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GM. This is Milk Road, the crypto newsletter that hits harder than a Rocky training montage.
Here’s what we got for you today:
- ✍️ Coinbase Summit highlights
- ✍️ COTD: Weekly crypto fund flows
- 📈 PRO Where are we in the cycle indicators
- 🍪 Polymarket user charged after Taiwan election bet
- 🎙️ Milk Road Radio: The biggest companies in the world talk crypto
Prices as of 9:30AM ET. Click here for our Fear & Greed Index
COINBASE SUMMIT HIGHLIGHTS ⭐
Hey there, Roaders! Prices might be looking as red as a sunburnt tomato, but we've got some sweet news to brighten your day!
The State of Crypto Summit 2024 in New York last week was the real deal, pulling together over 600 top crypto policymakers, regulators, institutions, and founders.
Hosted by Coinbase, this one-day bash was loaded with big names—pensions, endowments, brokerages, and giants like Google, PayPal, BlackRock, and even Mark Cuban.
This event was bursting with alpha. The Milk Man’s buddy Yano, co-founder of Blockworks, snaged some killer notes from inside the summit. 📓
For the full scoop, check out Yano's tweet, but we’ve summarized our 3 favorite discussions for you!
1/ Beyond Bitcoin ETFs: What's next on the institutional roadmap?
Led by Alesia Haas (Coinbase CFO) and Samara Cohen (CIO of ETF/Index Investments at BlackRock), who manages a cool $6.6 trillion in BlackRock’s index funds and iShares ETFs. That's right, trillion with a T!
Here's the rundown:
- Regulatory Clarity: Clients from Coinbase and BlackRock want clearer rules. Most financial advisors are still spooked by crypto, but hey, that’s their job.
- Tokenization Excitement: Crypto firms are buzzing about tokenized funds—first we saw the digitization of every asset, next it’ll be the tokenization of every asset.
- ETF Dynamics: A record $12 billion in net inflows over 3 months, with 80% from retail investors.
- Institutions Late: Still on their way, probably stuck in traffic, expected to arrive in 2025.
2/ CEO Spotlight: Building the future of money
Brian Armstrong (Coinbase CEO) and Cathie Wood (Ark Invest CEO) shared their visions. Ark manages over $6 billion in assets and is known for trailblazing research in crypto ETFs.
Here’s the lowdown:
- Institutional Involvement: Retail folks kicked things off, but now the big guns (like 56% of Fortune 500 companies) are diving into onchain projects.
- Coinbase Excitement: They’re pumped about Base and smart wallets more than everything else. Onboarding is their big focus!
- Future Generations: Future kids won’t even need bank accounts—they’ll just use their phones as digital wallets.
- Coinbase’s Future: Centralized exchanges rule for now, but Brian’s bet is on peer-to-peer, onchain transactions being the real future.
Cathie Wood & Brian Armstrong
3/ CIO Perspectives: The role of crypto in investment portfolios
Sebastian Pedro (Coinbase Asset Management), Matt Halstead (Teacher Retirement System of Texas), and Matt Hougan (Bitwise CIO) shared some milky insights.
The highlights:
- Asymmetric Opportunity: Crypto’s got this unique setup where there’s massive upside and limited downside.
- Future Adoption: Simple, expect a 5% adoption in the next 5 years
- Portfolio Allocation Debate: Forget that previously expected 1% crypto allocation —institutions are now eyeing a meatier 3-5% exposure.
- Market Position: Not buying crypto? You’re betting against the market.
🥛Milk Road Take: While online chatter has been as depressed as a rainy Monday, the vibe at the event was sky-high!
It’s clear that ETFs have paved the way for long-term crypto adoption, marking the first true institutional cycle—though ironically, institutions aren't fully here yet.
It's like waiting for that friend who's always "almost there" but shows up when you least expect it. So, you best be ready! 🏃
But don’t take our word for it.
We got our friend Yano to hop on the pod and share all the insights he snagged from the summit.
One tasty tidbit? He dished about his lunch with Rich Widmann, Google's Head of Strategy for Web3...
Listen to our latest podcast to soak up all the alpha from Yano himself, and trust me, you don’t want to miss it! 🎙🎧
YouTube | Spotify | Apple Podcasts
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KNOW THE AUDIENCE: POLL QUESTION 🥛
The Milk Man wants to make sure our content is as creamy and delicious as possible for YOU! To do that, we need to understand why you subscribed and what you’re looking to get from us.
Over the next few days, we’ll be running some fun polls to get to know you better. Please take a sec each day to hit us up with your thoughts.
Help us help you!
Your feedback is the secret ingredient to our recipe for success! 👇️
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You can only select one option that you prefer the most. After voting you can leave a comment if you prefer more than one!
- Headline news and interesting stories in crypto
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CHART OF THE DAY: WEEKLY CRYPTO FUND FLOWS 📊
The weekly fund flows are in! Last week we saw a flip of the script, with a staggering outflow of $600 million breaking the 5 week streak. 😡
Here’s the lowdown:
- Bitcoin ($BTC): Took a major hit with $621 million in outflows. The FOMC's hawkish stance scared off the investors, causing the big drop.
- Ethereum ($ETH): While Bitcoin was down, Ethereum saw $13 million in inflows. A glimmer of hope amid the chaos!
Despite the major outflows and a rocky week for Bitcoin, Ethereum showed resilience. The recent FOMC dot plot likely spooked investors, prompting them to scale back their exposure to fixed-supply assets. In short, the dot plot gives a snapshot of the Fed's interest rate expectations and can influence investor behavior in these markets.
As always, stay sharp and keep your eyes on the horizon! 🌅
PRO “WHERE ARE WE IN THE CYCLE?” INDICATORS 🤔
Crypto moves in cycles, and knowing where we are in the current cycle is crucial for capturing the best opportunities.
The goal is to spot the bull market peak before the inevitable bear market hits your bags hard.
Since timing the top perfectly is almost impossible, we use various indicators to give us a better shot at taking profits before it's too late.
Here are the 5 indicators we track, with a color-coded system to show how close they are to signalling the market peak:
🟢 Plenty of room to run 🏄
🟡 Getting closer to the top signal, but haven’t yet reached the mark ⚠️
🔴 We’ve hit the market top indicator 🚨
Every Tuesday, we update these 5 indicators exclusively for PRO members.
Our advice? Don't wait for all of them to hit 🔴. It's better to take profits as they get closer to that point.
Let's dive in and see if we're anywhere near the top of this bull market. 👇
