’ll see if the trend continues into the second half of the year.

2/ DECENTRALIZED FINANCE IS BOOMING

Over the last 2 weeks, the DeFi market cap has jumped 14%, from ~$41.5B → ~$48B.

Why is it up? Because centralized finance companies have been in trouble.

Coinbase and Binance (U.S.) got sued. Others are shutting down. It’s been a bloodbath.

But everyone knows one person’s pain = another person’s gain.

And decentralized finance has been seeing all types of gains. Users are up, trading volume is up, DeFi token prices are up, etc.

Here are some of the biggest winners:

DeFi tokens have all been riding the GainTrain™.

*static noise*

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3/ THE BEST DAY TO TRADE BTC IS TUESDAY

I’ve always wondered two things:

The first one is still a mystery. It truly could be the Eighth Wonder of the World.

The second one is: Tuesday. BTC average returns are the highest on that day, by far.

Turns out, the club isn’t the only thing 🎵going up, on a Tuesday🎵.

P.S. - looks like Monday is the worst day to trade BTC.

Some people have the Monday blues, crypto investors have the Monday reds.

4/ THERE’S MORE ETH STAKED > ETH ON EXCHANGES

It’s official. There is now more ETH being staked than ETH on exchanges.

It’s a small lead, but this is a bullish sign for ETH.

People staking = looking to get yield, so most likely a long-term holder.

People holding on exchanges = ready to sell, so most likely a short-term holder.

5/ THE TRADFI TAKEOVER IS COMING

In case you’ve missed it, all the big traditional financial giants have joined the crypto party over the last few weeks.

BlackRock. Fidelity. JPMorgan. My piggy bank (small, but mighty). Etc.

Here’s a cool visual outlining who’s making moves, what moves they’re making, and (most importantly) how much AUM (assets under management) they have.

In total, these financial behemoths have ~$27 TRILLION in AUM.

Funny how it works…

First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then they join you.

MILK & COOKIES 🍪

FTX debtors have recovered ~$7B in liquid assets. The good news: that’s a lot of money. The bad news: it’s still unclear whether all that money will go back to FTX customers.

Robinhood cut 7% of its full-time employees. Robinhood also recently delisted popular tokens like Solana (SOL), Cardano (ADA), and Polygon (MATIC). Tough times in the ‘hood.

Riot Platforms (a huge Bitcoin miner) bought 33,280 additional mining rigs for $162M. The rigs will be put in Riot Platform’s facility in Texas. (Everything’s bigger in Texas.)

The U.S. Secret Service launched an NFT collection, but it’s not for sale. Each agent from the “Digital Asset Technology Alliance” (DATA) squad had a unique NFT made for them.

MILKY MEMES 🤣

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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.