February 12, 2024

๐Ÿฅ› Bitcoin Enters the Top 10 ๐Ÿ†

Todayโ€™s edition is brought to you by Exodus โ€“ effortless cross-chain swaps, automatic re-staking for increased rewards, and access to unlimited tokens across 16 networks by the worldโ€™s leading self-custodial multichain wallet. Download Exodus now!*

*This content is not intended or suitable for individuals residing in the UK.


GM, this is the Milk Road. The crypto newsletter you can always rely on – rain, sleet, hail, or shine.

It was a quiet weekend in crypto.ย 

No surprise there since all eyes were onโ€ฆ The Super Bowl Taylor Swift.ย 

P.S. – shoutout to the NFL scriptwriters. Great game.ย 

Anyway, hereโ€™s what we got for you today:

  • Bitcoin cracks the top 10 ๐Ÿ†

  • ETH staking breaks new records ๐Ÿ“ˆ

  • The march of the penguins ๐Ÿง

  • Xbox ๐Ÿค web3 gaming ๐ŸŽฎ

  • Solanaโ€™s second phone receives 100k orders ๐Ÿช


BITCOIN ENTERS THE TOP 10 ๐Ÿ†

BTC is on a rollโ€ฆ

  • It had a 13.5% gainย last week. Itโ€™s the best single-week performance since October.

  • It ended the week at $48,300. Itโ€™s the highest weekly close since 2021 (!!)

The cherry on top? BTCโ€™s recent gains catapulted it into the top 10 most valuable assets in the world.ย 

Fun fact: BTC needs to hit $61,000 to pass Facebook + Silver and jump into the Top 8.

Crazy. BTC is cruising through the worldโ€™s most valuable assets like it was the Coors Light Chill Train.

DONโ€™T LET FOMO MAKE YOU EAT RAMEN FOR A MONTH

Instead, join millions of customers who choose Exodus to self-custody their crypto.ย 

Hereโ€™s what you get with Exodus:

Act on your vision with efficiency, speed, and ease: Get price alerts sent straight to your phone and instantly swap between 1000s of trading pairs wherever and whenever โ€“ with no account required.ย 

Stack more crypto: Increase your staking rewards and save on transaction fees with Auto Re-staking โ€“ your rewards in Exodus can be automatically re-staked without additional fees!

Endless possibilities: Don't see your favorite token supported? No worries. Add it yourself with the custom token feature which lets you import unlimited tokens on 16 networks. But it doesn't stop there, 16 Web3 networks are also at your fingertips. Wow!

Ready to join the millions of customers who choose Exodus to self-custody their crypto? Download Exodus now!*

*This content is not intended or suitable for individuals residing in the UK.

ETH STAKING IS ON THE RISE (AGAIN) ๐Ÿ“ˆ

Ethereum recently hit a new milestone: 25% of all ETH has been staked.ย 

That means about 30M ETH (worth $74B) is currently locked up. And the number is risingโ€ฆย 

  • There are currentlyย 5,800 validators in the queue, waiting for their turn to stake.

  • The staking queue has jumped from no wait time โ†’ a 2-day wait. (As of writing, thereโ€™s a 1-day and 20-hour wait to stake).

So, why the sudden spike? Ethereum is a lot like Chipotle – whenever thereโ€™s a new item (or narrative) on the menu, it gets a ton of hype.ย 

The result: the lines go out the door.ย 

The same thing is happening with ETH right now. Here are its top narratives:

  • Restaking: EigenLayer (a popular restaking protocol) is one of cryptoโ€™s hottest projects and recently re-opened deposits. But to restake, you first need to stake.ย 

  • ETH ETF Mania: Many are expecting an ETH ETF to launch later this year and a handful of the applications have focused on staking in their proposals.ย 

We wouldnโ€™t be surprised if the staking queue gets longer over the next few weeks.ย 

THE MARCH OF THE PENGUINS ๐Ÿง

Hereโ€™s a crazy NFT stat for you:

  • At one point in timeโ€ฆ 150 Pudgy Penguins = the same price as 1 Bored Ape.

  • Nowโ€ฆ 1 Pudgy Penguin = about the same price as 1 Bored Ape.

Penguins might not have wings to fly, but they do have flippers (to flip other NFT projects).

XBOX X WEB3 GAMING ๐ŸŽฎ

Xbox is a gaming goliath:

  • 170M+ consoles sold – including the OG Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox Series X, etc.

  • 100M+ monthly active users.ย The Milk Man is (proudly) one of โ€˜emโ€ฆ

Not to mention itโ€™s the unofficial School of Hard Knocks.ย Xbox Live is where middle schoolers master the art of trash talk and witty comebacks.ย 

Well, check it out… Xbox just got its first web3 game.ย 

Itโ€™s called โ€˜Off The Gridโ€™.ย 

Hereโ€™s what you need to know:ย 

  • Itโ€™s a battle royale shooter game, like Fortnite.

  • It has a custom in-game NFTย wallet.

  • The in-game economy and player progression are fully on-chain.

  • Itโ€™s built on Gunz – an Avalanche-based blockchain subnet.

  • Neill Blomkampย (director of โ€˜District 9โ€™)ย is the chief creative director.

First, it was Epic Games listing web3 games on its store. Now itโ€™s Xbox.ย 

Little by little, web3 gaming is getting where it needs to be to hit the masses.

HELP THE MILK MAN DELIVER ๐Ÿฅ›

We are hiring a part-time writer to help us amp up the calcium for all things Milk Road.

We're looking for writers passionate about crypto and with plenty of experience in the space.

If this sounds like you, what are you waiting for? Fill out the form here.

BITE-SIZED COOKIES FOR THE ROAD ๐Ÿช

On Friday Feb 16th, NFT marketplace Universal Page will launch a Pro Pass. This limited NFT gives holders discounts on trading fees and unlocks extra features.*

Analysts think these two stocks will soar ahead of Bitcoinโ€™s halving event. Spoiler alert: theyโ€™re Bitcoin miners.ย โ€”DL News

Solanaโ€™s second smartphone just hit 100,000 preorders. Thatโ€™s $45M in sales in just over a month.ย 

Black Mirror is going web3 with a new โ€˜smile-to-earnโ€™ experience. Based on the social credit score system from the episode 'Nosedive,' Smile Club lets users earn points that can be traded for exclusive prizes and experiences.

The New York Attorney General is seeking $3B in restitution from Digital Currency Group (DCG) and its lending arm, Genesis. DCG and Genesis are accused of misleading investors.ย 

Solanaโ€™s outage was caused by a โ€œpreviously identified bugโ€. According to some Solana devs, the bug resulted in an infinite loop, which caused the validators to stall on a certain block – halting the entire network.

*This is sponsored content

MILKY MEMES ๐Ÿคฃ


RATE TODAYโ€™S EDITION

ROADER REVIEW OF THE DAY

VITALIK PIC OF THE DAY


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.

Tyler Galbraith

Tyler got orange pilled in 2019 and quickly fell down the crypto rabbit hole after that. As the GM and Lead Editor at Milk Road, heโ€™s focused on making sure all of our content is entertaining, easy to understand and packed with value.