Arrash Yasavoli discusses how you should jump on investing in bitoin in 2026! Arrash's path from data engineering at LinkedIn into quantitative trading, crypto, and building Glitch, a SaaS platform that gives broader access to advanced trading strategies gives a unique perspective into possible 2026 investing plans. We also talk Bitcoin's role as a potential store of value, the divergence between Bitcoin and altcoins, the growing importance of real utility and valuation in crypto projects, the rise of ETFs and stablecoins as bridges to mainstream adoption, and more.

We discuss...

• Crypto's transition from a speculative and "scammy" perception toward broader legitimacy through regulation, ETFs, and institutional adoption.
• Bitcoin is increasingly viewed as a store of value similar to gold rather than a scalable transactional currency.
• Bitcoin's fixed supply and resilience through multiple market cycles were highlighted as key drivers of long-term investor confidence.
• Bitcoin's historical growth rates are unlikely to persist, with future returns likely slowing and volatility remaining high.
• The growing divergence between Bitcoin performance and stagnant altcoins was identified as a sign of increasing market maturity.
• Many altcoins from earlier cycles failed due to hype-driven models that never delivered real value.
• The current crypto cycle was compared to the post–dot-com bust era, where focus shifts from excitement to sustainable business models.
• Regulatory clarity, including frameworks for crypto and stablecoins, was viewed as a major catalyst for continued adoption.
• Whether investors should trade or hold crypto, with emphasis on patience and fundamentals over speculation.
• Future crypto valuation models were described as moving toward revenue, profitability, and clear value propositions.
• Arrash outlined his work on BitTensor, a blockchain designed to create and trade real digital commodities.
• Crypto's long-term value lies in practical applications that quietly use blockchain under the hood rather than hype-driven narratives.

Today's Panelists:

• Kirk Chisholm | Innovative Wealth
• Barbara Friedberg | Barbara Friedberg Personal Finance

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For more information, visit the show notes at https://moneytreepodcast.com/investing-in-bitcoin-in-2026-arrash-yasavolian-780

There are a lot of year end surprises in store with the 2025 wrap up. The year has come to an end and we are here to discuss everything from year-end reflections and personal anecdotes to a broad market outlook. We focused on the recent surge and volatility in precious metals, especially silver, explaining how futures-market leverage and exchange rule changes (like margin requirement hikes) are used to cool speculative excess, why parabolic price moves are unhealthy, and why investors should be cautious in the near term even if long-term fundamentals remain bullish. We also talked government fraud, rising debt costs, aging demographics, deglobalization, and higher-for-longer rates, arguing that bad asset allocation now carries real risk and diversification with assets like precious metals still matter.

We discuss...

• We challenge simplistic economic cause-and-effect narratives, arguing that inflation, tariffs, and monetary policy outcomes are highly contextual and often misrepresented by official government data.
• Past periods of QE and low inflation were cited to illustrate how money printing can offset deflation rather than automatically cause inflation, reinforcing skepticism toward consensus forecasts.
• Large-scale government fraud is pervasive, rarely punished, and structurally embedded, with the prediction that no high-level figures will face consequences in ongoing public scandals.
• Precious metals, particularly silver, were a major focus due to extreme recent price volatility, including sharp multi-day gains and losses while most investors were disengaged over the holidays.
• The mechanics of futures markets were explained in detail, emphasizing how leverage works, why margin requirements matter, and how exchanges can legally change rules to stabilize markets.
• Recent increases in margin requirements for silver, gold, platinum, and palladium were highlighted as a deliberate attempt by exchanges to flush out speculative leverage and cool "animal spirits."
• Governments and exchanges can escalate interventions dramatically if needed, including forcing cash settlement or changing delivery rules, which would materially alter market dynamics.
• Banks' growing discomfort with holding U.S. Treasuries and their shift toward gold are a quiet but significant signal about long-term confidence in fiat systems.
• The contrast between gold (central-bank owned) and silver (primarily investor and industrial owned) explains differing market behaviors and intervention risks.
• The hosts argued that the era of "cheap mistakes" is over, meaning poor allocation decisions now result in permanent capital loss, not just missed opportunity.
• AI enthusiasm should be thought of skeptically as large language models are becoming commoditized quickly, lack durable moats, and resemble past tech bubbles.
• Be cautious, diversify, be skeptical of narratives, have respect for market structure, and prepare for a year where volatility exposes complacency.

Today's Panelists:

Kirk Chisholm | Innovative Wealth
Douglas Heagren | Mergent College Advisors

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For more information, visit the show notes at https://moneytreepodcast.com/2025-wrap-up

Elliot Holland joins us to explore the realities of building and sustaining a high-quality, trust-driven professional business in an era dominated by AI hype, declining marketing efficiency, and algorithmic noise. We discuss skepticism around AI's real-world impact especially in high-stakes financial decisions. We also talk marketing and content strategy, why sensationalism and clickbait may win algorithms but will always repel discerning clients. We also unpack our frustrations with modern marketing platforms like Google, Facebook, and HubSpot as they grow increasingly expensive and benefit from opacity while delivering lower-quality data. The most important thing is authentic conversations, patience, and thoughtful content aimed at a small, qualified audience that can outperform viral reach.

We discuss...

• Sustaining a professional services business increasingly depends on trust, judgment, and human relationships rather than scale, speed, or technological hype.
• There's septicism that AI will meaningfully disrupt high-stakes, people-to-people work, arguing it is largely rebranded machine learning with limited real-world adoption so far.
• Discerning clients value nuance, experience, and improvisational thinking that cannot be captured in static data sets or automated workflows.
• AI is a productivity aid for summaries and surface-level tasks, but not a substitute for deep expertise, critical thinking, or accountability.
• YouTube and podcasts are trust-building tools rather than growth hacks, with success measured by client conversion quality instead of view counts.
• Algorithms reward "nonsense about nonsense," making platforms misaligned with professionals selling high-trust, high-ticket services.
• Marketing metrics such as views, impressions, and engagement were described as misleading compared to tracking clicks, conversations, and actual revenue outcomes.
• Google, Facebook, and HubSpot are operating as "confuse-opolies," benefiting from complexity, opacity, and user lock-in rather than clear results.
• The rising difficulty of marketing has forced business owners to either deeply understand marketing themselves or risk wasting capital on underqualified vendors.
• Elliott explained restructuring his marketing around specialized vendors, strict performance accountability, and personal ownership of customer persona definition.
• Long-form, unscripted conversations often deliver more value than polished, optimized content designed for algorithms.
• Future marketing success will favor authenticity, clarity, and long-term relationship-building over funnels, gimmicks, and viral reach.

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For more information, visit the show notes at https://moneytreepodcast.com/ai-hype-and-clickbait-are-failing-elliott-holland