Ryan Nauman hosts Zephyr’s Adjusted for Risk podcast with Mike Willis, CEO and co-founder of Cyber Hornet ETFs, discussing why consistently beating the market is difficult and how advisors can add value through asset allocation, discipline, and client coaching. Willis shares his background from wirehouses to launching an RIA and creating investment products to make his strategies accessible to smaller investors, including why he shifted to using the S&P 500 as a portfolio backbone after underperforming in 2013–2014. He explains Cyber Hornet’s 75/25 approach—75% S&P 500 with a 25% crypto “kicker” (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, or XRP) rebalanced monthly—to buffer volatility while gaining crypto exposure, and discusses crypto “winter,” technical patterns, scarcity fundamentals, regulatory clarity, and the still-low adoption of crypto by financial advisors.
Zephyr can help financial advisors create modern diversified portfolios. Learn more here.
Learn more about Cyber Hornet ETFs here.
00:00 Podcast Kickoff
01:30 Meet Mike Willis
02:26 Advisor Value Beyond Alpha
03:55 Why Build a Fund Platform
05:33 From Active to Index Core
06:33 Adding a Crypto Kicker
08:51 The Index Ticker Story
14:09 Why Crypto Beats Options
15:26 Bitcoin Adoption Waves
18:38 Crypto Winter Explained
24:08 What Ends the Downturn
27:23 Advisor Adoption Outlook
29:32 Wrap Up and Resources
Connect with Ryan Nauman:
Go!
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Ryan Nauman Market Strategist Zephyr:
Welcome everyone to Zephyr's Adjusted
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for Risk podcast from the shores of
Lake Tahoe I am Ryan Nauman the market
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strategist here at Zephyr Markets are
as e as efficient as ever which makes
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it hard to consistently beat the market
my next guest is an industry expert who
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has a very interesting investment thesis
in regards to beating the market which
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includes an asset class that can be
somewhat polarizing But first this episode
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is sponsored by the award-winning Zephyr
which helps investment professionals
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make more informed investment decisions
on behalf of their clients All right
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enough from me Let's go ahead and move
on to the star of the show I'd like to
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give a very warm welcome to Mike Willis
Mike is the CEO and co-founder of Cyber
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Hornet ETFs Mike thank you so much for
coming on the show It's an honor to
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have you I'm really excited about this
conversation and I think our audience is
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gonna learn a lot It's gonna be a good
one Where can you please tell us a little
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bit more about yourself in Cyber Hornet
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Mike Willis CEO & Co-Founder Cyber Hornet ETFs:
Sure.
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Thanks Ryan for letting me be here.
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I started out trading my way through
grad school, got my MBA in finance
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out at Cal Poly in California.
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Went to work initially for Smith Barney
Pain, Weber, UBS as a senior Vice
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President of investments at UBS before
I went independent, started my own RIA
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and then eventually my own Rick, which
is a registered investment company
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to enable mutual fund creation and.
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You know, along the way the goal
was always to beat the s and p 500.
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It was, you know, and, and
before that it was, you know, to
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find the holy grail of trading.
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I've been trading for 30 years and.
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I like to say I've been in Trad five
for 30 years in Defi for seven years.
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I became a Bitcoin seven years
ago, and I think it's a fun blend
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to have and, and that of course is
the the origin of the ETF company.
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But walking back a little bit, we.
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We set out to beat the market
and realized along the way that
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the market was already winning.
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And there are other ways that advisors
can create value for their, their
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clients that we think is even better
than just trading their portfolios.
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But the asset allocations obviously
play a big role in the performance.
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The quarterly reviews, the keeping
their, their clients on track with their.
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Their investment plans because
really that's, I think that's really
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the, the best thing you can do.
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Put the math in their favor with the, the
different asset allocations you're using,
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and then let compounding of interest and
just your, your discipline in keeping
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them focused on their, their investment
plan and not, not deviating from it,
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is I think how an advisor can bring
the most value to their, their clients.
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Ryan: Mike you're exactly correct We
focus here at Zephyr a lot about that
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Ryan Nauman Market Strategist Zephyr:
asset allocation and how important
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is studies show that 90 or 95 of the
variation in a portfolio's return
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depends on the asset allocation
right So it's very important
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Ryan: I love that you brought that
up Also let's go back to you your you
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and the creation of Cyber Hornet ETFs
What at what point when you had your
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own were you like All right let's
go ahead and I'm gonna create my own
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Rick now all right My own platform
for investment management and create
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Mike Willis: Yeah, that
was a fun evolution.
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What happened?
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I had my account minimum
was a million dollars.
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After I left the wirehouses, I only
took 37 clients with me so that you
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know, I could focus on them and.
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I, you know, I, I work in a, a white
collar world, but really live in a, in
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a blue collar world, my friends are blue
collar and they'd come up and say, Hey, I
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have 25,000, or I have $50,000 to invest.
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You know, what should I do?
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Can you help me?
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And it was kind of difficult, you know,
telling 'em they didn't meet my minimum
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and, and so I couldn't work with them.
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And so, as I.
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As I progressed, I realized it just
wasn't, my answers weren't setting
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well with me, and so I decided I really
wanted what I was doing to be available.
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The, the asset management I was doing
to be available to, you know, anyone
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on, on down to a thousand dollars.
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So.
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That was the, the origin of
going down the mutual fund path.
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And actually from a compliance
standpoint, there were some benefits
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because advisors know how much
compliance is now required to, to
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go from one mutual fund to the next.
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And there were some efficiencies for
being in a, in a, in a mutual fund.
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Where you could trade on the inside and,
and if you can get around the barriers
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of entry of prospectuses and SEC filings
and, you know, all the other things.
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It, it made it, it made, it made
it, we were able to offer our
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strategies to anyone, and that
was, that was initially the.
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The catalyst for going in that direction.
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But I can tell you that also in
2013, we, we were beating, we
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beat the s and p for seven years,
and then in 2013 we got buried.
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The s and p was up over 30%.
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We were up about half that for
our clients and really recognize
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that here, you know, we had.
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I'd invested, you know, thousands of
hours into our portfolios and here, you
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know, the cheap, one of the cheapest
products in the market beat us handily
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and then the next year as well.
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So we, we shifted at that point and
realized that we wanted to use the
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s and p 500 as the backbone and add
value to our clients in other areas,
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because that was where we could make
the most significant impact for them.
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And we went out, we found, we got the.
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Index ticker symbol, which
hadn't been picked up yet.
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We got the s and p 500 license so that we
could offer that to the public and then.
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The rest is kind of history.
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When crypto hit the market and we realized
that Wall Street was in transition to
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tokenization and, and decentralization and
blockchain and being a new asset class,
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we got excited about that and wanted
to incorporate that incorporated into
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the, you know, the champion of Tradify,
which we consider the s and p 500 index.
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We just felt like it needed a
crypto kicker to it to kind of
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bring it into the 21st century.
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And so we, we added that
25% kicker of crypto.
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But also on the flip side, we think
it's crazy to jump in a hundred
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percent into crypto because most people
can't handle that kind of volatility.
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Investors we found can handle about
30, down 30%, but, but south of that,
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they start really getting nervous and
burning up the advisor's phone calls.
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And, and down 50 it's, they're probably
out and down 60 might be a lawsuit.
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So we, we, we came up with the 75 25
blended strategy to give advisors a way
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to kind of buffer that volatility of the
new asset class and keep their, their
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clients in this crypto space for the
long term, which we think we're still
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early and there's a lot of upside left.
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Ryan: Yeah that's fantastic Mike And
we're gonna touch on a lot of that here
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shortly but you're exactly right Mark like
you said in 2013 for it's really hard to
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beat the markets whether especially now
with it being so highly concentrated if
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you're underweight those know for a while
to make seven names or mega tech or AI
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you're gonna underperform then you have
technology technologies making markets
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more efficient So it's really hard to
beat the market like you said even back
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then probably harder now So why do you
feel you just mentioned that one of
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your strategies was to add a kicker to
the S&P 500 being crypto being Bitcoin
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Why do you feel adding crypto to the
S&P 500 index gives investors the best
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opportunity to beat the market number
one And number two how surprised were you
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that the index ticker was still available
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Mike Willis: Yeah, I.
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I wanna hit that one first.
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So when I phoned, I phoned in and,
and asked the NASDAQ for INDE.
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And of course, all all
mutual funds end in X.
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And so I asked if it was
available and they said yes.
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And I said, okay, I'd like to reserve it.
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And I, I think I, I think I.
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I, I think I, I led on that it was, I
was amazed that it was still available
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and the person at the other end was
like, you know, what does it even mean?
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Why would this be important?
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And you know, we only have $10
trillion in the index fund space
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and spend the hottest, you know,
the fastest growing space on Wall
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Street for probably 25 years.
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So, of course it was exciting to be to
have that ticker symbol still there.
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And, you know, the, the, the
tradify companies of, you know,
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Vanguard wanted their tickets to
start with V and, and on and on.
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Infidelity F of course.
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So they kind of got caught up in
that, I think, and they didn't
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realize, you know, like an ETF.
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I think those companies realized early
on that ticker symbols were important,
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but from a mutual fund standpoint, I
think they just didn't think it was.
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And I think that's where the, the
opportunity was for us to jump on it.
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And at some point here.
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The rest of our products are ETFs,
but the one, our index s and p
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500 portfolio is a mutual fund.
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And when, at some point in the future
when there's five letter tickers
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available in the ETF space, we'll, we,
we might consider converting that at that
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point, but, so we were super excited.
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I remember telling my dad at
the time, I said, Hey, we just
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made a million dollars today.
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And he goes, what happened?
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Tell me what happened.
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Oh, no, he was in my car.
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I actually came outta, I
FedExed it to the nasdaq.
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Our payment for it.
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And I got back in the car and I go,
well, that FedEx worth a million dollars.
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And he goes, what was it?
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And so I told him, and so yeah, I think,
and, and to, to a vanguard, I mean,
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it's worth a hundred million dollars.
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I mean, just think if they slapped
that ticker on their total stock
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market index fund that has $1.7
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trillion in its V-F-I-A-I-X or some,
some ticker, nobody's gonna remember.
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They put I-N-D-E-X on that and they
start, they, they brand it as, you know,
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index, having being a household name,
you know, you're now available in one,
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easy to remember, ticker introducing
index, your favorite index fund in one.
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Easy to remember particular.
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So I, I mean, I, to us we're
small, so it's not, of course
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not worth that much yet.
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But I can tell you this,
when advisors find out.
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That we have the index ticker symbol.
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They always go crazy.
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And we have, you know, index hats that
we give out to, to certain advisors
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and, and they just, they love 'em.
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So,
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Ryan: I
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Mike Willis: what was
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the, the the second question, or it
was, your first question was what?
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Ryan: No and that's perfect Mike because
I have a lot of guests on ETF providers
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on that are And they talk about how
hard it is to create a ticker And they
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realize like how important it is So it
just when I heard that's a ticker for
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your mutual fund it's that's fantastic
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Mike Willis: so important.
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It's, I mean, I've been a collector
all my life of art and different
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things, and so ticker symbols
are kind of just right up there.
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You know, if you go out to Dubai
and, and Bahrain they, ticker symbols
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are really important out there.
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In fact, like licenses on.
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Cars the one, one sold for, you
know, millions of dollars just
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because they, they really value the,
you know, the license plate and,
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and, and essentially what's on it.
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And of course, it's like ai.com
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just sold for $70 million.
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There's.
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There's literally tickers going, I call
them tickers, but they're just, you
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know, letters on license plates selling
for millions of dollars in Dubai, and
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I see it no different on Wall Street.
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You know, sticky tickers make
a difference in marketing.
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And one of the things we were able to get
with our 75 25 platform, we got triple B.
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For Bitcoin, triple E for Ethereum,
triple S for Solana and Triple X for XRP.
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So it's really easy to remember.
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And and they're all 75 25,
so they're built on a 75%
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foundation in the s and p 500.
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And then we have that crypto component
at 25% that we rebalance monthly.
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Ryan: Yeah Awesome Mike We should
probably I should probably should get
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us back on track talking about your the
strategy and beating the market but I
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love just these stories about creating
a company the tickers and what goes into
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it It's a lot of fun So going back to the
first question you just mentioned that
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at first it was very hard to beat the
market 2013 2014 you struggled beating
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the market harder now maybe than ever
to beat the market You realize that
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adding crypto and in your case 25 to
the S&P 500 gives you that kicker that
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extra juice to potentially beating the
market So why do you feel adding crypto
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to the S&P 500 500 gives investors that
best opportunity to beat the market
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versus maybe using options to produce
income or other vehicles why crypto
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Mike Willis: Yeah, I think there's a
lot of different ways you can a lot of
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different strategies you can implement
that are creative and and smart In our
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world, what we're looking at here is.
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We don't like to use leverage.
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We like to just own the position outright.
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So that, that eliminates
derivatives from our pool.
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So we're looking at, okay, what,
what, what's the grand champion of all
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indexes on, on the trad five world?
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Well, we think that's the s and p 500.
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Then from a crypto standpoint.
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There's, there's hundreds of thousands of
tokens actually out there on the market,
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so we only start paying attention to them
when the public has, when the investors
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have pushed them up into the top 10.
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And that's when we start to pay attention
to the crypto positions that we think.
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Our shareholders should
also pay attention to.
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And right at the top, of course, the grand
champion in the digital space is Bitcoin.
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And then you have Ethereum, Solana,
XRP, sers, and there's some others.
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So what we, we think blockchain
is here to stay, and we think that
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was proven over what we think.
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We call the the three waves of Bitcoin,
and the first wave into Bitcoin was
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that unregulated wave that was paved
by the pioneers and early adopters.
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And they went out and kicked, scratched,
and fought their way into the most
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crazy different, you know, digital
wallets with public and private keys
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on unregulated exchanges opening these
accounts, having nobody to call if they
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accidentally send it to the wrong place.
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But these were the pioneers
that that got Bitcoin early on.
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And then your second about a trillion
dollars came in over a 15 year period.
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Then two years ago, the SEC.
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Made Bitcoin legal in a
regulated exchange in your, your
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brokerage account through ETFs.
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And so that we, we call that the
second wave of, of into Bitcoin.
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And that, you know, set all records
with, with new asset classes for ETFs.
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And then the third wave is what
we're in now, and we think that's
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the, the institutional wave.
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And specifically to this call, the,
the 300,000 plus financial advisors
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who are gatekeepers to $30 trillion
in assets really haven't started.
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Recommending crypto yet.
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So when people say we miss Bitcoin,
we're late, we, we disagree,
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we think we're still early.
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Most advisors have no idea what the
difference between Bitcoin, Ethereum,
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Solana, XRPR, and those are the top
four cryptocurrencies on the market.
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So, you know, we're not late,
you know, we're way early here.
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And so our goal is to, we don't think
advisors need to become experts in crypto
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to incorporate it in their portfolios.
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The, the statistics are showing
20 to 30% of their clients
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are buying crypto around them.
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So this gives them a way to satisfy
that crypto demand, keep the assets
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in-house, and protect your, your
fiduciary risk by buffering it
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with a 75% s and p 500 foundation.
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Ryan: Yeah Mike that's fantastic A couple
of things that I was late to get into
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crypto I did I had a bunch of guests on
talking about Bitcoin really for the first
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few years I didn't really understand it
I'm not gonna invest in something I didn't
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understand Then I kept doing more research
It was like the impacts at Bitcoin and
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I specifically just used Bitcoin has on
the efficient frontier on the efficient
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frontier every one of those portfolios
100 portfolios had some slice of Bitcoin
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in it whether it's the most conservative
to the most aggressive it just opened my
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eyes yeah there's more benefits to it than
just price appreciation When you put it
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into a client portfolio or an investment
portfolio diversification increases that
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diversification which is so important
too going back to asset allocation that
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we talked about earlier So there's that
part And then now let's talk a little bit
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about the performance my crypto winners
upon us Bitcoin's down what as we're
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talking now 13 this year down nearly
40 from its high What's been the cause
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of this crypto winter and this pullback
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00:18:38,681 --> 00:18:41,291
Mike Willis: Yeah, I would go, the
first thing I would say is this.
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I started tracking Bitcoin was at a buck.
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I had three screens up.
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00:18:46,216 --> 00:18:50,776
I've always been at stock traders,
so it, I was curious about this new
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00:18:51,166 --> 00:18:53,806
cryptocurrency and so I watched it.
283
00:18:53,806 --> 00:18:56,176
I, I watched it go from
one to a hundred back down.
284
00:18:56,176 --> 00:18:59,976
I watched it go up to 300 and back
down up to a thousand and back down.
285
00:18:59,976 --> 00:19:04,206
And when it finally hit about 7,000,
I decided to do some my due diligence
286
00:19:04,206 --> 00:19:08,196
on it, because up until then, when my
clients ask about it, I said, well.
287
00:19:08,661 --> 00:19:11,901
If a coder can create it, then
another coder can counterfeit it.
288
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So I'm just not interested.
289
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And that kept me away.
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But once I did the deep dive and I had
committed a hundred hours to that deep
291
00:19:20,331 --> 00:19:25,881
dive, and I was only, I probably 15 hours
in, and I, I, I was just, I couldn't
292
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believe, I didn't look at it sooner.
293
00:19:27,681 --> 00:19:31,221
Because once you understand the
cryptography and some of the
294
00:19:31,221 --> 00:19:35,301
core principles of it, it, it's
mind blowing and you'll see why.
295
00:19:35,706 --> 00:19:39,906
Why crypto heads get so excited about
it and why, you know, it even gets
296
00:19:39,906 --> 00:19:41,796
religious to a lot of those guys.
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00:19:42,096 --> 00:19:47,496
But I will say this, the new the new
wave of people coming into Bitcoin
298
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really don't understand the, the
original core principles of it.
299
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The scarce digital asset.
300
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It's a, it's a bear asset.
301
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You can own no trusted third parties.
302
00:19:57,096 --> 00:19:58,176
It's peer to peer.
303
00:19:58,176 --> 00:20:01,626
I can, I can actually send you a thousand
dollars without it touching a bank.
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00:20:01,956 --> 00:20:02,406
So.
305
00:20:03,171 --> 00:20:05,361
And there's many more of
these, these principles.
306
00:20:05,361 --> 00:20:10,091
You know, it's, it's the monetary
policy is regulated by code, not
307
00:20:10,091 --> 00:20:13,421
by people, you know, changing their
minds or the fed, which we have
308
00:20:13,421 --> 00:20:15,371
no idea who they actually are.
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00:20:15,821 --> 00:20:20,641
And so there's, there's great reasons
to own crypto in your portfolio.
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00:20:20,641 --> 00:20:23,491
I think however, the
newbies coming in are.
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00:20:23,591 --> 00:20:27,281
They don't understand the core
principles, but they understand it
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00:20:27,281 --> 00:20:30,311
more as a new technology and they're
treating it like a tech stock.
313
00:20:30,311 --> 00:20:35,441
So it does trade the, the new the
new volume coming into Bitcoin
314
00:20:35,441 --> 00:20:36,911
over the last several years.
315
00:20:37,091 --> 00:20:42,971
Very different from the first wave
of Bitcoin in terms of behavior
316
00:20:42,971 --> 00:20:44,351
and reasons for coming in.
317
00:20:44,921 --> 00:20:46,901
With that said, I'll,
I'll tell you a story.
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00:20:46,901 --> 00:20:48,971
We were hiring people recently.
319
00:20:49,811 --> 00:20:54,551
One of the people we hired bought
Bitcoin actually at a penny, and
320
00:20:54,611 --> 00:20:59,321
they sold it at a dollar because they
thought the US government would shut
321
00:20:59,321 --> 00:21:02,771
it down when it got to a dollar 'cause
it would compete with the US dollar.
322
00:21:03,131 --> 00:21:04,571
So obviously that didn't happen.
323
00:21:04,691 --> 00:21:08,771
We have another person in the
office, our CTO bought it at a buck.
324
00:21:09,791 --> 00:21:11,261
Sold it at a hundred dollars.
325
00:21:11,261 --> 00:21:13,721
'cause that was a nice, you know,
they went, that's pretty good.
326
00:21:13,721 --> 00:21:14,801
That's a good return.
327
00:21:15,191 --> 00:21:19,781
So I think when Bitcoin hit a
hundred thousand dollars here.
328
00:21:20,336 --> 00:21:22,256
I think that's another
one of those numbers.
329
00:21:22,256 --> 00:21:25,916
And when it didn't hold, I mean it went
up to 1 26 and then it came back down and
330
00:21:25,916 --> 00:21:30,296
I think people got scared when it, and
when it breached under a hundred thousand
331
00:21:30,296 --> 00:21:31,316
and they were like, you know what?
332
00:21:31,676 --> 00:21:33,446
We've had a nice little run here.
333
00:21:33,656 --> 00:21:36,046
It looks like you know, this might be it.
334
00:21:36,616 --> 00:21:42,596
And so they sold out of it, but what's
also happening at the same time here.
335
00:21:43,346 --> 00:21:46,436
The technicals I think,
are important to bring up.
336
00:21:46,466 --> 00:21:51,386
And if you look at the crypto winter of
2022, and I was gonna pull up a chart for
337
00:21:51,386 --> 00:21:55,316
you, but we just didn't we just didn't
get it together for you in time, but.
338
00:21:56,186 --> 00:22:01,406
The, the head and shoulders pattern is
almost identical to the crypto winter that
339
00:22:01,406 --> 00:22:04,116
we had a couple years ago, four years ago.
340
00:22:04,116 --> 00:22:07,596
And so we're tracking it almost verbatim.
341
00:22:07,596 --> 00:22:10,836
And so from a technical standpoint,
we could churn for a while here.
342
00:22:10,836 --> 00:22:13,766
But what's coming when I
say for a while, you know.
343
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Three to nine months.
344
00:22:15,971 --> 00:22:19,311
But it is a sharper version of 2022.
345
00:22:19,311 --> 00:22:22,941
So it's very possible we're gonna get
a V recovery since it's been more of a
346
00:22:22,941 --> 00:22:25,801
V-shape and not a U-shape crypto winter.
347
00:22:26,071 --> 00:22:27,571
So we'll just have to wait and see.
348
00:22:27,961 --> 00:22:31,051
But I will say this, so technically
we could go down, breach the
349
00:22:31,051 --> 00:22:35,761
$50,000 level, even though we're
up about 30% off the bottom here.
350
00:22:36,181 --> 00:22:38,461
The recent bottom, the.
351
00:22:39,166 --> 00:22:45,076
The possibility of going back, taking
out the 50,000 stops and then, and
352
00:22:45,076 --> 00:22:48,676
then resuming the rally is very
possible from a technical standpoint.
353
00:22:49,006 --> 00:22:53,416
Fundamentally speaking though,
this, there's only 21 million coins.
354
00:22:53,446 --> 00:22:55,456
We've already mined 20 million of 'em.
355
00:22:55,456 --> 00:22:59,446
That threshold was hit about a month
ago, so there's like a million coins left
356
00:22:59,866 --> 00:23:04,146
and at some point when the music stops,
we all know how musical chairs works.
357
00:23:04,731 --> 00:23:07,001
And there's only so many chairs.
358
00:23:07,421 --> 00:23:12,551
So that's why investors who really
understand crypto and realize,
359
00:23:12,551 --> 00:23:16,421
look, this is not only a scarce,
this is, this is digital gold.
360
00:23:16,901 --> 00:23:18,461
It's a scarce digital asset.
361
00:23:18,461 --> 00:23:21,551
It, you can trans, I mean,
I've carried gold and silver.
362
00:23:21,551 --> 00:23:23,171
I've been a gold bug and a silver bug.
363
00:23:23,171 --> 00:23:25,751
And I can tell you it's difficult
to move around the world.
364
00:23:26,351 --> 00:23:29,891
And it's much easier to move a
Bitcoin than it is a bar of gold.
365
00:23:30,011 --> 00:23:31,241
I can tell you that much.
366
00:23:32,688 --> 00:23:38,098
Ryan: Yeah The the carry cost is a
lot cheaper for Bitcoin right so it's
367
00:23:38,098 --> 00:23:42,388
interesting that you brought up more
of the technical point of it cyclo like
368
00:23:42,388 --> 00:23:47,638
you said broke 100,000 120 and a very
good point that you made that maybe
369
00:23:47,638 --> 00:23:52,108
people are like All right let's take
some profits off the table and who knows
370
00:23:52,108 --> 00:23:56,878
what's next great point Mike So what
will take it to end do you think You
371
00:23:56,878 --> 00:24:03,238
said maybe it could breach 50 would that
be a point on the technical side or is
372
00:24:03,238 --> 00:24:08,476
there something more fundamental that
you think could end this crypto winner
373
00:24:09,426 --> 00:24:12,006
Mike Willis: Well, I think just
in the last month you've seen
374
00:24:12,006 --> 00:24:13,896
a lot of AI hacks in crypto.
375
00:24:13,896 --> 00:24:16,966
And so I think that stalled things
with Bitcoin jumped off the,
376
00:24:17,206 --> 00:24:19,246
the, the, the recent bottom here.
377
00:24:19,706 --> 00:24:23,936
It looks like it's off and running and it
very well could be 'cause the fundamentals
378
00:24:23,966 --> 00:24:27,656
are only getting stronger and stronger
when you have a scarce digital asset
379
00:24:27,656 --> 00:24:29,846
where you can't print more of them.
380
00:24:30,476 --> 00:24:34,916
You know, there's a reason, one of the
big reasons that, that Bitcoiners came
381
00:24:34,916 --> 00:24:37,106
about is they felt like the US dollar.
382
00:24:37,616 --> 00:24:42,476
Was because there is no limit to
how many dollars can be produced and
383
00:24:42,476 --> 00:24:44,066
they're no longer backed by gold.
384
00:24:44,726 --> 00:24:50,966
What we saw happen during COVID with
$10 trillion being printed, you know,
385
00:24:50,966 --> 00:24:53,216
burgers went from eight bucks to 20 bucks.
386
00:24:53,276 --> 00:24:58,016
And that's a problem because if you
saved, saved up your whole life and
387
00:24:58,016 --> 00:24:59,666
you had a million dollars in the bank.
388
00:25:00,266 --> 00:25:05,756
It's now 75, you know,
$750,000, you lost 25% minimum.
389
00:25:06,206 --> 00:25:10,226
And some people would say you lost a
lot more than that in purchasing power.
390
00:25:10,526 --> 00:25:15,506
So, Bitcoiners, the, the
neat thing about Bitcoin is.
391
00:25:16,211 --> 00:25:21,431
At the minimum, it's a competition to the,
the monopoly on money the, the governments
392
00:25:21,431 --> 00:25:24,081
have had for at least recent memory.
393
00:25:24,471 --> 00:25:29,931
And so at a minimum, it should help
create a more efficient and competitive
394
00:25:29,931 --> 00:25:36,991
monetary system at a maximum if all
fiat currencies throughout history
395
00:25:37,021 --> 00:25:38,701
have always, once they've gone off.
396
00:25:39,061 --> 00:25:41,281
The gold standard or
whatever was backing them.
397
00:25:41,431 --> 00:25:42,931
They've all gone to zero at some point.
398
00:25:43,261 --> 00:25:46,771
So we all talk about the great
reset, what does that look like?
399
00:25:47,061 --> 00:25:50,961
And so Bitcoin is a hedge against the
financial, current financial system
400
00:25:50,961 --> 00:25:55,531
failing, even though now it trades
like a, a tech stock at some point.
401
00:25:55,921 --> 00:26:01,051
When the core principles are understood
by the masses, it will bifurcate and
402
00:26:01,051 --> 00:26:05,721
it will not trade in, in correlation
with the stock markets, in my opinion.
403
00:26:05,871 --> 00:26:10,251
But the reason it is now is you just have
such a huge wave of people that own it.
404
00:26:10,911 --> 00:26:14,061
For other reasons, you know, not,
not for the original core reasons.
405
00:26:14,241 --> 00:26:15,951
So what would cause it to rebound?
406
00:26:16,371 --> 00:26:19,911
I think clarity in the,
the regulatory environment.
407
00:26:20,031 --> 00:26:23,721
You know, there's some, there's some
bills on Capitol Hill that could bring
408
00:26:23,721 --> 00:26:27,371
clarity that would allow institutions.
409
00:26:27,791 --> 00:26:32,831
And compliance, the compliance within
these institutions to allow people
410
00:26:32,901 --> 00:26:37,401
within the organization to, to bring
it into certain portfolios that
411
00:26:37,401 --> 00:26:38,931
right now it can't be allowed in.
412
00:26:39,411 --> 00:26:42,621
And that's happening on a, a
weekly, monthly basis every month.
413
00:26:43,331 --> 00:26:47,111
There's somebody, some new announcement
about a new bank or a new brokerage
414
00:26:47,111 --> 00:26:51,461
house that is allowing their, their
brokers or clients to own crypto.
415
00:26:51,731 --> 00:26:54,071
So the fundamentals keep getting better.
416
00:26:54,161 --> 00:26:56,621
The technicals are what they are.
417
00:26:56,621 --> 00:27:01,061
You know, this is part of a new
technology Every four years, crypto goes
418
00:27:01,061 --> 00:27:05,841
through these at least up until now,
these massive crypto, crypto winters.
419
00:27:06,171 --> 00:27:11,311
But when you go back over the last,
you know, two since inception.
420
00:27:11,506 --> 00:27:15,766
And certainly the last 10 years
crypto at least Bitcoin's been
421
00:27:15,766 --> 00:27:19,936
the, the best performing asset
class, I think across all markets.
422
00:27:21,628 --> 00:27:21,898
Ryan: Yeah
423
00:27:22,366 --> 00:27:23,686
Mike Willis: Yeah, very
good stuff there, Mike.
424
00:27:23,776 --> 00:27:28,186
So you mentioned earlier
about the adoption.
425
00:27:28,976 --> 00:27:29,126
And,
426
00:27:29,126 --> 00:27:29,486
you know
427
00:27:29,546 --> 00:27:34,736
retail, investor institutions,
retail financial advisors, investors.
428
00:27:35,396 --> 00:27:40,826
Do you feel that financial advisors in the
retail investor space has fully adopted
429
00:27:40,826 --> 00:27:43,646
or accepted crypto as an asset class?
430
00:27:43,796 --> 00:27:44,996
Came an asset class
431
00:27:45,098 --> 00:27:46,148
Over a year ago.
432
00:27:46,268 --> 00:27:48,608
Do you think they fully
accepting crypto yet or no?
433
00:27:49,658 --> 00:27:51,188
Retail, yes.
434
00:27:52,163 --> 00:27:54,293
Advisors, definitely not.
435
00:27:54,293 --> 00:27:59,573
We're finding maybe 5% of advisors are
incorporating into their portfolio so far.
436
00:27:59,573 --> 00:28:01,583
So 95% are not.
437
00:28:02,273 --> 00:28:06,523
And that's exciting to us because,
you know, advisors are gatekeepers
438
00:28:06,523 --> 00:28:08,053
to 30 trillion in assets.
439
00:28:08,053 --> 00:28:12,283
So that's gonna unlock at
some point because, you know.
440
00:28:12,838 --> 00:28:18,558
BlackRock was against Bitcoin for,
you know, over 10 years before and,
441
00:28:18,558 --> 00:28:22,818
and, and adamantly and so were some
of the other large institutions.
442
00:28:22,998 --> 00:28:24,378
I think Goldman Sachs.
443
00:28:24,783 --> 00:28:28,293
You know, called it Tulip Mania, you
know, and now they just announced a
444
00:28:28,293 --> 00:28:31,983
month ago that they're, they're coming
out with their own Bitcoin, ETF.
445
00:28:32,283 --> 00:28:36,903
So we're going through that, that
normal cycle that new technologies go
446
00:28:36,903 --> 00:28:41,403
through, where you throw mud at them
to begin with, or fud or say, you know,
447
00:28:41,403 --> 00:28:44,733
if you remember what the internet,
oh, that's just for pornography
448
00:28:44,733 --> 00:28:45,903
and you know, all this other stuff.
449
00:28:45,903 --> 00:28:48,843
And then we found out there
was a lot, a lot of cool things
450
00:28:48,843 --> 00:28:49,923
you could do with the internet.
451
00:28:49,923 --> 00:28:51,633
And it wasn't just criminal activities.
452
00:28:51,813 --> 00:28:53,043
Same thing with, with.
453
00:28:53,328 --> 00:28:57,378
Cryptocurrencies that, you know, initially
they just said it's criminal activities,
454
00:28:57,798 --> 00:29:01,608
but turns out there's a lot of cool
things you can do with cryptocurrency
455
00:29:01,608 --> 00:29:04,138
that goes way beyond some of that stuff.
456
00:29:04,258 --> 00:29:07,198
And now that the institutions are
adopting it, the advisors have
457
00:29:07,198 --> 00:29:11,008
to look at it and they all, they
will in our opinion, because when
458
00:29:11,008 --> 00:29:15,148
BlackRock says it's an asset class,
fidelity says it's an AC asset class.
459
00:29:15,148 --> 00:29:16,678
Goldman says it's an asset class.
460
00:29:16,678 --> 00:29:20,128
Morgan Stanley just announced they're
coming out with their own Bitcoin, ETF.
461
00:29:20,638 --> 00:29:21,358
These are.
462
00:29:21,553 --> 00:29:22,483
This is it.
463
00:29:22,483 --> 00:29:28,723
It will, it will permeate into the advisor
space and that $30 trillion will unlock.
464
00:29:28,723 --> 00:29:30,853
And that's another reason
we think we're still early.
465
00:29:32,490 --> 00:29:37,680
Ryan: Awesome Mike Fantastic Thank you
so much for coming on It's an honor to
466
00:29:37,680 --> 00:29:42,600
have you on really fun conversation I
learned a lot a lot of stuff to unpack
467
00:29:42,600 --> 00:29:46,670
here I'm probably gonna go back and watch
this a couple different times to fully
468
00:29:46,670 --> 00:29:51,500
get it all So thank you so much Mike
for coming on the show and sharing such
469
00:29:51,500 --> 00:29:57,509
great insight Where can our audience get
more information about CyberHornet ETFs
470
00:29:58,003 --> 00:29:59,713
Mike Willis: Cyber Hornet etfs.com
471
00:29:59,713 --> 00:30:00,613
is our website.
472
00:30:00,613 --> 00:30:01,003
Ryan: Awesome
473
00:30:01,006 --> 00:30:02,246
Mike Willis: Mike, thank you so much.
474
00:30:02,263 --> 00:30:05,443
Ryan: much I'll include those
links in the show notes as well
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00:30:05,621 --> 00:30:06,761
Mike Willis: So everyone can,
476
00:30:06,913 --> 00:30:07,153
Ryan: get
477
00:30:07,211 --> 00:30:08,081
Mike Willis: access to those.
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00:30:08,083 --> 00:30:08,953
Ryan: resources
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00:30:09,521 --> 00:30:10,256
Mike Willis: Thank you everyone.
480
00:30:10,393 --> 00:30:14,743
Ryan: listening to this episode of
Zephyr's Adjusted for Risk Podcast You
481
00:30:14,743 --> 00:30:19,423
can watch all of our other podcasts
on the Zephyr YouTube channel as well
482
00:30:19,423 --> 00:30:24,223
as on Spotify and wherever else you
get your podcasts Thank you very much
483
00:30:24,223 --> 00:30:25,693
and have a great rest of your week
484
00:30:25,986 --> 00:30:26,556
Mike Willis: Thank you, Ryan.