Milk Road: a newsletter with memes, a mascot, and a parent company that runs several other crypto sites.
We're continuing our Crypto News Platforms series with Milk Road, launched by Shaan Puri and Ben Levy in February 2022, growing to 250,000 subscribers in 10 months before selling to Bitfo, a crypto media company, later that same year. Real, disclosed genuine strength: a transparently-disclosed acquisition history with named buyers and sellers on both sides, and a genuinely accessible, low-friction format. What we don't think should be set aside: current owner Bitfo also operates several other crypto-price-tracking and gaming-adjacent sites (EthereumPrice.org, BitcoinPrice.com, PlaytoEarn.online), and we found no dedicated, disclosed editorial-independence policy comparable to several other outlets in this series. We weighted all of it below.
Our take, up front: Milk Road is a daily crypto newsletter and website launched in February 2022 by Shaan Puri, a serial entrepreneur and co-host of the "My First Million" podcast, and Ben Levy, applying a "Morning Brew"-style casual, personality-driven format to crypto news. Real, disclosed genuinely rapid growth: from zero to 250,000+ subscribers in ten months, driven substantially by Puri's existing audience and a disclosed $180,750 Facebook advertising spend, alongside a distinctive, publicly disclosed marketing tactic in which the company invested $1,000,000 of its own funds into a public crypto wallet to address a "cold start" audience problem. Real, disclosed acquisition, transparently documented with named parties: Milk Road sold to Bitfo, a crypto media company, in December 2022, for an undisclosed but estimated eight-figure sum, including equity in Bitfo; named Bitfo co-founders Kendall Saville and Mike Wittmeyer completed the purchase, Puri joined Bitfo's board, and Levy continued running the newsletter for a transition period. Real, disclosed current ownership detail we want to flag directly: Bitfo describes itself as "a media company that operates several cryptocurrency websites," including EthereumPrice.org, BitcoinPrice.com, and PlaytoEarn.online, a real, disclosed portfolio structure that could create cross-promotional incentives across its properties. Real, disclosed current authorship transition: as of 2025, Milk Road is written by staff writers Diego Salinas and Matt Pearlstein rather than its original founders, maintaining the established "voice" as a real, disclosed operational continuity practice. Real, disclosed deliberately entertainment-first editorial tone: recurring segments include "Milkbusters," "Quick Bites," a daily meme, and a Vitalik Buterin "Pic of the Day," a real, disclosed positioning distinct from the harder-news orientation of most other outlets in this series. We found no dedicated, disclosed editorial-independence policy page comparable to several other outlets in this series. We weighted all of it below.
Real, disclosed named founders (Shaan Puri, Ben Levy) with well-known, credible entrepreneurial backgrounds. Real, disclosed current ownership by Bitfo, a media company that itself operates several other crypto-price-tracking and gaming-adjacent websites (EthereumPrice.org, BitcoinPrice.com, PlaytoEarn.online), a real, disclosed portfolio structure creating potential cross-promotional incentives. Real, disclosed self-funded promotional tactic: Milk Road publicly invested $1,000,000 of its own funds into a public crypto wallet as a growth stunt, transparently disclosed as a marketing tactic rather than hidden. We found no dedicated, disclosed editorial-independence policy page comparable to several other outlets in this series.
Pros
- Named founders and named acquisition parties are disclosed and independently corroborated
- The self-funded crypto wallet promotional tactic was publicly disclosed rather than hidden
Cons
- Parent company Bitfo operates several other crypto-adjacent sites, a real cross-promotion incentive
- No dedicated editorial-independence or disclosure policy page was found
Real, disclosed genuine longevity and scale: continuous operation since 2022, growing to 330,000+ subscribers by 2025, with industry-leading engagement metrics (40%+ open rates) cited in case studies. What tempers this: the outlet's own self-description emphasizes entertainment and personality ("memes," "Milkbusters," a mascot) over investigative rigor, and we found no dedicated corrections policy or major independent scoop to weigh directly.
Pros
- Genuinely high, disclosed engagement metrics reflect real, sustained reader attention
Cons
- An entertainment-first editorial positioning limits emphasis on investigative accuracy
- No dedicated, disclosed corrections process was found
Real, disclosed acquisition history: sold to Bitfo in December 2022, with named buyers (Kendall Saville, Mike Wittmeyer) and named founders retaining board/operating roles for a transition period. Real, disclosed current authorship transition: written by new, named staff writers (Diego Salinas, Matt Pearlstein) as of 2025, rather than the original founders.
Pros
- The 2022 acquisition is disclosed with named buyers and sellers on both sides
- The current authorship transition to named staff writers is openly documented
Cons
- Limited disclosed detail on Bitfo's own broader ownership or financial structure was found
Real, disclosed genuine scale: 330,000+ subscribers as of 2025, a full website with resource guides alongside the daily newsletter, and diversified content segments (news, memes, education).
Pros
- A genuinely large, disclosed subscriber base sustained over multiple years
- Resource guides and educational segments extend beyond a bare news digest
Cons
- An entertainment-first orientation limits depth of original investigative reporting
Real, disclosed genuinely accessible, free daily newsletter and website content, explicitly designed to be read in five minutes.
Pros
- A deliberately fast, five-minute daily format lowers the barrier to regular reading
Cons
- The casual, meme-heavy format may not suit readers wanting denser technical detail
Real, disclosed diversified advertising revenue, explicitly touted in case studies as not dependent on a single sponsor. What tempers this: the parent company's (Bitfo) own portfolio of other crypto-adjacent sites creates a real, disclosed structural incentive for cross-promotion we couldn't fully evaluate.
Pros
- Advertising revenue is diversified across multiple sponsors rather than one dependency
Cons
- Bitfo's own portfolio of crypto-adjacent sites creates a real, disclosed cross-promotion incentive
Real, disclosed distinctive additional content: resource guides, a recurring "Pic of the Day," and daily engagement features (polls, memes) that extend beyond a standard news digest.
Pros
- Resource guides and recurring engagement features add genuine variety beyond bare news
Cons
- These extras remain entertainment-oriented rather than data or research tools
Read it for what it is, a fast, fun digest, and cross-check anything consequential elsewhere.
Given the entertainment-first format and the parent company's own crypto-adjacent site portfolio, we'd treat Milk Road as a genuinely enjoyable daily overview rather than a primary source for anything you're about to act on financially.
An honestly-told growth story that we don't think was ever really about journalism.
We want to be fair to what Milk Road actually is, because it isn't hiding what it is. Two entrepreneurs built a fun, low-friction crypto digest, grew it fast using paid ads and an existing audience, and sold it for a lot of money in under a year. Every part of that story is publicly told, including the acquisition terms, the buyers' names, and even a slightly wild $1 million marketing stunt where the company put its own cash into a public wallet. We appreciate that kind of openness. What we can't get past is that this was built, explicitly and successfully, as a business to be sold, not a newsroom to be trusted, and it's now owned by a company that runs several other crypto-adjacent sites alongside it. That's a very different origin story than a journalist who left a mainstream outlet because she wanted to cover this space seriously. Neither approach is inherently wrong. But we think readers should know which one they're getting, and Milk Road, to its credit, doesn't really pretend otherwise.
The scorecard above is deliberately general. Whether Milk Road is right for you depends heavily on which of these you already are.
The reader who wants a fast, entertaining daily crypto overview and doesn't need investigative depth
This is exactly where Milk Road's real, disclosed low-friction, five-minute format delivers genuine, distinctive value.
The reader who cross-checks anything financially consequential against a more rigorous, investigative source
Given the real, disclosed entertainment-first editorial positioning, this specific habit genuinely matters here.
The reader interested in Milk Road's resource guides as a beginner-friendly supplementary tool
This is a real, disclosed, genuinely accessible entry point worth evaluating on its own separate merits.
Anyone treating Milk Road as a primary source for serious investment research or investigative reporting
A real, disclosed entertainment-first orientation and a parent company with its own crypto-adjacent sites make this a poor fit for that use.
The scorecard covers the headline judgment calls. These four tables cover the specifics we didn't want to bury in prose; the growth-to-acquisition timeline, the current parent company examined, the editorial tone documented, and how Milk Road compares to the rest of this series.
The growth-to-acquisition timeline
| Date | What happened |
|---|---|
| Feb 2022 | Shaan Puri and Ben Levy launch Milk Road with zero subscribers |
| Month 6 | 100,000+ subscribers and a $1M annual revenue run-rate, aided by a disclosed $180,750 Facebook ad spend |
| Month 10 / Dec 2022 | 250,000+ subscribers; sold to Bitfo for an undisclosed, estimated eight-figure sum plus Bitfo equity |
| 2025 | 330,000+ subscribers; written by staff writers Diego Salinas and Matt Pearlstein |
We're presenting the full growth-to-sale arc because we think the speed of the exit, ten months from launch to acquisition, is itself relevant context for how the brand was built and for whom.
The current parent company, examined
| What we found | |
|---|---|
| Parent | Bitfo, "a media company that operates several cryptocurrency websites" |
| Other Bitfo properties | EthereumPrice.org, BitcoinPrice.com, PlaytoEarn.online |
| Named Bitfo leadership | Co-founders Kendall Saville and Mike Wittmeyer |
| Why this matters | A portfolio structure spanning price-tracking and gaming-adjacent sites creates a real, disclosed cross-promotion incentive |
We found this detail through Milk Road's own acquisition coverage and Bitfo's public description of itself, not a hidden or hard-to-find fact, but one worth stating plainly.
The editorial tone, documented
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Milkbusters | A recurring segment "busting crypto-myths and misconceptions on the daily" |
| Quick Bites | Top daily news headlines in condensed form |
| Meme of the Day / Pic of the Day | A daily meme and a recurring Vitalik Buterin image feature |
| The Milk Man | A branded mascot leading readers through each day's email |
We're cataloging these features directly because we think the entertainment-first format is a genuine, disclosed editorial choice worth naming plainly, not a criticism to soften.
Milk Road vs. the rest of this series
| Milk Road | CoinDesk | The Block | Decrypt | Bankless | U.Today | Bitcoin Magazine | CoinGape | Blockworks | Coin Bureau | The Defiant | BeInCrypto | Cointelegraph | CryptoSlate | Crypto Briefing | Bitcoinist | Messari | Protos | Unchained | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Core disclosed issue | Parent company's portfolio of crypto-adjacent sites; no editorial-independence policy found | Owner-ordered article removal (2024) | CEO's secret $43M in loans (2021-2022) | Sponsor-branded rewards; client-services arm | Venture arm's direct token holdings | Blended promotional content, no clear policy | Media, venture fund, and treasury company unified under one CEO | B2B authority-building adjacency; thin ownership detail | Editable podcast interviews; pay-to-speak conferences | Category-standard affiliate-link monetization | Current business-sustainability pressure | Unverified "ad-free" claim; PR-sourced reviews | False, market-moving ETF tweet (2023) | Disclosed AI use; gambling-adjacent reviews | % -of-investment fee; undisclosed ownership; generic content | Neutral third-party rating; thin current ownership detail | Founder's 2024 conduct crisis; new owner's own conflicts | Unresolved funding transparency; founder's personal crypto ties | Self-disclosed (not independently verified) ownership |
| Our score | 51.0/100 | 50.0/100 | 51.75/100 | 63.0/100 | 45.25/100 | 37.75/100 | 42.75/100 | 55.75/100 | 59.25/100 | 58.75/100 | 66.0/100 | 53.75/100 | 52.25/100 | 68.5/100 | 28.75/100 | 55.0/100 | 56.75/100 | 55.5/100 | 69.75/100 |
Milk Road's mid-pack score reflects genuine credit for a transparently-disclosed acquisition history and a genuinely accessible format, tempered by an entertainment-first editorial orientation, a parent company with its own portfolio of crypto-adjacent sites, and the absence of a dedicated editorial-independence policy.
We don't just want to hand you our number; we want to show you how it sits next to what other sources have published. We're flagging directly that marketing and newsletter-industry case studies celebrate Milk Road's growth story enthusiastically, often without examining the parent company's broader crypto-site portfolio or the absence of a disclosed editorial-independence policy as directly as our methodology does.
Our score lands moderately below the aggregated industry average; that average is pulled upward by marketing-industry enthusiasm for the growth-and-exit story itself, while giving considerably less direct weight to the parent company's portfolio structure and the entertainment-first editorial positioning we found central to this review.
| Source | Score | Type |
|---|
Scores compiled by our editorial team from publicly available reviews as of August 2026. "Editorial estimate" means the outlet didn't publish a single numeric score, so we converted their published verdict and sentiment into a comparable 100-point figure. Verify current figures directly with each source before citing them elsewhere.
Shaan Puri, a serial entrepreneur and co-host of the "My First Million" podcast, and Ben Levy launched Milk Road in February 2022.
Bitfo, a crypto media company, acquired Milk Road in December 2022 for an undisclosed, estimated eight-figure sum. Bitfo also operates EthereumPrice.org, BitcoinPrice.com, and PlaytoEarn.online.
No. Milk Road was acquired by Bitfo, a crypto media company, in December 2022. We could not find any connection to Robinhood in our research.
As of 2025, staff writers Diego Salinas and Matt Pearlstein write the newsletter, maintaining the voice established by original founders Shaan Puri and Ben Levy.
From zero to 250,000+ subscribers in ten months, aided by Shaan Puri's existing audience and a disclosed $180,750 Facebook advertising spend, before selling to Bitfo.
Milk Road publicly invested $1,000,000 of its own funds into a public crypto wallet as a marketing tactic to address a "cold start" audience-building problem, a transparently disclosed promotional move rather than a hidden trading position.
We did not find a dedicated, disclosed editorial-independence or conflict-of-interest policy page comparable to several other outlets in this series.
Yes. The daily newsletter and website content are free, funded through advertising.
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