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Learn about Polkadot’s innovative technology!
GM. This is Milk Road, the only newsletter that gives you that last day of school feeling. Every single day.
Here’s what we got for you today:
- Crypto 🤝 Stripe
- Pantera Capital is raising a new $1B crypto fund 💰
- The Milk Road Rollup is in! 🎙️
- This CryptoPunk sold for $12.4M 🍪
Prices as of 12:30 PM ET. Click here for our Fear & Greed Index
CRYPTO 🤝 STRIPE
After 6 long years… crypto payments are coming back to Stripe!
- The fintech giant will begin supporting transactions in USDC stablecoins.
- Transactions instantly settle on-chain and automatically convert to fiat.
- Payments can be settled on the Solana, Ethereum, and Polygon blockchains.
- Stablecoin payments will be integrated into the checkout suite in a few weeks.
Here’s a quick demo of how it works:
Why this matters: Stripe is a behemoth…
- It has a $65B valuation.
- It processed over $1T in transactions last year.
So the fact that Stripe is taking another serious look at crypto payments is a big deal!
If we had to dumb it down to one tweet, here you go…
Milk Road Question of the Day: How are you feeling about the recent Stripe announcement? Bullish? Bearish?
We wanna know! Hit ‘reply’ to this email and let us know.
P.S. - But it's bad news for everyone asking to pay for Milk Road PRO with crypto... It's not going to work for subscriptions (…yet)
THE BLOCKSPACE ECOSYSTEM FOR BOUNDLESS INNOVATION
Charles Hoskinson, co-founder of Ethereum, said it best:
Polkadot is what Ethereum 2.0 should have been.
Polkadot makes it easier than ever to create and connect decentralized applications, services, and institutions.
Will there eventually be one blockchain to rule them all? Probably not, but Polkadot can help.
Polkadot connects several chains in a single network, allowing them to process transactions in parallel and exchange arbitrary data – not just tokens – across any blockchain. Polkadot has a better security model, a green and efficient protocol with the lowest carbon footprint, a new standard of cross-chain communication, and transparent on-chain governance where any DOT holder can vote and propose ideas.
Need some help to get building?
Web3 Foundation is distributing20 million USD and 5 million DOT tokens to support individuals and teams as they launch new initiatives aimed at growing the Polkadot ecosystem.
Join the movement for a better web.
PANTERA CAPITAL IS RAISING A NEW $1B CRYPTO FUND 💰
In case you aren’t familiar with Pantera…
- It launched the first cryptocurrency fund in the United States ~10 years ago
- It’s been invested in BTC since 2013
- The fund’s lifetime return is up 10,136%
And now, Pantera is looking to raise a new $1B crypto fund.
I repeat, 1 BILLION DOLLARS…
- The fund will be called ‘Pantera Fund V’ (and at this pace, they’ll have more funds than ‘Fast & Furious’ has movies)
- It will focus on startup equity, early-stage tokens, and liquid tokens among other assets.
Why this matters: Pantera is one of the most active investment firms in crypto.
According to data from The Block, the firm has invested in 180+ startups.
More Pantera funds = more money going into crypto startups and the rest of the ecosystem.
Not to mention crypto startups have been a roll recently. They’ve been raising funds left & right.
Here were some of the most interesting ones we saw this week:
- Movement Labs raised $38M to bring Facebook's Move Virtual Machine to Ethereum.
- Aligned Layer raised $20M to create a verification layer for zero-knowledge proofs.
- InfiniGods raised $8M to build web3 mobile games.
- Natix raised $4.6M to develop real-time mapping data.
And with more crypto funds launching soon, we expect a lot more startups to raise money in the near term!
THE MILK ROAD ROLLUP IS HERE 🎙️
It's Friday, which means the Weekly Rollup just hit Milk Road Radio—your weekly briefing on what matters for your crypto bags! 💰
This week we talk about:
- Runes Alpha 🚨
- SocialFi Summer ☀️
- Renzo’s Depeg 👀
- … and more!
YouTube | Spotify | Apple Podcasts
BITE-SIZED COOKIES FOR THE ROAD 🍪
ZKX is part of the Starknet DeFi Spring campaign, allowing users to earn $STRK rewards based on their trading activity and open interest on ZKX OG and PRO Trade exchanges. Start trading now!*
CryptoPunk #635 sold for 4,000 ETH (worth $12.41M) yesterday. It’s this year's 3rd most expensive NFT sale and 6th most expensive CryptoPunk sale of all time.
Cryptocurrencies and stocks slid yesterday after the recent GDP report showed economic growth is slowing faster than expected. Gross domestic product (GDP), which broadly measures goods and services produced in the first quarter, increased by 1.6% year-over-year (and missed analysts’ expectations of 2.4%).
Immutable is launching a $50M ‘gaming rewards program’. Players can get rewards immediately by exploring quests, playing games, and owning collections on Immutable.
Franklin Templeton has enabled peer-to-peer transfer for its on-chain U.S. Government Money Fund. Fun fact: Franklin Templeton leads the ‘tokenized U.S. treasuries’ industry with a 32% market share.
USDT's exchange balance hit its highest level in a year and keeps rising. Exchanges’ USDT balances tend to grow when more people are holding the asset on the exchange or if more traders want to sell the asset than buy it.
Wanna team up with the Milk Man? We currently have 6 positions open – check ‘em out and apply here!
*This is sponsored content
MILKY MEMES 🤣
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ROADER REVIEW OF THE DAY
VITALIK PIC OF THE DAY
TGIF
— Milk Road Images (@MilkRoadImages)1:35 PM • Apr 26, 2024
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.
