October 21, 2022

🥛Sam Bankman-Fried: Hero or Villain? 👀

GM. This is the Milk Road. The daily newsletter you can count on to always bring you the best of crypto.

We’re more reliable than the G-Shock watches everyone was rocking in school.

Here’s how we’re closing out the week:

  • SBF: Hero or Villain?

  • Whales have accumulated $4.55b in ETH over the last month

  • Funding Friday

  • Meme of the Day

SBF – HERO OR VILLAIN?

Sam Bankman Fried. Lord of FTX. Father of the Arbitrage. Breaker of Blockchains. Keeper of the Best Hair of All Crypto Men.

He’s been seen as a hero for many years…but now, Twitter is full of people calling him a villain.

So it’s time to put Lord Fro on the Milk Road Hot Seat.

Here are the 2 main things people have called SBF out on:

1/ Crypto regulation

Earlier this week, he dropped a Twitter thread that got everyone's attention. Here's the summary of what he said:

  • We should put "bad actors" on a blocklist (i.e what OFAC is doing with Tornado Cash, or how the “no fly list” works for airlines)

  • Force US retail to KYC certain DeFi apps (eg. Uniswap)

  • DeFi front-end applications should register as broker-dealers

Sounds a little…regulate-y (that’s a word, trust me), right?

Not only is he tweeting about it – he’s been lobbying to get the Digital Commodities Consumer Protection Act (DCCPA) bill passed.

In a nutshell – it's a bill that would restrict and ban most DeFi protocols like Uniswap & Aave and would threaten privacy with warrantless surveillance.

Hmm..how convenient, a rule that would hurt your competitors…

Here’s what some people on Twitter are saying about it all:

2/ Token Listings

People have been calling out FTX for listing every token under the sun, oftentimes without the full details.

And earlier this week they listed the new Aptos token without any info on tokenomics. Check out the message they had on their site:

It’s a fair criticism – how can people trade coins if you don’t know the total supply or emissions schedule?

THE MILK MAN'S TAKE

The criticisms are fair. But nobody is a pure hero or villain. People do good (eg. SBF pledging to donate 99% of his wealth), but also have opinions you disagree with.

Simply calling people “good” or “bad” is small-boy stuff. And no small-boy stuff here.

ETH WHALES ACCUMULATE $4.55B OVER THE LAST MONTH

Fish. Crabs. Shrimp.

If you own 1 ETH, you’re a crab.

50 ETH, you’re a fish

1000 ETH, you’re a whale.

That’s right, the crypto food chain is looking like a Red Lobster menu.

And check it out. There’s another group: the Blue Whales, wallets that hold 1m+ ETH. The Big Kahunas of ETH.

There are only 132 of these wallets in existence. And over the last month, they collectively bought another 3.5M more coins, worth ~$4.55b.

Prices might be down but the whales are eating up the discounts like it was krill.

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FUNDING FRIDAY

Each Friday we give you a rundown of Web3 companies that got funded during the week.

This week, we saw ~$247m get invested into crypto companies & funds. Here’s who got the money:

Mercury got $7.5m to build digital asset marketplaces for college programs. They're already working with college basketball teams like Kentucky and Kansas.

YoloYolo got $3.5m to build a platform connecting NFT IP holders to creators to unlock growth opportunities and revenue models.

Empire DAO got $2.8m to build a community hub for Web3 builders and artists in New York. Call it the Empire DAO of Mind.

Web3Builders got $7m to build a chrome extension to prevent phishing attacks, rug pulls, and wallet hacks.

If you wanna check out the complete database of companies that have raised money in 2022, we got 'em for you right here.

MEME OF THE DAY

What crypto analysts actually sound like predicting prices right now 😂

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

If you want more, be sure to follow our Twitter (@MilkRoadDaily)

MILK ROAD NEEDS YOUR HELP

Here at the Milk Road, we’re all a big family.

And to be honest with you, I write to you all more than my real family. (Sorry, sis!)

Here’s the thing though. I talk to you every day but I don't feel like I really know some of you. We want to change that.

But we need your help…we’d appreciate you taking 2 mins out of your day to fill out this survey. You could do it next time you brush your teeth. Next time you take a #2. We don’t judge here.

It’ll help give us a better idea of who you are and how to keep improving our newsletter for you.

We’re hyped to see those responses! Who knows, this could be us…

A ROADERS REVIEW

VITALIK PIC OF THE DAY

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.