GM. This is Milk Road, the crypto newsletter that hits harder than realizing it’s Friday when you thought it was Thursday.
Here’s what we got for you today:
- ✍️ 3 pieces of tokenization news
- ✍️ Rate cut odds just went up!
- 🎙️ The Milk Road Show: Everyone Is Giving Up on Crypto Right Before the Real Move w/ John Gillen
- 🍪 K-shaped consumer sentiment
Chainlink is the industry-standard oracle platform bringing the capital markets onchain, and the market leader powering the majority of decentralized finance. Learn more about Chainlink.
Prices as of 2:00 PM ET. Trade today with Milk Road Swap.
3 PIECES OF TOKENIZATION NEWS YOU MISSED 👀
Broad crypto adoption won’t happen as a result of a single killer feature/app catching everyone’s attention.
It’ll be more of a ‘death by a thousand cuts’ kinda situation.
Thousands of small little steps that build momentum, until there’s so much inertia behind onchain technology, it becomes unstoppable.
And this past week, three new steps were taken to push us further out along the adoption curve:
1. Visa lets banks settle in USDC on Solana
Banks can now go from waiting 1-3 business days and paying lofty fees in order to settle each card transaction, to settling instantly for 1/10th of a cent.
If Visa’s entire network eventually settles on Solana, it will equate to $233M of fee revenue per year for Solana (based on Visa’s current daily transaction count).
… fees which will all be paid in SOL – meaning $233M worth of locked-in demand for SOL tokens.
2. UBI onchain
The Republic of the Marshall Islands has launched the world's first nationwide universal basic income (UBI) program, where every citizen receives $200 per quarter, via the Stellar blockchain.
The program is expected to cost approximately 8.1% of GDP once fully implemented - and it’s all happening onchain.
3. Real onchain stocks, from Securitize
Just like the DTCC announcement from last week, these aren’t ‘wrapped’ tokens or onchain IOUs.
(I.e. There’s no middle man holding the stock on your behalf, and moving it around offchain based on how you trade its onchain counterpart.)
These are real, regulated shares, recorded directly on the company’s cap table (think: ‘list of owners’.)
That means you get full shareholder rights, including voting & dividends.
PLUS: you can use your onchain stock holdings across DeFi (e.g. lend out your NVIDIA stock and earn an extra 5% per year on your holdings).
Here’s why each of these matter for you and your portfolio:
The more money there is moving (and staying) onchain → the more valuable the crypto market (and your holdings) become.
THE UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE OF FINANCE
Every market speaks a different language.
But they all understand Chainlink.
This is how $867 trillion in assets move onchain.
Their latest report outlines why Wall Street is adopting Chainlink as the industry-standard oracle platform.
See why the world’s largest financial institutions are choosing Chainlink.
BULLISH: 2026 RATE CUT ODDS JUST WENT UP ✂️
Looking for some positive news to send you into the weekend with a grin?
Say no more:
Yesterday, we got an EXTREMELY dovish (positive) CPI print!
- Headline CPI (Year-on-Year): 2.7% vs. 3.1% expected
- Core CPI (Year-on-Year): 2.6% vs. 3.0% expected
BTW: Headline Inflation covers the full cost-of-living increase, tracking price changes for all goods and services, including volatile items like food and energy.
Meanwhile, Core Inflation strips out those volatile items (food/energy) to show the underlying long-term trend.
But in this case, the distinction doesn’t matter too much – they both beat expectations, big time!
Which is a huge win for risk assets, like crypto.
Because right now, the labor market is weakening:
And the Fed’s main tool in fighting a weakening labor market is rate cuts (giving businesses access to cheaper loans, allowing them to borrow n’ hire).
… the only thing standing in their way is the risk of increased inflation (a common result of rate cuts.)
So yesterday’s cold CPI print essentially gave the Fed the green light to keep cutting into 2026, and float crypto prices in the process.
(Can I get a Hulk Hogan-esque “heeeelll yeah brother!”?)
BITE-SIZED COOKIES FOR THE ROAD 🍪
Why can everyone still see my wallet balance? That’s exactly what Zama is trying to fix by adding a privacy layer to existing chains.*
I mean, I’m not going to say no… House Republicans are pushing the IRS to scrap a 2023 rule that taxes all crypto staking rewards as income
Tell your nephew to hide his passwords: this new malware poses as a Roblox mod to steal player’s crypto credentials.
K-shaped consumer sentiment: Sentiment among consumers earning less than $50k is plummeting, while those earning over $100k are maintaining optimism.
If you’re building a blockchain, you’re going to need a block explorer. We just listed the top 3 block explorers in crypto.*
*this is sponsored content.
MILKY MEMES 🤣
ROADIE REVIEW OF THE DAY 🥛
VITALIK PIC OF THE DAY
