🥛 The crypto narrative of the decade 🔍

GM. This is Milk Road, the crypto newsletter that cuts through the noise like AirPods with ANC on full blast.

Here’s what we’ve got for you today:

✍️ The crypto narrative of the decade.
🎙️ The Milk Road Show: Why Bitcoin Feels Dead Even Though the Thesis Is Winning w/ Jeff Park.
🍪 Thailand tokenizes.

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THE MOST IMPORTANT CRYPTO NARRATIVE OF THE REMAINING DECADE 🔍

Remember back in the 90’s when the internet was initially seen as a fad?

(Yeah, me neither, I was busy leading my Ninja Turtles and Biker Mice From Mars into fictional battles.)

But ask your dad. He’ll confirm it.

The internet went from ‘goofy forums & spam email’ to ‘oh shoot, this thing is going to find its way into EVERYTHING’.

Crypto is following a similar path, going from ‘erratic 4yr price swings & memecoins’ to ‘if you use money, you use blockchain tech’.

The key to tracking that progression? Tokenized Real World Asset (RWA) adoption.

We’ve said it before, and we’re going to keep saying it…

This is the most important chart in crypto right now:

Source: RWA

ARK Invest just dropped a banger of a report that predicted that RWAs (exc. stablecoins) will grow from $20.6B at the end of 2025, to $11T by 2030.

(That’s freakin’ seismic!)

And it highlights how most people have been focused entirely on the wrong thing (we’ve been guilty of this, too):

Everyone has been focused on the fact that the majors are on struggle street, and the small caps are bleeding out…

When the real story has been unfolding in plain sight, all throughout 2025:

Stablecoin transfer volume hit $55.8T (that's more than 3x of Visa!).
The total stablecoin supply grew ~50%, from $202B to $300B.
The RWA market (exc. stables) grew more than 3.5x

RWA tokenization is more than just a crypto narrative.

It's the quiet restructuring of global finance happening while everyone argues about price action.

…so how does it play out?

Lemme break it down into 4 distinct phases – covering where we are now, and what comes next. 👇

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THE MOST IMPORTANT CRYPTO NARRATIVE OF THE REMAINING DECADE (P2) 🔍

Here’s the full roadmap…

Phase 1: Stablecoin infrastructure

This was the proof of concept phase. Could blockchain handle real money at scale?

The answer was a definitive yes. $55.8T of yearly volume doesn't lie.

Source: Token Terminal

Stablecoins proved that tokenized dollars work better than traditional payment rails.

Faster settlement.
24/7 availability.
Lower fees.

Status: PROOF OF CONCEPT COMPLETE. (With a whooole lot of room to grow.)

Phase 2: Treasury and Commodity tokenization

This is where institutions got serious.

The RWA market (exc. stables) value increased ~260%, from $5.7B to $20.6B in 2025.

BlackRock's BUIDL money market fund reached $1.7B (that's 20% of the entire $9B tokenized U.S. Treasury market).

While tokenized gold started to make similar strides: Tether's XAUT sits at $1.8B, Paxos' PAXG holds $1.6B (together, they control 83% of the tokenized gold market).

Status: IN PROGRESS. (And accelerating.)

Source: RWA

Phase 3: Equity and complex asset tokenization

Tokenized public stocks broke $750M in 2025. This is still small.

But the infrastructure being built in Phase 2 enables everything that comes in Phase 3:

Private equity.
Real estate.
Stocks.
Art.

Literally any asset that can be tokenized and fractionalized will be.

Stables, Treasuries, and Commodities helped prove the playbook. Now it scales horizontally across asset classes.

Status: EARLY STAGE (Expect major acceleration between now and 2030.)

Phase 4: Full financial system integration

This is the endgame. When tokenized assets become the default.

Not an alternative. Not a crypto experiment.

The standard.

Status: UPCOMING. (Replacing legacy systems is no small task.)

ARK Invest believes that as this transition progresses throughout the back half of the decade, we will see tokenized assets (exc. stables) move ~500x from $21.8B today, to $11T in 2030.

The really brain-wrinkling part of that?

$11T would only represent 1.38% of all global financial assets.

That's the ceiling for the early, early stages of ‘The Tokenization of Everything’.

More of a visual learner? Say no more…

Source: Milk Road

Right now, we're solidly in Phase 2, transitioning into Phase 3.

The next major catalyst is regulatory clarity on tokenized securities.

The EU's MiCA framework is live. The U.S. is (hopefully) going to catch up soon by passing the Market Structure Bill.

Meanwhile – BlackRock, Fidelity, and Franklin Templeton aren't waiting.

They're building now.

The Takeaway:

Everyone spent 2025 doom-scrolling crypto prices.

Smart money spent 2025 building the pipes that will eventually move $11T+.

Understanding this roadmap gives you a 3 to 5 year head start on the biggest asset migration in financial history.

CRYPTO PRO “WHERE ARE WE IN THE CYCLE?” INDICATORS 🤔

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