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GM. This is Milk Road – the all-in-one body wash of crypto (news, insights, laughs).

Here’s what we got for you today:

$ETH’S FEES ARE BACK (JUST LIKE THAT) 🤑

“I’m back baaaby!”

That’s what Dereck Stevenson (a dude from our high school) yelled – fist raised in the air – while standing proudly atop the kitchen table at our graduation after party. 🥳 

The moment held particular weight, ‘cause not 5 minutes before that – Dereck had fallen 10ft through a plate glass window and onto our friend’s mom’s azalea patch.

We’re telling you this, because right now Ethereum is giving big Dereck Stevenson energy.

$ETH’s fees are back baaaby! 📣 

Since rate cuts were announced on September 18th, $ETH has made a tidy gain from $2.3k to $2.65k – and all of the increased trading that helped lift prices, has brought fees up along with it.

Which is neat! 

…but it doesn’t paint the full picture of $ETH’s ‘fee revenue renaissance.’

See, back in March, EIP-4844 launched – essentially lowering the amount of fee revenue paid in rent to the Ethereum L1, by L2’s.

There was a big hullabaloo about how “Ethereum’s lowered rent is going to hurt its price.”

(Yeah, that’s right: ‘hullabaloo.’ We said it – and we’re standing by it).

In the short term, that theory appeared to prove itself out (we’ve all witnessed $ETH’s struggles in 2024). 📉 

But it overlooked the bigger picture. 

Long term, the lowered running costs for L2s meant they could scale more effectively (keeping fees low, even as their user base grew) – which, in theory, would eventually lead to an increase in fee revenue on the L1.

With the magic trick being attempted here, looking something like this: 

$ETH maintains/grows its fee revenue → while L2 ecosystem users transact at lower costs, at scale.

And that – right there 👆– is what’s making up the other half of the ‘$ETH fee revenue renaissance’ picture…

Transactions within the L2 ecosystem are up – way up – like, ‘breaking all-time highs’ kind of up! 👇

While engagement is following suit. 👇

Zooming out, what do we have?

Add those two things together, and – so far – it looks like Ethereum is pulling off its magic trick.

(“I’m back baaaby!” – D̶e̶r̶e̶c̶k̶ ̶S̶t̶e̶v̶e̶n̶s̶o̶n̶  Ethereum).

THREE CHARTS SIGNALING POTENTIAL TREND REVERSALS 🐕

You know that trope in films where a dog will predict danger, and somehow inform the lead character?

Dog: *.ears perk up, starts barking.*

Lead character: *.eyebrows raise.* “What is it boy? Trouble at the old mill??”

Yeah, well – we’re that character, and these charts are the barking dog.

Check this out:

1/ $BTC looks like it might be in the midst of a good old fashioned ‘vertical accumulation.’

2/ Funding rates indicate futures traders may be about to flip bullish on $ETH

3/ Solana is making its seventh attempt at breaking out of this long term wedge pattern

*.Eyebrows raise.*

“What is it boy? Banana zone approaching??” 🍌

CAN SUI OR APTOS DETHRONE SOLANA? 👑

Sui and Aptos are on one helluva tear right now! 

(Pumping 44% and 38.9% respectively, over the past 7 days).

So in today's episode of The Milk Road Show, we brought in Milk Road’s Head of Research, Kyle Reidhead, to discuss whether Sui and Aptos have what it takes to challenge Solana's dominance in the market.

In this episode, we grill Kyle for answers on questions like:

Click below to listen now! 👇

YouTube | Spotify | Apple Podcasts

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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.