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Thank you for joining us today. We're excited to bring you a brand new show from the On Ramp Media umbrella. Wake Up Call is a weekly show that will be streamed live on LinkedIn every Monday morning. To catch the premiere of each episode, follow On Ramps LinkedIn page and add Wake Up Call events to your calendar. After the live premiere on LinkedIn, we will distribute each episode across On Ramp Media's podcast channels and YouTube page. Wake Up Call aims to educate financial professionals on the merits of the Bitcoin investment thesis, how this asset represents both a threat to legacy financial service businesses and an opportunity to differentiate oneselves and retain and attract new clients. Hosted by Mark Connors, Onramp's Head of Global Macro Strategy, and Rich Kerr, Onramp's President of Managed Wealth, this show seeks to provide financial professionals the wake up call they need, prompt them to have an open mind with respect to Bitcoin, rethink their prior assumptions, become more educated on the topic, and learn from others who are already farther down this path. Mark and Rich bring a combined 60 plus years of experience across traditional markets and financial services and will share their unique perspectives and how their peers and colleagues can approach the realm of Bitcoin. Wake Up Call will feature guests from various backgrounds and industries will also share their own journeys to Bitcoin and how others can get up to speed now. Time for the show. All right, well, good morning, everybody. My name is Rich Kerr and I'm the president of on ramp Bitcoins managed wealth group. It is a pleasure to be here with you all today on our inaugural wake up call, which aims to help institutions, wealth advisors, pension plans, other financial professionals in the traditional finance space to think through why Bitcoin. And so we'll explore with our guests that we will have different topics that help you develop that Bitcoin thesis and recognize the threats and opportunities that Bitcoin presents to our industry and at the same point in time even explore current events, capital markets and, and industries. And so that being said, I'd like to just kick it over to my Co host, Mr. Mark Connors to maybe share a little bit about himself. Rich, thanks a lot for that intro. And yes, both Rich and I are very excited. We joined on ramp recently, taking our three decades plus of experience in traditional markets to highlight what we think is the biggest opportunity in our careers, and that is Bitcoin and what it can mean for your investment portfolio. You know, we'll, we'll go into a lot on, as you said, current events. But I, I think for this call, the reason we would like you to join live is we want to kick off talk about what happened last week, what's happening today and give context to the markets. So before I hand it back to Rich, I'll give you a little bit about my background. I've been in capital markets for a little over 30 years, grew up in the convert market credit and then went into the hedge fund world before sort of settling into a chief risk officer and strategy role taking in the broader market because I want to really give context to the mistakes I've made in my career. So I don't make them anymore. And with that is really how I found Bitcoin looking at broader shifts in regimes, regime changes in the in the marketplace. And I think for today, we're going to drop a few Nuggets about why we'd like you to be on the call and really what's going on in the markets as on the equity side. And then obviously touch on briefly the tragedy that happened over the weekend with the assassination attempt on President Trump and what that has to do with markets and Rich. So, Rich, back to you on those broader themes or where you want to take us today. Yeah, I know. I think, you know, the elephant in the room obviously is the, is the events of the weekend. But but you, you hit on some of your, your great strengths and what you bring in in in my hope is that I compliment those a little bit. You know, my, my entire career has been working with high net worth, older high net worth, the individual investors, registered investment advisors who serve that population and also leading wealth advisory spaces inside of Schwab. I spent 31 years there working with both the retail clients as, as well as the institutional clients and, and helping, you know, helping the Rias and, and independent trust companies and, and you know, broker dealers that I serve, helping them really grow, compete and succeed in their marketplace. And so, you know, I still aim to do that today. My hope is that we can can have real conversations around Bitcoin, the disruption that it represents in, you know, to our broader financial systems globally. And we'll pull different threads along the way that I think everybody should be paying attention to. But Mark, you really kind of touched on it, obviously very, very concerning events that unfolded this weekend in Butler, PA, at a President Trump campaign rally. You know, those situations, regardless of where you stand politically, are very, very deeply concerning. And so you, you kind of teased Mark that that. Well, I'm going to call Rich what you said earlier about threads and globally. So we're going to stay in our lane guys about what we do for a living. We're markets and we're industry. And one of the first things we noticed from a market standpoint, again, we're going to talk about how we can help your business grow given what's what's going on very dynamic period. And we'll talk about some of those metrics we use to make that bold statement. Global, the word you use, rich, Bitcoin's a global asset. Soon after, on Saturday, we saw bitcoins price rise. It was the first indicator in the market that, you know, with hung, with Asia closed, that something was afoot. Trump's poll numbers, wherever you go, rose after that event. Trump's been an advocate of Bitcoin. He's going to the Nashville event, which we'll be at as well, and he's going to speak there first time. A, you know, last year we had Kennedy go. This year we're having Trump go to the Bitcoin conference. Bitcoins up over 10% since Friday's close. So again, it's a global asset. It's being adopted by it. That's why we're excited about Bitcoin. Let me back up. That's not why we're excited about Bitcoin. That's just further evidence from the markets. That's something that there is more, more adoption going on. But let's let's roll back a little bit. Rich, Rich and I were on the in, in the green room, you know, talking beforehand about how we're going to do this and, and what we want to get out for you. What we want to do is frame that Bitcoin has a place in a portfolio. We're going to give you data about that. And then also on the industry side, with Rich being a Schwab for decades and dealing with Rias, they've had to as an RIAA business owner, take on new assets and like a pitcher on the mound, either wave off the pitch coming to them or say, yes, I'm coming at you with more tech focused that worked for them in the 90s and 2000s. I'm going to wave off maybe some of the structured products in O seven O 8, which if they wave that off their products, they did very well. So how did how to discern so Rich to you? The question is, Bitcoin's only a trillion and a half dollars. It's going up by the minute here, but it's only a trillion and a half dollars against a $900 trillion opportunity set. Are there examples of that you've seen about how advisors have made good calls? What is their process and do you how would they even start to understand Bitcoin? Well, I think you know that that's a that's, that's a deep question and I think it varies. You know how? We're not going easy here, Rich. Yeah, I know, but it varies from firm to firm and and everybody develops a, a, an investment philosophy and a thesis around the securities that they, you know, bring forward into, into their portfolios on behalf of their clients. I think one of the biggest challenges for Bitcoin, but it also one of the great blessings in many ways is Bitcoin was born organically almost right. You had early, you know, tech people, engineers and, you know, cyberpunks and, and gamers and people that kind of found Bitcoin and it spoke to them and then they started studying it and going down the rabbit hole. And so it grew very grass roots where an individual was actually, you know, accessing Bitcoin on their own and, and, and, and mining it. And, you know, and, and ultimately, you know, you have this massive percentage of individuals who are actual owners across the globe with Bitcoin institutions have been at Bay, right? And, and part of the reason is they're looking at it and saying, well, wait a second, it's a different monetary system entirely. It's a different monetary policy than what we are accustomed to teaching and educating our clients around. And so it, it, there's no wonder why here we are in 15 years in existence of Bitcoin that institutions are just now starting to kind of wake up and develop those thesis. And, and, and, and, and for good reason, because I think that it is the convert group. It is one of the conversations of the day, if not one of the most important conversations, in my opinion. And, and so as clients start asking questions of their advisors, as pensioners start asking questions of those who are managing their pensions, you know, all the sudden that Groundswell forces institutions into developing a, a, a thesis and, and, and really, you know, serving their client as the trusted advisor that they have, have been and strive to be. And so if you don't have questions or if you don't have the answers, you better go get them. You know, and at least it's my belief, because ultimately, if you are not the one who is educating your clients and helping them understand why you're doing what you're doing with the portfolio or why you're choosing not to integrate Bitcoin into your portfolio after 15 year track record that is dominated every other asset class, then you're going to ultimately lose the trust that you've worked so hard to establish. They may love you, they may value the relationship, they may value the planning and care, but you know, somebody is going to provide the expertise. And so you know. The rich on that on that point about the expertise and about if if if you don't someone else will. I want to go back to the analogy about the pitcher on the mound and the RIA or the advisor is on the mound and they're looking for calls on what to throw at their, you know, at their clients is to see how they can serve up the best opportunity. Who, who is, where are they getting their signals from? I mean, this is not a big asset. You and I and we, we will touch on, you know, we don't have enough time to touch on maybe some of the bread crumbs that we can spread that brought us into the fold about why we think it's important. But where's an RIAA going for it and how could they be accelerated? Are they only going to the wire houses because the wire houses are providing services because they want to have trading and all that, you know, extra support. So they're trying to get business from them and and are we going to have to wait till the wire house is turned on? Not necessarily. I do think that your, your point is well taken right there are that, you know, there is research that that you know, registered investment advisors do receive from various institutions that help form their thesis and their investment philosophies. But but you also have to understand the the culture of the registered investment advisory population. Yes, they are in competition with one another, but it's a highly collegial group of people. And so, you know, the, you know, I think in many respects, most advisors that I, you know, had worked with along the way, they collaborate with one another. They talk openly about what they're doing on behalf of clients. They're very proud and they're also very intellectually curious. And that's that's why I believe that the RIAA is actually perfectly suited or that's one of the beliefs why the RIAA is perfectly suited because they collaborate so well with one another about what they are doing. They don't, you know, they have healthy conversations and discord around how they go about doing things. And there are differentiations from one firm to the next. But they're always collaborating, always talking with one another and are very well aware of, you know, opportunities that, that they might need to explore to remain relevant in the conversation, in the, in their, in their marketplace and the clients that they serve. But at the same point in time to do well, right, to do well by, by their clients. And so, you know, I, I, I'm in the process of writing a paper and it should be released here in the not too distant future, But it talks a lot about disruptors, Mark and, and, and it ties to your bigger, broader question, how do they come to things? But, but I think it's important to recognize the, the patterns of disruption in Wall Street. All right, So you, you know, obviously I was fortunate enough to work at Charles Schwab. I view that Charles Schwab in, you know, 1973 made a, a critical decision and in 74 launched the business and, and, and was a massive disruptor to traditional Wall Street and the High Commission structures and creating ease of access and things on that nature. That disruption was enormous. The next big disruption in my mind in our industry was the RIAA really emerging in the 1990s in a, in a, in a fairly profound and significant way. And in through the early 2000s, you know, they brought a different way of working with clients of fiduciary standard transparency in the way that they price their, their services, incentive alignment around how they price those services. They win when the client wins. And, and, and clients, while they may not be able to quickly, you know, say what a fiduciary is, they certainly feel it and experience it. And it's in alignment with what they're looking for because everybody comes to the, to the table, you know, with a little bit of baggage from this in, from the traditional finance industry, you know, and, and they're looking for a solution related as well as portfolio. And so if you look at the disruption trends, I believe wholeheartedly the biggest disruptor is right, you know, knocking on our door and, and, and it's in the form of, of Bitcoin. It's going to change the way that we think about money. At Onramp, we believe that Bitcoin is the most important asset of the 21st century. The hard part is securing it right. There are shortcomings with keeping your coins on an exchange, but also with setting up your own self custody arrangement. Onramp solves for these concerns. Our multi institution custody solution maximizes security and minimizes counterparty risk, ensuring that your Bitcoin remains securely in your possession and provides built in inheritance planning to ensure your family is protected as well. Onramp provides Peace of Mind for your Bitcoin journey, whether for your whole stack or for part of it as a compliment to your existing self custody setup. For more information, check us out at on rampbitcoin.com. When when you were just, do you mind if I just pull on that what you just said there about the disruptors and you said solutions. And when I think of Wall Street, and we just wrote about this, I think of Wall Street just wrapping anything like, you know, they're like give me anything between two pieces of bread and I'll eat it. So they'll, you know, in the 90s or 80s when bond prices were or yields were high, they created the 0 coupon strip, which was a great product. It allows clients to lock in 10% returns for 30 years and you know, quadruple their money plus. And so good wrapper, the ETF, arguably Ford has been a good product and we'll talk about why it may not be great for Bitcoin for many people. And so they created a product, you said solutions. And so I think that's where folks like us, that's why you and I joined on ramp is because Bitcoin does not need Wall Street, It does not need a wrapper and it is diminished with a wrapper. So back to you on like, do Rias get that that they don't need the product but they need the solution? I don't know. I don't know that I could tell you that that's a, it's a great conversation because Mark, it's, you're, you're right, right. You know, traditionally financial services firms productize everything. Everything's a product problem, product problem, product problem offer. And you know, I think in, in many regards, you're, you're right, Bitcoin does not need Wall Street, but you know, Wall Street. Wall Street has a cash. Wall Street has. A cash. Wall Street has a cash and and so you know you got it. You have to understand the reality of where we are today. But more importantly, you know, I think I said this in a podcast last week, you know, you could go, you know, the old cocktail party, you know, theme park, you go to a cocktail party and everybody's talking about in the 90s, everybody's talking about Cisco Systems and, you know, you name it. Yeah, it doesn't matter Intel or, you know, any, any number of semiconductor stocks or whatever it might be, right? Everybody's talking about an individual stock or whatever the hot stock. You know, while I don't go to cocktail parties per SE, I, you know, certainly, you know, socialize with, with friends and, and the, the, the nature of the conversation is, is much more. Serious it, it, it's around, you know, geopolitical events, it's around, you know, inflationary situations and how the inflation data doesn't make sense to the normal person because they know very well just by running a, a simple budget exercise, you know, how significantly, you know, the cost of services and groceries and, and goods have gone up. And it's not, there's a, there's a break. There's a break in, in data versus experiential, you know, reality. And so I think people are well aware of that. And that shift, Richard, if if I heard you say it, the the shift you used to hear was about a product and an opportunity in a trade. And Wall Street loves transactions, but you're saying our, our peer group is now hitting the room sort of taking a, a step back and for lack of better word, hitting a macro or hitting at trends, the term you like, you've used pattern recognition. Yeah. And that requires a solution, not a product. That's exactly right. And, and, and education and conversation, honest conversation, intellectual curiosity with one another. It, these are the, this is the shifting dynamic. And, and so, you know, I was in an RA last week, you know, sitting with them in their office and, and I said, what, you know, tell me about business, how's things going? What are the, you know, what are you focused on? And they were sharing a number of different things and, and great firm and, and they're focusing on business matters. And then, you know, I said, well, tell me about your clients. What are they focused on when they're like inflation? And I'm like, OK, good, you're hearing, you're hearing that. So what, what is the solution? What is the solution? Do you lean into, you know, you know, inflation linked bonds or, or do you lean into gold or what? What are you doing right? You're, you're, you're, you're going to problem resolution based, you know, immediately versus exploring the sensation and how they're feeling about it, how they're experiencing it, how they're thinking about it. And I think that that's one of the biggest pieces that a great advisor can elicit from a client in a relationship dynamic. It's not just, you know, I need to solve all problems for somebody. It's really around evoking, you know, more information and how they're how the client is, is, is thinking about things and what they are possibly considering. And I think that that's the crucial conversation that needs to happen. Yes, say that again, because because that that is a crux. It's right. It's the. It's being able to pull the thread a little bit, right? It's not, it's as soon as you recognize problem, it's not go to solution because you're so smart, right? It's about let's really discuss it. What are you tapping into? What are you feeling? How are you thinking about it? How, how is it affecting your finances and really getting the client to, to tell you what, what they're thinking about? Because I, I, I suspect that more and more clients are actually looking at Bitcoin and they're probably asking the questions and they're listening to pods like, you know, Jesse's, you know, and, and, and, and Andy's pod on scarce assets or whatever they might be listening to. They're gathering information and they're forming an opinion. And, and so we need to allow our clients in many respects to tell us a little bit of a little bit more about where they're getting educated on it, how they're thinking about it, what actionable steps they might be taking or considering taking, because that helps close the door on the threat. But it also isn't that the goal of every great financial advisor is that they are helping a client become self-sufficient in many respects that they're overcoming, you know, their, their, you know, challenges and, and, and collaborating with you to achieve solution. And so it's more relational in my mind because the the challenge is, is, is unique and, and, and causing some material pain. And so you need to invite that exploration with the client a little bit further. That's perfect. The so we've, we spent, you know, 2/3 of the of our half hour. So talk a little bit about us and about the landscape, the advisor and, and how they will address Bitcoin. Let's what do you think about hitting up a little bit of back to Bitcoin one O 1, like why Bitcoin and and just share some some Nuggets, you know, that will make it more accessible. And you know, like maybe from your experience, if if someone said, you know, why Bitcoin, what were the two or three things that differentiate it and make it a winner? You know, just like really tight anything that you think has resonated with people or even with you well. You know, maybe I'll take a step back and just share a little bit about my journey, right? You know, steeped inside of wealth management space. I've always been concerned deeply about the, the, the national debt and deficit spending and debasement of our currency and all of those implications because it has downstream implications to the things that I, that matter most to me, my children, right? And, you know, we, we, we have a duty to try to leave things better. That's, that's a human dilemma. And I think we all share it. We have a, we have a responsibility to try to leave things better for the next generation and for others. And that service, you know, elevates mankind. And I don't want to get too philosophical, but I believe that at my core. And so I've always been concerned about the deficit spending and, and money printing and, and endless debts and, and things of that nature that really has profoundly bothered from a financial, financial systems and, you know, financial services perspective and, and how it relates to, to my family and, and my neighbors and people in my community around the world. So that being said, I was asked one time I was leading financial Schwab wealth advisory group and I had somebody come and talk to me and they said they were interested in, in potentially, you know, making a sizeable allocation of their own portfolio. This is a person in the industry that reported up through my organization and and I immediately dismissed that mark and you know, largely because everything that I fed but certainly was aware of Bitcoin, but I didn't do any work on Bitcoin, but everything that I was fed was, you know, this is Internet funny money type of stuff, right? Dismiss it. It's been tried. It's never, you know, really had traction. And so I dismissed it with, you know, this individual's decision with my sage advice, which is to take a pass. And that was just ill informed. And that bothered me. I don't like, you know, having a a reaction that is unsound and somebody making a decision or not making a decision based off of that. And so I got committed. I went down the path. I read this book, The Bitcoin Standard, and to me it's one of the finest books that has ever been written. And if you are a student of history or a student of economics and you haven't read it, I, I highly encourage you to do so. I think one of the things that really stood out to me is the profound component of scarcity as it relates to any investment that is out there. And that just stuck with me and scarcity. And I'm thinking, OK, that's true. Scarcity of something unique is, is where great wealth is and it's how we all ultimately place value and and aspire to be able to have our assets and truly scarce things. The 2nd component for me was, was probably the monetary policy of Bitcoin, which is, you know, it's been said multiple times, I'm certainly not coining it myself, but it is, it's absolutely exquisite. When you think about how simple it is and how upset in mathematics it is, you start to understand that, you know, why is monetary policy something that is constantly changing and evolving and is a moving target and people are constantly playing this game of guessing where other people might be going? Why can't monetary policy be set in something that we can all agree upon, which is mathematics and, and, and, and human nature as well, right? Which is, you know that you, you want that consistency and you're never going to debase yourself. And so, you know, if you, if you know those type types of things that and you look at the monetary policy of Bitcoin, you just sit back and go, Oh my God, it's an epiphany. So scarcity 1 Monetary policy. Too, and certainty was it for. Me. So that, that last part in particular, having gone through 2022 at a digital asset firm and having to answer questions about SBF and all the other, you know, jokers that were, that were in our that were in our industry early and then washed out in what I call the digital asset default cycle, leaving the performance of Bitcoin sound and proven. The word integrity kept coming up rich. And you know, coming from English major background into finance for the last 35 years. I, I think the two are together. You have to define terms and I love the term integrity because when you brought up monetary policy to me, having an integrity of policies critical for monetary policy where it performs to expectation regardless of time or circumstance. And then so we're going to go. That was one definition. We promised definitions and Nuggets on this call. The other reason why this is important is because money, one of the solves that money's done for Mises and and others that are have written on it is that it solves for the bargain of common wants and needs. So imagine if you have a, if you have money, that changes the monetary policy. And money is supposed to be the bargaining chip that normalizes exchange across millions of goods and services across borders. If that changes, it then changes, it's multiplied. It's, it's why inflation, the changing of the price structure actually brings stresses like we saw in the 70s, which I was a young kid in the 70s. It was really fun. If I was a parent trying to manage stuff in the 70s, it wasn't that fun for people. It wasn't fun for people in Northern Africa. It wasn't fun for people in Southeast Asia. I mean, it was a very tumultuous time. So when we see the integrity of our monetary system loose, loosen or lose its integrity, we're going to see things like we've been seeing recently, which is dislocations, unrest. It's very, it is structurally destabilizing. And so I love the fact you brought that up. It's one reason why I think Bitcoin is up 10%. And then, you know, I think Rich, I think our, our studios queuing us on what we want to do before we wrap up. And so I'll kick it back to you by, you know, giving the audience an idea about what to expect going forward from our call. But it's I'll end it with saying there's a lot more behind riches in my decision to join on ramp and and help with multi institutional custody, which is critical for this unique asset. And we want to have some fun on it. We want to drop some Nuggets about it so that you can hopefully get closer to what we think is a is a really meaningful opportunity. Yeah. Well, Wilson, and to maybe put a bow on it, just want to say thank you for joining us. Please join us again, because we're going to be having some guests that are coming on from all sorts of different backgrounds and fields and talking a little bit about Bitcoin and how they might integrate it into their business or how they might help your business think about integrating Bitcoin and adding value. I shared earlier, right? Bitcoin is both a threat and an opportunity. And, and I, I very, very much believe that. And I think, you know, in my heart of hearts, I want people to as entrepreneurs or as you know, people who are, are serving the general public. My hope is that, and I think it's our shared hope is that you get intellectually curious about it, you develop a thesis and that you recognize that there is enormous opportunity for you to, to not only serve your clients incredibly well by leveraging Bitcoin, but also win, win in the marketplace, not just from price performance, by attracting new clients and, and, and keeping other clients and, and creating differentiators of your business in the marketplace and will bring people that, that will help, you know, maybe open, open your eyes to ways to attract new clients and, and keep existing ones that you've worked so hard for. And those relationships really matter. And so at the end of the day, we're thrilled to be with you. We're eager to help, you know, everybody make the transition. And if you've got questions or thoughts, you're more than welcome to reach out to Mark or I by dropping a note. We'll be sure to get in touch with you and, you know, open up a dialogue that's tailored to what you're trying to achieve. So thank you for joining On Ramp Bitcoin this morning. You can visit our website at on rampbitcoin.com and we are thrilled to to make the connection with you and thank you for listening. Thank you. Thanks for listening to this week's episode of the show. If you found the information valuable, please share the episode with a friend or leave a rating on your favorite podcast app. All the links we discussed in today's show will be in the show notes inside your podcast app. Before we finish, a quick reminder that On Ramp Media is for informational and entertainment purposes only, and nothing should be construed as investment or legal advice. Regardless of where you are on your Bitcoin journey, we'd love to hear from you. Visit on rampbitcoin.com/contact to schedule a consultation with one of our private Client advisors.
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