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GM. This is Milk Road, the newsletter that makes understanding crypto easier than assembling IKEA furniture. |
Here’s what we got for you today: |
A peek inside $10M+ crypto wallets 🤑 This bathhouse is mining Bitcoin to hit its pools 👀 Solana enters the top 5 🍪
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WE LOOKED INSIDE SOME $10M+ CRYPTO WALLETS |
Blockchains are open books. You can see all transactions, wallet balances, etc. |
And one of the cooler things you can do is whale watching. This is when you peek into wallets (you wish were yours) that have millions of dollars in ‘em. |
We like doing this because… it can give you insight into trading strategies they use (i.e. are they staking crypto? are they lending/borrowing?) and what tokens/protocols they’re invested in. |
The crappy part is…when you go back to look at your wallet, it feels like this: |
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Anyway, we decided to check back in on some whales that: |
We first started tracking about 15 months ago. And all have 8-figure portfolios, ranging from $10M → $25M. No little guppies here.
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We wanted to see what was different, what was the same, and what they had their eyes on now. Let’s dive in… |
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15 months ago… |
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Fast forward to today… |
Wallet balance: $9.9M (btw, it’s unclear why the wallet balance went down so much, but a few theories are: they sold off some assets or moved them to another non-EVM chain - like Solana, Cosmos, etc.). Main trading strategy: stake ETH on Lido (67% of the whale’s crypto is staked here). Main blockchains used: 100% of assets are still on Ethereum.
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The takeaway: You don’t need to be the same investor you were yesterday. Just look at this whale… |
6 months ago, they were focused on earning yield by providing liquidity. Today, they barely provide any liquidity and instead, stake ETH on Lido to earn yield. |
It’s good to stay on your toes and try new things out. |
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15 months ago… |
Wallet balance: $22M. Main trading strategy: farm yield on protocols like Frax, Convex, and Liquity. Main blockchains used: 88% of assets were on Ethereum, 11% on Arbitrum, and 1% on Optimism.
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Fast forward to today… |
Wallet balance: $23.1M. Main trading strategy: farm yield on protocols like Frax, Curve, and Convex (78% of their assets are on 1 of those 3 protocols). Main blockchains used: 96% of assets are on Ethereum, 2% on Optimism, and 1% on Arbitrum.
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The takeaway: Farming yield is often viewed as a “conservative” strategy (at least compared to trading sh*tcoins and leverage trading)... |
… but this whale was able to make $1M+ from not doing much. |
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Btw, this strategy worked well because this whale had a sh*tton of money, but 5% returns might not be that appealing for investors trying “to make it.” |
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15 months ago: |
Wallet balance: $25.4M. Main trading strategy: farm yield on protocols like Convex and Aura Finance. Main blockchains used: 55% of assets on Ethereum, 22% on Avalance, 16% on Arbitrum, and 4% on BNB.
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Fast forward to today… |
Wallet balance: $29.2M. Main trading strategy: pretty diverse… they’re lending/borrowing funds on Spark, staking on Convex, and farming yield on Magpie XYZ and Prisma Finance. Main blockchains used: 57% on Ethereum, 34% on Arbitrum, 4% on Avalanche, and 3% on BNB Chain.
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The takeaway: There are A LOT more things you can do on-chain than 15 months ago… and this whale is taking full advantage of it. |
When we last looked at this wallet, they were invested in battle-tested protocols like Convex and Aura Finance. |
Now, the whale has gone “degen mode” and is using a lot of new protocols (mostly ones that are tokenless, in hopes that one day they’ll launch a token and they can get an airdrop). |
It’s an interesting strategy. We’ll check back in another few months to see how it plays out. |
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THIS SPA IS MINING BITCOIN |
Check it out. This spa in New York is mining Bitcoin to heat its pools… |
Bathhouse Spa needs a lot of energy to heat its steam rooms, pools, and saunas. So, the owner decided to do something new: he set up a Bitcoin mining rig. The spa uses something called “submersion cooling” to mine Bitcoin (aka the mining rig is submerged in a pool of mineral oil). The mineral oil keeps the mining rig cool, while the heat created from mining is used to heat the pools, saunas, and steam rooms.
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Not only does Bathhouse Spa generate all the heat it needs from this, but it also gets Bitcoin as a reward for mining. In total, the owner says its rig mines ~1 BTC per year. |
Click on the video below to see a live tour of the spa and how it all works! |
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BITE-SIZED COOKIES 🍪 |
Coinbase Wallet is making sending money as easy as sending a text. Users can now send money to friends and family through links, leading to easy onboarding for new crypto users. Available now on iOS, Android, and as a browser extension on Chrome and Brave.* |
Solana is now one of the top 5 cryptocurrencies by market cap. It flipped XRP yesterday to enter the Mt. Rushmore of Crypto. |
Ledger announced it will refund all users affected by last week’s exploit. The hardware wallet maker says it will also “enact changes to transaction signing processes.” |
Bitcoin options open interest on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) reached an all-time high. In the past 24 hours, options open interest on CME bitcoin futures contracts has reached almost $2 billion in outstanding contracts. |
Trezor added support for Solana and Solana Program Library (SPL) tokens. The hardware wallet manufacturer now supports over 8,000 tokens. |
Immutable launched a new “Passport” tool to increase interoperability in web3 games. The tool allows players to use identities and assets across multiple platforms. |
*This is sponsored content |
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MILKY MEMES 🤣 |
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ROADER REVIEW OF THE DAY |
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VITALIK PIC OF THE DAY |
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| need shades to block out that SOL |  | | | Dec 21, 2023 | | |  | | | 0 Likes 0 Retweets 0 Replies |
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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. |
