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GM. This is Milk Road, the crypto newsletter that keeps you informed without stealing your whole afternoon. |
Here’s what we’ve got for you today: |
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Nexo is back in the U.S. - and new clients get 30 days of Wealth Club Premier perks! Higher yields, lower borrowing rates, and crypto cashback - start here. |
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3 BIG PIECES OF NEWS YOU MISSED TODAY 🗞️ |
Yesterday, Trump told the world an entire civilization was about to die. |
It didn't come to pass. Thank god. They reached a ceasefire deal. |
But while the diplomats were shaking hands, somebody apparently didn't get the memo. |
A drone struck one of Saudi Arabia's most critical oil pipelines just hours after the U.S. and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire. |
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And this hit packs an extra punch right now - because while the Strait of Hormuz has been shut down, the pipeline has basically been Saudi Arabia's only functioning export route. |
Now part of it might be out of commission too. |
The timing is… let's call it suspicious. |
Before the ceasefire was signed, Iran explicitly threatened to hit this exact pipeline if the U.S. went after Iranian power plants. Then the ceasefire happens. And the pipeline gets hit anyway. |
Who did it? Nobody knows yet. |
But if it turns out to be Iran, that two-week ceasefire could become a two-day ceasefire real fast. |
And speaking of Iran and creative infrastructure moves… |
The Financial Times is also reporting that Iran wants to charge a $1-per-barrel toll on any oil tanker passing through the Strait of Hormuz. |
But they don't want dollars. They want Bitcoin. |
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The logic being: digital payments can't be traced or frozen the way traditional bank transfers can, which matters a lot when you're a country buried in sanctions. |
We didn't have "Iran sets up a BTC toll booth in the middle of the ocean" on our BTC adoption bingo card… |
But that's kind of the theme of the day: crypto keeps showing up in rooms it wasn't invited to. |
Including, apparently, the White House… |
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3 BIG PIECES OF NEWS YOU MISSED TODAY (P2) 🗞️ |
The Council of Economic Advisers (basically the President's in-house economics team) published a weighty report today… |
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And it takes a sledgehammer to the banking industry's main argument against stablecoin yield. |
ICYMI: banks have been lobbying hard to ban crypto companies from passing stablecoin yield on to their users. |
Bank of America's big scary number? If stablecoins start paying yield, $6.6T in deposits could flee the banking system. |
That stat has been everywhere, and it's the backbone of the case to ban yield in the CLARITY Act. |
So the White House ran the actual model and found: |
Banning yield increases bank lending by just $2.1B (that's 0.02% of total U.S. bank loans, aka: a rounding error). Large banks capture 76% of that tiny gain, community banks get the scraps. The ban costs consumers $800M in lost benefits. For every $1 of lending gained, $6.60 in consumer benefit gets sacrificed.
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Even under the most extreme stress-test assumptions, the model only produces $531B in additional lending. |
Still nowhere near Bank of America's $6.6T doomsday number. |
The report's own summary line was essentially: banning yield does almost nothing to protect bank lending, while torching the consumer benefits of competitive returns. |
I.e. this… |
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Quite a day. |
Iran wants Bitcoin tolls, Saudi pipelines are getting droned hours after a ceasefire, and the White House is quietly siding with stablecoin holders over banks. |
Crypto's having a weird week. |
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BITE-SIZED COOKIES FOR THE ROAD 🍪 |
What if a bank app and crypto wallet had a baby? You’d get Brighty which is a money app that lets you use crypto and regular fiat money together without transferring funds.* |
Water is wet, insiders will bet: A trio of accounts on Polymarket made more than $600,000 on U.S./Iran ceasefire markets. |
Chainalysis: Stablecoin volumes could hit $1.5 quadrillion by 2035. |
The AI advantage you can’t copy: And ol' Zuck already has it... |
The moment is here. Midnight, the fourth generation blockchain designed for real world adoption, is officially live.* |
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