PLUS: No SOL ETF approval (yet) 🧘♂️
GM. This is Milk Road, the hydraulic press of crypto newsletters (we pack everything you need to know into an easy daily read).
Here’s what we got for you today:
- ✍️ Why did Zcash just rip 502%?
- ✍️ We won’t be getting a $SOL ETF (yet)
- 🎙️ The Milk Road Show: Bitwise: Solana’s “Triple Catalyst” Setup Could Be Explosive w/ Matt Hougan & Ryan Rasmussen
- 🍪 Morgan Stanley to open crypto access for all clients
- 🥳 Alpha just went on sale!
Pyth is the source of truth for market data in DeFi — now revealing what’s next.
Prices as of 2:00 PM ET, provided by CoinGecko.
WHY DID ZCASH JUST RIP 502%? 🤨
Hear me out…
Zcash ($ZEC) is the Labubu of crypto:
- Both were created around 2015/2016
- Both have held a sustained fanbase over the past decade
- Both recently experienced an explosion in popularity (seemingly out of nowhere)
ICYMI: privacy coins have seen insane growth over the past couple of weeks, with $ZEC leading the charge. 👇
Privacy coins like Zcash let users send crypto to each other without their transaction details (think: sender, receiver, and amount) being made public.
Which is cool and all…but why the sudden interest?
We’ve been trying to find a catalyst to point to and say ‘this was the moment everyone realized the importance of onchain privacy’ – but we haven’t been able to find a single one.
Instead, we found multiple.
Here’s the timeline of catalysts that seem to be contributing to this latest pump (focusing on the privacy sector as a whole, and $ZEC itself):
1/ Naval Ravikant's Endorsement – Oct 1
Naval is your favorite tech guru’s favorite tech guru. And at the start of the month, he posted this:
2/ Grayscale adoption – Oct 1
Grayscale recently announced the launch of its Zcash Trust (aka: a stockpile of $ZEC that investors can buy into via the stock market).
3/ Hyperliquid added $ZEC perps – Oct 3
The most dominant perp DEX in the space just added Zcash to their platform, allowing investors to trade $ZEC using leverage (which can help to increase demand for the underlying asset).
4/ Ethereum Foundation announced privacy initiative – Oct 7
The largest smart contract platform in the world copying your homework = HUGE endorsement.
5/ EU Chat Control Proposal — originally scheduled for Oct 14
The EU’s ‘Chat Control’ would have forced messaging platforms to scan all outgoing messages before they were encrypted (essentially turning all messaging apps into government spyware).
With the proposal deadline approaching, the discussion around privacy got real loud, real quick.
Thank the lord above it was rejected. 👇
Add the fact that Zcash’s halving event is due in November (where the daily supply of new $ZEC hitting the market will be cut in half, restricting its supply) and what happens?
Apparently you get a 502% move over three weeks ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
PYTH REVEALS ITS PHASE 2 PLANS
Think of an airport: hundreds of flights in motion, all summarized on one departures board.
That’s what Pyth is building for blockchains: a single source of truth for real-time prices so apps can trade, settle, and manage risk on the real price of everything.
It gives the world’s largest institutions direct access to live data across crypto, equities, FX, and more. Most people never see the real prices.
Why Pyth slaps:
- 600+ integrations
- $1.6T+ in trades secured
- 2,000+ assets with millisecond updates
And after taking over crypto, Pyth isn’t stopping— so any system can price anything, anywhere, in real time.
Pyth is becoming the global price layer for all of finance.
Damn.
Discover Pyth’s full roadmap here.
WHY WE WON’T BE GETTING A $SOL ETF (YET) 😑
Today is the final deadline for a whole bunch of big-name US Solana ETFs. 👇
But sadly, they won’t be getting approved…at least not yet.
It’s got nothing to do with the applications themselves, and everything to do with the government shutdown.
‘Cause with government workers being furloughed, the SEC is on a skeleton crew – meaning no new ETFs can be approved, even if their deadlines arrive.
As a result, any ETF deadlines that hit while the government is playing hooky will be pushed forward to a later date.
That’s the bad news.
The good news is: once that new deadline arrives, chances of approval for the $SOL ETFs are high.
…like, really high. 👇
Guess we’ll just have to hurry up and wait.
ETH’S BEEN SHOWING OFF. SO WE THOUGHT WE WOULD TOO 🥛
So, remember that time we bet Bitcoin would hit an all-time high before Halloween? We were right.
We were about to make the same bet on ETH… but it pumped before we could even open our mouths.
So yeah, we’re celebrating with 20% off Crypto Pro and All Access this week.
Call it a victory lap. Because this isn’t the only thing we’ve called recently:
Don’t be part of our next ‘what could have been’ case study.
Go PRO at 20% off and get the alpha your portfolio deserves (it’s a win/win).
BITE-SIZED COOKIES FOR THE ROAD 🍪
Milk Road’s Bitcoin Price page offers real-time pricing for $BTC, keeping you updated on every move. With a clean layout and reliable data, it’s perfect for those closely tracking Bitcoin’s market activity.
Let the man cook! A UK citizen just copped prison time for spending his COVID loan on crypto and gambling.
Let the institutional dollars flow (harder): Morgan Stanley is set to open crypto access to all client accounts, including retirement plans.
It’s a valuation-off. Prediction market, Kalshi, raises $300M at a $5B valuation just days after Polymarket raises $2B at a $9B valuation.
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**this is partner content.
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