Today's Milk Road is Brought to You by Gemini

The newsletter that's here to guide you through the crypto world, one meme and market update at a time.

Today's edition is brought to you by Gemini – your trusted US-based crypto exchange, whether you're new to the game or a pro.

Start trading and snag $15 in $BTC just for getting started!

GM. This is Milk Road, the newsletter that’s here to guide you through the crypto world, one meme and market update at a time.

Here’s what we got for you today:

✍️ Top web3 apps to gain web2 adoption

✍️ Bitcoin supply shock incoming?

?️ The Milk Road Show: How BlackRock & Google Are Thinking About Crypto w/ Kyle Reidhead

? Fidelity experiences data breach affecting 77,000 customers

Prices as of 2:00PM ET. Click here for our Fear & Greed Index

TOP WEB3 APPS TO GAIN WEB2 ADOPTION ?

Two clicks of your iPhone’s lock button and a quick scan of your face.

That’s all it takes for you to pay for 100 gallons of mayonnaise at your local supermarket.

Why are you buying that much mayonnaise? We don’t need to know. ??‍♂️

Just like you don’t need to know what debit/credit network your payment is being processed through – it all just works.

This kind of seamless functionality is key to crypto mass adoption – but very few blockchain-based products have been able to pull off the magic trick.

Here’re five web3 products that have employed enough simplicity and optionality to win the hearts and minds of web2 users.

1/ Polymarket: Betting on the blockchain

Who will win the U.S. presidential election? Will Biden pardon Diddy? Will the US confirm that aliens exist in 2024?

These are all things you can bet on via Polymarket.

But what might be unknown to those placing bets via credit card, Apple Pay, Google Pay and/or bank transfer, is this: 

All bets are made via Polygon. ?

(And so far they’ve racked up more than $271M in volume!)

2/ NBA Top Shot: Collecting digital hoops history

NFTs entered the mainstream in 2021, thanks largely to NBA Top Shot.

Collectors rushed to grab their favorite players’ greatest on-court moments (like Steph Curry’s 2016 half-court 3-pointer) – racking up $224M in sales volume (and logging 80,000 unique buyers) in February 2021 alone. ?

The options at checkout? Debit, credit, or crypto.

3/ Reddit Avatars: Your identity in web3

When Twitter allowed users to upload verified NFTs as their profile picture, it was a neat feature.

…but why add a neat feature, when you could create a neat business?

That’s the approach Reddit took with their Avatar NFT rollout. ?

Users could auto-generate a crypto wallet under their account and start buying/selling seamlessly via Stripe (with Reddit collecting fees along the way). 

Sure, crypto was used to complete the transactions – but users didn’t have to be aware of it.

4/ Axie Infinity & Hamster Combat

Axie Infinity kicked off the Play-to-Earn (P2E) revolution last cycle, and now Hamster Combat is carrying the torch.

Axie Infinity set the stage by letting players earn real crypto through battling cute creatures (think: Pokémon, but with real/tradable in-game currency). 

Now, Hamster Combat has upped the ante with its Telegram-native game. ?

Both are mullet products (gaming in the front, crypto in the back).

5/ Bitcoin & Stablecoins

In countries where buying stocks feels impossible and local currencies drop faster than an over-hyped meme coin, Bitcoin and stablecoins are life rafts of sorts. ?

Bitcoin acts like gold, preserving wealth in places with runaway inflation, while stablecoins provide access to stable global currencies, for everyday use. 

Together, they’re becoming the go-to solution where traditional systems are failing. 

(Bitcoin for saving, stablecoins for spending).

Alright, that’s it! 

Did we miss anything? Hit reply and let us know if we did.

Crypto, Covered.

Gemini was founded in 2014 by the Winklevoss twins, Cameron and Tyler, who’ve been crypto trailblazers for over a decade.

Gemini isn’t just another exchange; it’s built with security at its core. 

As a licensed, full-reserve exchange and custodian, Gemini offers top-notch security features like passkeys, setting the gold standard for compliance and innovation. ?

Ready to start trading? Head over to Gemini and snag $15 in $BTC.