GM. This is Milk Road, the crypto newsletter helping to make you the smartest person in your group chat.
Here’s what we’ve got for you today:
- ✍️ Are the best AI plays actually in crypto?
- 🎙️ The Milk Road Show: The "NASDAQ of the Future": How Solana is Winning the Institutional Crypto Race w/ Catherine Gu.
- 🍪 Most people holding stablecoins are leaving money on the table.
Midnight is a fourth generation blockchain that just launched last week. Check out their launch announcement here.
Prices as of 2:00 p.m. ET. Trade today with Milk Road Swap.
THE BEST AI INVESTMENT MIGHT BE HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT 🤫
AI is the hottest trade on the planet right now.
Valuations are stretched, everyone and their grandma owns Nvidia, and most of the obvious plays are priced to perfection - or well past it.
So you're essentially stuck paying premium prices and hoping there's still room to run.
Which got us thinking... what if the smartest AI bet isn't an AI stock at all?
Here's the angle - and you already know this part, so we'll keep it brief:
AI agents need fast settlement times, low fees, programmable money, and 24/7 uptime to operate at peak velocity/efficiency.
Traditional financial rails can't give them that (we're talking days to settle, hundreds of dollars in fees, closed on weekends). Blockchains can.
And if you believe AI agents are going to be the next big cohort of internet users, then DeFi and crypto could be key to expressing that thesis - at a discount.
Because right now, the market is pricing these two sides of the same coin very differently.
AI stocks are trading at premium multiples. Investors have already priced in massive adoption, revenue growth, the whole enchilada…
Meanwhile, crypto just got crushed. 👇
So here's what the market might be missing:
Both sides are connected by the same catalyst.
The explosion of AI agents doesn't just benefit AI companies. It benefits the infrastructure that those agents will actually use to move money, execute trades, and settle transactions.
One side of that trade is beloved and expensive. The other is hated and cheap.
(Classic mispricing?)
Now picture what this actually looks like in practice…
DO YOU CARE ABOUT YOUR PRIVACY?
Here’s a fun fact:
90% of people are concerned about the privacy of their data.
Yet privacy hasn’t really been considered for most blockchains.
And that’s why Midnight is doubling down on it.
Midnight is a fourth generation blockchain design to unlock real-world adoption.
Here’s what they’re building:
- A blockchain enabling privacy by default
- Infrastructure to bring real-world finance onchain
- A dual-component model with the $NIGHT token and $DUST resource
And here’s the cherry on top:
Midnight just launched this week. It’s fresh, live and ready to explore.
Check out their launch announcement here.
THE BEST AI INVESTMENT MIGHT BE HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT (P2) 🤫
Imagine millions of AI agents operating autonomously onchain:
Swapping tokens. Lending capital. Settling payments with each other.
Not on some distant timeline - this is the direction things are already heading.
What happens to protocol revenue when a tidal wave of new, non-human users starts generating transaction volume 24/7/365?
What happens to TVL (aka the amount of capital sitting inside DeFi protocols) when AI agents start parking and deploying capital at machine speed?
It's a usage explosion. 👇
And the downstream effects on the tokens and protocols that facilitate all that activity could be enormous.
Of course, this isn't a slam dunk.
We'd be doing you dirty if we didn't flag the risks:
- Regulatory uncertainty is still a wild card.
- AI agent adoption timelines could be slower than anyone expects.
- And crypto volatility is its own beast, regardless of how good the thesis is.
Good narratives don't always translate to good short-term price action.
(So eyes wide open on this one.)
But the core idea is pretty simple:
Instead of buying more of what everyone already owns at crazy valuations, you could get ahead of a user base that nobody's really modeling yet.
AI agents that need to compete at the highest levels of operating efficiency and velocity will go wherever the rails are fastest and cheapest.
And those rails are onchain.
Top DeFi protocols and AI-focused blockchain ecosystems might just be the discount aisle for a high-conviction AI thesis right now.
(Sometimes the best hiding spots are the obvious ones.)
BITE-SIZED COOKIES FOR THE ROAD 🍪
Mind blown, brain leaking. On the Virtuals protocol, there are already 18,000+ AI agents deployed with 3,000 of them actively earning revenue.*
Damn dawg! Most people holding stablecoins are leaving money on the table. Like, a lot of money. $11B a year, to be specific.
Woah! The biggest construction race in American history just got a reality check and the gap between promise and progress is staggering.
Hyper-Bitcoinization: what does it actually look like?
Higher earnings rates. Lower borrowing costs. Up to 0.5% cashback. New U.S. clients get these benefits on Nexo for 30 days.**
*this is sponsored content. **this is partner content.
Check out their launch announcement here.
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