🔮 If I were starting over today...

GM everyone. This is 2036. We scroll for gems all day so you don’t have to.

Here’s what we’re serving up today 🍲: there’s a new thing in town you should probably pay attention to. I know I would.

Let’s dig in.

Do you know the nervous feeling in your belly when you realize there's something important you need to do, but you're not doing it?

That’s exactly how I’ve been feeling lately.

I’ve recently been taking a break from Twitter. I’ve only found one funny video on LinkedIn in 3 weeks (and it’s brilliant) - reinforcing my belief that LinkedIn is mostly:

• an international breeding ground for false humility (“I’m deeply grateful 🙏🙏 and thrilled to announce that I’ve been promoted to Senior Vice President…”)

• an open invitation to get pitched 25X a day (”Hey! We’re currently raising our seed round and looking for millions ‘cause why-not-the-market-is-H-O-T, let’s book a 4-hour call!)

Now the good news is that I finally have time to dig into the private chat groups and Discords I’m a part of.

The bad news is that I’ve realized all the smartest people I know are talking about one thing I’m not paying enough attention to: DeFi on Bitcoin.

You see, I wrote about Ordinals in February of 2023. They were like NFTs on Bitcoin.

No one really knew if they were gonna work… but not only did they take off like Apollo 11, they also provided a new source of fees for bitcoin miners that made the bitcoin network more secure.

Cha-ching.

But here’s the kicker: the guy who created Ordinals is launching a new, improved version of Ordinals on April 20th - the expected day of the Bitcoin halving - called Runes.

(April 20 is also Dogecoin day, just saying).

In short - Runes makes it easier to create efficient, fungible tokens on the Bitcoin blockchain.

And if Ordinals were any indication of the amount of demand for new protocols on Bitcoin, I think Runes could be huge.

In fact, I’d go as far as saying that DeFi on Bitcoin could become one of the biggest verticals in crypto, second only to gaming.

Bitcoin is already a trillion-dollar asset. It's the first and ultimate crypto.

Millions of people already own Bitcoin. It’s ∼50% of the crypto market cap. It’s the first cryptocurrency that governments, sovereign wealth funds and pension funds can easily buy.

DeFi on Bitcoin unlocks trillions of $ of existing capital looking for a new home and more yield.

Bitcoin has traditionally been a boring blockchain designed for security, but innovation is coming.

If I were starting my crypto journey today, my first stop would be to learn everything I can about Runes and DeFi on Bitcoin in general.

Three years ago, I was early to crypto gaming - which continues to pay dividends today in the form of connections, expertise, and access to deals.

I think you can be early to Bitcoin DeFi today by intensely studying:

• The builders, investors & influencers in the space

• The most popular liquid assets - some of which could trade on MagicEden

• The biggest upcoming protocols (like Stacks’ Nakamoto upgrade)

• Any future trends people are talking about

I'd get an Xverse wallet and allocate some “tuition money”—$500 to $10,000, depending on your budget—just to make a bunch of mistakes and learn how it all works (I do this with all new chains or trends I want to explore).

I’d follow Dan Held and read the posts he wrote on Bitcoin DeFi here.

And finally, I’d go to all events/conferences on the subject. You tend to overhear things at events you won’t easily find online.

[On that note, I'll be at Token2049 in Dubai next week.

If you're around, let me know by replying to this email. Would love to meet you.]

If you do this, you’ll stumble upon unique gems on the world’s biggest crypto chain - Bitcoin. That’s exciting.

You don’t have to be the best in the world to be early. You just have to be better than most people.

And given how early we are in the Bitcoin DeFi space, I don’t think that’s very hard today.

• 🎯 Want to invest in early-stage crypto opportunities before everyone else?

  • Click here to join 2036 Private Investor (it’s free).

1/ ETH is looking shaky… or is it?

2/ Bitcoin’s halving is just 2 weeks away

3/ Bitcoin Runes coming to Magic Eden

If you didn’t catch it higher up - watch this:

DISCLAIMER: None of this is financial advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. Please be careful and do your own research.