October 4, 2023

🥛 The crypto trial of the century has begun ⚖️

Today’s edition is brought to you by tea – a packaging infrastructure putting open-source developers first and rewarding them for their contributions.

Join the waitlist for their upcoming testnet!


GM. This is Milk Road, we serve crypto insights juicier than a summer watermelon. (without all the stupid seeds)

Here’s what we got today:

  • The U.S. vs SBF: Day 1 highlights ⚖️

  • The Milk Road Poll results are in… 👀

  • The SEC’s motion gets DENIED ❌


THE U.S. VS. SBF: DAY 1 HIGHLIGHTS ⚖️

The crypto trial of the century has begun….

The United States vs. Sam Bankman-Fried. The man behind the FTX collapse is facing 7 criminal charges including fraud and money laundering.

If convicted, Bankman-Fried could be sentenced to 100+ years in prison and earn himself a spot on Mt. Fraudmore.

So, how’d Day 1 go? To be honest, it was a snoozefest.

No legal arguments. No witnesses. No “objection!” being yelled. Nada.

Day 1 was all about voir dire. Which is a fancy word for “picking the jury”.

(Could’ve fooled me… I thought it was French for “death by boredom”.)

In total, 18 jurors needed to be selected. 12 starters and 6 waiting on the sidelines in case a jury member needs to be subbed out.

So, who got chosen? As of now… nobody.

  • The selection process was delayed and didn’t start until 11 a.m.

  • An hour later, they were already on a lunch break. (working hard or hardly working?)

  • A bunch of the jurors already knew about the case, so they were dismissed.

The pool of ~80 jurors was trimmed down to ~50. The judge said the final 18 would be chosen today, so we’ll have to wait and see who makes the cut.

The best highlight from Day 1? We got our first look at the post-prison SBF.

And there’s one big difference: the hair.

That’s right. Sam pulled up to court with a shape-up so crisp you’d think the barber whipped out the protractor to get those angles…

Now, there are only two places you can get a cut like that:

1/ My barber Rico.

2/ Prison.

And apparently, Sam got a hook-up from a fellow inmate before his big day…

All eyes will be on Day 2 – where we expect a final jury to be selected, opening statements from both sides and the first witnesses to take the stand.

Get your cookies ready, it’s about to get milky.

RETURNING VALUE TO OPEN SOURCE DEVELOPERS

Not all heroes wear capes…

  • The pizza delivery guy

  • The person who invented the snooze button

  • tea rewarding open-source devs for their contributions

tea feels that open-source developers deserve more than just gratitude.

Founded by Max Howell, the creator of Homebrew, the tea protocol enables open-source developers to capture the value they create in a trustless manner.

And by bringing fungible rewards to the open-source community, tea is building important infrastructure for the future of blockchain.

Their testnet is coming up, and the waitlist is already starting to fill.

There’s a lot of excitement around open-source rewards and the upcoming TEA token.

Join the waitlist today for the tea testnet!

THE MILK ROAD POLL RESULTS ARE IN 👀

Earlier this week we ran a poll…

What do you think will happen this October?

  1. Green month – “it’s Uptober, we only go up!”

  2. Red month – “The Hunt for Red October ends this year”

According to history… it should be green. 

BTC and ETH are on a 4-year green streak in October.

According to Milk Road readers (which studies show are 10x more trustworthy)… 70% of you think this October will end green too.

Btw, Joe dropped the Comment of the Day: “The rest of the year will make the Milk Man foam like on a perfect cappuccino.”

Now, hey. I’m all for it. I’m like Jerry Maguire… SHOW ME THE MONEY!!!!

BUT, it is my duty to warn you about something…

2023 has been a weird year for Bitcoin.

  • June was on a 3-year red streak. This year it was green.

  • July was on a 3-year green streak. This year it was red.

  • September was on a 6-year red streak. This year it was green.

The lesson: expect the unexpected. And always remember the golden rule…

Milk Road Rule #3: Never FOMO invest. (FOMO = Fear Of Missing Out)

It’s one hell of a drug and can often lead to this…

BITE-SIZED COOKIES 🍪

A new study from Bakkt® shows interest in crypto has sustained through the bear market. With regulation and macro conditions being top of mind for crypto participants. Check out the whole survey from Bakkt, the company doing crypto responsibly.*

A U.S. District Judge has rejected the SEC’s motion to appeal its loss in the Ripple case. Another L for the SEC, another cup of milk to celebrate.

OpenSea launched OpenSea Studion – a new one-stop shop for creators to launch and manage NFTs. Creators will be able to launch projects using no-code and collectors can mint using a credit/debit card.

Star Atlas is releasing new tools to help developers build games more easily on the Solana blockchain. They’ve also released free access to their imagery, audiovisual assets, Unreal Engine tooling, and more.

Ledger and Sotheby’s are teaming up to offer exclusive benefits to collectors. Sotheby’s top NFT collectors will receive exclusive Ledger hardware wallets and a “white-glove concierge onboarding” experience.

Binance was hit with a class-action lawsuit for allegedly trying to monopolize the crypto market. The SEC claims Binance intentionally harmed FTX and accelerated its collapse via social media posts.

*This is sponsored content

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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.