Today’s edition is brought to you by PayPal - who is charting a new course in the digital landscape with the launch of PYUSD, a stablecoin designed for payments.
Explore the new PayPal USD stablecoin!
GM. This is Milk Road, the newsletter that's like a Nerf gun battle – fast, fun, and action-packed.
Here’s what we got for you today:
- Meet the token backed by God’s word ⛪️
- Where’s all the Bitcoin? 🧐
- This fund 3x’d investors’ money, but it’s run by convicts 🍪
Prices as of 8:00 AM ET. Click here for our Fear & Greed Index
MEET THE TOKEN BACKED BY GOD’S WORD
Scams and rug pulls happen in crypto all the time. By now, you’d think there were no more rugs to pull…
Turns out crypto’s more stocked up than your local Persian rug shop.
And another rug pull was recently exposed. It’s the craziest one yet:
- A church pastor launched a cryptocurrency called INDXcoin. The twist? The token wasn’t backed by anything. No money. No assets. Nada. Just the “word of God.”
- The tokens were sold to fellow churchgoers. The pastor promised 10x returns that were “guaranteed by God.”
- The funds were promised to be used for good causes like helping widows and orphans. Instead, the pastor and his wife pocketed $1.3M, bought a Range Rover, and spent a couple hundred thousand dollars on a home remodel “the Lord” told them to do. (I guess God has an expensive taste in feng shui?)
- The pastor also created an exchange called “Kingdom Wealth Exchange.” This was the only way for investors to buy/sell INDXcoins. But then it shut down last year, making it impossible to cash out.
- When investors questioned the lack of returns, the pastor answered by telling everyone that God wanted them to HODL. According to him, “God is going to bring a miracle into INDXcoin.” (Source: trust me, bro).
There’s still no miracle. But there is a lawsuit…
The pastor and his wife are being sued by Colorado regulators for fraudulently deceiving investors and illegally selling securities.
(Btw, the couple is arguing the token isn’t a security because “God says” it’s a utility token).
P.S. - the only thing crazier than the story itself, is the pastor talking about it…
It’s worth the 2-minute watch. Trust me.
THE NEXT STEP IN MODERNIZING PAYMENTS
Volatility can make crypto payments unpredictable. While stablecoins help address this concern, not all issuers are the same.
Well, in the world of payments, there are few names more well known than PayPal.
PayPal partnered with Paxos to become a pioneer in blockchain-based payments, launching the PYUSD stablecoin.
Here’s what you need to know:
- PYUSD leverages blockchain to bring users faster and more accessible payments than traditional methods.
- PayPal educated the public on their Web3 roadmap and the future of crypto payments through an exciting Open Letter.
- Available today, you can send crypto to your US PayPal account, convert it to PYUSD, and use PYUSD to checkout at millions of online stores.
Explore the new PayPal USD stablecoin!
WHERE’S ALL THE BITCOIN?
Every once in a while… a weird, funky question pops into my head.
Stuff like:
- If you try to fail and succeed, which one did you actually do?
- Why do we park in driveways and drive in parkways?
Sometimes people respond with “Whoa, good question.”
Most of the time, people look at me like I’m high.
Well over the weekend, one of these weird, funky questions popped into my head again…
The question: where is all the Bitcoin? (Like who owns them? People? Companies? Satoshi?)
After a quick search, this visual came up:
A few quick thoughts:
1/ Governments say they hate Bitcoin, but they own A LOT of it…
- The U.S. owns 215,000 BTC.
- China owns 190,000 BTC.
- Ukraine owns 46,350 BTC.
2/ There’s 2x as much “lost” BTC as there is BTC held by governments and companies. Ouch.
3/ Satoshi is one rich mfer. It’s estimated that the Bitcoin creator holds ~1,100,000 BTC (worth $44B+ at today’s prices).
That alone would make Satoshi the 28th richest person in the world...
Wild.
BITE-SIZED COOKIES FOR THE ROAD 🍪
This crypto fund says it tripled investors’ money. The catch? It’s owned by a convicted fraudster. —DL News
A U.S. federal court has ordered an independent investigation into the FTX collapse. The bankrupt exchange will now face an independent investigation by a court-appointed examiner.
A sophisticated crypto scam operation has stolen $32M since April. The scammers create a token with misleading permissions, pump it with fake volume, rug the token once enough outside funds enter, and then repeat the process.
Bloomberg analysts believe there’s a 70% chance Coinbase wins its case against the SEC. Milk Road Rule #48: Analyst predictions are like weather forecasts… even if they say it’ll be sunny, bring an umbrella.
Arbitrum proposed an $85M grant program. The crypto project has a whopping $7B in its treasury, up from $3B in October.
Crypto crime was down 29% last year. According to the Chainalysis report, illicit revenue was also down 54%.
MILKY MEMES 🤣
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ROADER REVIEW OF THE DAY
VITALIK PIC OF THE DAY
That Vitalik smile. Messi in the background kissing the trophy. Put it up in the Louvre.
— Milk Road Images (@MilkRoadImages)4:17 PM • Jan 22, 2024
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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.
