Late-night TV host Johnny Carson once infamously said, “billions and billions,” during an interview with astrophysicist Carl Sagan. Carson was parodying Sagan’s emphasis on billions, not millions, of galaxies.
That was many, many decades ago. Yet, even today, I have a hard time getting my head around the concept of “just” a billion.
A billion is 1,000 million. If you stacked one billion $1 bills on top of each other, the pile would reach 68 miles into the sky.
A billion of anything, let alone dollars, is a lot. When it comes to investing, whenever you hear of a billion dollars being spent, you just know that there is some serious money to be made.
One burgeoning industry where billions are being spent is blockchain. And this number is growing by leaps and bounds every year.
According to International Data Corp., worldwide spending on blockchain development is forecast to grow by 88% from $1.5 billion in 2018 to $2.9 billion by the end of this year.
That’s just the start. Blockchain spending is expected to increase by an average of 76% a year until it reaches $14.4 billion by 2022.
And I think those numbers are too low. Way, way too low.
How you can jump on this blockchain gravy train …
A good place to start is with the first-ever Forbes “Blockchain 50” list, which is its list of the companies with more than $1 billion in annual revenues that are actively incorporating blockchain into their business models.
This Blockchain 50 is full of technology companies that you’ll recognize: Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Intel, Samsung, SAP and IBM. But it also includes a large number of financial services giants, such as Visa, JPMorgan, Fidelity, ING, Allianz and State Farm.
It also is interesting to see what cryptocurrencies these companies are choosing as the backbone of their blockchain system. The most popular platform is Ethereum (ETH, Rated “B+”) — used by 22 out of the 50 companies — followed by Hyperledger (21 companies), and Fabric and Corda, which tied with 14 companies.
One of the most interesting trends across these 50 companies is that nearly all of them are building more than one cryptocurrency.
Also keep in mind that a company needs at least $1 billion in annual revenues to make this list, which excludes what I think will be the biggest winners of the blockchain lottery.
How big? I’m not talking about 100%, 200% or even 300%. I’m talking about 1,000%, 2,000% or even 3,000%, which are the type of gains that will set you (and your children and grandchildren) up for life.
The enormity of the opportunity is difficult to measure with precision. But a comparison to the money investors made in Netflix can help provide some perspective. If you invested $25,000 in that stock at the beginning of 2017, you could have seen your investment surge to $68,856. But you could have turned that same $25,000 into $1,025,108 today with cryptocurrencies — that’s 22.8 times better. Watch this 25-minute video, “The New Crypto Bull Market That Has Just Begun,” to see how. You’ll also discover why we think the biggest gains are still dead-ahead. Or read our just-released report here.
I’m in my 60s, and I expect cryptocurrencies and the technology behind them to be the biggest investment opportunity I will see in my lifetime.
Best wishes,
Tony Sagami
• Tony Sagami is one of the early pioneers in the application of technical and quantitative analysis to mutual funds and stocks. A veteran investment adviser and a leading expert on technology investing, he is the editor for Dr. Martin Weiss’ Weiss Ultimate Portfolio trading service. Tony also leads the Weiss Crypto Investor newsletter and contributes to the Weiss Crypto Alert ezine. Read more from Tony at WeissCrypto.com.