AI is about to revolutionize money and banking. Here’s how to profit

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Today’s issue in preview:

• AI is about to revolutionize money and banking. Here’s how to profit

• This giant trend is creating more stock market winners than any other

• One of the world’s most important infrastructure firms just reached an all-time high. That’s good for you.

• Learn our Top Themes to buy now

AI is about to revolutionize money and banking. Here’s how to profit

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Over the past two weeks, we have written a special series of research notes on the coming revolution in money, finance, and investing.

In short, the confluence of AI and blockchain technology is about to revolutionize how we save, spend, transfer, and invest our money. This revolution is poised to generate enormous gains in the stock market and cryptocurrency markets.

For example, we’ve singled out cryptocurrency exchange and infrastructure firm Coinbase (COIN) and stablecoin firm Circle Internet Group (CRCL) as companies poised to benefit from the coming revolution.

But as you review the investment landscape here, don’t forget about the foundation much of it runs on: Ethereum.

Ethereum is the foundation on which stablecoins run. It’s where most tokenized assets are held. It’s the global infrastructure layer for this revolution in money.

Ethereum is not a company or a stock. Instead, it is a blockchain network that enables developers to build applications and execute smart contracts – programs that automatically execute transactions when certain conditions are met. Its native cryptocurrency, Ether (ETH), is used to pay transaction fees.

Think of Ethereum as a computer that everyone can use… one with powerful financial utility.

Right now, when you send money or buy a stock, there are middlemen: banks, brokers, clearing houses, agents, etc. They’re the recordkeepers, and they maintain the ledger that says who owns what.

Ethereum replaces those middlemen with something called a blockchain. This is a shared, tamper-proof record book maintained by thousands of computers simultaneously around the world. No single bank or government can control it.

But Ethereum didn’t stop at just being the recordkeeper. Its founders built it to be programmable, so developers can run code on top of it. This means that:

• Money can be sent when certain conditions are met

• Issuance of digital versions of stock can be given

• A loan can be created that manages itself

This programmability and adaptability make Ethereum the key blockchain above all other blockchains.

And this is why the majority of stablecoins – the “dollars that computers use” as we’ve described them – run on Ethereum.

USDC, the stablecoin issued by Circle, settles on Ethereum. Most of the stablecoin volume processed by Visa runs through Ethereum.

In fact, Ethereum currently holds a 53% share of all decentralized finance activity globally.

Here’s a key part to understand: ETH is not a stock in a company. There is no corporate balance sheet, no earnings calls, and no claims on anyone’s profits.

It is the asset that makes this shared computer run – the fuel for every stablecoin transfer, every tokenized share, and every self-executing loan built on top of it. You are not buying equity in Ethereum.

You can purchase ETH directly through crypto exchanges such as Coinbase, but it does not sit inside a standard brokerage account the way a stock does.

For many investors, particularly those who prefer to stay within their existing brokerage and don’t want to manage crypto wallets… buying ETH can be outside their comfort zone.

This is where Bitmine Immersion Technologies (BMNR) can come in handy.

BMNR is a publicly traded company on the NYSE that gives you a leveraged bet on the Ethereum trade. The company has adopted an aggressive Ethereum treasury strategy. Rather than holding cash or bonds, BMNR has accumulated ETH at an incredible scale. It holds approximately 5.9 million ETH tokens. It is the largest corporate owner of ETH in the world.

It’s a similar strategy to what Michael Saylor has employed at Strategy (MSTR) (formerly MicroStrategy), raising capital to accumulate Bitcoin. Bitmine is pursuing the same playbook to buy more ETH.

BMNR has performed poorly during this crypto pullback, but over the last month, it has risen 37%, reaching fresh three-month highs. This makes it a stock to watch for a continued breakout.

Ethereum isn’t just part of the AI-native finance revolution we have been detailing in Money & Megatrends. In many respects, it is the revolution.

This giant trend is creating more stock market winners than any other

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The bull market in “Boomer healthcare” we’ve been writing so much about got even stronger yesterday.

Pharmaceutical giants Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) and Bristol Myers Squibb (BMY) reached new all-time highs.

J&J is one of the world’s largest healthcare companies. It focuses on prescription drugs and medical devices, such as orthopedic implants and cardiovascular devices. The company’s blood cancer treatment, Darzalex, is one of the top-selling drugs in the world, with annual sales over $14 billion.

For years, J&J had a large consumer product division that sold Tylenol, Band-Aids, and Listerine, but that business was spun off in 2023 into a company called Kenvue (KVUE).

Bristol Myers Squibb is a major pharmaceutical company concentrated in oncology, hematology, cardiovascular disease and immunology. Its biggest products include Eliquis (blood thinner), Opdivo (cancer immunotherapy) and Revlimid (multiple myeloma).

For more than three years, I’ve made “Boomer health care” one of my highest conviction long-term investment themes. This means I’ve been bullish on biotech, genomics, and healthcare in general. In more than 20 Money & Megatrends research notes over the past year, we’ve been very bullish on stocks and ETFs related to this trend.

Regular readers are familiar with the bull case here. More than 10,000 Americans reach retirement age every day. The U.S. population aged 80 and older is projected to roughly double, from 14.7 million in 2025 to 29.4 million by 2045.

This is the enormous Baby Boom generation entering the phase of life where health care and longevity spending skyrocket. For many boomers, a typical month involves going to see at least one doctor to have something looked at, removed, or treated.

This means many health care businesses are experiencing huge demand now – and will for at least the next decade. It means boom times ahead for many “ology” businesses, stocks, and careers. Dermatology. Cardiology. Radiology. Oncology. Anesthesiology. Ophthalmology. The list goes on.

Investing in many healthcare businesses over the next decade will be investing with a gale-force tailwind at your back. If you’re a parent and worried about your child getting a job, just point them to the booming healthcare industry. The new highs generated by two of the largest leaders show this bull market is alive and well.

The strong demographic tailwinds described above are driving powerful revenue and profit growth for companies like Johnson & Johnson and Bristol Myers Squibb. Given the very long-term nature of this trend, we expect to see many more new highs in the healthcare sector.

One of the world’s most important infrastructure firms just reached an all-time high. That’s good for you.

Credit: Maudib

If you’re looking for a reason to feel optimistic about the global economy over the weekend, look no further:

The world’s largest public steelmaker by production – ArcelorMittal (MT) – just reached an all-time high.

That’s a bullish economic signal. And it’s a great signal for your 401(k).

ArcelorMittal is one of the most important companies that most people have never heard of. MT was created in 2006 through the merger of European steel giant Arcelor and Indian steel giant Mittal Steel.

Headquartered in Luxembourg, ArcelorMittal produces roughly 55-60 million metric tons of steel annually, with major operations across Europe, North America, South America, and Africa. Its steel is used in automobiles, construction, infrastructure, machinery, appliances, and energy projects.

Unlike many steelmakers, ArcelorMittal is also vertically integrated, owning substantial iron ore and coal mining operations that supply raw materials to its mills. The company produces everything from automotive-grade sheet steel to heavy plate and structural products.

In today’s high-tech world of iPhones, ChatGPT, video streaming, and Instagram, it’s easy to forget our world is built on a low-tech foundation of steel, concrete, and lumber.

Steel is a major component of bridges, cars, trucks, electric grids, ships, pipes, factories, construction equipment, and skyscrapers. This makes the steel industry highly sensitive to the economy’s ups and downs. When the economy booms, the steel industry booms with it. When the economy busts, so does the steel business.

Over the past eight months, I’ve written over a dozen research notes analyzing the soaring share prices of similar highly economically sensitive industry groups, including trucking stocks, railroad stocks, regional banks, manufacturing stocks, shopping mall operators, and hotel chains.

At the end of each note, I pointed to their soaring stock prices and told readers that the U.S. economy is doing much better than most people think.

These economically sensitive firms are important “real world” indicators. They almost always do a better job of telling us what is happening in the economy than any media outlet or economist. And their uptrends are moving in a bullish upward direction for the global economy as a whole.

Driven by strong demand, MT’s latest earnings report detailed 5% annual revenue growth and 11% EBITDA growth. MT’s stock is up 138% over the past year and reached a new all-time high today.

Does the global economy have imbalances and big problems? Of course. It always does. But making money in stocks is never the result of a problem-free economic environment. It’s always about being in an environment where the big problems are overwhelmed by the even bigger positives.

Right now, these bigger positives are sending MT to new all-time highs. The world’s largest steelmaker does not do this when the economy is weak.

Market Notes

• The bull market in agriculture we’ve been detailing just drove farm equipment giant CNH Industrial (CNH) to a new one-year high.

• Apparel giant Lululemon (LULU) dropped 17% this morning to reach a new one-year low after reporting weak earnings and guidance.

• The WisdomTree Emerging Markets High Dividend Fund (DEM) reached a new all-time high today.

• The iShares Singapore ETF (EWS) reached a new all-time high today.

• Oil shipping giant Frontline (FRO) reached a new one-year high today.

Regards,

Brian Hunt
Editor, Money & Megatrends

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