GM. This is Milk Road, we’re that cup of hot cocoa on a snow day. You can’t beat it.

It’s Friday. Let’s boogie:

• The Milk Man goes whale watching 🐳

• Axie Infinity is on Apple’s App Store 🎮

• Funding Friday 💰

• Fahrenheit’s going after Celsius 🍪

Prices as of 8:30 EDT

Today’s edition is brought to you by Origin Protocol – they just launched OETH, offering an innovative approach for ETH stakers to maximize their yield. Boost your ETH yield today!

A PEEK INTO SOME 7-FIGURE WALLETS 🐳

I’m gonna let you in on a secret I’ve never told anyone before….I almost failed 8th grade biology.

The reason I didn’t? I copied the smart kid next to me on the final exam. (Don’t hate the player, hate the game.)

Well, crypto reminds me a lot of 8th grade biology – it’s confusing and none of the words sound the way they’re spelled (it’s pronounced “Eeeeeeth”.)

But don’t worry, the trick still works…. Except in crypto, you copy the whales.

Lucky for you, the Milk Man did some research on a few whale wallets. There was only one requirement: the wallets had to have $5M+ in them. (Big ballers only)

Here’s a peek at 3 of the most interesting ones:

1/ “The Risk Taker” ( ~$63M in assets)

• Only ~12% of their portfolio is in stablecoins, with their stable of choice being Tether

• They’re holding over $10M of SHIBA among two different chains (ETH & BNB)

• At least they diversify – this wallet is hanging on to over 60 different tokens, including a good ole bag of FTT (FTX’s token)

The craziest thing about this whale? They don’t do any staking, lending, or any other common activities you see among other whales.

2/ “The Banker” ($8.5M in assets)

• They hold over $9M of DAI, USDT, and USDC and are lending out these tokens for interest

• They are also borrowing ~$4M of ETH, CRV, and SNX from others

• Their only staked holding is Aave – which is their lending protocol of choice. But they are only staking 2.5% of their total wallet

This wallet is okay with missing out on some upside and is all about that juicy lending yield. Talk about being your own bank.

3/ “The Liquidity Provider” (~$15.5M in assets)

DeBank

• This wallet does not hold any stables, but they keep almost all of their money in well-known tokens like ETH, BNB, and LINK

• They make up for being less risky by providing funds to decentralized exchanges as liquidity and taking a small slice of each trade

• This wallet is a very active trader and has been in and out of PEPE more times than I’ve watched Step Brothers

The Milk Road Take: It’s pretty cool that the blockchain allows you to watch what the biggest players are up to in real time.

But having a lot of money and being a whale doesn’t mean they’re successful investors. It’s always important to DYOR, Roadies.

Reply to this email with your favorite wallets to watch!

EARN ADDITIONAL YIELD ON YOUR ETH WITH ORIGIN’S OETH LAUNCH

Origin Ether (OETH) just launched on Ethereum’s Mainnet!

Released by Origin Protocol, OETH earns sustainable, risk-adjusted yield directly to holders’ wallets. That’s right, no gas fees.

Here’s how OETH works:

• Users deposit ETH, stETH, rETH, or frxETH to mint Origin Ether

• OETH earns staking rewards by aggregating across all providers

• The protocol earns additional yield through trading fees and token rewards on Curve on Convex

• Holders receive yield in their wallet every day, with no gas fees required

It’s also audited by leading security firm OpenZeppelin, you can rest assured that Origin contracts are battle tested.

Get started today and stack ETH faster with OETH!

AXIE INFINITY IS ON APPLE’S APP STORE NOW 🎮

Axie Infinity has had a wild journey…

• It was one of the top play-to-earn NFT games (at its peak, it had 2.8M users)

• Then got hacked for $600M+ in the largest hack in crypto history. (All because of a “Fake job” scam…)

Now it’s making headlines again: Axie Infinity is launching an NFT game on the Apple Store.

That’s right, after 2 long years of trying to get Apple’s approval, they finally got it.

(If you needed some motivation to finish that last rep on the squat rack, here it is.)

It was only a matter of time… @AxieInfinity is now live on iOS.

Big moves for the space as a whole, and awesome to see the team’s relentless drive throughout difficult times.

Lots to learn still on how crypto might work with the App Store, but an exciting step nonetheless. https://t.co/w0BU8EYXxt

— Piers Kicks (@pierskicks)
May 17, 2023

Here are the MilkNotes™ on everything you need to know:

• Users battle each other to collect/trade NFTs & earn rewards

• New users will get a free non-NFT “starter character.” No need to buy an NFT to start playing

• If you already own one of the game’s NFTs, you can move them into the app & play

• It’s only available in Latin American & Southeast Asia, for now

• BUT you can only claim certain rewards on desktop – not in the app. Looks like Apple’s still cagey about its 30% cut of all App Store sales…

Why this matters: Apple hates NFTs more than my Aunt Lori (she calls them the “Devil’s JPEGs”), so this is a big move.

And it’ll be the first time Apple lets outside NFTs into its App Store. Now, 1.5B+ people will start having access to an NFT game.

Talk about a giant step toward mass Web3 gaming adoption.

FUNDING FRIDAY!💰

It’s Funding Friday! This week, $171M was invested in Web3 companies.

Here’s who got that bag:

Auradine got $81M for its blockchain security solutions. Ex-Google & Intel folks founded it.

River Financial got $35M for its Bitcoin-focused financial services. Among the backers is Peter Thiel…

Hourglass got $4.2M for its Time-Bound token trading marketplace. A+ branding right there.

anotherblock got $4.3M for its platform that lets you invest in music and earn royalties. You buy your share via an NFT.

Check out the full database of companies that have raised money this year, right here.

MILK & COOKIES 🍪

A company called Fahrenheit is in the lead to buy Celsius. You can’t make this sh*t up…

SEC tells Grayscale that Filecoin is a security. While continuing to leave Brian Armstrong and company in the dark.

Binance Australia suspends AUD fiat deposits. Another chapter in the “Dude, where is my car fiat?”

The first Solidity smart contract is now running on Bitcoin. First Ordinals, then BRC-20s and now smart contracts. What’s next for the grandfather of crypto?

MILKY MEMES 🤣

HIT THE INBOX OF 250K+ CRYPTO INVESTORS

Advertise with the Milk Road to get your brand in front of the Who’s Who of crypto. The Roadies are high-income crypto investors who are always looking for their next interesting product or tool. Get in touch today.

ROADER REVIEW OF THE DAY

VITALIK PIC OF THE DAY

live footage of me waiting in line for Taco Bell #notanad https://t.co/W8uTCBCprQ

— Milk Road Images (@MilkRoadImages)
May 19, 2023

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.