GM. This is Milk Road. We’re like Biggie Biggie Biggie. Our words just hypnotize you.
It's Saturday, y'all. Here's what we've got for you today:
- Milknotes: 2023’s anti-crypto Economic Report 📜
- BTC outperforms S&P 500 companies 🏆
- How crypto’s helping fight cancer 🔬
- Nasdaq’s launching a crypto custody business 🪙
Today's edition is brought to you by FIO, the most secure way to create a customizable handle for your crypto address.
MILKNOTES: WHITE HOUSE ECON REPORT 📜
The White House released its annual economic report earlier this week. And let me tell ya, people are pissed.
Take Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson, who called it “bullsh*t” and a “piece of garbage.”
Why? Because the Biden administration went nuclear on Bitcoin and crypto, mentioning both more than 300 times.
The digital assets chapter is 37 pages long, and ain’t nobody got time for that… so we put together some handy dandy Milknotes to clue you Roadies in.
Here are the highlights:
1/ Fiat is better than Bitcoin because it’s backed by the “trusted” central bank
According to the authors, Bitcoin is volatile, risky, speculative, and has no fundamental value. And all crypto does is create artificial scarcity so prices pump and investors can get rich.
Reminder that they said this right after SVB collapsed and everyone realized the banking system is about as sturdy as a house of cards. (There’s a reason BTC is slowly climbing in price…)
*sniff sniff… smell that? Reeks of irony to me.
2/ It plugged the Federal Reserve’s new FedNow real-time payments system & CBDC
Yep, there was a mid-report ad for the central bank’s upcoming real-time payments system. Just days after regulators killed crypto-friendly Signature’s Signet that did basically the same thing…
2023 Economic Report
They said FedNow and CBDC, a proposed digital form of the US Dollar, would bring the U.S. “into the digital era in a clear and simple way, without the risks or irrational exuberance brought by crypto assets.”
It’s like when your older sibling was allowed to watch a scary movie and you weren’t just because they’re older.
3/ Crypto assets could be a security or a commodity; it depends
Gary G. and the SEC have been screaming from the rooftops that all crypto assets except Bitcoin are securities. And they’ve gone after Kraken, Gemini, and now Coinbase for offering unregistered securities.
So the highest form of the U.S. government says otherwise? You betchyer ass it does.
“Regardless of the label used, a crypto asset may be, among other things, a security, a commodity, a derivative, or another type of financial product, depending on the facts and circumstances,” reads the report.
Somewhere, lawyers fighting legal cases on behalf of crypto companies are looking something like this:
Giphy
4/ Bitcoin isn’t switching to something more Mother Nature-friendly like Ethereum did
“Despite Ethereum’s switch to proof-of-stake, Bitcoin has not announced plans to make a similar change,” the report reads.
So, okay, they didn’t flat out say Bitcoin should move to proof-of-stake. But it does make you wonder…do they know how the Bitcoin consensus fundamentally works?
Switching to proof-of-stake is never gonna happen. Bitcoin is completely decentralized; there’s no governing group to vote yes or no on a proposal to migrate to PoS.
But I’m sure the authors know that…
5/ Blockchain tech could be useful one day AND crypto is here to stay
That’s right folks, not everything in the report was doom and gloom.
The authors know the industry ain’t goin nowhere.
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BTC IS OUTPERFORMING 97% OF ALL S&P 500 COMPANIES 🏆
There are two things the crypto space loves:
- Dunking on Gary Gensler
- When Bitcoin shows the world who’s boss
And so far this year, that’s exactly what Bitcoin has done. YTD gains have clocked in at ~37% thus far, which is better than 488 of the publicly-traded giants listed on the S&P 500.
That means Bitcoin is beating the gains of Apple (+19.3%), Amazon (+17.8%), and FedEx (+27.2%).
Only 12 S&P 500 companies are beating Bitcoin’s 37%, including Meta and Tesla.
Check it out:
#Bitcoin is having a hot start to 2023 beating 97% of S&P 500 companies 🔥 #blo #blockchain y #CryptoManiaks p
— CryptoManiaks (@CryptoManiaks)12:08 PM • Mar 23, 2023
Bitcoin’s price has gone from ~$20,000 to ~$28,000 so far this year. It’s crazy what a little distrust in the national banking system will do.
CRYPTO, MEET SCIENCE 🔬
It’s been a tough run for crypto. Collapsed banks, regulatory threats, prices in the tank … Sh*t hasn’t been great.
But let’s take a break from all that for a sec and talk about how crypto’s fighting cancer.
The World Community Grid is a volunteer research group that studies how genes and health are related. For example, it’s found 26 new genes that are associated with lung cancer.
But it needs a boatload of power to crunch the data and make these discoveries (we’re talkin’ like 240 years’ of computational power per day.)That’s where crypto miners come in.
Since 2013, Gridcoin (altcoin) and BOINC (open-source platform) have been paying miners to take their spare processing power and give it to scientists instead. The miners receive Gridcoin (GRC) in exchange for their efforts.
It’s like when your next-door neighbor has way stronger WiFi, so they let you sign in during March Madness, and you mow their lawn for them in exchange.
That means crypto miners directly helped power the computers that scientists used to identify genes associated with lung cancer. Cool, huh?
And here’s the cooler part: Gridcoin switched from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake in 2015. So all of its computational power goes to science research since it doesn’t need so much power to secure the blockchain anymore.
That’s a win in our book.
MILK & COOKIES
Nasdaq registered with the New York Department of Financial Services to launch its crypto custody business sometime in Q2. The stock exchange firm is the latest financial giant to do so; Fidelity and BlackRock have expanded in crypto recently.
Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon just green-lit a law to create a stablecoin. It’ll be the first U.S. state to issue one, which would be fully backed by holdings in U.S. treasury bills.
Kraken will suspend Automated Clearing House deposits & withdrawals starting on March 27. The struggles of not having a banking partner after Silvergate collapsed…
Arbitrum’s ARB token is now one of the top 40 most valuable cryptocurrencies after Thursday’s airdrop. About 80% of the token’s supply has been claimed.
MILKY MEME
🤣🤣
That's a wrap for today. Meet us on Twitter to talk all about it. It’s kinda like a family BBQ but better - no screaming kids, awkward photos, or drunk uncles telling weird stories(@MilkRoadDaily)
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A ROADER'S REVIEW
VITALIK PIC OF THE DAY
It's a great day to enjoy your Saturday coffee and touch grass
— Milk Road (@MilkRoadDaily)12:01 PM • Mar 25, 2023
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.
