Today’s edition is brought to you by Kraken Pro - the one-stop shop for pro traders backed by one of the most trusted names in the industry.
GM. This is Milk Road, your daily dose of crypto caffeine - we get you hyped, energized, and ready to conquer the day.
Happy Friday. Let’s boogie:
- FedNow is LIVE 🏦
- Why BTC’s booming in Japan & Turkey 🪙
- A Milk Road WTF moment 🥴
- Telegram bots are at a ~$100M market cap 🍪
Prices as of 9 AM ET.
UNCLE SAM’S INSTANT PAYMENT SERVICE IS LIVE 🏦
Ladies & gents, it’s here.
FedNow is LIVE. (*cue the fanfare*)
What is it? The Federal Reserve’s new instant payment system.
It allows banks & credit unions to transfer money 24/7, instantly. Meaning banks can process your money in seconds vs. days.
Here’s everything you need to know, in under 60 seconds:
- 41 banks/credit unions are already signed up, including JP Morgan, Wells Fargo, & USBancorp. So is the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
- FedNow lets banks/credit unions settle transfers in central bank accounts. It’s mainly for businesses, so still gotta use Venmo to send $5 to your friend for Taco Bell.
- It will use the Metal blockchain, a crypto network that can set rules for transfers (i.e. “don’t send to non-US citizens”, etc.)
- The Fed wants to onboard all 10K financial institutions in the country eventually.
- The Federal Reserve says FedNow isn’t connected to any CBDCs and it cannot look into customer accounts to view balances and activity (source: TrustMeBro™.)
This all comes with good news and bad news…
The Good News: FedNow will help speed up how long it takes to send/receive money.
Paychecks and invoices can take hours or days to process.
Now it will only take seconds.
The Bad News: Many think FedNow is the first step in the government introducing stuff like CBDCs, social scores, government surveillance, etc.
It’s like Pandora’s Box - once it’s opened, a bunch of bad sh*t happens.
Milk Road Take: We’re fans of getting paid quicker (mo’ money, mo’ Cheesy Gordita Crunches) but we think FedNow is nothing but bad news.
We’ll be sticking with our Bitcoin.
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BITCOIN’S BOOMING IN JAPAN & TURKEY 🪙
Every once in a while, we need a reminder of what crypto was made for in the first place…
An alternative finance system.
One that isn’t controlled by a centralized government, unlike the current systems… (**cough fiat currencies and FedNow cough**).
And while many fiat currencies around the world are drowning from record-high inflation and interest rates…
There are a handful of markets that are looking to Bitcoin as a solution.
1/ Japan
- Bitcoin trading volume on Japanese exchanges rose from 69% → 80% in the first six months of 2023
- Total trading volume was $4B in June - that’s a 60% surge year-over-year
- Why? The yen is depreciating like crazy. People there want to put their money into something that won’t plummet in value. Enter Bitcoin.
2/ Turkey
- BTC prices hit a new ATH against Lira on exchanges. BTC was trading ~1.3% higher on Turkey’s largest exchange than it was in global markets
- Why? The nation’s local currency (the Lira) lost ~30% of its value against the U.S. dollar since January
- Turkey also raised its interest rates to 17.5% this week to try to curb its whopping ~40% inflation rate. Yikes
Milk Road equation No. 38: Inflation = rise in Bitcoin use.
NOT TOP PLAY OF THE WEEK 🥴
Growing up, I looked forward to Fridays for one thing…
SportsCenter’s NOT Top Plays of the Week. It’s a highlight of some of the worst (and funniest) moments of the week.
People running into each other. The referee tripping a player. You name it.
So, we wanted to do our own version - Milk Road’s WTF Moment.
This week, we present to you… drumroll...
Guy Tries To Buy Car With NFTs.
This guy tried to buy a car with NFTs 💀
— dubzy (@dubzyxbt)2:06 AM • Jul 19, 2023
MILK & COOKIES 🍪
The European Blockchain Convention kicks off on October 24th. The largest blockchain event in Europe takes place in Barcelona, with one day left to get a discounted price on tickets.*
Trend Watch:Telegram bot tokens are almost at a $100M market cap. These are automated programs that make crypto trading as easy as sending a Telegram message. (And business has been boomin’!)
Solana Labs dropped a new compiler called Solang. It lets developers use Solidity (the main Ethereum programming language) on Solana. So-Long, Ethereum.
Kuwait has imposed an “absolute ban” on crypto. No crypto trading, no crypto payments, no crypto mining. Nothing. Zip. Nada.
OpenSea launched a new NFT trading feature called Deals. It lets people offer NFT trades to each other, in a secure way.
*This is sponsored content
MILKY MEME 🤣
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ROADER REVIEW OF THE DAY
VITALIK PIC OF THE DAY
happy Friday, Roaders
— Milk Road Images (@MilkRoadImages)1:09 PM • Jul 21, 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.
