GM. This is Milk Road, the daily newsletter where crypto confusion goes to die.
Here’s what we’ve got for you today:
- ✍️ Is ETH the operating system for AI?
- 🎙️ The Milk Road Show: Tether Co-Founder Says The Next Bull Run Is Already Here… Just Not Where You Think.
- 🍪 BitTensor's TAO dropped more than 18%.
Nexo is back in the U.S. - and new clients get 30 days of Wealth Club Premier perks! Higher yields, lower borrowing rates, and crypto cashback - start here.
Prices as of 2:00 p.m. ET. Trade today with Milk Road Swap.
FORGET CRYPTO PAYMENTS, AI AGENTS ARE GOING TO NEED DEFI 💪
We've been beating the drum on AI agents using crypto for payments for a while now.
And sure, that thesis is playing out…
E.g. Coinbase, Cloudflare, and Stripe built x402 for instant stablecoin micropayments between agents, processing over 140M agent-to-agent transactions with $43M in volume.
But we just read a piece from Etherealize that made us realize we’ve been thinking way too small (and delivered us an “Oh my God, I get it” moment)…
Here’s the rub…
Payments are a great use case - but they’re just one tool in the toolbox.
And if you really believe AI agents are on a trajectory to become serious operators in business/finance, they're gonna need a lot more than the ability to send money.
Etherealize found the perfect example:
An AI agent named Felix made $300K in five weeks. He hires other AI agents, sells products, and runs a whole marketplace.
His monthly operating costs? About $1,500. Pretty impressive for a bot.
But Felix has a problem: he can't open a bank account. He's not human. And the entire financial system assumes there's a flesh-and-blood person on the other end of every account.
Hand Felix a crypto wallet, though? He's off to the races.
And this is where it all clicked…
Once Felix (or any agent like him) starts actually managing money, the needs go way beyond just sending payments.
Think:
- Borrowing (working capital for compute costs, bridging cash flow gaps).
- Earning yield (Felix has $165K just sitting there doing nothing).
- Raising funding (good luck setting up a Carta cap table as a bot).
- Custodying assets (without some third party who can freeze everything).
Traditional finance requires credit applications, underwriters, and a legal identity for all of that.
But with DeFi? An agent can deposit collateral and borrow stablecoins instantly.
No paperwork, no human in the loop, no DMV visits (thank God).
And Etherealize argues that Ethereum is going to be the place where it all happens…
CRYPTO SHOULD WORK HARDER FOR YOU
Most people hold crypto and hope.
The smart money? They're earning interest on it, borrowing against it without selling, and trading it.
Where can you do the same all in one place? Nexo.
And right now, new U.S. clients get 30 days of Wealth Club Premier (benefits normally reserved for loyalty program members):
- Enhanced interest rates on your digital assets
- Lower borrowing costs against your crypto
- Up to 0.5% cashback on trades
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*Disclaimer: Geographic restrictions and terms apply.
FORGET CRYPTO PAYMENTS, AI AGENTS ARE GOING TO NEED DEFI (P2) 💪
So why Ethereum specifically?
Sure, other chains have DeFi. But building an ecosystem that agents can trust with serious money for extended periods?
That’s probably going to take some time-proven trust.
And Ethereum has a head start with 10+ years of uptime, battle-tested protocols, big-name institutional adopters, and liquidity that dwarfs the competition.
So, assuming that’s true and AI agents opt for Ethereum…
What does that mean for ETH as an asset?
In short: increased demand and restricted supply.
Every interaction with Ethereum's DeFi stack (regardless of the asset being exchanged) requires transaction fees to be paid in ETH, which will help to increase demand.
And borrowing, swapping, deploying contracts, rebalancing portfolios - all of that burns ETH through EIP-1559 (a mechanism that permanently removes a portion of fees from circulation).
Plus, agents borrowing on Aave need to post collateral.
And ETH is the deepest collateral asset on the network. More agents borrowing means more ETH locked up, which means less circulating supply.
Buy n’ burn it on one end, lock it up on the other.
Could things go wrong with the trajectory being assumed here? Sure.
Gas abstraction tech could shift demand away from ETH, a competing chain could catch up, TradFi could adapt…
But as Etherealize points out, even an adapted TradFi system would still be offering agents a product designed for humans, with human overhead baked into every cost.
DeFi offers a software-native product - and software tends to prefer software.
Leading us to this moment…
BITE-SIZED COOKIES FOR THE ROAD 🍪
What if a bank app and crypto wallet had a baby? You’d get Brighty which is a money app that lets you use crypto and regular fiat money together without transferring funds.*
New data: March CPI rises, but still comes in below expectations - headline: 3.3% YoY, expected: 3.4%.
Ouch! BitTensor's TAO dropped more than 18% after a public fallout between a leading subnet operator and the network's founder.
It’s gonna be bumpy: The Bitcoin rebound is still set to face the oil shock & inflation tests, despite the ceasefire.
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.
MILKY MEMES 🤣
ROADIE REVIEW OF THE DAY 🥛
VITALIK PIC OF THE DAY
