🥛Battle of the CEXs ⚔️

Did NFT marketplaces just get Zucked?? 👀 November 04, 2022 | [Read Online]( GM. This is the Milk Road. We're like your favorite radio station. We only bring you the best hits from crypto. And DJ Milk Man is doing something special today. He's gonna give away $250 worth of ETH to a lucky Milk Roader. That's right. Instead of buying the dip, you can win the dip. All you have to do is be the 169th person to respond to this email. Reply to this email with "Show me the money!" to enter. Now let's get into the good stuff for today: - Is Instagram the next big NFT marketplace? - Battle of the CEXs - Funding Friday - Meme of the Day IS INSTAGRAM THE NEXT BIG NFT MARKETPLACE? NFTs. You either 🎵[hate it or love it](🎵 But you know who’s been loving it lately? Instagram. And soon users will be able to create, mint, buy & sell NFTs directly on the Gram. Here are the 5 things you need to know: - Instagram will start with NFTs on the Polygon blockchain. Polygon's token, $MATIC, is up 22% since the news hit - Instagram will use Arweave (decentralized data storage protocol) to store the NFTs. Arweave’s token, $AR, is up 59% since yesterday - Creators can set their own royalties. It can range from 5% to 25% for each sale - Instagram won't take a cut of NFT sales until 2024. Sound too good to be true? It is. There’s still a 30% app store fee thanks to Apple - The NFT tools will slowly be rolled out to 13 creators first. Here’s [a sneak peek]( of what it could look like 👀 Boom! Just like that, Instagram is in the NFT Marketplace War. And it could be bad news for other marketplaces. Zuck is known for ruthlessly cloning his competitors. TikTok → Instagram reels Snapchat → Instagram stories Now he’s got his eyes set on NFTs. Will OpenSea, Magic Eden, and other marketplaces soon join the “I Got Zucked” club? Only time will tell. BATTLE OF THE CEXES People love SEX CEX. Centralized exchanges. And it was an eventful week for 3 of the biggest centralized exchanges out there - Binance, Coinbase, and FTX. So we’re coming at ya with an update on the Battle of the CEXs. BINANCE Binance is the largest exchange in the world. And they’ve been on fire. - Binance & Twitter are BFFs now. Binance has a $500m stake in Twitter and is in charge of creating new crypto features - BUSD (Binance’s stablecoin) has a ~20% market share for stablecoins - Has one of the most active venture funds. Binance has invested $300m+ into companies this year (2x as much as last year) And in [an interview]( this week, CZ mentioned they have $1b ready to deploy into acquisitions. That’s right, 1 BILLION dollars. CZ says the bear market is the perfect time to go shopping. And they aren’t eyeing just any ol’ acquisition either. Binance could buy a bank 👀 The goal? To be the bridge between TradFi & crypto. COINBASE Coinbase is the king of centralized exchanges in the U.S. Yesterday, they had their Q3 earnings report. (**Spoiler alert: it wasn’t pretty**) - Transaction revenue dropped 44% from Q2 - Monthly transacting users (MTUs) fell from 9m --> 8.5m - Suffered a $545m loss during Q3 But it wasn’t all Bad News Bears for Coinbase. There were 2 good things: 1/ Interest revenue jumped 213% in Q3 (from $32.5m --> $101.8m). Coinbase collects interest payments on USDC stablecoin reserves and its been very profitable so far 2/ [~25% of the 100 largest hedge funds]( have chosen to onboard with Coinbase So even though Q3 was rough, there are still some positive signs. FTX FTX is the underdog of centralized exchanges. But lately, they've been on the hot seat. They’re being investigated by the state of Texas and SBF's (the CEO) views on crypto regulation have turned him from crypto hero → villain in the blink of an eye. This week, there was more drama. CoinDesk released [a report about Alameda Research's finances](. Alameda is FTX’s sister trading firm. Now, FTX & Alameda are technically different companies. But tomato, tomahto. Most people in crypto will tell you the brother & sister companies are a little too close. Alameda's balance sheet tells a similar story. According to the report, Alameda has a total of $14.6b in assets. 41% (~$6b worth) of those holdings are made up of FTT... aka FTX's token. It looks like Alameda also has a lot of leverage backed by illiquid tokens. A recipe for disaster. Now people are questioning whether or not they could be the next company to go into financial trouble. All eyes are on Alameda & FTX. TODAY'S EDITION IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY [TECHCRUNCH]( Looking to stay warm during Crypto Winter? I got just the perfect place for you. Miami, baby! Nothing but beaches, palm trees, and [overpriced] Piña Coladas. And next month there’s a special treat… TechCrunch is running [TC Sessions: Crypto]( on November 17. Check out the hottest up-and-coming startups exhibiting at the show, and connect with some of the sharpest minds in crypto. It’s gonna be jam-packed with crypto's top movers and shakers like: - Amy Wu (FTX) - “Bringing Crypto to the Crowds” - Flori Marquez (BlockFi), John Wu (Ava Labs) and Nikil Viswanathan (Alchemy) - “Fundraising in a Crypto Winter” - Katherine Dowling (Bitwise) and Justin Slaughter (Paradigm) - “Is Crypto Regulation Ready” And guess what? Milk Road readers can claim a special 30% discount on a General Admission pass by [registering here](. FUNDING FRIDAY Each Friday we give you a rundown of Web3 companies that got funded during the week. This week, we saw ~$85m get invested into crypto companies & funds. Here’s who got the money: [NiftyApes]( got $4.2m to build an NFT lending protocol. [Token Flow]( got $12m to let people look up any event, transaction, or balance in a blockchain's history. Since The Land Before Time. [Centrifuge]( got $4m to bring assets like invoices, real estate, and royalties to DeFi. Borrowers can finance their real-world assets without banks or other intermediaries. [ZebraLabs]( got $5m to create celebrity avatars in the metaverse. The Milk Man is coming to a metaverse near you... If you wanna check out the complete database of companies that raised money in 2022, [we got 'em for you right here](. MEME OF THE DAY [tw profile: Hawks] Hawks @NFTHawks [tw] POV: You convinced your family to buy ETH at $4,000 Nov 3, 2022 4.19K Likes 447 Retweets 216 Replies 🤣🤣 SAY HELLO TO PERCENT [Percent]( offers accredited investors high-yield, short-duration private credit investment opportunities. [Up to 20% APY, even in this market](. That's a wrap for this week. Stay thirsty & see ya next week! If you want more, be sure to follow our Twitter [(@MilkRoadDaily)]( Share The Milk Road You currently have 0 referrals, only 1 away from receiving An Inside Look At What The Crypto Whales Are Betting On. [An Inside Look At What The Crypto Whales Are Betting On]( [Click to Share]( Or copy and paste this link to others: [ What'd you think of today's edition? - [🥛🥛🥛🥛🥛 F**king great]( - [🥛🥛🥛 Meh, do better]( - [🥛 You didn't bring the heat]( ROADERS REVIEW VITALIK PIC OF THE DAY [tw profile: The Milk Road] The Milk Road @MilkRoadDaily [tw] Sir Vitalik Buterin. Lord of the Ethereum Kingdom. Father of Chains. Proofer of Stake. Emperor of Uniqlo. Nov 4, 2022 18 Likes 0 Retweets 2 Replies 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. 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