GM. This is Milk Road Macro, the newsletter that's been through enough this weekend to qualify for a wellness retreat.
Here’s what we got for you today:
- ✍️ $WLFI died on impact, and killed our bags with it
- 🎙️ Milk Road Degen Podcast: How to Position Your Portfolio Before the Next Market Run / Zeneca
- 🍪 CARDS token up 200% as Raydium launches Pokémon card trading
$FUN is one of the leading tokens in Web3 gaming. Discover how it’s powering the next wave of innovation.
Prices as of 8:00 AM ET.
$WLFI DIED ON IMPACT, AND KILLED OUR BAGS WITH IT
Our tokens died over the weekend, degen.
And despite the majors coming back to life since Monday, many mid and low caps have not recovered.
The weekend saw a liquidity drain across small caps on the back of the $WLFI launch and rumours that the president had expired (he has not).
Many bags saw -30% candles. Gross.
But getting cooked as a degen is like being a lobster: you don’t realize the water’s boiling until it’s too late and you can’t get out.
And it’s something I’d like to avoid in the future.
So today’s newsletter is a dive into what went wrong with $WLFI, and how we can spot obvious signs of a downturn (or uptick) in the near future.
TLDR: WTF is $WLFI
Oh boy, where to begin.
Last September, the Trumps announced World Liberty Finance - well ahead of the U.S. election - with Donald posturing as a “pro-crypto” president and prepping his team to capitalize if he won.
They ran a KYC presale for $WLFI that gained serious traction after his victory.
Final numbers from the sale:
- $550M raised in public presale.
- $1.5B investment from ALT5 for 7.5% of WLFI at a $20B valuation (in exchange for being their treasury company).
- Other backers, including $75M from Justin Sun.
Anticipation for $WLFI built over the summer - and peaked two weeks ago when they announced a September 1st launch.
The core value prop? $USD1, their stablecoin. The team positioned it as a possible U.S. government-friendly asset - smart move, considering Circle’s monster valuation following its IPO earlier this year.
How they launched It
Oddly, they chose to launch on Labor Day - when TradFi is closed and crypto would have the spotlight.
It felt rushed - like they wanted to capitalize on Powell’s positive comments before the window closed. And in that rush, they opened the floodgates to new partners:
- Solana: USD1 would be available on Solana
- LetsBonk: part of the USD1 launch team
- Polymarket: received an investment from Eric Trump (though that’s probably more of a prediction market meta bet)
And the biggest question all weekend: what price would this thing open at?
We saw predictions from $5B FDV to $40B FDV. Premarkets like HyperLiquid looked very manipulated as early traders played the chaos.
And despite all that hype…
The token underwhelmed.
The broader market briefly dumped, before flying back to life this week led by an 8% candle on $SOL.
BIG BET ON $FUN
You know a project’s doing well when it doubles down on its own ecosystem.
That’s exactly what’s happening with a gaming token: $FUN.
The FUN100x Foundation just committed $10M to supercharge the FunToken ecosystem.
Here’s what you should know about the $FUN token:
- A leading token in Web3 gaming
- Set to be integrated into 40+ upcoming games in 2025
- Listed on Binance, HTX and Poloniex
With $10M behind it, $FUN is primed to level up.
Learn how $FUN is powering the next wave of Web3 gaming.
$WLFI DIED ON IMPACT, AND KILLED OUR BAGS WITH IT (P2)
Why $WLFI is struggling
Too many reasons to count - but honestly, we should’ve seen it coming.
$TRUMP was a perfect memecoin - just pure speculation and vibes around the inauguration.
$WLFI, on the other hand, is a “business” that’s very likely designed to extract from the crypto crowd. That’s short-term bearish every time.
On day 1 alone:
- They gave more tokens than expected to presalers = more sell pressure
- They kind of messed up tokenomics display with how they managed vesting, making the FDV look worse than it was.
- They ran a flood of undisclosed paid promos - many to scammy X accounts you’ve never heard of. Some got paid $60K to shill.
- Big presale investors immediately dumped. Not surprising, but terrible for the price.
And in the degen world, another big issue emerged too late…
Everyone was already sitting on beta plays, and immediately dumped when $WLFI didn’t take off.
To name a few…:
- $BLOCK, the USD1 launchpad (down 60%)
- $DOLO, a lending platform in the WLFI eco (down 50%)
- ALTS, the treasury stock play (down 30%)
Ouch, degen.
So what’s next for WLFI?
The question on everyone’s mind: can it… do anything?
Honestly - I have no idea.
A lot of people expected this to run to $1-2 instantly. And maybe it would have, a month ago. But the market was already shaky, and $BTC + $ETH had stalled out. Yesterday they announced buybacks with fees (so trendy) but that barely moved the needle.
I don’t really have any faith in the Trump offspring to create anything viable here - but long term this could fit that mold of “buy low while they are building and before they launch again”. That’s a very big “could” though.
Let’s just call these first 48 hours a DOA (Dead On Arrival), until proven otherwise.
How to save our bags (in the future)
Honestly, I’m holding the bag on a few things right now. I still believe in them, but I wish I’d sold earlier when the signs started shifting.
Right before the Powell comments, momentum faded. Daily runners like Zora, Base, and Brand Coins slowed mid-month. Even FootballFun only had a quick flash before disappearing.
In my daily research, I noticed whales quietly exiting mid-cap degen tokens - not just one day, but over several. That was the reset. Risk appetite vanished, trenches paused, and soon after, those tokens nuked as key holders bailed.
A good example of this was one of our Milk Road Degen darlings, $MAMO, which had a massive pump on a Coinbase listing but saw a slow exit from “smart money” in the weeks that followed. Many Base tokens with “consensus” have followed a similar pattern.
It’s tough to catch in real-time.
The real trick is exiting while you’re up - and knowing when to re-enter. Or even just exiting when conditions sour.
The same goes in the opposite direction; knowing when to buy before things really move. And on that front, I’m eyeing the Solana meme trenches. More on that in Friday’s Degen PRO Report.
Wrapping up
These big market-moving events aren’t rare.
Two weeks ago, Jerome Powell lit the markets up like a fuse with just a few words - and anyone quick enough to drop a 40x prop on $BTC did well in the short term.
Now we’ve got the reverse: September blues for some assets, but green candles for a few good solid runners.
From here, all eyes on that FOMC meeting on September 16th. Probably best to stay tuned to Milk Road Macro for that one.
Let’s be ready, degen.
THE CYCLE IS CYCLING 🌀
Think September is always red? Zeneca says… not so fast.
We sat down with him for a full debrief on where we actually are in the cycle, and why the next narrative wave might already be forming.
Take a look at what surprised us:
- Why AI + crypto isn’t dead… just evolving (his top picks)
- His $15M NFT portfolio journey, and what he’s holding now
- The rise of “brand coins” like $PENGU and $REKT
- His ultra-concentrated portfolio strategy (and why it’s working)
Tune in and see for yourself 👇
YouTube | Spotify | Apple Podcasts
BITE-SIZED COOKIES FOR THE ROAD 🍪
CARDS token soars over 200% after Raydium enables tokenized Pokémon card trading on Solana. The surge follows Raydium powering the Collector Crypt marketplace for onchain trading of authenticated, vaulted Pokémon cards.
PumpFun’s new fee model paid $2M to creators in 24 hours of launch. The system boosts payouts based on token market cap, with some users earning thousands overnight.
Rarible’s redesigned NFT marketplace now funnels all transaction fee revenue into $RARI token buybacks. The model is supported by licensing income from brands like Mattel and is built for long‑term sustainability with on‑chain transparency and leaderboards.
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