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October 27, 2022

🥛Elon Musk has landed at Twitter HQ👀

GM. This is the Milk Road. We take your daily crypto news. Season it with spicy takes and all-natural memes. Then serve it to you in a hot & fresh email every day.

Here’s what we got for you today: 

  • a16z is down BIG on their crypto investments

  • Elon lands at Twitter HQ

  • Trademark Thursday

  • Meme of the Day

a16z IS DOWN BIG ON THEIR CRYPTO INVESTMENTS 

a16z is one of the biggest & most successful venture firms there is. 

  • $35b in assets under management across 64 funds

  • Raised over $7.5b across 4 crypto funds

  • Invested in companies like Coinbase, Stripe, Instacart, and OpenSea.

Just look at some of their returns, as of the end of 2021:

But it's a Crypto Winter now. And not even a16z can escape.

According to reports, a16z's Crypto Fund I was down 40% during the first half of 2022. Crypto Funds II and III were also down, but not as big.

So where’s the damage coming from? EVERYWHERE.

Solana. Down. (SOL has gone from $170 –> $32 this year)

OpenSea. Down big. (NFT volume down 90% since Jan) 

Coinbase. Down bigger. (COIN is down 80% this year)

a16z reportedly lost $2.9b just on Coinbase in the first 6 months of this year 🤯

So, is a16z worried? Not at all. According to Chris Dixon a16z has a "very-long term horizon." 

But they are making adjustments & slowing down on investments. In Q3, they only made 9 investments in crypto startups. (~3x less than the number of investments they made a year ago)

a16z might be the Don Corleone of crypto investments. But turns out they're just like the rest of us sometimes & take BIG losses too. 

ELON LANDS AT TWITTER HQ

Houston, Elon Musk has landed at Twitter HQ. And boy, did he make an entrance. 

Elon knows he’s had a lot of people doubting whether he’d actually buy Twitter. So yesterday when he walked in the building, he wanted it to really sink in.

By bringing a literal sink in. 

Elon looking juiced! Guess I'm gonna start lifting sinks rather than dumbbells.

It’s reported that the Twitter deal will be finalized by this Friday. But if we’re going by his new Twitter bio, he’s already the “Chief Twit”

Now I know what you’re thinking… “Milk Man, what does this all have to do with crypto?”

Well, a lot actually. 

  • Earlier this week it was reported that Twitter is working on a crypto wallet

  • Elon has talked about Twitter crypto payments and even hinted at Dogecoin being an option. DOGE shot up ~20% after Elon landed at Twitter HQ

  • Recent text message leaks show that Elon has thought about making a decentralized social media app

  • Elon himself has said he owns Bitcoin, ETH, and some Doge

  • Tesla (Elon’s other company) owns Bitcoin. Will Twitter be next? 👀

Just like that, all of the big social apps are pivoting to web3 in some way. Facebook has the metaverse. Reddit has NFTs. Twitter will have… *to be continued*….👀

But of course, not everyone is too happy with the news…

Talk about the Stare of Death.

TODAY'S EDITION IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY HANG

I don’t know about you, but I stay loyal to my brands. Dunkin > Starbucks til I die!

But let’s be honest: most loyalty programs out there are awful.

Enter Hang. They’re helping brands around the world build web3 loyalty programs to unlock special perks for customers. And it’s all being done with NFTs.

With Hang, you get:

1/ Liquidity – you now own your membership, and you can sell it on the open marketplace.

2/ Interoperability – no matter where you are in the physical or digital world, brands can now reward you for actions beyond just spending money. And the rewards now include things like gifts, access to events & experiences, voting, etc

The best part? It’s super easy for users to sign up. All you need is an email address and a credit card and boom! You’re part of the club.

And Hang is tweeting about all the cool stuff they're doing, follow the action here!

TRADEMARK THURSDAY

It’s Thursday. So we’re bringing you a rundown of all the big companies that filed for trademarks this week. 

We locked the Milk Man in the conference room until he found the best Web3 trademarks. Don’t worry, we fed him cookies & kept the room cold so he wouldn’t spoil.

Here are the top trademarks for the week:

  • ULTA – filed a trademark that covers everything from NFTs to virtual makeup & salon services. The $20b beauty retailer has officially entered Web3

  • Viking Cruises – filed 16 trademarks that cover everything from virtual foods & drinks to virtual cruise tours

  • Muhammad Ali – filed a trademark that covers everything from NFTs to virtual clothes & shoes

  • Western Union – filed 3 trademarks that cover everything from the management of crypto wallets to releasing new crypto tokens

MEME OF THE DAY

🤣🤣

That's a wrap for today, ladies & gents. See ya tomorrow!

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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.