My Crypto “Currency Exchange Kiosk”

Every so often, I like to start a dispatch with a graphic of some sort because it sets the tone for the story to come.

So, a graphic….

That’s the left-hand side of a spreadsheet I built so that I can track my trading and my returns by way of a particular crypto strategy I’m employing these days.

I mentioned this in a presentation I gave at International Living’s conference in Vegas last month. I call it my “Currency Kiosk Money Machine.”

I am not going to spend the rest of today’s dispatch explaining this strategy because it can get very inside-baseball very quickly, and I know not everyone wants to clog their brain with a lot of crypto minutiae.

But we’ve reached historic prices with bitcoin. Solana has set a new all-time high. (Both were predicted here in Field Notes). And money is flowing through crypto today like water over Niagara Falls.

And I want you to see an example of what money—in this case, passive income—flowing through crypto can look like.

Thus… that graphic.

Yes, but what is that colorful jumble of numbers telling me, El Jefe?

A darn fine question, and I’m glad you asked.

The chart, in the gray box labeled Total Value of Tokens is saying that I have earned nearly $1,100 in just over two weeks off an average invested amount of just over $5,300—an annualized return of more than 340%, assuming the same returns happen over a year’s worth of 16-day periods.

I am not mad at that!

The best part: I’m taking no risk other than the risk that crypto prices fall, which is exactly the risk I’d be taking simply by holding crypto.

In my version, I’m holding crypto—specifically, tokens I want to own long-term—and I am making bank by serving as what is effectively a currency exchange kiosk. No different, really, than landing in London and heading to a currency exchange booth to swap dollars for British pounds. The booth owner (me) has no real risk other than currency risk, and keeps a small fee, based on the size of the transaction, as profit.

In simplest terms, I’ve taken two cryptocurrencies—and I’ve paired them in equal portion in a single deposit and made that pair available to whoever wants to come along and trade between them.

Both crypto are hugely popular on the Solana blockchain. Solana (SOL) is the grand poohbah of that blockchain and Jupiter (JUP) is the token for Jupiter Exchange—a site where crypto traders go to trade crypto for any number of reasons.

Frankly, I don’t care what those reasons are.

All I care about is that they need to trade between SOL and JUP for some reason.

Because with every one of those trades, I collect a small fee.

Clearly, those small fees add up because of the volume of trading that occurs between SOL and JUP.

On that chart, look at the lavender and mint colored columns on the right. That’s the JUP and SOL I’ve earned in each transactional period, which can range from a few hours to a few days.

At the top of those columns, the light gray box summarizes my haul: I’ve collected more than 450 Jupiter tokens and more than 2.2 Solana in 16 days, worth a combined $1,074 at current market prices.

Again, I will reiterate that I’ve collected that income on an average investment amount of basically $5,300. (As each transactional period ends, I reclaim my initial investment and then set up another transactional period. Each period is a bit different based on how much JUP/SOL I deposit and the price of both crypto at that moment. I’m taking the average of all the various periods.)

I honestly do not know where one can earn nearly $1,075 on a $5,300 investment in 16 days.

Ah, but what is the risk, El Jefe? Might you go broke and start begging for cat food on the streets of Lisbon?

Well, here’s the risk:

• A crypto crash sends the price of each token sharply lower. If so, then the US dollar value of my account shrinks.

Absent a crash, then the risk I face is:

• If the price of Solana goes up relative to Jupiter, traders will buy all my Solana and leave me with a big bag of Jupiter tokens; or if Jupiter rises against Solana, traders will gobble up all my Jupiter and leave me with nothing but Solana.
• Whichever bag I end up with means, by definition, that the value of the other bag is higher. (Think of a see-saw, one person rises, the other falls. Same with crypto pairs, or any fiat currency pair.)

But ask me: Do I care?

Do you care, El Jefe?

No. No, I do not. Not in the slightest.

Not even remotely.

See, I’m perfectly happy owning either one of those cryptocurrencies. I like them both. It’s like choosing between a $100 bill, or five $20s. What does it matter to me? Both crypto are solid projects, so I don’t see a distinction that makes me prize one over the other.

And either way, I’m collecting a constant stream of trading fees.

Moreover, I’m using both currencies to fund a trading platform. Today, I might end up with all Jupiter. Tomorrow, I might end up with all Solana. Six of one, a half-dozen of the other. SOL and JUP move relative to one another. It might well be that SOL and JUP both moved higher, but one moved slightly higher relative to the other. So I could end up with a bag of JUP that is actually worth more than my initial deposit because JUP’s price is higher now.

I share that just so you understand why I really don’t care whether I end up with JUP or SOL.

I’m good with all of that because we’re in a much bigger crypto bull run now. Bitcoin near $100,000 is capturing the world’s attention. More and more and more institutional money is flowing into bitcoin. More and more and more real-world companies like Visa, PayPal, Shopify and others are moving their financial services onto the blockchain.

I see huge opportunity ahead.

Now, here at the bottom, I need to say that the point of this column isn’t that I’ve earned nearly $1,075 in 16 days. It’s that the possibility to do so even exists.

(And by the way, I’ll be creating a video masterclass soon for subscribers of my specialist crypto research service, Frontier Fortunes, that shows you exactly how to play the same strategy I’m using.)

This is one of the many—many!—ways that crypto is changing the world around us, very often without boomers and Xers realizing these kinds of changes are taking place or that these kinds of changes are ushering in these sorts of crazy-money opportunities.

This is why I try to get everyone (who will listen) to put some wealth in crypto now. Learn all you can about the technology and where the opportunities lie for earning passive income through the many decentralized finance sites that have emerged.

Yes, we are at record highs in bitcoin and other cryptos, and you might think the fat lady is already warming up backstage.

Truth is, the fat lady is here at the party.

But she’s not here to sing, she’s here to get rich with the rest of us who have been stacking away crypto for years now.

What I’m saying is that you’re not too late.

Bitcoin $100k wasn’t the goal.

It’s just the starting point for what comes next…