🥛 Coinbase and Ripple are in a fight! 🥊

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GM. This is Milk Road, your color commentator coming to you live, ringside in the crypto arena.

Here’s what we got for you today:

✍️ Coinbase and Ripple are in a fight!
🥛 Milk Road PRO Portfolio updates
🎙️ The Milk Road Show: Why Crypto IPOs & M&A Are the Real Alpha in 2025 w/ Coinbase Head of Strategy John D'agostino
🍪 Ever wanted to invest in SpaceX?

Prices as of 2:00 PM ET. Click here for our Fear & Greed Index.

COINBASE AND RIPPLE ARE IN A BIDDING WAR TO BUY CIRCLE 💸

Fight, fight, fight, fight!

Coinbase and Ripple are in a bidding war to buy Circle, the issuer of $USDC.

(And things are escalating QUICKLY!)

At the end of April, Ripple offered Circle $4-$5B, which has (apparently) more than doubled to $9B-$11B as of today.

Source: @paulbarron

Here’s what’s in it for each respective party:

1/ Ripple ($XRP)

Ripple has had a tough go of things over the years!

They built a product ($XRP) that was designed to make cross-border transfers faster and cheaper, acting as a bridge between banks…

…only for stablecoins to come along and do exactly that, but better.

Their solution: $RLUSD (Ripple’s own stablecoin). Problem is: stablecoins are a network-effects game…

Meaning the more folks use any one stablecoin, the harder it is to compete with from scratch (kinda like mobile operating systems – good luck competing with iOS and Android!).

And right now there are only two stablecoins in the global market with substantial network effects: Tether’s $USDT with $151B in market cap, and Circle’s $USDC with $60B in market cap.

For Ripple – this Circle deal seems to be a case of “If you can’t beat ‘em, buy ‘em!”.

(And given their competitors' lead, that seems like a smart strategy.) 👇

Source: CoinGecko

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COINBASE AND RIPPLE ARE IN A BIDDING WAR TO BUY CIRCLE (P2) 💸

Alright, we know where Ripple stands to benefit if this deal goes through…

But what about:

2/ Coinbase ($COIN)

Coinbase already gets a hefty cut of Circle’s annual revenue in exchange for supporting/pushing $USDC on its platforms.

(Last year, that cut equated to $908M, or ~54% of Circle’s $1.7B in annual revenue.)

Buying Circle would not only make Coinbase a global leader in the stablecoin space, but it could almost double the amount of annual revenue they receive from $USDC.

Plus! Letting Circle get sold to Ripple could jeopardize their revenue split down the road.

(Who would want to risk losing this sweetheart of a deal?) 👇

Source: @jamesjho_

3/ Circle ($USDC)

Simply put: Circle wants an exit. A private sale would mean less paperwork, but if the price ain’t right, they can always go ahead with their IPO.

Our guess is, if they go with Ripple (who are offering cash + $XRP), it’s going to be because of price.

If they go with Coinbase (who are offering cash + $COIN stocks), it’s because they’re doing the math and figuring that $COIN is a more promising asset long-term.

Ok, your turn! Where do you stand on this?

How should Circle Exit?

MILK ROAD SWAP CROSSED $1M IN VOLUME!

We just wanted to take a moment to say thanks!

Thanks to everyone that has used Milk Road Swap to vacuum up any Ethereum and/or Solana-based tokens since we launched back in Feb.

It’s because of you that Milk Road Swap just passed $1M in total trading volume!

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MILK ROAD PRO PORTFOLIO UPDATES 📊

One of our Milk Road PRO Portfolio assets just ripped damn-near 30% in a week!

(And no, it wasn’t Ethereum.)

Want to learn what it was and whether or not we’re taking profits?

Go PRO and keep scrolling to find out. 👇

Disclosure: We are not a day trading portfolio so don’t expect a high volume of trades. Read our “How To Build a Crypto Portfolio” report to learn more about our portfolio strategy.

Portfolio performance 📈

The Milk Road PRO Portfolio saw a moderate increase over the past 7 days. Our portfolio value is at $154.5K, up 3.81% since last week.

Portfolio prices are updated daily at 6:00 AM ET.

Pretty much every market is on the rise right now, and Bitcoin is knocking on the door of its all-time highs. It’s been trading just below those levels for a few days now, trying to push through.

One of our favorite investors, Arthur Hayes, has a bold prediction:

He sees Bitcoin hitting $150K–$200K before we see another major correction.
He also believes the real altcoin season kicks off once Bitcoin breaks above $110K.

Given how accurate he has been with his past calls, we think there’s a strong chance he could be right this time too. 😉

Portfolio changes 👀

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