sport football: The $12.6 Billion Lesson I Learned at Age 19

The early 1990s were some of the most exciting – and confusing – years of my entire career.

I was just 19 years old, a kid trying to make it on Wall Street… When the analog world I grew up in suddenly collided with a future no one was prepared for.

To understand the magnitude of the shift we're seeing today in crypto, you have to remember what life was like back then.

Back then, our offices were still stacked with paper filing cabinets. We used typewriters and fax machines. The personal digital assistant (PDA) – the grandfather of today's smartphone – didn't exist yet.

The internet was still called the "information superhighway," but hardly anyone understood what that meant. I didn't know a single person who used email. And we still rented our movies on VHS.

Yet even amid that "stone-age" environment, a handful of tech visionaries were making outlandish predictions.

They theorized that one day, we would all be able to:

Afford our very own cell phones
Own personal computers
Do all our shopping on the internet

To most people, this sounded insane. The leap from the world we lived in to the world they were describing was just too big.

But I could see it.

So as a 19-year-old broker, I pitched a company called McCaw Cellular to one of my clients. I told them that within 10 years, everyone in the Western world would have a cell phone and McCaw would explode in value.

To realize how difficult a pitch this was, you have to understand the context: Back in the early '90s, cell phone service was spotty and very expensive. Only businesspeople used them. And they could easily pay $2,000 per month for service.

Yet, I argued that cell phones would get so cheap, even children would have them.

My older clients couldn't get behind the idea. I might as well have been telling them we'd all be flying around in cars.

But the ones with open minds opened their pocketbooks… and reaped all the rewards.

In 1990, McCaw's estimated valuation was $7 billion. AT&T bought it in 1994 for $12.6 billion (about $28 billion in today's dollars).

McCaw taught me that when transformational technology is mocked, misunderstood, or dismissed… That's exactly when you want to invest because it's always mispriced.

Bitcoin, and crypto assets in general, are following the same story – just with far bigger stakes.

Disruptive Tech Is Always Volatile

I want to put you in the mindset of what it was like investing 30 years ago (many of you are probably old enough to remember) – when internet tech was just starting to roll out.

While my peers were still buying stalwarts like IBM, Kodak, and Xerox, I was recommending Microsoft, Oracle, and Qualcomm.

I bought them because they were "disruptive" tech companies with the potential to change the world in dramatic ways.

Microsoft disrupted the software market and stole huge profits from IBM… Oracle pioneered the modern database market… And Qualcomm developed the technology protocols that enabled the wireless wave that made cellphones (and later smartphones) possible.

Historically, these types of revolutionary companies hand their early investors asymmetric gains. Just look at the numbers.

If you'd put $1,000 in Microsoft back in 1986, it'd be worth $8.3 million today.
If you'd put $1,000 in Oracle back in 1986, it'd be worth $4.4 million today.
If you'd put $1,000 in Qualcomm back in 1991, it'd be worth $542,400 today.

Here's the thing… To make these types of gains, you had to go through some gut-wrenching volatility.

Over the past 30 years, Microsoft has seen eight drawdowns over 35%... Oracle saw two drawdowns over 80%... and Qualcomm saw eleven drawdowns over 40%.

Why? Because when people don't understand how new technology will be adopted, they simply can't price it correctly. And that misunderstanding creates massive volatility.

Once I realized the market almost always misprices revolutionary technology, I stopped chasing yesterday's winners and started focusing on tomorrow's disruptors instead.

And just like in the 1990s, the opportunity in bitcoin exists precisely because most people still don't understand it.

A Pipe Dream or the Real Deal?

Thirty years from now – when bitcoin will be approaching age 50 – it will likely be treated as a reserve asset similar to gold and government bonds.

BTC and digital assets of all types will be fully woven into the fabric of the global economy – and we'll look back on this moment as the dawn of a brand-new technological revolution.

Of course, it won't be a straight line from here. Just as in every major tech cycle, we'll continue to see periodic pullbacks like the one we're experiencing now.

So if you're new to crypto, I understand why the stagnant prices might make it feel impossible to imagine a full recovery.

And if you're sitting there thinking, "This future Teeka is talking about is a pipe dream," I get it. I've heard that same doubt during every major tech transition I've lived through.

But here's what you need to know: I've devoted the last decade of my life to understanding crypto more deeply than anyone I know.

And what I'm seeing now is unmistakable – after years of growing pains and experimentation, this asset class is finally moving into the mainstream. And the research suggests when it does, bitcoin will hit $1 million by the end of this decade.

Friends, I don't want you to repeat the same mistake my older clients made when they completely missed the '90s tech boom.

They clung to familiar names like IBM, Kodak, and Xerox and couldn't bring themselves to imagine a future built by Microsoft, Oracle, and Qualcomm.

Today, the exact same dynamic is playing out. Most investors are still crowding into comfortable names like Amazon, Apple, Google, and Nvidia. Don't get me wrong – those are phenomenal companies.

But their millionaire-making days are already behind them. They're no longer asymmetric opportunities. Crypto is.

And just like my clients who ignored me when I begged them to buy McCaw Cellular… just like the people who rolled their eyes when I told them everyone would one day carry a cell phone…

Millions of investors today simply cannot imagine a world where digital assets are as common and essential as a smartphone.

But that world is coming… faster than most people realize.

Let the Game Come to You!

Big T

P.S. My experience with McCaw taught me one undeniable truth: You don't find asymmetric growth in the "comfortable" trades. You find it where technology is mocked, misunderstood, and dismissed.

That's precisely where the mispricing – and the profit potential – lives. The real money is made when the crowd simply can't imagine the future you see.

Today, that same dynamic is creating a massive mispricing in a specific corner of the altcoin market most investors are ignoring.

They're called "stablecoins."

Stablecoins allow anyone to hold, send, and receive digital dollars – 24/7, no banks, no borders, no middlemen.

If bitcoin is the new "digital gold," stablecoins are the new "digital dollar."

They're the railways that will reroute a portion of the $117 trillion in global bank deposits to the blockchain. And here's why that's so exciting right now…

The passage of new regulatory rules gives banks the green light to issue, transfer, and settle payments with stablecoins without handcuffs.

Based on our research, crypto infrastructure projects that support stablecoins will be among the biggest beneficiaries of this new regulatory framework.

I recently held a special briefing detailing six tokens I believe will be the biggest winners of what I call Crypto's Third Melt-Up.

If you missed it, you can stream the replay right here.