You Can't Afford Me
You Can't Afford Me
The Future of Finance and Equality in the Cryptocurrency Landscape with Al
Unlock the mysteries of cryptocurrency and its profound impact on the world as we sit down with crypto guru Al from Bitwise Asset Management. Discover how Bitcoin has evolved from its infamous origins to become a staple in the modern investor's portfolio. This electrifying conversation dives into the practicalities of investing in digital assets, the significant shift in wealth management, and the transformative effects of cryptocurrency technology on everything from global finance to the arts.
From the bustling streets of Staten Island to the high-stakes world of Wall Street, Al shares his extraordinary journey and offers a wealth of knowledge for both seasoned investors and those new to the cryptocurrency scene. Learn about the intricacies of Bitcoin ATMs, the rise of stable coins like tether and USDC, and the critical role of financial literacy in building and sustaining generational wealth. Our episode is a treasure trove of insights, shedding light on the complex but exciting landscape of digital currencies.
Amidst the technical discussions, we keep our focus on community empowerment, particularly among people of color, emphasizing the importance of reinvesting knowledge and resources to nurture economic growth. Bitwise Investments and platforms like Mr. Prenuer are breaking barriers, making financial advisory and entrepreneurial resources accessible to all. Join us for an episode that not only educates but inspires action towards a more equitable and financially savvy future.
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Sam:Hey guys, thanks for joining us on another episode of the you Can't Afford Me podcast. Now, I'm going to admit this is going to be a selfish interview for me, all right. I've been extremely interested in Bitcoin. If you're like me, it's been tearing up your timeline. You're seeing all this info about Bitcoin, how the next multimillionaires are going to come out from this generation, and today we got the guy to talk about Bitcoin, cryptocurrency. Today we got Al Al. How are you doing today, buddy? I?
Al:am good, I'm good. Definitely want to do some disclosures really quickly, all right.
Sam:So, since he's from the financial sector, we have to get this out the way to make sure you guys understand and he doesn't get any trouble for anything that we're saying here. So go ahead and read that disclosure.
Al:Hello everyone. My name is Al Kabia, but I just go by Al, like Sam said. Some quick disclosures for compliance purposes. I am an employee at Bitwise Asset Management. All views expressed during this podcast are solely my opinion and don't reflect the opinions of Bitwise Asset Management. In this podcast are solely my opinion and don't reflect the opinions of BetWise Asset Management. None of this discussion is investment advice and should not be taken as an endorsement to buy anything. This is a podcast for informational purposes only, and that's all I got.
Sam:All right, cool. So I'll reiterate that with you guys Do not just run out here and buy a ton of Bitcoin, all right, seek a financial advisor. All right. This is a service that Al provides, so, like, if you need to speak to him one-on-one, we'll provide you with his contact information at the end of this episode, but I'm ready to get into this. So first, al, let's start with your background. So I know you just moved here to Richmond from DC area.
Sam:So kind of give us your background. Where'd you go to school at? Was Bitcoin or cryptocurrency ever something that you thought you would be into?
Al:Yeah, no, it was. It's interesting so I'm originally from Staten Island, new York, born and raised. After high school, I went to a small school upstate New York called St Lawrence University. I'm there. I majored in economics and I networked my way into Wall Street on the back end. The first job I had out of school I was actually selling direct TV in Walmarts. So, I'd like run up to like 150 people and try to get two sales a day, and two sales were great.
Sam:So you learned how to hear the word, know a lot.
Al:Oh yeah, a lot of rejection. Cut your teeth. But I had a friend that was on the State Street Spider desk in Boston and, for those of you who are not super familiar with finance, there's many different disciplines. But I was in the asset management division and I'm still in asset management as a wholesaler. But they had a desk out in Boston which had about 60 internals and the way it typically works.
Al:You have an inside person that is calling and making maybe a hundred calls a day and you have somebody that's in the field that's going to clients and in particular, to go meet with them to help close business.
Al:So I was an internal for a couple years.
Al:It was low-cost ETFs, so I wanted to actually learn about active management, because you have passive investments that are index-based and then you have people that just make decisions on whether to buy Apple or sell Apple at a specific date or time. So I went over to the active side for Goldman Sachs in Chicago, which is a really good experience and I'm just going to quickly breeze through it and fast forward JP Morgan afterwards covering RAs in Manhattan, and then a recruiter reached out and said do you want to come work for a crypto asset management firm, but the background there is that in high school I'm not sure if you guys are familiar with the Silk Road Everyone was on there if they wanted to buy pretty much anything and use Bitcoin as a form of payment. So that was the first time I heard about it and since then it's come in and out of my life and it just made sense because it was a hobby since 2014 for me to actually do what I'm comfortable with, which is wholesaling, in addition to being in the crypto space.
Sam:So what year was that you said you first heard about cryptocurrency? 2014. 2014. Man, I saw a video from a kid. This dude invested in cryptocurrency when it was like 100 bucks and it was like some old video that they showed. And he's like guys, like I can't believe this is up to 100 bucks and like now, what is up to like 72 grand or something like that. Yeah, um, so it's crazy to see in a 10 year time span, like where this is going all right. So, before we get too into this, first I want you to explain, like we're elementary school kids, what is cryptocurrency that is the uh, age-old question, yeah, so I always like to start with.
Al:What is bitcoin, um, and the simplest way to put it and then I'll do a little bit more of a complex explanation is that it is a peer-to-peer network or ledger that tracks value as simple as that, um. But if you want to kind of go into a little bit more detail, I always tell people to think of it like an Excel spreadsheet, where anyone in the world can view it at the same time, but in order to change one specific cell, you'd have to have 51% of the world or the users of the network agree to change that cell, basically making it unchangeable, right? I mean, if you think of a school that you go to, can you get 51% of your classroom to agree to go on to a specific place for lunch? Probably not, no, right? Exactly?
Al:So when you think of it from that standpoint, it's just an Excel spreadsheet and you are just tracking the value of exchange, right? That is all that Bitcoin is. You have all these other currencies that are a little bit more complex, that introduce, like, smart contracts, and we can get into that later on. But Bitcoin, in its simplest terms, is a store of value. It is made to just track transactions, and the technology that it's using is called blockchain technology.
Sam:Gotcha. So looking at where we are today, in 2024, I was talking to somebody about this the other day I can't remember the last time I went to an ATM and got cash out. I literally cannot remember, like it has to have been at least seven, eight years ago or something like that. Majority of transactions that I deal with in my personal life it could be through a Venmo, it could be through a digital credit card processing firm that we use, but most of my transactions are online and to me now, as I continue to grow, I'm just like man money ain't real, it's just numbers being shifted from one place to another, like that's ultimately all it is. Where do you see 10 years from now, what currency we're primarily using?
Sam:Because I think, from a microcosmic point of view, like we like, just look at America and think, oh well, this is what America is doing, but when you look at Bitcoin and cryptocurrency, it's what the world is doing. So where do you see things transitioning in terms of like, how long are we going to be using cash and how soon do you see it moving closer to a digital currency?
Al:Yeah, that is a very difficult question to kind of answer in a short period of time. How much time do we got?
Al:We got about an hour, no, so that's, for me at least, the most interesting and fascinating part about being in crypto. Crypto, um, I love the properties of bitcoin and it'd be pretty foolish, um to say that it's gonna be the nlbl currency. It could be something viewed as a reserve. But, broadly speaking, if I kind of take a step back, the cool part is it's a social experiment, right? Yeah, we have bitcoin, we have ethereum, we have solana, we have avalanche.
Al:We have all these different tokens that are trying to solve three different use cases, right, or the trilemma within crypto, whether that's, you know, being super secure, um, being scalable and being able to be secure. You can have two of those, but you can't have three, right, and each of these different tokens that are out there and, to be transparent, there's about 30 000 that are out there um, some of them, most of them, are scams, but in reality it's a social experiment. I mean, we're just trying to figure it out. So for me to say in 10 years it's going to be X token, I think it's a little foolish, but right now we're all trying to see. We're going with the flow, if that makes sense.
Sam:Gotcha, how do you see this wealth transition taking place with this? Because, like that example I gave you, this kid bought shares for a hundred bucks and you know if he bought 10 of those at 100 bucks and it's valued at 72,000 a share now, like that's, that's some pretty good money, um, and we kind of saw this with, like in the stock market, with, um, all the kids that got on reddit and drove up the stock price of GameStop, amc and GME.
Sam:Yeah, how do you see? Because obviously this is probably more of a young man's game than an older man's game, and I think right now we're in the biggest shift of wealth transfer that we've ever seen in this country, where all the baby boomers are starting to retire and close up shop with their businesses and now the millennials and the younger generation are starting to take over. How do you see this transition taking place in terms of the transfer of wealth?
Al:Yeah, it's going to be another tool in an arsenal of kids, right? Like I said, I'm in the wealth management space and people look at it from the perspective of it being in the alternative buckets and that sits anywhere between, you know, one to five to even, at max, 10% of a portfolio, not just Bitcoin. I mean there's gold and everything that's out of the traditional, you know, stocks and bonds kind of model there. So, from that standpoint, the way I like to explain it to people is, if you think of the kids that are coming up, right, if someone was born the day that bitcoin was born or created, right to them, bitcoin or cash or using zelle or cat, they're all in the same category and, from that standpoint, as these, like you said, baby boomers start to unfortunately pass away, but that's just like the natural fact of life.
Al:That wealth is going to be transferred to those kids right or soon to be adults, and to them it's just another tool within an arsenal. So over time, this is just going to be another thing that you can invest in. I mean gold, when it was created and turned into an ETF, people were super hesitant to have it added into a portfolio, but now it's a common thing that people use within a portfolio, so it's the same kind of premise. I mean, history doesn't repeat verbatim, but it definitely rhymes. So from that standpoint, it's going to be one of those slower capital accumulations within Bitcoin or even the crypto space as time goes on, as people get more and more comfortable with it.
Sam:Yep, I think this is where and this is one thing that held me from the longest time to start investing was it seems like there's just so much out there and like the education you need in order to figure out. One thing I have learned in my few years as an investor is you got to be diversified. You don't go all in on one thing, like I got my ETFs and S&P 500. You know, after a conversation with you today, I'll be getting some Bitcoin and figuring it. But like that's my main question is I just don't know how to purchase Bitcoin, because when I see that price tag of $72,000, I'm like well, I ain't got 72K to throw at this. Like how can I get my foot in the door?
Al:Amazing question. So I know when people see the number 70,000, it seems very unaffordable for most folks.
Al:But the cool thing with Bitcoin and many crypto currencies they're divisible. So Bitcoin goes to a decimal point of about eight, so meaning that you can hopefully I do this correctly buy 0.0000001 portions of Bitcoin, which is called a Satoshi. So it's divisible. I mean you don't need to buy 70,000 all at once, and there's many options that you can go about purchasing cryptocurrency. You can create an account at Coinbase or Kraken, which are these digital exchanges you can buy. Now, given that the spot ETFs are trading. You can buy a spot ETF and it can be in a brokerage account, similar to what you were saying earlier. You can use it on Cash App. You can do it on PayPal as well. So there's many options where you can get exposure to Bitcoin. But then you get into the conversation of do I own it outright or am I only getting a share of the portion of the actual exposure? So, from that perspective, it just depends on what type of investor you are or how you see it playing a role within.
Sam:So for the most part, it's like my first entry. My first gateway into investing was Robinhood. So the thing that's cool about Robinhood is that you can buy fractional shares. So like say, for instance, like you want to buy a Tesla stock and whatever I know, Tesla's been plummeting, but let's say Tesla's at 250 bucks a share, I don't have to buy 250 bucks of one share, Right? I can put 20 bucks on Tesla and now own a portion of one stock of Tesla. So you're saying across the board that's generally how it works with cryptocurrency and Bitcoin is that you can just purchase a portion, yeah.
Al:So I want to kind of make a delineation here. So if you were to go buy on Coinbase or any other like exchange, you can buy Satoshi, but if you were to buy a stock of some of the spot traded products, you're buying a portion of a share. So it's just. It's two separate entities. But the point they made was correct. You can buy a fractional portion of whatever entity that you're entering to get exposure to the space.
Sam:And you have to use a certain brokerage account in order to invest in cryptocurrency. Like and I got brokerages account with Charles Schwab E-Trade, can I purchase cryptocurrency through them?
Al:Schwab E-Trade cannot purchase cryptocurrency through them. So, for the spot products, the spot products is the only. It's one of the only vehicles that you can actually buy within a brokerage account the major ones, right If you can buy a stock or ETF somewhere nine times out of 10, besides, I think Vanguard's like one of the few brokerage companies that don't allow any spot or crypto types of products. So, yeah, but again, technically Coinbase is a brokerage account, but they only service crypto tokens.
Sam:Gotcha Gotcha. What would you say to someone who's because I've heard this from different financial advisors other people just walk, man, I'd never touch Bitcoin, I'd never touch cryptocurrency. To me as an investor and a business owner, I get excited when people say, oh no, I'm never touch Bitcoin, I'd never touch cryptocurrency. To me as an investor and a business owner, I get excited when people say, oh no, I'm not doing that, because if I'm doing the opposite of what everybody else is doing, typically I find that I'm going to win in that category. So what do you say to people when they're like I wouldn't touch Bitcoin?
Al:So the awesome thing for me at least. I'm in a job where that's every day. That's what's happening. If I make a phone call to try to get a meeting with somebody or sell them a product, they're saying I'll never touch this thing. And the thing not to be super smug when it's an asset now, because there's a traded security with the spot products, once something passes a trillion dollars, it opens the gateway for sovereign wealth funds, institutional firms and these large pensions that actually consider even doing due diligence on it. So once it gets to that level which you know, bitcoin is well above that level you kind of have to have an opinion on it. Right, if a sovereign wealth fund can invest in this, you as an advisor should have, even if you hate it. You need to do some sort of education, because this is something that is an investable asset now and that's like the key mark for most folks in finance is a trillion dollars.
Sam:So you kind of segued us into the next thing. You talk about educating yourself in this space and I know when I first met you a couple weeks ago. So let me backtrack Me and Al first met a good buddy of mine, javon Coker, who I seem to be shouting out on this podcast all the time. Good buddy of mine, javon Coker, who I seem to be shouting out on this podcast all the time I'm not even sure if he listens. We met Our first time meeting was at a VCU game. We had box seats sitting courtside, free drinks at halftime and VCU won that game.
Al:It was a pretty dope experience.
Sam:Great, great experience. I've lived in Richmond for, I want to say, at least 14 years, and that was the first VCU game I've ever been to. So now I can never sit in the nosebleed seat. So it ain't courtside, I ain't with it. Um, so you talk about education. After I first met you, you recommended a couple books to me. What are a few books you would recommend to the audience if they want to get educated in the space? Start learning. Where can they seek out this education Besides yourself?
Al:Yeah, I don't think I can. It seemed as an endorsement, yeah, so I don't think I can give a specific book. I would encourage people to just type in Bitcoin white paper online. It is an eight page white paper that describes the full Bitcoin network itself. Beyond that, there's a number of resources that you can kind of use. Obviously, I think Bitwise as a firm has a number of research papers that they put out, and there's some really cool people that you can follow on some social media platforms that talk about Bitcoin in particular. I just can't.
Sam:Oh yeah, I got you Outwardly. What's that? Give that web address again.
Al:Bitwiseinvestmentscom.
Sam:Bitwiseinvestmentscom. All right. Another thing I've seen with Bitcoin is I've seen talk, so I'm in the vending machine business as well. One thing when I first got in that business, we looked at ATM machines and, like I told you, it's been seven, eight years since I've gone to an ATM and pulled out cash, so I saw that as a dying business. But I've seen talks of Bitcoin ATM machines popping up. What are your thoughts on that?
Al:It's funny because I so my family is up in New York and I go all the time to visit them. I stopped at a couple gas stations on the way there this past Thursday and also coming back on Sunday, and I saw some of these ATMs there. It's amazing that they're readily available. But if I'm being very transparent, the spread in terms of price that Bitcoin is trading at versus what they will offer to you for actually putting cash in Obviously it's a business I mean it's it's. It's a pretty big spread. It's cool that it's it's a minus.
Sam:I walk into a seven 11 and buy a $50,000 worth of Bitcoin right there you could.
Al:it's not the best and cheapest way to go about it and I'm always like find the lowest cost, lowest cost option to go ahead and do it. It's cool that you can. I mean, if you have cash and you want to go do it and you need to do it this very second, you can do it. But again, I'm always the type of person to say low cost ETFs, low cost this, low cost everything, Because over time, if you're losing a percent or two on simple transactions, that adds up 10 years from now, right. So it's cool that it's there. I mean, it's a another way of entry for many people that don't have access to a coinbase account or have not done so yet um and you can transfer it to a digital wallet instantaneously.
Al:So it's it's a nice option. It's just very expensive, in my opinion gotcha, when do you?
Sam:when do you see? And I know and let me also preface this like al had that spiel he had to say at the beginning of this I want you guys to understand he's not dodging any questions or anything like that. Just being in the financial space, there are certain things that he just cannot say openly like that. So I don't want you guys getting frustrated like, oh, he's not answering the question. Well, we don't want this brother getting sued and getting booted out of his company. Well, let's take a step back. Talk to us about the company that you're with and the services as it's related to Bitcoin and cryptocurrency that you guys offer.
Al:Yeah, we're in the camp of an asset management firm, but we're crypto specific. What our goal is to get investors and their advisors accessing information to the digital asset space, and provide'm going to provide strategies to do so. So we have about 60 professional investors throughout the US that specifically help and aid folks in getting access and education to the crypto space.
Sam:Well, hold on Pause right there, because that's a very small number in terms of people in the financial space. Because you can go to a New York Life, you can go to a State Farm, there are all these different companies you can go to and get a wealth management officer. But for people that specifically are in your space, there are only 60 across country in your company.
Al:At my company. Yeah, I mean because we are the world's largest crypto index manager and we can talk about that product in particular. There's not many firms that are doing what we're doing in particular. Um, you have, you know, black rock and fidelity, and you know arc that are in the space, and our competitors.
Al:However, they sell other types of investments, um, that are not so we, the only thing that we do is crypto, um. So from that perspective, we are still technically a startup, but we're competing with these massive household names and from that perspective, I think it's at least for me I'm really proud to be where I am right now.
Sam:Yeah, and I want people to really pay attention to this, where, when there are very few people in the space like, now's the time to really get your education and learn about this, if this is a segment that you want to add into your portfolio, because my biggest fear in life is is passing up on something and not giving it the credit and attention that it needed. When I first got into stocks. Man, I don't think I still fully understand everything with the stock market, but I've educated myself to a level now where it doesn't stop me from being an investor. When you realize that you cannot work your way to wealth like just with an everyday paycheck, you will never be wealthy. The only way to become wealthy in this country, or in this world, for that matter, is investing. You have to have your money working for you while you're sleeping. If you don't figure out a way to do that, you will never be wealthy. And I know everybody listening to this like your goal is not to be a Bill Gates or like extremely wealthy, but I just encourage people to think about making your life better, how that increases things for others.
Sam:So there's this guy, Ramit, that I listen to, a big financial guy on YouTube. He had a show on Netflix and he has this plan where, basically, you write out your rich life. So I did this exercise with me and my wife a couple weeks ago and we literally laid out, like, what's our rich life? What does that look like? Hey, do you want a nanny to come in here and help you a couple days a week with the kids? Do you want a house cleaning service? Do we want somebody to maintain the garden and everything for us? Where do we want to live when we're in our 60s? All these different things.
Sam:So we went and laid all this stuff out and one thing in there was how much we want to give each year, and my wife's initial number was oh well, I think if we can give $5,000 a year, that'd be pretty good. I said, no, that's way too low. I want to be given at least $40,000 a year, Right? And her reaction was whoa, Like what are you talking about? There's no way we can give away $40,000. I'm not talking about where we are now. I'm talking about where we want to be. What does our? And if I'm giving away $40,000, then what does my financial outlook look?
Al:like. So it's kind of cool that you say that, because you almost have to reverse engineer what you want out of life and then you have your number and that's something that you can work towards. So I think that's pretty cool.
Sam:Yep, I know exactly what I need our net worth to be. I know exactly in my working years what I need my monthly income to look like and how much I'll be able to draw from my investments in our retirement years to help us maintain that that level of living that we want. Yeah, um, but people need to look at this and recognize that. You know it's not about being stupid rich. It's number one, being able to leave the people in your life with something when you pass. Like you know, I got two young kids and this is a thought on my head all the time is what am I going to be able to leave them once I'm gone Right Along with the education of that? But, like I also want to set them up with assets, I don't want them having to start from scratch like I did, like they should be picking up the torch and moving on to the next level. So people really need to consider this, and the reason I'm so interested in this space is because not everybody's into it yet. No, and that lets me know, if it's been around this long and it's still continually growing, that there is something major here to be done. I truly believe this is one of the few sectors that we're going to see multimillionaires built from. Yeah, the people that are doing this right and getting their education and meeting with individuals like you, like these are the ones that are going to change the game and be able to do something a little bit different In terms of transactionally, like. Talk to us through that. Like, I understand Bitcoins and I really want you to talk to us like we're third graders. Bitcoins at around $70,000 now how does that work out, especially if I have fractional shares? How does that work out in terms of me? And I'm not sure we're at this stage? I want you to answer this too Are we at the point where I can purchase goods or services with Bitcoin and, if not, when do you see that happen? And how do you even do that transaction? Like, can you do that through a PayPal or Venmo with Bitcoin?
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Al:Yeah, I'm glad you're asking it that way. The only thing I would say on the back end is that there's a number of different camps within the crypto ecosystem, because it's more than just Bitcoin, and I think this is a good segment to kind of talk about Ethereum as well. So Ethereum introduced what is called smart contracts and think of it as like a legal agreement that's native on the blockchain itself. So it's like the first time we're able to program money to do specific tasks. This is the first time I'm hearing about this. Yeah, so with Bitcoin, people look at it as a store of value because it's really slow.
Al:So if I were to send you 10 bitcoin or one bitcoin or even a satoshi, it would take 10 minutes for it to settle, and I don't know about you, but I'm not going to go to starbucks and wait 10 minutes for me to get my coffee.
Al:You're a busy guy, so I'm sure you understand um, with ethereum and some of the other tokens that are out there, you can do a transaction, you can send someone money, the cost on it is about a penny for some some of the their two applications and it settles within a second. So night and day difference, right, but one is way more secure, right. So people look at it as a store of value, as it almost like a safe haven asset, right, to kind of store your value, right? Um, ethereum is actually where you have the use cases of being able to trade, send money in the cheapest possible way. So that's like the main delineation there.
Al:There are some economies out there that have used bitcoin's layer 2 application, called the Lightning Network, to allow businesses to accept Bitcoin. Is that like in China or something? El Salvador, gotcha? Yeah, so, el Salvador. They actually allowed Bitcoin to be legal tender, meaning that if you want to pay your taxes, you can pay it in Bitcoin. If you want to transact or buy something on the street, you can do that. It's not every economy in the world and they have a really severe situation going on with their economy. Yeah, and they've come back from it since that quote-unquote investment. People looked at them super poorly because they bought it and started doing it at the very top of the last cycle, which was around 2021, but now they look pretty smart. Yeah, and it's still again a social experiment to see if this is actually the one that's going to help them and make them survive and whatnot and most people that are doing a transfer of bitcoin right now.
Sam:It's not. Hey, let me send you 20 in gas money. It's like we're talking thousands of dollars.
Al:Like you may be looking to buy a house or vehicle or something like that a lot of it, that transactions are like private sales. I mean, if you just don't want to do a transaction, including a bank, you can on the bitcoin, so it's. It's just the other day someone transferred a billion dollars and the fee on it was a dollar fifty, like imagine, if you want to chase, and said, hey, I want to transfer a billion dollars from one account to another man, it cost me more on on ticket master like, that's like ten dollar convenience fee so the thing about the crypto industry is not only coming for quote, quote, unquote, store value or money transfer.
Al:It's coming for a lot of different industries.
Sam:Yeah.
Al:And that's why there's more than just Bitcoin. There is a whole vibrant ecosystem and again we can talk about that. I think for this podcast it might make sense to just talk about Bitcoin, but I just needed to make sure that you were sure that most people probably don't use Bitcoin that, like most people, probably don't use Bitcoin.
Sam:So that state, like the way you just described that to me. The first thing that popped in my head was kind of like when streaming services like particularly with music, where we went from buying CDs to now going on iTunes and being able to get that and it completely disrupted the entire music industry. Like, the music industry today is nothing like what it used to be. That's kind of the wave that we're seeing with Bitcoin and cryptocurrency now it's going to be that shift like we saw with music.
Al:I'm glad you said that I won't name the artists, but there are artists that are out there. Some folks might have heard of what an NFT is. They're using the properties of an NFT to have a portion of their album sales be sold via an NFT, meaning that if you're the owner of that nft, if someone goes on apple music and listens to that artist's album, you are entitled to a portion of the revenue from that um play so more than just like, because taylor swift, like every artist, gets like a penny per stream or like less than a penny or something per stream.
Sam:Um, I think snoop dogg broke this down as like he had like two billion streams or something last year and he got paid like 40 grand or something like that it was something insane, yeah, so something like this we're not looking at like that penny. It'd be like they're starting to make real money again this, this technology is.
Al:It's coming for a lot of different industries um it's not just finance, it's not just music. I mean, think of this one. I'll say zillow actually sold a home the other day, being an nft. Um, I'm sure you understand the closing costs and the pieces. So imagine that not being there and it's just a penny or two or depending on the structure of, like, the nft and the project that I've developed it.
Al:But I mean, this technology is not, it's just not only going for one, it's a broad, sweeping thing so that makes a lot of sense.
Sam:Like now you're getting me even more excited because you just think about the cost of like. You know, since we've seen with COVID, I think now it's actually it may be the same price, if not equal. You remember back in the day it was like you want to save money, cook at home. Well now, like the way grocery prices are, it's like well, no, like all these people are making TikTok pages on like here's how you go to Texas Roadhouse and get like this huge meal for $35 that'll feed you for a week and that's cheaper than going to the grocery store. I like that in terms of like being able to save money on the back end.
Sam:So, getting back to how the top 1% live, they live by paying as little of a price on their money as humanly possible, yep. So we get on people about like oh, they didn't pay enough for taxes and stuff like that. Well, you know they're finding all these legal tax loopholes that keeps them from having to spend more money. And now in the real estate industry we're seeing a big shakeup there where they got sued for billions of dollars because of high commission rates. Now the state of affairs with real estate is, they may not be able to pull that 6% commission on every transaction now, like that number may be going lower. Apparently, that was always something that could be dealt with but, like most people just assume, it's 3% on this side, 3% on this side. So the fact that Bitcoin and cryptocurrency has that ability to give us less fees on that and we actually get to keep our money, that's a huge thing right there.
Al:And the adoption there might take, you know, 10, 15 years, but the technology is here now and you know there's firms that are doing it every day. I mean some of our competitors are tokenizing whole funds via the blockchain. Again, I won't mention who, but people are testing it out and this innovation is coming. It might not be tomorrow, it might not be a month from now, but it is around the corner.
Sam:See, and you don't want to invest in things that like, let's go back to the GameStop example that lasted what a couple weeks, yeah. So if you didn't get in andStop example, that lasted what a couple weeks, yeah. So if you didn't get in and get out immediately, like you lost your hat in that. And if you're not looking at things, since I've gotten into investing, it's always been a long-term play.
Al:Yeah.
Sam:There may out of my entire portfolio. There may be 2% of my portfolio where it's some stuff I may be playing around with and this is discretionary money, like if I lose this, we're not going homeless, like anything like that. So, to be able to look this far out, like you see all these posts from people like hey, if you bought Apple stock, you know back in the 90s, here's what it would be valued at today. That's where we're at with Bitcoin and cryptocurrency right now, where it's like you don't even need to take that much of what you're doing, like I think it was with Walmart's stock. Somebody said if you had invested like $1,000 back in the day like the millions that I think it was like $12 million or something that would be worth today Like insane. Here's where we're at right now with Bitcoin. So again, I encourage people.
Sam:I'm going to be giving you guys updates along the way, so stay tuned in on my social media and on the podcast. I'm going to be walking you guys through my experience once Al gets me set up here and showing you how I'm doing it and how you can simultaneously do it, because I'm not going to be investing insane amounts of money If stuff starts to get really good, then I'll throw more at it, but that's my approach. Is coming in small Now with that, because we've hit on a lot of things. How do you see the government playing a role when it comes to cryptocurrency and Bitcoin?
Al:That is the multi-trillion dollar question there. For those that don't know, the US is considered the capital of the world in terms of investments in terms of dollars.
Al:We did approve a spot product. There was 11 different issuers and we were one of them and that's Bitcoin, right? I mean, it's already clear that is a commodity. You still have 29,999 other tokens that are out there and the number changes every day in terms of new product launches and whatnot. That's to be determined. So the example that I like to give obviously I'm American. I want the US dollar to be the world's reserve currency.
Al:In my opinion, the biggest layup that they could have had and this goes into a little bit more detail on the Ethereum smart contracts you have what are called stable coins. So for every stable coin out there at least the two major players, tether and USDC you have a dollar sitting in reserves like a money market, mutual fund or cash, effectively cash. So if you're in China, india or any other economy and you want to go to cash in the Bitcoin crypto world, you sell your Bitcoin and you buy what's called a stable coin, right, or you swap into a stable coin. So one for one. So one stable coin equals $1. That is $150 billion market.
Al:So for me it's like it's been in Congress, it's been in the house, it's been. That's a layup, right, it's already in US dollars and there's people that are from different economies that are using the US dollar to hedge safety. Right, like, if you don't want to be in Bitcoin right now because you think it's volatile, you go to cash, right, ie US dollars. So that's like to me, the of bills that are being put and work through our government body. It's to be determined, right. I mean I didn't think that money would be something that could be so politicized, but here we are and who knows? I mean maybe somebody will come out and say something super bad about it and try to push forward unfavorable regulation. We'll see. That is definitely a trillion dollar question, but I think a lot of it is layups. Basically, the us is in terms of, like, the safety, stable coin portion of the market. They should regulate that. That's, that's easy and that's a.
Sam:You brought up a point there like that's. The big thing that we need to look at in terms of investors is that this is a global thing, this isn't just in the States.
Al:No.
Sam:This is a global thing. So when you talk about currency being switched over when I go like if I fly over to Japan and I'm there for a vacation, to be able to get dollar for dollar, like in conversion when I'm in a different country, that's a huge thing, because now it's been a while since I've traveled to a country where I had to transition my my currency, um, but the fact that that process would be a whole lot easier using cryptocurrency versus like trying to convert my american dollars into the ying or whatever it is that makes a big difference, and you don't pay a fee.
Al:See, that's the killer right there, man. You don't pay a fee. Bitcoin can be held in, effectively, a USB drive and you can bring it anywhere.
Sam:There's no government that can stop you from using Bitcoin network, man, you got my head spinning, so all right, man, I'm really having to sit on this because you're rocking my world with this man.
Sam:Because I don't want people to miss out on this and I want to make sure that we're getting them the right information here today to make an informed decision. Let's talk about your services in particular. So, like I have my own financial advisor, when I meet with him, I'm not getting charged for meeting. Like he manages my portfolio and makes a percentage off that meeting. Like he manages my portfolio and makes a percentage off that. If someone wants to sit down with you and get you to help them build out this portfolio, what does that look like? What are the fees involved?
Al:all that kind of stuff yeah, so I actually would be meeting with your financial advisor to help him bring our offerings to all of his end clients.
Al:I don't direct go to. We call end clients yep um, as a registered person I can only talk about financial products to that your advisor or advisors that are out there within my territory that I cover. But the conversations that I'm having with folks are pretty I wouldn't say intuitive. It's a lot of education. It's funny. I did what we call like an end client event where an advisor will get, let's say, 50 people together for like a private dinner and I gave a presentation. As long as the advisors are there, I can actually talk about the products that we offer and typically what you see is, if it's like your standard equities or fixed income, the advisors are asking questions that are super sophisticated and then the end clients are asking one-on-one level questions are super sophisticated and then the end clients are asking one-on-one level questions.
Al:But when I do those types of events, I mean the questions that advisors and also end clients are asking are on the same level. So for me I just think that I'm in a really good position because I'm not only educating the advisor, I'm also educating the end client. But from that perspective, broadly speaking, we say as a firm, the ideal sweet spot would be a 1 to 5 percent allocation in your portfolio. Me personally, I just say get off zero, because once you have skin in the game ie dollars, and invested in something, you're gonna pay attention to it. You're gonna research.
Sam:You're gonna actually look and understand what it is yep, so you've mentioned that there are twenty nine thousand nine hundred nine hundred, some ones that aren't good out there. How does someone determine which cryptocurrency is a scam and what's the real deal?
Al:Okay, personally, there are some good ones that are out there. A number of steps. So within crypto, you have what is called on-chain metrics. A number of steps so within crypto, you have what is called on-chain metrics. So you have what are high institution type firms that pay for extra data that they source to make investment decisions Within the crypto ecosystem. It's all available At any moment in time.
Al:You don't even have to listen to what I'm saying. You just go online and verify any type of transaction If it's new wallets that are coming on the network, new dollars transactions, the numbers that are there, the volume, how often each wallet is moving it's all verifiable. So one, the easiest first step is to look at the on-chain metrics for the product or token that you're looking at. Two, you kind of vet out the team. You can look on their online presence. You can go on their website. You can go on their online presence. You can go on their website. You can go on their Twitter. You can go on any social platform that they have. Each token typically launches what's called the white paper, which details you the quote unquote tokenomics or the economics of the actual project itself and how it operates and you just engage with the community more broadly.
Al:A lot of people use Discord, which is just like a chat rooms type of setting, and then you can cross-check right, you can talk to your friends about it, you can talk to someone like myself that's actually in the ecosystem and you just use all of your research to vet out if this is something that is legit or a scam. It's pretty daunting, but it's a task that you actually have to do your research and I'm sure you can tell now, based on everything I've said, even if you're investing in a new, you have to do your research and understand what you're in.
Sam:I mean, cause there's, if you're doing it on your own, there's no one to protect you, right, you're kind of doing it on, so and I have one suggestion I've given to people is when I first got interested in investing number one thing I did because there's a whole other language when it comes to money, when people that know what they're talking about in the finance space are talking, it's not the everyday terms that you hear from your boys when you're at the bar or something like that.
Sam:So I first learned that I needed to understand the language of money, and the easiest way I saw of doing that was every day I come here in my office, I turn on the TV you got YouTube TV on here and I just turn on like Squawk Box, like CNBC, and I just listen to people talk about money all day long and every now and then I'll be working and I'll hear something oh, bitcoin, let me turn around, let me pay attention to this for five minutes and you just start to pick up on the lingo, the language. Yeah, you start to understand who are the movers in this space and you can start to make those educated decisions on that right. Um, here's the last thing I want to ask you. It's a pretty powerful one. You may have to think a little bit deeper about this, as we're two brothers sitting here, we're people of color. The thing that's kept our community from creating generational wealth has purely been one thing, and that's information.
Al:Yep.
Sam:So to be a person of color, to be in a cutting edge industry that we could see the biggest amount of millionaires in our lifetime come from? What does it mean to you to be a person of color in this position, with the knowledge on how to make this happen?
Al:I told you it's gonna be deep, yeah you know, I haven't uh thought about that, um, because it's just like head down go yeah um, definitely think it's a privilege to be on the right side of information as it's coming out. Um, I just was super fortunate to have friends that showed me, and that's that's. I guess if I could give one piece of advice is to meet as many people as you possibly can they don't necessarily have to look like you.
Al:Obviously, you know, keep your core circle, what your core needs to be, but that's the only way you're going to get information is to expand your horizons and expand the network of people that you interact with and engage with. Being a person of color here, at least at my firm, I feel as if I can show that not, I can show that people, I can show that you know, people that look like me can be sophisticated and educated and actually accomplish so, um, it's a huge privilege, it's just a huge privilege to be a person of color, um, in this space, broadly speaking, because even if I go to some of these, like crypto conferences, I don't really see many people that look like me. Um, and I'm representing you know, um, I, I, I honestly don't think of it too often because there's just like a hundred things that are on my mind at one time, but like now that I'm like that's why I'm pausing I'm like reflecting, like wow, I am, nine times out of ten, the only person of color in a room and that's a big.
Sam:That's a big move. For me right now is number one I'm trying to do more business with people of color because now that we have the information, the reason that the black American dollar only fluctuates, only circulates in our community for I think it's like two minutes, and the reason the Jewish dollar communicates or circulates in their community for like 60 days, they take the money that they've made and they reinvest back into our community. For too long, our people, we know how to make money now. We just haven't been putting it in the proper places to build ourselves up if you don't talk.
Al:Yeah, I think we just don't talk, I know in the Jewish community. My business partner described to me. It's kind of how some of their neighborhoods are set up.
Al:They have like business groups that no matter what city you go to, um, you can kind of join and they talk. They hey, this is what I'm doing. Your entry is different than mine. How's the here's how I'm making money. How are you making money? They talk. I don't think in a lot of scenarios, um, people that look like this talk about money. Yeah, not even talking about investments, just money period.
Sam:And we've got to have. Like when I started to change my circle, I find myself getting bored in a lot of situations now because if I'm in a group of people and I'm engaging with the conversation for an extended period of time, if we're not talking money, business or health, I'm not really interested in the conversation.
Al:You start slowly checking out, yeah.
Sam:Like you know, I'll have my moments where you know, I'm a big Pittsburgh Steelers fan. I'll talk football and sports and stuff like that. But like I think my wife will look at me weird sometimes when, like we're out with like a couple or something like that and I'm like if I can't talk to them about business or something like that, like I'm just quickly losing interest. But it's when you change that circle and that's the regular conversation, that's where you grow. Let me give another shout out to Javon.
Al:Javon, better listen to this episode, man I'm going to send him this one.
Sam:When I first met Javon, we started working out together in Mechanicsville, so every single morning it was like me, him like three other guys, so like number one. We had that expectation that everybody's going to show up. Because I'm going to look like no punk at 6 am.
Al:They're like yo, we're saying that he missed it. You don't want to be the only one. Yeah, no, so I'm going to show up, I'm going to show up and we'll be there.
Sam:But as we're on the treadmill, we're talking about just our warmups in. Hey, here's what I'm thinking about doing with my business now. Hey, there's some opportunity on this side of town for some real estate investing. Hey, I met this person last week. You need to meet them. You could potentially do business with them. If your circle isn't talking like that I heard this the other day If your circle ain't talking like that, you're not in a circle, you're in a cage. If we're not helping each other elevate and I'll give kudos to you real quick upon immediately meeting you, because you know, me and Javon had to have a sidebar Like, yeah, we're going to let this dude- in the circle man and just after a couple of minutes of conversating with you.
Sam:You'd be like yeah, this is a guy we need to be around. That's last year. Yeah, you're in a space that neither one of us is extremely knowledgeable. At the doors that you can open up, like the people that you're working with could be potential clients for me and vice versa the people that are clients for me need to hear about what you have going on and it's making sure that that money is circulating back in our community, that we're building each other up, and I think that's been our downfall is that we don't talk enough and we don't share information enough, and that's what's been our downfall is that we don't talk enough and we don't share information enough, and that's what's been holding us back. So it's good to hear Number one. I've been extremely excited for this episode because I'm just like I need the knowledge here. So it's good sitting down with you and learning a little bit more about this.
Sam:But for those people that are listening and because everybody listens to my podcast they're not going to start a seven figure business. You know some of the people listening. Yeah, well, some of the people listening are. They love their day job. It's their passion. They don't have the bones in them to go out and start a company, but everybody has the capabilities of investing. Yeah and it's. I don't need you to be, because I I don't need everybody thinking like me. If everybody wanted to be a business owner, I wouldn't have anybody working for me and I ultimately just create another job for myself.
Sam:But the fact that people need to get on board and understand that there are ways outside of your day to day. You don't have to struggle. You don't have to live paycheck to paycheck. Now we're talking about something where you're going to get rich quick Absolutely not. This is going to take years, decades. This is a lifetime thing, but you have to get started. I think so many people and I've always felt like I got started investing too late. I should have 10 properties by now. My portfolio should be strong six figures. I got a lot of work to do, but the best day to invest was yesterday. The next best day to invest is today, yep, so it's never too late. I don't care if you're 20 something, I don't care if you're 70 something. You need to figure out a way to invest and for me, this is a space that I'm extremely intrigued with. I got the book that you can't say on the mic. I got the book one of the books that you've recommended to me and I can't wait to tear through that.
Al:No endorsements, but yeah no endorsements.
Sam:Ain't no free checks here. Awesome man, hey. Well, if people want to get a hold of you, if they want to seek out your services, if they want to link you up to their financial advisor, how can people get a hold of you?
Al:Yeah, I would say going to our bitwiseinvestmentscom website would be the best way to do it. I'm not sure if there's listeners that are in multi-states. We have about a 20-person distribution team that services advisors throughout the whole entire country, so if I'm not your point of contact for your end advisor, there's someone that will be. But yeah, I mean it's funny because I actually came in contact with you via Javon because you help him with his photos, and I just asked him hey, like how do you have such good photos? And that was how you know you and I came into contact. So that's the space that you can kind of find me as well on Instagram alkabia his Instagram.
Sam:Wait, hold on, get that Instagram one more time, because this is about to blow up. What's the Instagram?
Al:one more time AlKabia K-A-B-I-A.
Sam:All right, y'all check out, because he's about to sign that contract with Enzo and this stuff's going to be on fire, so y'all can see how he's leveling his brain up and getting this information out to more people. Well, al, definitely appreciate you being on the show today, man. I think this is very informative to the audience. Appreciate you being here and we will see you guys on the next episode. Are you an aspiring entrepreneur? Our one-on-one coaching tailor strategies to your unique business goals. Dive into interactive workshops fostering skills essential for success. Looking for an inspirational speaker for your next event? Book Mr Prenuer to elevate your gathering. Visit wwwthemistaprenuercom to learn more and embark on your path to entrepreneurial success. Mr Prenuer, empowering your entrepreneurial spirit.