Today’s edition is brought to you by Shardeum - a linearly scalable EVM-based layer 1 blockchain that provides low gas fees forever while maintaining true decentralization and solid security.
GM. This is Milk Road, your daily dose of crypto vitamins (the OG Flintstones ones).
Here’s what we got for you today:
- Down goes Solana 💥
- 4 things to watch this week 🔭
- Graph of the day: $700M+ in weekly inflows 🤑
- Solana’s new phone hit 60K preorders 🍪
Prices as of 8:00 AM ET. Click here for our Fear & Greed Index
DOWN GOES SOLANA 💥
Solana just suffered its first major outage since February 25th, 2023.
- The main network hasn’t processed any transactions since 5:30 AM ET.
- Developers are still investigating the cause of the issue but they say the network is “experiencing a performance degradation.” (I used to tell my mom the same thing when she’d ask why I got a ‘C’ in English… “degradation”).
- SOL dropped 4% after the news.
The 346-day “no-network-outages” streak is officially over. Time to reset the counter…
So, what now? Solana needs a good ol’ restart.
But according to my researchers, blockchains don’t work like Nintendo 64’s - you can’t just take the game out, blow in it, and put the game back in to fix the problem (bummer).
So Solana developers released a “validator software patch.” And once 80% of validator operators made up the upgrade, the network restarted.
Talk about a rough morning for Solana.
On the bright side, this is crypto - where major meltdowns get turned into golden memes.
Here are some of the best ones:
BEEP BEEP! AUTOSCALING TAKES YOU THERE
Autoscaling in Shardeum dynamically adjusts network resources, ensuring efficiency and low fees forever.
That’s right: efficiency AND low fees forever.
For all the Shardians out there, autoscaling means it’s easy to scale by setting up your own node. But that’s not all…
- Adaptability to user demand: Shardeum scales its infrastructure in response to demand.
- Node voting for network size: Nodes in Shardeum vote to adjust network size based on load (using a consensus approach).
- Dynamic network size adjustment: Network size increases or decreases based on consensus.
- Minimized operating costs: By aligning network size with user demand, Shardeum reduces operating costs.
Simply put: autoscaling results in lower transaction fees for users, as it allows the network to adapt efficiently to varying demands.
Learn more and spin up your node today.
4 THINGS TO WATCH THIS WEEK 🔭
There’s never a dull moment in crypto, and we’ve got another big week ahead.
Here are 4 things you should have on your radar:
1/ The “Chinese New Year Dump”
China’s Lunar New Year is on a different date every year (pretty cool, btw).
This year it’s on February 10, 2024. T-4 days!
The bad news? The celebration usually leads to a dip in BTC’s price. It’s a phenomenon called The Chinese New Year Dump.
2/ U.S. macro stuff
There are 6 speeches from members of the U.S. Federal Reserve this week.
Remember: the Fed's tone often determines where the economy (and markets) are headed.
3/ U.S. earnings reports
~20% of the S&P500 will report earnings this week, including PayPay, Disney, Roblox, etc.
It’ll be interesting to see if any companies mention crypto.
4/ Ethereum’s last test
Ethereum developers have scheduled the final test for the Dencun upgrade for tomorrow, February 7th.
If all goes well, the real upgrade is expected to happen later this month.
GRAPH OF THE DAY: $700M+ IN WEEKLY INFLOWS 🤑
The latest results from CoinShares’ weekly crypto fund flows report are in…
$708M in total inflows last week.
Side note: We always joke about how crypto charts look like rollercoasters from Six Flags. Well, this is the real Drop of Doom…
Here’s everything you need to know from the report:
- BTC saw $703M in inflows. That’s 99% of the total inflows.
- The new spot Bitcoin ETFs have seen $7.7B in total inflows since they launched. An average of ~$1.9B per week.
- Trading volumes fell to $8.2B. The good news? That’s still well above the weekly average from last year ($1.5B per week).
- ETH saw minor outflows ($6.4M). Small oof.
- Most altcoins saw minor inflows.SOL led the way with $13.4M.
BITE-SIZED COOKIES FOR THE ROAD 🍪
Universal Page, a gasless NFT 2.0 platform has launched on LUKSO. Build your custom web page, trade NFTs on the gasless marketplace, or drop your collections with the launchpad.*
Solana’s ‘Chapter 2’ crypto phone hit 60,000 preorders. Hmm, dumb question but… what happens to the Solana phone when the Solana blockchain goes down?
BlackRock and Fidelity’s spot Bitcoin ETFs landed in the top 10 for all ETFs last month. The crazy part? Each fund launched mid-month and only saw 14 total days of trading.
Binance addressed privacy concerns over their leaked KYC information. Rumors emerged that user information was being sold on the dark web and other hacker channels.
Nayib Bukele has been re-elected as President of El Salvador. Bukele says his focus is on further integrating Bitcoin into the nation's economy, including launching Bitcoin-backed "Volcano bonds" to finance renewable energy-powered BTC mining.
There will be $800M in token unlocks this month. Optimism, ApeCoin, Aptos, and Avalanche are some of the big crypto projects on deck.
Mechanism Capital says it “accumulated its first positions of 2024”. What’d they buy? Trump NFTs and Trump-related memecoins.
*This is sponsored content
MILKY MEMES 🤣
WE’RE HIRING A NEWSLETTER WRITER 🥛
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We're looking for writers passionate about crypto and with plenty of experience in the space.
If this sounds like you, what are you waiting for? Fill out the form here.
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ROADER REVIEW OF THE DAY
VITALIK PIC OF THE DAY
"performance degradation"
— Milk Road Images (@MilkRoadImages)4:49 PM • Feb 6, 2024
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.
