GM. This is Milk Road, your crypto-obsessed, no-nonsense best friend.

(We’ll give it to you straight.)

Here’s what we got for you today:

• ✍️ Top 5 best performing crypto sectors

• 🥛 Milk Road PRO Portfolio updates

• 🎙️ The Milk Road Show: Kraken Co-CEO Reveals 3 Massive Shifts Coming to the Crypto Markets w/ Arjun Sethi

• 🍪 PumpFun just got suspended from X

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THE TOP 5 BEST PERFORMING SECTORS (OVER 30 DAYS) 🥇

This time last month, the market was drunk on risk.

Fast forward to today and we’re seeing the hangover kick in.

Not sure what I’m on about? Check this out…

Last month (May 15th), the top 5 best performing sectors over the trailing 30 days were dominated by high-risk sectors:

1. Artificial Intelligence +76.2%

2. Memecoins +74.3%

3. NFT Applications +69.2%

4. Staking Services +60.6%

5. Ethereum +58.3%

…now look at the current top 5 sectors over the last 30 days:

(Can I get a “YIKES”?) Let’s take a closer look…

1/ Staking Services +3.3%

Is it just me, or have the past 30 days not felt nearly as bad as this data is making them out to be? 

The leading sector is only up 3.3%, and that gain is all thanks to a single project, Rocket Pool.

(Which ripped without a clear catalyst.)

2/ Ethereum +3.2%

In case you missed it: $ETH is back baaaaby!

Ok, ok, “3.2% gains over 30 days” doesn’t exactly steelman that statement – but the renewed narrative momentum and consistent ETF flows certainly do.

Since May 16th, the $ETH ETFs have seen just 1 day of outflows (-$2.1M), gobbling up $1.37B in inflows outside of that. 👇

3/ Bitcoin +2.1%

Unlike Ethereum, Bitcoin is not back… but that’s only ‘cause it never left.

It’s the consensus trade right now.

…even so, +2.1% over 30 days? Not exactly awe-inspiring.

And uh-oh.

It’s only downhill from here.

Keep scrolling to the next article, where we see sectors dip into the negatives. 👇

THE TOP 5 BEST PERFORMING SECTORS (OVER 30 DAYS) P2 🥇

Alright, time to rip the bandaid off.

(You ready? Ok, good. 1, 2—riiiiip)

4/ Exchange Tokens -3.9%

I know what you’re thinking…

“Who was responsible for naming ‘WhiteBIT Coin’? When were they fired for incompetence? And why is the token up 66.7% over the last 30 days?”

The answer(s): 

No idea. Not soon enough. And thanks to the announcement of a new global partnership with a successful football club in Italy, Juventus.

5/ Privacy Coins -4%

I know -4% doesn’t = strength…

But the fact that Privacy Coins are in the top 5 this month despite sustained threats of major exchange delistings, and the EU aiming to ban them altogether by 2027?

That’s impressive!

What we’re taking away from all this:

Holding $BTC, $ETH, and using staking services is probably the most conservative set of actions you can take in crypto.

So the fact that they booted AI, Memecoins, and NFT Applications (?) from the top 3 best performing sectors since we last ran this segment tells us that the risk-off sentiment we expected to see last month has finally arrived.

And that’s ok. The market was due for a breather. Our approach remains the same:

Stack fundamentally strong tokens & chill.

KRAKEN ANNOUNCES $INK TOKEN AHEAD OF ITS IPO 🐙

Kraken just announced the launch of its very own L2 token, $INK!

Here’s the token’s basic stats:

• No inflation. Supply is hard-capped at 1B tokens

• No governance functionality. $INK is for the user and application layer

• The first $INK-powered product will be a liquidity protocol powered by Aave

• To incentivize adoption of this new liquidity protocol, early users will receive an airdrop

Now – time for some good news/bad news/good news…

Good news: we sat down with Arjun Sethi, Co-CEO of Kraken, on today’s episode of The Milk Road Show.

Bad news: the $INK token had yet to be announced when we recorded, so we weren’t able to dig into it with him.

The silver lining: we still covered a whooole lot of ground, including…

1. Kraken’s upcoming IPO

2. Why real TradFi adoption is still yet to hit

3. Kraken’s endgame: becoming the 'Amazon Web Services of Finance'

Click below to watch it now! 👇

YouTube | Spotify | Apple Podcasts

MILK ROAD PRO PORTFOLIO UPDATES 📊

Our lead article covered the top performing sectors over 30 days…

But, fun fact: over the last 7 days the best performing crypto sector (Exchange Tokens) is actually DOWN -3.8% (it’s rough out there!)

…so how is the Milk Road PRO Portfolio currently measuring up in comparison? 

(And are we making any changes to allocations in the meantime?)

Go PRO and keep scrolling to find out. 👇

Disclosure: We are not a day trading portfolio so don’t expect a high volume of trades. Read our “How To Build a Crypto Portfolio” report to learn more about our portfolio strategy.

Portfolio performance 📉

The Milk Road PRO Portfolio saw a moderate decrease over the past 7 days. Our portfolio value is at $157.0K, down 2.05% since last week.

Our portfolio has been range-bound between $150K–$160K for most of the month. 

That said, the broader market is starting to show some bullish signs. 

Of course, concerns around a potential escalation in the war in the Middle East are very real, but we remain hopeful that things will calm down and avoid further escalation or ideally, move toward a peaceful resolution.

If you’re concerned about what this war means for your portfolio, Milk Road Macro just published a newsletter breaking it all down. You can check it out here (it’s free).

Portfolio changes 👀

BITE-SIZED COOKIES FOR THE ROAD 🍪

Ever heard of a Bitcoin bank? Xapo Bank is exactly that and we’ve just dropped a deep dive reviewing their platform.

PumpFun just got suspended from X! After a bit more digging, we found that it’s not just PumpFun but multiple crypto-related accounts were also suspended.

4:30 PM EST. That’s when the Senate is voting on the Genius Act. Keep an eye out.

The State of California can seize your Bitcoin. But it’s not as bad as it sounds. You can reclaim your Bitcoin whenever you like.

How will the Middle East conflict affect markets? Could mean more rate hikes and a rocky ride for stocks.

We’re hosting a meetup at Permissionless! If you’re hanging around New York next week, come grab a beer with the Milk Road team.

This DEX solves an actual UX issue! Milk Road Swap supports both Ethereum and Solana tokens in a single interface.

MILKY MEMES 🤣

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ROADIE REVIEW OF THE DAY 🥛

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