On November 18, 2004, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) made a big announcement.
It approved the world’s first gold exchange-traded (ETF) fund.
ETFs are investment funds that we trade on stock exchanges. They provide investors with an easy way to invest in an index, sector, commodity, or other asset.
By the end of that year, the fund was worth $1.3 billion… Seven years later, it had become the world’s largest ETF.
Like other ETFs, GLD is a security that trades like a stock. The fund’s goal was to expose more people to gold ownership.
It was an immediate hit…
By the end of 2004, it had already accumulated $1.3 billion in assets. That was just the beginning.
By year-end 2005, it had accumulated $4.3 billion in assets. By 2006, it climbed to $9.3 billion. And it would go on to top $84 billion in assets in August 2020.
In fact, the gold ETF became the world’s largest private owner of gold bullion.
And gold prices followed. From $442 at the launch of the ETF, gold rose 89% and stood at $834 by the end of 2007.
What’s interesting is that the majority of participants in the gold ETF had never bought gold before.
It’s estimated that 60–80% of GLD buyers were new to gold.
GLD’s success shows you the impact regulatory approval can have for an asset.
I’m telling you this because we’re seeing a similar situation play out in bitcoin. Just like GLD, it will send a flood of money and new investors into bitcoin.
Before I get to it, let me show you why ETFs act as railways that funnel billions of dollars into an asset class…
The Railway to Trillions of Dollars in Capital
Today, there are roughly $8.1 trillion in assets held in ETFs. The ETF market has grown to this size for two simple reasons:
- They’re cheap: The average equity ETF has a fee of just 0.16% compared to stock mutual funds averaging 0.47%, according to ETF.com.
- They give investors easy access to assets: ETFs give you exposure to entire industries and asset classes. For instance, you can buy ETFs that give you exposure to tech companies or banks… or other asset classes like commodities or precious metals.
You can think of ETFs as a railway system into the financial world. And Wall Street announced it was building one of these “railways” for crypto on June 15.
That’s when BlackRock – the world’s largest asset manager, with almost $10 trillion under management – stunned the world by filing for a bitcoin (BTC) spot ETF.
Unlike previous bitcoin ETF applications, this filing went to great lengths to appease the SEC’s concerns over manipulation in the spot BTC market.
When we look back on this period in crypto history, we’ll see that the BlackRock filing will have marked the end of the bear market and the beginning of the bull market.
It all has to do with gaining easy access to the asset…
Once the SEC approves the BlackRock bitcoin ETF – and I believe it’s a matter of “when” and not “if” – millions of investors will be able to own bitcoin without the headaches that come with it.
They won’t have to worry about how they’re going to securely hold the asset… or about the fear of losing their nest egg if they accidently send it to the wrong address.
Wall Street knows this. That’s why firms like BlackRock are rushing to securitize crypto assets through ETFs.
And these financial titans aren’t doing this out of the kindness of their hearts. They’re doing it because they’ll rake in billions of dollars in custody fees.
Today, there are 86 commodity ETFs that trade in the U.S., with over $131 billion in assets under management, according to Bloomberg.
Wall Street generates nearly $1 billion each year from commodity ETFs. That’s a handsome fee for simply giving investors easy access to an asset.
Don’t get me wrong… I’ve been pounding the table on the new crypto bull market since BlackRock filed for the bitcoin ETF this summer. This is a huge catalyst for crypto adoption.
But while the mainstream media is focused on the approval of a spot bitcoin ETF… It’s completely missing a trend that could be 150x bigger.
A $100 Trillion Trend
Although a spot bitcoin ETF will be a major boost for this asset class, it will primarily impact bitcoin, which has a market cap of about $720 billion.
But I believe there’s a catalyst coming by the end of this year that could be orders of magnitude bigger than a spot bitcoin ETF.
According to my research, it will unleash a $100 trillion opportunity that I call the Third Wave.
That’s almost four times bigger than the entire U.S. economy. So the Third Wave could be the biggest crypto trend ever.
The First Wave of massive profits came after bitcoin established itself as an asset.
Nothing could kill it… not government regulations… not the traditional financial industry… not malicious actors like hackers.
Bitcoin’s existence paved the way for a new generation of altcoins. So it acted as a “railway” into this asset class.
Once I realized this, I started recommending a series of altcoins in 2016. My readers had a chance to turn $1,000 into as much as $367,000 and $534,000.
The Second Wave started during the depths of the 2018 Crypto Winter. Despite all the price destruction, an entirely new innovation came to market: crypto income generation.
These crypto payouts are similar to stock dividends. However, instead of projects paying out in dollars, these projects paid users in more of the underlying crypto.
Anyone who followed one of my income coin recommendations had a chance to turn $1,000 into almost $55,000. On top of that, they had the chance to collect almost $9,000 in automatic payments.
But I believe this Third Wave will be even bigger. That’s because this new trend is set to transform everything in the markets… stocks, bonds, ETFs, mutual funds, commodities… you name it.
It could impact every single 401(k) and retirement account in the United States. I believe it will even impact your checking and savings account, no matter where you bank.
And the venture that will create this $100 trillion opportunity will launch by the end of the year.
On Wednesday, December 6, at 8 p.m. ET, I’ll tell you what this venture is… and share details about five tokens I believe are best positioned to ride this wave.
I’ll also give you the name of a coin that could potentially 8x your money during the Third Wave… completely free of charge.
Just click here to reserve your seat.
Friends, this event will only happen once. If you wait, you’ll be left out.
All the biggest players on Wall Street have started to move their assets to the technology behind this Third Wave.
But do you think Wall Street is just going to open its doors, roll out the red carpet for you, and welcome you with open arms?
No, it won’t. It doesn’t want the little guy to join in on this. That’s why nobody is talking about it.
Wall Street is greedy. It wants to keep all the profits to itself. But I’m here to kick down the doors – just like I did for my readers during the First and Second Waves of crypto.
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