🥛 Major conference canceled. Are NFTs in trouble?

Gm. This is Milk Road. We're your crypto standing desk. Keeping you aligned, balanced, and focused. 

Here’s what we’ve got for you today:

• Buzzy NFT conference canceled
• $4 and an ICO dream
• Web3 job openings
• A new nine-figure crypto fund

The PROOF of Conference, an NFT extravaganza that was scheduled for May in Los Angeles, has been canceled, according to its website. 

Why? Because there wasn’t enough interest, according to Proof Collective CEO Kevin Rose. (Yes, early 2000s Digg entrepreneur Kevin Rose.)

“After several weeks of sales data, speaking with potential sponsors, and talking to community members, it's clear that there is considerably less interest than anticipated for an event like this right now,” he wrote. 

ETH refunds are coming, which is a good thing, since tickets cost 1.5 ETH (~$2,500) for the general public and .75 ETH (~$1,255) if you own a Moonbird. Proof is the collective behind the highly capitalized collection of 10,000 pixelated owl NFTs.

Is the cancellation…proof (ahem) of a bigger problem with the NFT market, or limited to Rose’s latest project? According to The Block’s summary of Cryptoslam data, the latter—though early data show that angry ‘Bird buyers aren’t, for the most part, selling just yet.

They’ll probably tweet about it, tho.

We all bought NFTs in the bull market. 

Even though liquidity is important, you don't want to sell when the prices are down 50%+. 

What if I told you there was a way to get ETH for your NFTs without selling them. 

Our friends over at Unlockd are giving you ETH for those dusty NFTs. 

How is Unlockd giving you ETH for your dusty NFTs? 

The NFT market is in bad shape right now. It sounds too good to be true. 

Here's how. 

• Peer-to-pool model:  Works with decentralized liquidity pools. This model allows borrowers to access instant loans and lowers the risk for lenders.
• Risk Mitigation: Their data science team has a custom risk framework that screens the market for data and provides a dynamic Loan-To-Value for each loan
• Fair Price: The best part is they don’t use a collection's floor price. Instead, they appraise each NFT so you get fair value.

Unlockd is audited by Halborn Security and the code is open-sourced so you don’t get rugged. 

So, if you want to do something with those dusty NFTs.

Hit that button below.

I want ETH for my NFTs

One of the best ways to earn big crypto returns is to get in on the ground floor, which is why it’s always interesting to look at early token airdrops and ICOs, or initial coin offerings.

Well, peep this new chart showing profits from investors that bought ETH during its ICO. (It was made by Conor Grogan, a director at Coinbase and a friend of Milk Road.)

It’s hard to remember now, but in 2015 anyone could invest in ETH, which was dirt cheap. One ETH was worth $0.31 back then, and there was a $4 minimum pledge to invest. 

Seventeen investors took the four-buck leap. How’d it work out? Well…

To summarize:

• Seven investors have held onto their initial investments. The initial $4 bet is now worth ~$25k at today’s prices. 
• Two investors immediately sold for ~$12. I mean, hey, that’s a 3X return!
• The last OG investor to sell was in 2018. That’s a…3,480X return. Noice.

TELL US: What tokens are you looking at right now? Tell us your top 2 or 3 and we’ll share the results with you later this week 👀 

Wanna work in Web3? Do we have a roundup for you.

In a new feature we’ll call (Work in) Web3 Wednesday, here’s our list of the coolest of the cool open jobs on the market.

Dust off your resume, ‘cause here we go:

• Part-time UI/UX designer at Milk Road (come on in, the milk is warm)
• Business Development Lead, Gaming at Aptos
• Web3 Data Leader at Air Force Civilian Service (AFCS)
• Blockchain Engineer at Stacks Foundation
• Global Head of HR at The Sandbox
• Senior Software Engineer at Coinbase
• Senior Technical Product Manager, Platform at ConsenSys
• IP Paralegal at Yuga Labs
• Director of Fraud and Risk Management at Moonpay
• Senior App Architect for CBDCs at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco
• Staff Software Engineer at Paxos
• Content Design Director at OKX

The layoffs continue. This time it’s Polygon Labs that is cutting 20% of its workforce, a sign of continued crypto category challenges.

A new nine-figure crypto fund. A former Binance exec is looking to raise $100M for his new outfit Cypher Capital. The goal? To bring hundreds of millions of internet/social media users into Web3.

eToro has a NY State of Mind. The trading platform just scored a license to offer crypto services in New York.

FTX withdrawal time! Sorta. FTX Japan, one of the failed exchange’s subsidiaries, will start letting users take their holdings off the platform.

AI, but make it scammy. Blockchain security firm Pecksiled found dozens of tokens pulling pump-and-dump schemes by purporting to be associated with AI bots like ChatGPT.

🤣🤣

That's a wrap for today. Stay thirsty & see ya tomorrow! If you want more, be sure to follow our Twitter (@MilkRoadDaily)

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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.