🥛 Is Tether Printing Money or What? 🖨️
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GM. This is Milk Road, where we decrypt crypto so you don’t have to reboot your brain before your first coffee.
Here’s what we got for you today:
- Tether made $4.5B last quarter 👀
- Graph of the Day: Bitcoin ETFs saw $500M+ in outflows 📊
- Interest Rate Decision is in. Rate Stays Put. ⛔️
- Bitcoin miners had a big month 🍪
A PEEK INTO A $4.5B CRYPTO COMPANY 👀
Are we witnessing greatness? The most profitable company ever..?
Tether just dropped its latest quarterly numbers and they’re ‘must-see-to-believe’…
- $12.5B of fresh USDT stablecoins were issued
- Net Equity (i.e. assets over liabilities) rose 61% to $11.37B
- They own $90B worth of U.S. Treasury bills
- The company added $1B to its reserves
But the craziest stat… the stablecoin issuer raked in a record profit of $4.5B last quarter.
For reference, that’s as much as some of the biggest banks in the world…
But wait, there’s more. It gets even crazier when you break it down on a per-employee basis…
Milk Road Take: These numbers are crazy. Tether is a lean, mean USDT-producing machine. Plain and simple.
- Tether’s Q1 profit per employee stat is otherworldly.
- The massive $90B in US treasuries and
- They hold 0.4% of the total BTC supply….
Essentially, Tether is playing a well-calculated game, it’s a mix of the steady and the speculative.
With Tether dropping a quarter so hot it’s melting our screens—we’ve gotta know: what’s your view on this financial industry gem?
a/ The Skeptic – “Let me see that balance sheet tho.”
b/ The Realist – “Is this a finance report or a fantasy novel?”
c/ The Statistician – “These numbers #REF’d my brain…”
d/ The Opportunist – “How do I get in on that profit action?”
e/ The Mogul – “Tether me tender, Tether forever.”
Hit “reply” to let us know how Tether’s titanic numbers are playing out in your crypto mind!
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GRAPH OF THE DAY: BITCOIN ETF’S SAW $500M+ IN OUTFLOWS 📊
Yesterday was a rough day for Bitcoin ETFs.
The 11 ETFs saw a total net outflow of $563.7M – the largest day of sell-offs, ever. Oof.
If you’re one of those people who faints at the sight of red, cover your eyes…
That’s now 6 straight days of outflows and $1.2B has been withdrawn from the ETFs since April 24. gulp
Why this matters: There’s a correlation between BTC ETF flows and BTC’s price…
- When there are inflows, BTC’s price usually goes up. Since the BTC ETFs launched, they’ve seen ~$11B in total inflows. BTC’s price is up +38% in that time.
- When there are outflows, BTC’s price usually goes down. ETFs are on a 6-day outfit streak and BTC is now on the clearance rack. (It’s down ~9% in that time).
THE INTEREST RATE DECISION IS IN. RATE STAYS PUT. ⛔️
Every few weeks, a bunch of boomers gather to decide whether to make money more expensive (i.e. raise rates) or cheaper (i.e. lower rates)…
All while us mere mortals sit on the edge of our seats, popcorn and milk in hand, eagerly awaiting Jerome Powell to tell us if our bags can pump or not.
We call it the FOMC meeting; the latest was just yesterday. Here’s what happened:
- Interest rates were left the same at 5.25 – 5.50%.
- This is the 6th straight time that rates remain unchanged.
- It’s unlikely that the next interest rate move will be a hike.
- The Fed says they won’t reduce rates until inflation is down to 2%.
Here’s how the markets reacted immediately after Jerome Powell gave his sermon:
- S&P 500: -1.2%
- NASDAQ: -1.6%
- Bitcoin: -4%
- Ethereum: -3%
🥛 Milk Road Take:
1/ The decision was priced in – most of us expected interest rates to remain unchanged, which is why markets didn’t witness too much volatility after initial reaction.
2/ Crypto is very dependent on the macro scene right now.
Here’s the deal… High interest rates = expensive to borrow money = slow economic growth = people don’t have money to invest = bad for markets.
So for crypto to do well, we need the macroeconomic scene to look more positive – lower interest rates would be a great start.
Right now, the Milk Man doesn’t see any major bullish catalysts that could propel crypto to new all-time highs.
We’re all basically left praying to the mighty macro gods, and can only hope that the next FOMC meeting in June doesn’t leave us feeling like this:
BITE-SIZED COOKIES FOR THE ROAD 🍪
VanEck says ~$175B in BTC is held by ETFs, nations, and companies. In its report, VanEck said, “Bitcoin interest among institutional investors has also increased. Hedge funds, asset management firms, and endowments are increasingly recognizing Bitcoin’s potential as a store of value”.
MoonPay is teaming up with PayPal to make buying crypto easier. MoonPay users in the U.S. can now seamlessly buy crypto with PayPal through wallet transfer, bank transfer, and debit card transactions.
Bitcoin miners logged their second-highest monthly revenue in April. In total, they collected $1.79B.
NFT sales have dipped 31% over the last month. The number of NFT purchasers also fell by 51.88%, while sellers saw a 45.72% reduction in the same period.
Wanna team up with the Milk Man? We currently have 5 positions open – check ‘em out and apply here!
MicroStrategy is building a ‘decentralized ID’ protocol on Bitcoin. The solution, called MicroStrategy Orange, brings digital identities to the BTC chain. That’s right folks, the cousin of worldcoin on bitcoin.
MILKY MEMES 🤣
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.
