April 2, 2024

🥛 What happened to crypto prices?! 🤬


GM. This is Milk Road, where we unwrap crypto trends like a fresh pack of gum on the school bus – everyone wants a piece.

Here’s what we got for you today:

  • WTF happened to crypto prices?! 🤬

  • These indicators will show you the bull market top 👀

  • Crypto funds are seeing inflows again 📊

  • A new shiny token is dropping tomorrow 🍪


WTF HAPPENED TO CRYPTO PRICES?! 🤬

Yesterday was a day to remember forget. It was a bloodbath for the crypto markets:

  • BTC, ETH, and SOL all dropped 6%-10%.

  • Many altcoins crashed by double-digit percentages.

I saw shades of red I’d never seen before…. (and hope to never see again)

The natural question is…what’s causing the crash? 

Nobody ever really knows the answer. Markets are complicated, and there's no single, clear-cut answer to why something goes up or down.

But here are a few theories:

1/ The U.S. dollar is getting stronger.

Yesterday, the dollar index (DXY) hit 105 for the first time in 4+ months. 

(DXY tracks the value of the U.S. dollar against other fiat currencies, like the Euro, Japanese Yen, British Pound, etc.)

And it’s now nearing its 1-year-high of 107. AKA it’s ‘bulking season’ for USD.

So what? A stronger U.S. dollar is usually bad news for risk assets like Gold, Bitcoin, and other cryptocurrencies. 

  • It makes dollar-denominated assets more “expensive”, which can reduce demand and lower prices.

  • A rising DXY often leads to risk aversion, where investors might prefer holding cash or cash equivalents over investing in riskier assets.

On top of that, some boring (but important) reports were released yesterday that showed…

2/ Stronger-than-expected U.S. manufacturing data.

The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) dropped its latest purchasing manager’s index (PMI) report.

The PMI is important and highlights whether the manufacturing and services sectors are expanding or contracting. (A score above 50 = expansion. A score below 50 = contraction).

The latest results… 50.3 – expansion!

In fact, this is the first time the PMI has been in expansion since September 2022.

So what? The unexpected growth has weakened the chance for Fed rate cuts and, as a result, spooked some investors. 

According to Bloomberg, the odds for a June rate cut plummeted below 50% after the recent PMI report. 

To make matters worse…

3/ Hundreds of millions of dollars were liquidated yesterday.

A total of about 140,000 traders have been liquidated over the last 24 hours. 

The total damage? $500M. 

You know what they say… “Only when the tide goes out do we see who was swimming naked.”

Well, the liquidation tide went out, and turns out… crypto’s a nude beach. 

Many over-leveraged investors got wiped out yesterday. 

Milk Road Take: Days like yesterday suck. They’re a lot like going to the dentist – painful, but also necessary. 

For crypto to work – reckless players need to get rekt, even if it causes prices to go down for a while. It’s necessary for long-term survival.

So just keep calm and HODL on.

PRO “WHERE ARE WE IN THE CYCLE?” INDICATORS 📊

Crypto moves in cycles. If you want to truly capitalize on the opportunity of this industry, you must be aware about where we’re at within this cycle. 

By doing so, you can spot the bull market peak and take valuable profits before the inevitable bear market crushes your bags. 

Trust the Milk Man: You don’t want to roundtrip your bags to the moon and back.

Timing the exact top of the bull market is impossible. However, by leveraging various indicators that have been successful in the past can give us a better shot at spotting the top before it’s too late. 

Below, we show you 5 indicators which have historically signified the top of previous bull markets. Using 1 indicator isn’t a great way to predict the top, but by combining these 5, we can significantly increase our chances.

Every Tuesday we update the 5 indicators below for PRO eyes only. Our recommendation is not to wait for all indicators to reach their top point, but instead, take profits along the way as they get closer.

Let’s explore if we’re anywhere near the top of this bull market. 👇

You’re in luck! Milk Road PRO is 33% OFF.

Upgrade to Milk Road PRO using a 33% discount and get full access to the 5 bull market peak indicators.

Note: Discount expires in ~30h—on Wednesday at 11.59PM EST. Hurry!

P.S. – By upgrading to PRO today, you also get access to our weekly reports and the PRO Community. 

CRYPTO FUNDS ARE SEEING INFLOWS AGAIN 📊

After hitting a weekly record of $931M in outflows… crypto funds are seeing inflows again, baby!

According to CoinShares’ latest report

  • Digital asset investment products saw $862M in total inflows last week. 

  • BTC led the way with $865M in inflows. The OG cryptocurrency saw renewed appetite from BTC ETFs. 

  • ETH saw its 4th straight week of outflows, totaling $19M. It’s streaking… in the wrong direction.

  • Other altcoins saw inflows. Solana (+$6.1M), Filecoin (+$3.9M), Polkadot (+$2.4M), and Chainlink (+$1.9M) all saw inflows.

We’ll see if we can keep the momentum going this week.

BITE-SIZED COOKIES FOR THE ROAD 🍪

Wormhole is launching its ‘W’ governance token tomorrow. In total, 600M+ tokens will be airdropped to the community and early users. 

Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) plans to invest $30M into web3 gaming startups. A16z has already invested in companies like Sky Mavis (creator of ‘Axie Infinity’), Parallel, and Mythical Games. 

Telegram dropped a new feature that lets users buy in-platform advertisements using Toncoin. The platform plans to share 50% of ad revenue with owners of public channels.

Liquid staking platforms have jumped to $8B in total value locked (TVL). Etherfi leads the way with $3.2B in TVL, followed by Renzo, Puffer, and others.

BTC is becoming more volatile than ETH as the Halving approaches. BTC’s annualized realized volatility rose to nearly 60% late last week, passing ETH’s 30-day realized volatility by nearly 10%.

March saw a 48% decrease in crypto hacks$187M was lost due to crypto hacks last month; down from $360M in February.

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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.