Last week I had the privilege of speaking at the Digital Asset Strategies Summit (DASS), in Dallas, where prominent institutional investors and industry thought leaders gathered to explore crypto investing strategies.
To say that it was the most inspirational conference I had ever attended would be an understatement.
I spent the entire day completely engrossed in each session, devouring information. In fact, I nearly missed my flight back because I couldn’t bring myself to leave in the middle of Mark W. Yusko’s outstanding closing presentation.
Given that, according to Mark, “learners will inherit the earth,” the last thing I wanted to do was to interrupt my learning just to catch an airplane.
So I didn’t.
When I returned home, I felt rejuvenated and more optimistic than ever — not only about the future of cryptofinance, but about the future of civilization.
This is truly a phenomenal time to be alive!
Never before has there been this much enthusiasm for innovation. The excitement for blockchain even dwarfs the widespread euphoria during the dot com boom in the mid to late 1990s. This is because, by all accounts, blockchain technology is far more disruptive. And, it is impacting every single industry in each and every microcosm across the planet.
But, what resonated most is the extent and scale of blockchain disruption. As Ric Edelman, one of the nation’s top financial advisors, stated in his keynote, “40% of S&P companies will not even exist by 2025.”
FORTY PERCENT!
That’s more than disruption. That’s practically an extinction.
With all existing financial paradigms on the verge of colossal change, Ric made me realize that everything we know about retirement planning and asset allocation modeling is completely wrong.
In fact, the entire financial advisor curriculum is obsolete.
Cryptofinance is the future. And it is here to stay — regardless of what is being fed by the mainstream media.
Despite the recent volatility and negative press, there is a substantial amount of institutional capital looking to be deployed in not only public (actively traded digital coins), but private (yet to be liquid) blockchain endeavors.
Novel crypto investing strategies will completely redefine capital formation — impacting every aspect of corporate finance including venture capital, private equity and public finance.
Personally, I have found that waves of disruption bring opportunities to amass different types of fortunes. One is the kind that can be seen on financial statements. The other is the hope that can only be felt in the promise of a better tomorrow. I call the latter, inspirational capital.
Since I accrued so much of it at DASS, I figured the least I could do is share some of my inspirational wealth. Hence, highlighted below are some of the summit’s most thought-provoking quotes and sentiments.
ON DISRUPTION:
“Never ask an incumbent what they think of new technology. A BIG RESET is imminent and those who go to sound money will win. All things of value will eventually be tokenized.” — Mark W. Yusko, Morgan Creek Capital Management, LLC
“Coinbase [a 6 year old company] now manages over 20 million customer accounts. Charles Schwab [a 45 year old company] manages only 13.5 million accounts.” — Bart Stephens, Blockchain Capital
ON SECURITY TOKENS:
According to Lou Kerner, Founding Partner of CryptoOracle, we are entering the golden age of securities innovation. Security tokens will be bigger and more innovative than anyone can presently imagine. The industry will go well beyond simply bringing digitization to today’s securities. Lou likened the development of the security token market to the expansion of television — what began simply as transporting radio to a new visual medium ultimately evolved into something far grander than what was foreseen by both radio and television pioneers. (Read: Prepare Yourself! The Security Token Tsunami Is About To Hit).
Fortunately, the United States possesses the existing regulatory infrastructure to govern security tokens. The experts on the regulatory panel — David Hirsch, Senior Counsel and Cyber Liaison at the SEC; Kathleen Moriarty, Partner Chapman & Cutler, LLP and Mark Rasmussen, Partner Jones Day — recommend that in addition to the Howey case, investors and issuers, alike, familiarize themselves with the DAO report. The legal panelists also agreed that the REG A+ exemption could be the most ideal for security token offerings — particularly considering the liquidity restrictions of Reg D.
ON OPPORTUNITY:
“The best projects are presently illiquid with plans to issue tokens at some point. Many of these can upend some of the public crypto assets. Blue Chip Crypto has yet to be defined.” — Mark Thorsen, Yeoman’s Capital.
“Crypto allows us to unlock the liquidity premium.” — Mark W. Yusko, Morgan Creek Capital Management, LLC
“The baseline between crypto investment and crypto usage is nuanced. This is the first time that you can invest in technology directly.” — Reuben Bramanathan, Coinbase Asset Management
Currently, there are approximately 400 crypto funds that manage a total of $10–12 billion. These include hedge funds, venture capital, private and corporate equity funds as well as family offices. Yet, according to Lex Sokolin of Autonomous Research, “Crypto funds are tiny compared to the asset class opportunity.”
“Israel and Berlin have two of the most booming crypto ecosystems.” — Lou Kerner, Founding Partner of CryptoOracle
ON RESEARCH:
“Most information has been rumor based. The latest rumors move markets.” — James McDonald, CIO of Vishnu Wealth Management
“Sell-side research is lacking. The best research comes from LPs.” — Paul Pagnato, CEO of PagnatoKarp
“Twitter is crypto’s Bloomberg terminal.” — Tyrone Ross Jr., NobleBridge Wealth
BEYOND FINANCE:
I was completely blown away by Ric Edelman’s keynote. Never in my life would I have predicted that a presentation seen at a finance event would change my life. But this one did. Whether I’m working, shopping or playing weekend soccer mom, I haven’t been able to stop thinking or talking about it.
Ric’s discussion centered around the profound impact that exponential technologies will have not just on finance, but on humanity.
According to Ric, mankind is about to enter a longevity boom where editing DNA will be as simple as editing a word document, and numerous diseases — including cancer — will be eradicated.
Ric predicts that 2030 will be a pivotal year. All those who are fortunate enough to be alive in 2030 can expect to make it to 110 or even 120 years of age.
That makes me very young. Like VERY, VERY young. In fact, by previous metrics, I’m barely even a teenager.
Despite my youthful innocence (or maybe because of it), I have never felt so optimistic and hopeful about the future.
I’m going to wrap this up with one final quote from Fintech strategist and futurist Lex Sokolin who stated that, “TIME & CURIOSITY are the best tools for learning about cryptocurrency.”
Lex’s statement is a constant reminder of the two ingredients most needed to succeed in this space.
Allocating the curiosity requires almost no effort whatsoever, for I have an endless supply of that. Devoting time always seems to present a challenge. Fortunately, in addition to the decades being added to my life expectancy, there are conferences like DASS that make it so easy to dedicate the time.
This article was originally published on Medium.
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