🥛 Are we getting relief, or more pain? 🔮

GM. This is Milk Road, the crypto newsletter that’s like checking the weather before a road trip (except the forecast looks for volatility and the chance of green candles).

Here’s what we’ve got for you today:

✍️ What to look out for.
🎙️ The Milk Road Show: Too Many Tokens, Too Little Value: What Crypto Got Wrong w/ Matt O’Connor.
🍪 Bernstein is still bullish on 2026.

EarnPark is a yield-focused crypto platform that offers strategies across multiple risk profiles. Explore various yield strategies with EarnPark.

Prices as of 2:00 p.m. ET. Trade today with Milk Road Swap.

WHAT TO LOOK OUT FOR THIS WEEK 📆

Last week gave us a brutal daisy chain of sell-offs from Tuesday to Thursday.

But since then, things appear to have stabilized.

So, where to from here?

Let’s take a look at this week’s events to see what could move markets.

1. Macro 🌎

On the macro books this week, we have:

December Retail Sales data - Monday - How did retail fare this past holiday season?
January Jobs Report - Wednesday - Did the job market weaken or strengthen in January?
Initial Jobless Claims data - Thursday - How many people filed for unemployment for the first time over the past week?
January Existing Home Sales data - Thursday - How’d the existing home market perform last month?
January CPI Inflation data - Friday - Did inflation slow or speed up last month?

The data release we have our eyes on? Friday’s CPI.

Right now, there’s a massive disparity between Truflation’s real-time CPI and the Fed’s lagging data.

The Fed’s last CPI print (covering December) put inflation at 2.7%.

… Truflation’s current real-time CPI? 0.68%!

Something’s gotta give.

(If the government’s CPI data moves closer to Truflation’s on Friday, the likelihood of future rate cuts will increase - and crypto loves rate cuts!)

Source: Truflation

2. Earnings

We’ve got a doozy of a week ahead in earnings!

It’s a small roster, but the two key crypto companies on the lineup have some WEIGHT:

Robinhood, Tuesday after close.
Coinbase, Thursday after close.

We’ll be watching closely.

Source: @eWhispers

And btw - Tuesday’s important not just because Robinhood is reporting earnings…

It’s also the day we might see the ‘CLARITY Act snowball’ get another nudge on its way down the hill.

Here’s what’s on the calendar… 👇

THERE IS NO “BEST” YIELD

Here’s a hot take:

There’s no single best way to earn yield.

The right strategy depends on market conditions and your risk tolerance.

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WHAT TO LOOK OUT FOR THIS WEEK (P2) 📆

If/when the CLARITY Act passes, it will open up the broader crypto market to institutional flows in the U.S.

So any/all forward momentum on its passing is important.

And we may be about to get a new catalyst. 👇

3. Government 🏛️

Tomorrow, White House staff are meeting to discuss clearing CLARITY’s ‘stablecoin yield’ bottleneck.

It’s an important sticking point to get past, and one that could clear a good deal of brush from the path ahead.

… that said - even after that, the path in question is still a long one!

We cataloged it all in the tweet below (click the source link to read the full roadmap). 👇

Source: @MilkRoad

4. Podcasts 🎙️

Another week, another heavy-hitting line-up on the Milk Road Daily podcast:

Tue - Scott Melker (The Wolf Of All Streets).
Wed - Matt Hougan (CIO of Bitwise).
Thu - Jamie Coutts (Chief Crypto Analyst @ Real Vision).

5 . Milk Road PRO live events 🥛

Two PRO events are happening this week:

Macro PRO AMA: Come and hang with John Gillen (former BlackRock VP) to chat all things big picture. Submit your questions using this form.
All Access Portfolio Update: Join co-founder Kyle Reidhead and crypto analyst Martin as they break down the assets we hold in the PRO All Access portfolio and share which ones they're most bullish on long term.

👉 Both events go down live in the PRO All Access Discord.

Alright, that’s everything!

Mark those calendars, light some incense, and pray to the crypto gods.