“Once in a while you get shown the light… in the strangest of places if you look at it right.”
– Jerry Garcia
January 30, 2025 — And so it begins…
Three seemingly random ideas hitting our “inbox” at the same time — can’t be a coincidence. “Rabbit holes” don’t just appear on their own.
Yesterday, I had just wrapped up a brand-spanking-new Wiggin Session interview with Grey Swan Investment Fraternity Contributor Mark Jeftovic.
At the end, Mark Jeftovic was unpacking what he calls “hyperbitcoinization,” or the rapid increase and stabilization of digital assets in the global monetary system.
As I was digesting that, one of our researchers pointed to an op-ed in the Washington Post by Vlad Tenev.
To add to the intrigue, I had a report on my desk from Mike Huckabee, with whom we had a publishing relationship before President Trump appointed him as U.S. Ambassador to Israel.
On the cover, Huckabee summarized his analysis of Trump’s regulatory approach to Wall Street and the SEC thus: “Those on the right side of Trump’s investment policies will be millionaires. Those on the wrong side will be left behind.”
Et voila. Three ideas… no clear path.
So let’s make one.
Let’s begin with Tenev.
Vlad Tenev, the co-founder and CEO of Robinhood, argues that everyday investors are locked out of the best startup opportunities — companies like OpenAI and SpaceX — while the ultra-rich reap the rewards.
Meanwhile, retail investors are left playing in the high-risk sandbox of meme stocks, has-beens, and questionable IPOs.
Robinhood was supposed to be the great equalizer. Tenev and Baiju Bhatt launched the platform in 2013 with a promise: free and easy access to investing.
But in 2021, that promise came under fire when Robinhood restricted purchases of GameStop stock during its now-infamous short squeeze (other brokers did the same).
Many believed the move wasn’t about “protecting” investors but shielding hedge funds like Citadel Securities.
Tenev isn’t wrong about one thing: SEC regulations make it easier for the ultra-rich to access private markets while smaller investors get stuck with the lower-performing scraps.
But he fails to mention that Robinhood makes its money selling users’ trading data to Citadel, which then profits by front-running those trades.
In other words, when you put in a bid for Tesla Motors shares, you may pay a penny more as Citadel’s algorithms spoof some bids to drive up the price. A penny ain’t much, but do it a few billion times a day, and soon you’re talking real money.
That means that Robinhood, for all its populist branding, serves Wall Street’s biggest players first.
Now, the ground is shifting. The rise of digital assets and tokenization could finally open private markets to everyone from the ground up, not the bottom down.
Trump has made it clear in his second week in the White House that he’s pushing policies to accelerate blockchain-based investments, giving retail investors access to a playing field long dominated by insiders.
So, the real question isn’t whether the rules should change — they already are. It’s whether Tenev and companies like Robinhood will actually champion financial democratization or simply find new ways to funnel small investors into Wall Street’s favorite profit machine.
That’s the dilemma.
To solve it we need a good dose of Grey Swan methodology. As Gretzky said, we have to“skate to where the puck is going,” not sit on our arses and wait for the puck to come to us.
More to come as we connect the dots of populism (both political and financial)…
Regards,
Addison Wiggin,
Grey Swan
P.S. One of the places the financial puck is going is toward higher gold prices. The metal is close to hitting a new all-time dollar high of $2,800 per ounce. As promised, you can find our latest gold forecast here.
Fair warning: The headline number you see as a prediction for gold’s price has been dubbed “outrageous” by our publisher.
But after seeing our data, he’s also been pushing to get this info out as soon as possible. Take a look and judge for yourself. And let us know what you think: addison@greyswanfraternity.com
