Buddy, economic ninja here. Let's talk crypto today. We're going to talk about Ethereum. We're going to talk about Solana. I want to explain real quick as we jump into this, because Ethereum is really starting to pick up steam and value. Solana has been on an absolute terror. But for those of you that don't know what either of those are, imagine a platform that developers can build software on top of. 

And that entire ecosystem, that entire software, this is very basic, right? Is upheld not by servers owned by Amazon or IBM or these big corporations. It's upheld by people like you and me that run the protocol on our computers. It's completely decentralized, right, giving people the right and the ability to develop amazing applications that aren't held down by the government. However, they can figure out ways of holding those back by going and suing them, finding them, like what's going on with ripple and then dealing with the onramps. 

Right now, I know it sounds crazy, but we're in that second phase of crypto explosion where the knowledge, when I started this, we were considered, I don't remember the phases, but it was like the first set of people that jumped in on this technology. And I believe there's a lot of money to be made in 2024 in crypto. And so we're going to go over a story right now about these two platforms and talk about ether, because right now, and this is out of CNBC, ether rallies 6% in catch up trade. 

As investors position themselves for January, they're preparing themselves for something big. Now, I will say this every time there's a stock market correction, a deep dive in the stock market, crypto also goes down accordingly. So be careful, okay. Also, if you keep your stuff on exchange, I pray for your mercy, because if you don't hold your private keys, you don't own the crypto and you need to learn how to do it. 

My favorite way of holding it. I've got lots of different devices. I use a trezor. I like the Model T. I'll put a link down in the description below so you know that you're following the right path. But we're also seeing banks not wanting to allow you to. I just heard of a credit union in Florida not allowing its customers to wire funds to their own Gemini coinbase Kraken accounts. 

Very interesting times right now that we're seeing. I used to tell people in my family, if you don't hurry up and buy, you're never going to be able to buy. I know it sounds crazy. And they now go, well, look, I can open a coinbase account. I'm like, well, that's not how I was referring to buying. Those are on ramps and off ramps that now the government controls. 

But it doesn't mean that there's still not amazing value and amazing opportunities to make money in this. Okay, so here we go. It says the price of ether jumped on Wednesday as investors moved into the cryptocurrency ahead of key upside catalysts expected in January. Ether, or ETH is its symbol, was higher by 6%, according to coin metrics. Salana's Sol token among the top performers in crypto this year was up 2%. 

It's starting to stall its price. I'm wanting to see a pullback in that one before I pick anything up. I don't want to Fomo into any of these. We believe it's attributed to a rotation from Solana back into Ethereum. That's what they're referring to, the ecosystem from other layer one. So not just a Salana, but imagine these different layers of applications and layer one being the one that's a decentralized platform that computer coders can actually build applications on top of. 

And then they use that ecosystem, that layer one ecosystem, to move and make the machine work. So he says, which so far have outperformed ETH, Needlehem analyst John Tordano told CNBC. Solana and Avax, among others, have outperformed Ethereum. And now Ethereum is playing catch up on the rotation. Ether has trailed Salana through 2023. This month, it's up about 15% compared to Salana's tokens, 82% gain. I mean, Salana has been on an absolute tear. 

That's why me personally, I wouldn't be buying at these levels. I'd wait for a pullback, right? A reset. And it looks like that's what's happening to me right now. But I'm not a financial advisor, so don't take my advice. That's just what I'm doing. I'm waiting for a pullback on the year. Ether has advanced 95%, while Salana has soared more than 980%. Think about that. Can you imagine buying something and making 980% in a year? It's totally possible. 

I've done that. In September, I bought some mining stocks and they're up over well, between six and ten times their value. It's totally possible, and everybody can do it. You just need to be in the right things. But you also have to be diversified. Now, Ether's rise on Wednesday signals that the market is finally rotating into an ETH centric trade, though it probably will not fully manifest until after the US spot bitcoin ETF receives appropriate regulatory approval, said Maximo, a senior research analyst at Grayscale Investments. 

Ethereum's on chain activity remains extremely strong, meaning that the network is seeing a lot of transactions. The network is very alive and vibrant. There are still tons of companies diving in and building applications and software on top of Ethereum. So I believe it is less of if rather than when ETH will catch up. Investors are watching two key events in January. The first is Ethereum's big Denkun upgrade, expected around January 17. 

So that's going to get a lot of attention in the news, the media, especially stories like this where Ethereum's price is catching up. So investors are wanting to move from one platform to the theorem, purchasing that one, to see that price rise. So you have to see how the news cycle is going, right? So between that and this upgrade, upgrading its software for lack of better terms, I just want to keep this real simple. 

That's going to bring a lot more buyers into this market. Investors have also been closely monitoring developments in the potential approval by the US securities and Exchange Commission of a spot bitcoin exchange traded fund. The decision is widely expected to come in January. I'm just going to say throw in my two cent. I believe it is going to absolutely happen. And what that is going to do, this is why it's such a big deal. 

It is going to allow so many pensions and private equity funds to be able to buy the ETF, which will then cause a demand for the actual bitcoin, ethereum, some other currencies, depending on what's in these spot etfs, because they're going to have to buy it and secure it for their exchange traded fund, thus taking a certain amount of crypto off of the market and locked up for investors. 

Okay, see, because not every hedge fund or they just can't invest in everything. They have these things called prospectus and they write down what they invest in and you authorize it and go, okay, I'm going to invest in this because I like what you're investing in. They're not allowed to invest in these cryptos. So that ETF, that spot ETF is going to allow a flood of investment and speculation, remember that word, into this market, okay? So when that does happen, and the closer we get, there's more anticipation. 

So investors like myself keep buying up crypto anticipation of this. When it happens, it's going to create a massive demand that hasn't been there ever before for certain cryptocurrencies. Okay. Now some investors are trading on optimism that if the spot bitcoin ETF gets the green light, that would bode well for the potential of a spot ether ETF. Toronto said. So again, remember this, bitcoin ETF does not include ether, but that's exactly what they're looking for. 

And I do believe that there will be a day where you'll see Ethereum in exchange traded funds. It's such a big platform now, and it has completely revolutionized the way that developers use blockchain technology to run their applications for not only transparency, but uptime. That's very important to realize, too. We see these hacks happening around the world and servers, and you can't hack into these systems when they're running because the computers all have to agree on everything that's going on, and it's very powerful. 

Those Computers are spread all over the world. And so I am looking for a pullback right now on Solana. So I'm not a buyer right now. I'm looking into that very heavily. I'm still heavy into XRP. I still have my digibyte. I've still got a lot of different cryptocurrencies. OXT is one. I'm looking for game changing protocol, revolution in the cryptocurrency space. That's what I'm looking for. Stop looking at cryptocurrency. 

If you know anything about it as just money, fake money, and look at it as a protocol that backs up data that cannot be hacked, because it's not just one server farm owned by Amazon. It's not one server that the Democrats own in Ukraine. Think about that. It's computers all around the world keeping that information moving and relevant and secure. That's how serious this is. Hope you got something out of this. 

If you do not know how to store your crypto off of an exchange, you need to start learning right now. I use treasure. The Model T is my favorite with the touch screen. I'll put a link down to that below. And they just lowered the price, so it's a great time if you haven't bought one. But there's lots of other options out there. There's ledgers. Not a big fan. 

I've got them, but there's all kinds of options out there. Okay? So just make sure your stuff is secure. Hope you have a great day. The economic ninja is out. Bye. .