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April 27, 2023

🥛 Another day, another bank crisis 🏦

GM. This is Milk Road. Reading us is more satisfying than getting the perfect ratio of chip-to-guac in one bite. Nomnomnom

It’s thirsty Thursday. Let’s do this:

  • First Republic Bank is struggling 🏦

  • Avalanche NFTs are booming 🔺

  • TBT: Michael Saylor, the Bitcoin denier ⏪

  • Apple’s Macs got rid of BTC whitepaper 🍪

Prices as of 9:30am EST

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BANKS DOWN, BITTY UP 🏦

When we say Bitcoin’s on a rollercoaster…

It went from $30K 2 weeks ago → $27K earlier this week → $29K yesterday before falling to $27K within hours. ~$80M in BTC shorts were liquidated.

CoinMarketCap

And now it’s back to $29K. Someone pass the vomit bag…

But let’s talk about why it rose to $29K yesterday in the first place.

It was all because of a little help from a friend. An unlikely friend.

First Republic Bank (FRB).

Who? This is the bank that:

  • Has been struggling since March, when JP Morgan, BOA and others stepped in to bail it out for $30B following SVB’s collapse

  • Reported in its earnings on Monday that deposits plummeted $100B last quarter and it will need to lay off 20%+ of their employees

  • Is now expected to go into government receivership (way to avoid bankruptcy)

Its stock price crashed by ~50% Tuesday. And another 30% yesterday.

Why should I care? Bad news for banks usually means good news for Bitcoin.

Bitcoin jumped more than 8% in a few hours. And just like when SVB was going down, all eyes turned to Bitcoin once FRB started to crumble.

So why the dip back to $27K that same day? Who knows.

Six Flags ain’t got nothin’ on Bitcoin’s price.

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AVALANCHE NFTS ENTER THE CHAT 🔺

NFTs are in a weird place. It’s like that phase in middle school when you are still figuring out who you are and what you like.

NFTs on Ethereum have been trending down in almost every category. Ordinals are seeing record levels of inscriptions (new creations). But, the secondary market for them hasn’t been as strong.

Things look brighter across the pond for SOL. The top traded project by volume across all NFTs came from Mad Lads, a Solana based project that launched this past week.

And now, Avalanche NFTs just said “hold my beer”.

Dune Analytics

Avalanche NFT transaction volume is up 6x month over month. It went from 400K transactions in March to 2.4M in April. And counting.

Avalanche has grown a loyal community of collectors and creators through lightning fast transactions and very low fees. And their foundation launched an NFT initiative to support artists and creators on the last day of March.

It also buds with the likes of Amazon, which is rumored to be launching an NFT marketplace of its own soon 👀

So what? ETH used to be the king of NFTs, no questions asked.

As new marketplaces launch and existing ones add new chains, people are exploring what others have to offer. And I’m sure the recent gas fee surge brought back PTSD for some collectors.

Ethereum isn’t the only kool kid on the NFT-building block anymore.

THROWBACK THURSDAY: MICHAEL SAYLOR, BTC DENIER ⏪

The year was 2013. Everyone lived on Tumblr & wore those god-awful owl necklaces.

And Michael Saylor (billionaire founder of software giant Microstrategy) declared that “Bitcoin days are numbered.”

It’ll suffer “the same fate as online gambling,” he said on Twitter.

Yep, that’s right folks: the same guy whose company 10 years later is Bitcoin’s largest institutional investor was once a Bitcoin denier.

Talk about a hella 180.

Saylor’s MicroStrategy owns 140K BTC worth $4.2B. The company with the second largest amount is Galaxy Digital, with 40K BTC.

And it’s done wonders for MS’s stock – the company started accumulating BTC in August 2020 with a $250M buy.

Microstrategy shares were worth ~$146 at the time. Now, it’s up ~100% to $297. (It hit ~$1K at its 2021 peak.)

He’s not quite in the green (the company’s average purchase price is ~$29,803.) But when/if BTC has its next bull run…he’s right where he wants to be.

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you…then they tweet BTC-themed art to their 3M followers once a day.

MILK & COOKIES 🍪

Apple got rid of the hidden Bitcoin whitepaper in its Macs. Developers are saying Tuesday’s new macOS update doesn’t contain the whitepaper in its internal files.

Solana’s price is up ~7% after the network said it’s adding a ChatGPT plugin. It’ll let users check their wallet balances and transfer Solana-native tokens.

Storybrook Brawl, SBF’s second-favorite video game, is shutting down on May 1. Someone send Sam some books

Accounting giant Deloitte is diving head-first into Web3 with over 300 job openings listed on LinkedIn. One is titled Tax Manager, Blockchain & Cryptocurrency.

MILKY MEMES 🤣

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