GM. This is Milk Road, the daily newsletter that’s like finding a stray chicken nugget in your order of fries.

(We bring that little lift you didn’t know you needed.)

Here’s what we got for you today:

• ✍️ What to look out for this week

• ✍️ How did Circle rip 300% at IPO?

• 🎙️ The Milk Road Show: The $260B Crypto Opportunity (And How to Invest in It) w/ Sam Broner

• 🍪 Reports suggest PumpFun may soon distribute protocol revenue to $PUMP token holders!

Today’s edition is brought to you by Beta Virtual Assistance – a specialized team helping investors un-complicate their crypto taxes. Register for a free course on crypto taxes.

WHAT TO LOOK OUT FOR THIS WEEK 👀

This week’s forecast? 

Macro dominates the news cycle, crypto roundtables come to an end, Milk Road launches a newsletter for degenerates, and you (yes, you) help break up a fight between our team members.

Here’s what all of that looks like in practice:

1/ Macro 🌎

It’s a STACKED week for macro! This is what’s coming down the pike:

The US and China talk – Monday. Both countries will begin a round of trade talks in London today. We’ve got our fingers/toes/eyes crossed hoping all goes well.

May CPI inflation data – Wednesday. Inflation – did it go up or down last month? This data will give us the answer.

10-year note auction – Wednesday. The US government will sell a bunch of its own debt. The big question: how many countries will want to buy US debt right now?

(It seems the US has lost some trust since the tariff wars began.)

May PPI inflation data – Thursday.  How much did the wholesale cost of goods go up or down last month? This data paints us a picture.

Michigan Consumer Sentiment data – Friday. A vibe check with consumers (hint: happy consumers buy more stuff.)

Btw, if you want a closer look at the broader macro picture and how it affects your portfolio, join Tomas over at Milk Road Macro – he has a knack for making macro super simple (and weirdly exciting.)

…never thought I’d call macro economics ‘exciting’ but here we are.

2/ Regulatory ⚖️

The SEC is hosting its final crypto round table today. 👇

These aren’t just casual chit-chats – each of these roundtables will likely help shape future regulatory policy, and today’s topic (DeFi) is close to our heart.

Here’s hoping for a positive conversation!

3/ Milk Road 🥛

Milk Road Degen launches this Wednesday – in our new twice-weekly newsletter, LG Doucet will help you navigate the trenches and find the next 100x low cap gem. (Sign up early, here.)

Podcasts:

• Today we’ve got Sam Broner from a16z digging into all things stablecoins – watch/listen here!

• Wednesday LG Doucet joins the show to walk us through the opportunities he’s seeing in the low cap asset space.

• Thursday we’ve got Jeff Park, Head of Alpha Strategies at Bitwise! 

• Friday we have the Milk Road team checking in on the 2025 predictions they made back in December.

4/ Settle an argument 🥊

A few members on our team are really into vibe coding (aka: using AI to write code.)

And they reckon it’s only a matter of time before we see a wave of crypto-native builders start vibe coding new blockchain products into existence.

Others on our team aren’t so sure. Can you help settle the argument?

HOW THE HELL DID CIRCLE ($CRCL) RIP 300% POST-IPO? 🤔

Yuh. 300%.

(And it’s only been two full trading days.)

First up: hell yeah. Seeing crypto succeed in the TradFi space is a beautiful thing.

Second: what’s driving this buying frenzy?

The short answer is that stablecoins are a big (and profitable) business that haven’t been accessible to investors that trade on TradFi rails until now – so it seems they’re rushing in.

Long answer? This. 👇

1/ Circle’s $USDC makes up ~25% of the total stablecoin supply

$CRCL holds roughly 90% of its stablecoin market cap in US treasuries (which have returned ~4–5% p/a over the last year or so.)

If Circle can maintain their market share as the stablecoin sector continues to expand, their revenue should move inline with that growth.

2/ Circle makes up ~53% of all stablecoin transfer volume

This is nuts. 

Tether’s $USDT makes up ~66% of the total stablecoin market cap, compared to Circle’s $USDC, which makes up ~25%.

…yet $USDC gets more collective use. 

On average, $USDC makes up ~53% of transfer volume each quarter – and of the $9.25T worth of stablecoin volume in Q1, $USDC was responsible for $5.74T. That’s ~62%! 👇

3/ Circle is one of the highest revenue generating businesses in the crypto sector

$CRCL is the third highest revenue generating business over the last 30 days, with revenues of $192.57M.

Ok, that all sounds awesome! 

…but are these stats strong enough to justify Circle now being valued at 1/3 that of Coinbase??

Probably not. Here’s what’s likely causing it:

Translation: private investors who hold large swaths of $CRCL stock (from before it went public) aren’t allowed to sell for the next 6 months.

This should dampen the sell pressure and help the stock’s price to climb higher.

The takeaway: $CRCL’s price appreciation could get even crazier over the next 6 months or so.

…but investors should be highly conscious of the scheduled unlock six months from now (it could reverse the trend.)

BITE-SIZED COOKIES FOR THE ROAD 🍪

Raise your hand if you hate bridging. With Okto wallet, you can trade without bridging and without gas fees.*

Huge week for the Ethereum ETFs. From mainly net outflows in February, the $ETH ETFs saw nearly $250M in inflows last week. – DL News

Another record set by Hyperliquid. They recently recorded an ATH in monthly trading volume. They just continue to keep growing.

PumpFun planning revenue-sharing? Reports suggest the platform may soon distribute protocol revenue to $PUMP token holders. Massive news if true.

Wanna work for Milk Road? We’re hiring across multiple roles — click here and drop us a line!

Crypto cashback, baaaby! The Gemini Credit Card gives you 4% back on gas, 3% on dining, 2% on groceries and 1% on everything else.**

*this is sponsored content.
**this is partner content.

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