🥛 Meta's 2nd shot at crypto 🎯

GM. This is Milk Road, the crypto newsletter that feels like showing up early to the party… and then watching 3 billion guests walk in behind you.

Here’s what we’ve got for you today:

✍️ 3B+ Meta users coming to crypto?
🎙️ The Milk Road Show: Bitwise’s Bull Case: Why Crypto Fundamentals Are Stronger Than Ever w/ Matt Hougan & Ryan Rasmussen.
🍪 MetaMask and Mastercard just launched a crypto debit card.

Aligned is a full-stack infrastructure suite that lets businesses launch, operate, and scale on Ethereum. Join the whitelist on their campaign page.

Prices as of 2:00 p.m. ET. Trade today with Milk Road Swap.

META TO BRING IN 3B+ NEW POTENTIAL CRYPTO USERS? 🤔

Have you also been hit with consistent “this news would be MASSIVE if we were in a bull market” moments lately?

(I’m up to like one-per-day at this point.)

The biggest/most slept on story of the past week?

Meta is reportedly bringing stablecoin payments to Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook - having just sent out an RFP for stablecoin payment infrastructure. 👇

Source: @WatcherGuru

Translation: they’re quietly shopping for a third-party to help launch stablecoin payments to their 3B+ users.

If you’ve been around long enough, you probably have deja vu right about now…

Meta tried this before and got destroyed:

In 2019, they announced the Libra stablecoin project (later renamed Diem).
Congress hauled Zuck in for hearings / regulators swarmed.
The project died a quiet, whimpering death in 2022.
The Diem team left Meta to create Aptos & Sui.

But now Meta is back with a completely different approach.

Here's what has changed…

ARE YOU BUILDING ON ETHEREUM?

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This is the problem Aligned is solving.

Aligned is a full-stack infrastructure suite that lets businesses launch, operate, and scale on Ethereum (without duct-taping half the ecosystem together).

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If you're serious about building on Ethereum, this is worth a look.

Join the whitelist on their campaign page.

META TO BRING IN 3B+ NEW POTENTIAL CRYPTO USERS? (P2) 🤔

Meta isn’t building their own stablecoin this time - instead, they're partnering with existing infrastructure providers.

(And according to sources, Stripe is the leading candidate.)

Our Head of Research, Kyle Reidhead, disagrees:

Source: @KyleReidhead

But I think it’s fun to wind him up, so I’m going to take the other side here and argue that Stripe as a partner also makes sense…

They have their own stablecoin platform (Bridge), are a giant in the payments industry, and Stripe's CEO (Patrick Collison) is on Meta's board.

… that said, I’m also a Coinbase bull - so I hope that argument falls flat on its face.

Regardless of who wins it - this would be huge for both crypto and Meta users alike!

Here’s why:

Stablecoin payments across WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook would give users access to instant cross-border transfers without traditional banking fees (we love that).

… all while providing the crypto sector with 3B+ (potential) new users, almost instantly.

That’s the kind of distribution that changes adoption curves - FAST.

For context, the stablecoin market is currently worth $297.58B with 229.15M total holders (according to RWA.xyz ). 👇