GM. This is Milk Road, the crypto newsletter that's like a decoder ring for market moves.

​Here’s what we’ve got for you today:

Securitize is the platform institutions trust to tokenize their assets onchain. See what nine years of regulated tokenization looks like.

DID HYPERLIQUID KILL SOLANA? 💀

Everyone thinks Hyperliquid killed Solana.

(But those people are watching the price, not the chain.)

Because even though SOL is down ~73% from its all-time high, its actual usage just hit the highest levels in its history.

And that difference makes up the trade.

The call the market made this year: If an app-specific chain (like Hyperliquid, which runs a derivatives exchange) can out-earn a general-purpose blockchain (like Solana), then the general-purpose one must be worth less.

And back in May, the app-specific one won a round.

Hyperliquid out-earned Solana on weekly fees, $12.6M to $11.8M, and passed it in fully diluted value. So the market repriced SOL like the business was rolling over:

But Solana is having its busiest year ever...

Let’s start with the usage:

What actually left Solana was the speculation, the leverage, and the rich multiple.

The usage stayed (and grew).

Next, let’s go one layer down - into the plumbing…

DID HYPERLIQUID KILL SOLANA? (P2) 💀

Spot SOL ETFs are live and already hold north of $1B…

Market cap is back above ~$45B…

There are CME futures, prime-broker desks taking SOL as collateral, and Visa & Stripe settling real payments on the chain…

That's the kind of institutional base a two-year-old derivatives venue (like Hyperliquid) can't spin up on command.

Then there's the AI play…

AI agents are about to start paying each other (for API calls, for compute, for data) in tiny stablecoin payments that fire in real time.

The chain that wins that flow is the one built for small, fast, cheap transactions - that’s Solana (and it's a demand wave Hyperliquid isn't even in the gunning for).

That said - there's still real risk here...

An app-specific chain out-earning a general-purpose one is a real signal that the ranks are starting to shift (that May crossover wasn't a fluke).

But these two are turning into different bets.

Hyperliquid is a concentrated bet on derivatives, while Solana is the broad rail - think payments, consumer apps, institutions, agents, and the big winner of late: real-world asset tokenization. 👇

Point is: both chains can win. What that fee crossover repriced was Solana's slice of derivatives - not its payments business, and definitely not its AI agent play.

I’m (personally) still long SOL - and so are our in-house big brains John (PRO crypto analyst) and Vincent (PRO AI analyst).

And not just ‘cause we all bought it ages ago - Vincent picked it up back in March on the agent-payments thesis, and has sat through the chop since. 

Usage this strong doesn't stay disconnected from price forever. 

We just have to be patient.

BITE-SIZED COOKIES FOR THE ROAD 🍪

If you hold HOOD, read this. Robinhood has grown into an all-in-one platform for stocks, crypto, IRAs, prediction markets, credit cards and advanced trading tools.

Tom Lee: ETH today is Amazon in 2003 - stuck in a range, while the real platform shift brews underneath.

Lyn Alden: Software stocks have been getting crushed and the repricing may not be over yet...

Novogratz: Even Texas is turning on data centers. Governor Abbott and the lieutenant governor both said "we're not necessarily 'pro data center' anymore."

Wanna use your Bitcoin without selling it? Peoples Reserve goes beyond basic crypto lending with borrowing, mortgage, yield, swap, and spending tools.

See what nine years of regulated tokenization looks like.

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