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GM. This is Milk Road, the newsletter that makes understanding crypto easier than assembling IKEA furniture.
Here’s what we got for you today:
- A peek inside $10M+ crypto wallets 🤑
- This bathhouse is mining Bitcoin to hit its pools 👀
- Solana enters the top 5 🍪
Prices as of 8:00 AM ET. Click here for our Fear & Greed Index
WE LOOKED INSIDE SOME $10M+ CRYPTO WALLETS
Blockchains are open books. You can see all transactions, wallet balances, etc.
And one of the cooler things you can do is whale watching. This is when you peek into wallets (you wish were yours) that have millions of dollars in ‘em.
We like doing this because… it can give you insight into trading strategies they use (i.e. are they staking crypto? are they lending/borrowing?) and what tokens/protocols they’re invested in.
The crappy part is…when you go back to look at your wallet, it feels like this:
Anyway, we decided to check back in on some whales that:
- We first started tracking about 15 months ago.
- And all have 8-figure portfolios, ranging from $10M → $25M. No little guppies here.
We wanted to see what was different, what was the same, and what they had their eyes on now. Let’s dive in…
WHALE #1: “EverydayWhale”
15 months ago…
- Wallet balance: $17.6M.
- Main trading strategy: earn yield by providing liquidity to protocols like Maker and Uniswap.
- Main blockchains used: 100% of assets were on Ethereum.
Fast forward to today…
- Wallet balance: $9.9M (btw, it’s unclear why the wallet balance went down so much, but a few theories are: they sold off some assets or moved them to another non-EVM chain - like Solana, Cosmos, etc.).
- Main trading strategy: stake ETH on Lido (67% of the whale’s crypto is staked here).
- Main blockchains used: 100% of assets are still on Ethereum.
The takeaway: You don’t need to be the same investor you were yesterday. Just look at this whale…
6 months ago, they were focused on earning yield by providing liquidity. Today, they barely provide any liquidity and instead, stake ETH on Lido to earn yield.
It’s good to stay on your toes and try new things out.
WHALE #2: “PennilessWassie”
15 months ago…
- Wallet balance: $22M.
- Main trading strategy: farm yield on protocols like Frax, Convex, and Liquity.
- Main blockchains used: 88% of assets were on Ethereum, 11% on Arbitrum, and 1% on Optimism.
Fast forward to today…
- Wallet balance: $23.1M.
- Main trading strategy: farm yield on protocols like Frax, Curve, and Convex (78% of their assets are on 1 of those 3 protocols).
- Main blockchains used: 96% of assets are on Ethereum, 2% on Optimism, and 1% on Arbitrum.
The takeaway: Farming yield is often viewed as a “conservative” strategy (at least compared to trading sh*tcoins and leverage trading)...
… but this whale was able to make $1M+ from not doing much.
Btw, this strategy worked well because this whale had a sh*tton of money, but 5% returns might not be that appealing for investors trying “to make it.”
WHALE #3: “Ethereum”
15 months ago:
- Wallet balance: $25.4M.
- Main trading strategy: farm yield on protocols like Convex and Aura Finance.
- Main blockchains used: 55% of assets on Ethereum, 22% on Avalance, 16% on Arbitrum, and 4% on BNB .
Fast forward to today…
- Wallet balance: $29.2M.
- Main trading strategy: pretty diverse… they’re lending/borrowing funds on Spark, staking on Convex, and farming yield on Magpie XYZ and Prisma Finance.
- Main blockchains used: 57% on Ethereum, 34% on Arbitrum, 4% on Avalanche, and 3% on BNB Chain.
The takeaway: There are A LOT more things you can do on-chain than 15 months ago… and this whale is taking full advantage of it.
When we last looked at this wallet, they were invested in battle-tested protocols like Convex and Aura Finance.
Now, the whale has gone “degen mode” and is using a lot of new protocols (mostly ones that are tokenless, in hopes that one day they’ll launch a token and they can get an airdrop).
It’s an interesting strategy. We’ll check back in another few months to see how it plays out.
UNISWAP IN YOUR POCKET
It’s time we talked about the elephant in the room.
DeFi users prefer to use dapps from their mobile phone but the UX and compatibility issues suck – mobile dapp design has been a bit of a rollercoaster ride that has Steve Jobs turning in his grave.
Enter Uniswap.
They’ve built a mobile app for swapping, with some really thoughtful design.
- Users are able to on/off ramp, swap in fractions of a second, and auto switch between Mainnet and L2s all from one convenient interface.
- Swaps benefit from the best prices, all while maintaining self-custody of assets.
- And now tons of built-in features allowing users to discover tokens, track metrics, set up watchlists, and even receive push notifications based on preferences.
If you’re new to DeFi or already swapping on mobile, the perfect swap is now accessible directly from your back pocket, from the largest on-chain marketplace for digital assets.
Download the Uniswap mobile app today!
THIS SPA IS MINING BITCOIN
Check it out. This spa in New York is mining Bitcoin to heat its pools…
- Bathhouse Spa needs a lot of energy to heat its steam rooms, pools, and saunas.
- So, the owner decided to do something new: he set up a Bitcoin mining rig.
- The spa uses something called “submersion cooling” to mine Bitcoin (aka the mining rig is submerged in a pool of mineral oil).
- The mineral oil keeps the mining rig cool, while the heat created from mining is used to heat the pools, saunas, and steam rooms.
Not only does Bathhouse Spa generate all the heat it needs from this, but it also gets Bitcoin as a reward for mining. In total, the owner says its rig mines ~1 BTC per year.
Click on the video below to see a live tour of the spa and how it all works!
BITE-SIZED COOKIES 🍪
Coinbase Wallet is making sending money as easy as sending a text. Users can now send money to friends and family through links, leading to easy onboarding for new crypto users. Available now on iOS, Android, and as a browser extension on Chrome and Brave.*
Solana is now one of the top 5 cryptocurrencies by market cap. It flipped XRP yesterday to enter the Mt. Rushmore of Crypto.
Ledger announced it will refund all users affected by last week’s exploit. The hardware wallet maker says it will also “enact changes to transaction signing processes.”
Bitcoin options open interest on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) reached an all-time high. In the past 24 hours, options open interest on CME bitcoin futures contracts has reached almost $2 billion in outstanding contracts.
Trezor added support for Solana and Solana Program Library (SPL) tokens. The hardware wallet manufacturer now supports over 8,000 tokens.
Immutable launched a new “Passport” tool to increase interoperability in web3 games. The tool allows players to use identities and assets across multiple platforms.
*This is sponsored content
MILKY MEMES 🤣
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ROADER REVIEW OF THE DAY
VITALIK PIC OF THE DAY
need shades to block out that SOL
— Milk Road Images (@MilkRoadImages)1:15 PM • Dec 21, 2023
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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.
