GM. This is Milk Road, the elevator of crypto news. Our updates can help you lift your crypto knowledge to new heights.

It’s Saturday. Let’s do this:

• BTC dips to ~$26K 📉

• Graphs of the day 📊

• The Chamber of Commerce joins the fight 🥊

• BlockFi users get $300M back 🍪

Prices as of 9:30 ET

Today’s edition is brought to you by Prime – a cross-chain prime brokerage powered by Axelar GMP. It lets you pool collateral from any chain for loans, anywhere in Web3 – without bridges.

BTC HITS 2-MONTH LOW OF ~$26K 📉

My Friday was going great. Wasn’t hungover from happy hour the night before. Didn’t overcook my eggs.

But then I started seeing red… and no it wasn’t a migraine.

It was Bitcoin’s price dropping to ~$26K. That’s the lowest it’s been since March 17. TGIF my *ss…

There was $150M in BTC liquidations after the price moves.

CoinMarketCap

And it wasn’t just BTC that fell:

• ETH hit a 6-week low and dipped 3.4% to ~$1.7K

So why the dip? Low liquidity.

Major exchanges like Binance.US are struggling with it right now. That means it’s harder for traders to order large transactions without affecting prices.

Low liquidity = volatile prices

It doesn’t help that meme coin mania clogged the Bitcoin network more than my hair clogs the shower drain.

That pesky $30K level… so close yet so far away…

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The bigger problem? Up until now loans on multichain portfolios could only be offered by centralized lenders – the “C” word that can scare off anyone in the crypto industry…

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GRAPHS OF THE DAY 📊

1/ Net BTC accumulation rate is fastest since October 2021

Long-term investors are buying up Bitcoin like it’s an Old Navy summer sale (these are wallets holding tokens for at least 155 days without moving/selling them.)

Why? HODLers are taking advantage of BTC’s price being low again.

It’s like shopping for a new winter coat – you gotta wait until it’s warmer so the price is lower.

With BTC now at ~$26K, we’ll see if their purchases pay off.

2/ PEPE is now seeing more volume on centralized exchanges than Uniswap

Messari

Only ~20% of the PEPE’s volume is currently coming from Dexes.

Why is this happening? When a new token launches, the only place it can be traded is a decentralized exchange like Uniswap.

After taking the crypto world by storm, exchanges started to list the token and drive interest mainstream. It’s currently listed on Binance, Gemini, Kucoin and more.

And if meme coins didn’t carry enough risk to begin with, there’s also been a lot of interest in trading PEPE on leverage.

The real loser here? Jaredfromsubway.eth

3/ Is it time to “sell in May and go away?”

That’s financial speak for selling in May to avoid summertime market dips before buying again in October.

Well, some analysts have tried applying that to Bitcoin.

May has historically been its fourth best month – BTC has seen May gains 7 of the last 12 years.

But that wasn’t always the case in the months following May in recent years. Plus, the months after May the last 2 years have been redder than a slasher flick.

Check it out:

TradingView

So what will happen this year? Who knows.

We still have a couple of weeks left. But it doesn’t bode well that BTC’s hitting 2-month lows of ~$26K right now…

4/ Cumulative NFT lending volume just broke the $1B mark

Dune Analytics

NFT lending has been a hot topic that caught even more flames when Blur launched BLEND.

The concept has only been around for one year, but this week it just crossed the $1B of total volume milestone.

This has been driven by two factors:

1/ There are more NFT lending offerings launching

2/ More people are looking to unlock value from their NFTs

CHAMBER OF COMMERCE & COINBASE VS. THE SEC 🥊

It’s no secret that Coinbase has been in a battle with regulators. It’s been a true David vs. Goliath.

And now another big name has entered the fray: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is bringing reinforcements to Brian Armstrong’s army.

Here’s how we got here:

• Coinbase filed petitions with the SEC hoping for some clarity on which digital assets could be seen as securities

• The SEC gave Brian the silent treatment, but they delivered a Wells Notice

• Coinbase pulled a reverse Uno card and sued the SEC

• The U.S. Chamber of Commerce followed up with a brief siding with Coinbase and stating the SEC is hurting innovation, confusing investors and overreaching in their authority

‘Why is this a big deal? The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is no joke.

They are one of the largest business organizations in the world and represent the interests of over 3M organizations, including global corporations. Seems a lot more meaningful than the support of a bunch of pissed off cartoon animals on Twitter.

While they are not directly involved in the case, the brief they filed could help sway the court’s decision and lead to Coinbase getting an answer from the SEC quicker.

For now, here is where guidance currently stands:

MILK & COOKIES 🍪

Join our partner Metronome and DeFi Dad on The Edge Podcast as they discuss how Smart Farming will revolutionize the DeFi space. Listen and learn more! [Sponsored]

A judge ruled that BlockFi customers can get $300M back in assets after the bankrupt lender froze them in April. Praise Jesus

New York issued a bill proposing to accept stablecoins as a form of bail payment. Where was this when SBF was tryna make bail…

Texas legislators voted to add the right to use digital assets to the state’s Bill of Rights. Yeehaw, but make it DeFi.

Terraform founder Do Kwon was released from a Montenegro prison on bail. He was arrested in March for passport fraud.

MILKY MEMES 🤣

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— Milk Road (@MilkRoadDaily)
May 13, 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.