In 2003, Chris Moneymaker entered the 2003 World Series of Poker. He’d won a ticket to the event at an online tournament with a buy-in of $650.
At the time, Moneymaker was an unknown. Few people thought the accountant from Spring Hill, Tennessee, could win against legends like Robert Varkonyi, Dan Harrington, and Phil Ivey.
But to the surprise of everyone, Moneymaker took home the $2.5 million grand prize.
It’s considered one of the greatest upsets in gaming history – akin to Buster Douglas’ epic knockout of Mike Tyson in February 1990.
At the time, “Iron Mike” was the undisputed heavyweight champion. With 33 knockouts under his belt, he entered the match a 42-1 favorite against Douglas.
According to the defunct website Poker Listings, Moneymaker was the first person to win the World Series after qualifying online.
So he was poker’s equivalent to Douglas.
“I was a little underestimated because no one knew who I was,” he said after winning the grand prize. “If I can win it, anybody can.”
After his incredible run, poker mania took off. Everyone wanted to be the next Chris Moneymaker.
His story ignited the “Moneymaker effect.”
Nearly 2 million people watched Moneymaker on TV as he became a millionaire from seemingly nothing overnight. Everyone began to ask themselves, why not me?
The number of entries to the World Series of Poker increased from 839 in 2003 to 8,773 in 2006. And the prize pool jumped from $7.8 million to $82.5 million.
But the mania didn’t just stop there…
Revenue from online poker sites exploded from $300 million in 2003 to $3.3 billion by 2006. That’s a 1,000% increase in just three years.
Here’s why I’m telling you this… We’re about to see a similar Moneymaker effect in crypto.
Crypto Mania Returns
Last month, crypto saw a similar Moneymaker effect.
In fact, one trader who posted on X (formerly Twitter) turned $16,000 into $10.8 million in under two months during the Bonk (BONK) token craze.
Now, if you haven’t heard of BONK, don’t worry. There’s nothing special about the token.
It’s simply another meme coin like DOGE. Most people expected it to go to zero.
But Solana issued BONK as part of its ecosystem. In crypto, major projects like Solana sometimes issue new tokens as an incentive for people to adopt their platforms.
I won’t get into the weeds here, but Solana is a major rival to Ethereum. So it’s a legit blockchain ecosystem… and a favorite of us at Palm Beach Research Group.
However, Solana had ties to the FTX scandal. Again, no need to get into the details here… But the association tarnished Solana. From its peak of $260 in 2021, it crashed to $8.
But since September 2023, Solana has seen a huge resurgence. And it’s up 1,163% since its low in December 2022.
That crushes the returns of bitcoin and Ethereum, which are up 155% and 90%, respectively, over the same span.
To take advantage of this move, many crypto traders began to bet on BONK becoming the next Dogecoin (more on DOGE below),
This frenzy sent BONK from an $8 million market cap to nearly $1.6 billion in just two months. That’s a 20,000% increase.
The hype surrounding the token was so massive, speculators were buying Solana’s Saga smartphones that came with some BONK tokens for $5,000. Just a few months earlier, the phone retailed for just $600.
The BONK token gained so much attraction and trading volume on decentralized exchanges that Coinbase listed it last month.
It was an instant success.
In its first 24 hours of trading on Coinbase, BONK generated $238 million in trading volume. All for a token worth just $8 million two months ago that no one cared about.
But Coinbase isn’t the only exchange seeing a surge in usage. Last month, Robinhood reported a 75% increase in monthly crypto trading volume.
Now, I’m not telling you this because I think BONK is the next great token to buy.
I’m telling you this because a handful of traders made millions on BONK’s run-up – sparking a Moneymaker effect. And it’s attracting retail investors back into crypto after a brutal bear market.
We saw a similar phenomenon with Dogecoin in 2020.
As you may recall, Dogecoin launched as a joke in 2013. It was never meant to be taken seriously.
But when DOGE became a favorite of tech guru Elon Musk, retail investors took notice.
They latched onto the meme coin. And it became known as “the people’s currency” due to its nominally low price and rabid fan base.
This led to massive inflows from retail investors… and helped fuel the crypto bull run of 2021. In other words, it was another Moneymaker effect.
Over the next five months, crypto markets would add nearly $2 trillion in value as retail money poured into the space.
My point is, you might think a meme coin is stupid and senseless.
But when conditions are perfectly aligned, you can make life-changing gains as money pours into the space from the Moneymaker effect.
And right now, we could be on the cusp of the greatest crypto bull market of all time.
This Bull Market Is Just Getting Started
On January 10, our government has set a deadline that could trigger the biggest wealth-building opportunity in the history of crypto.
And according to Daily editor Teeka Tiwari, this opportunity could give you the chance to reach your Freedom Number in 2024.
What’s a Freedom Number? To quote Teeka, it’s simply “the amount of money you need to live the life you want.”
On Tuesday, January 9, at 8 p.m. ET, Teeka is holding an urgent strategy session called Freedom 2024.
During this briefing, Teeka will tell you what this opportunity is… And why it will give millions of everyday folks the chance to hit their Freedom Number.
Teeka says the biggest gains will happen in a tiny subsector of the crypto market. But I want to be clear: These are NOT meme coins.
These are altcoins that have a special feature hardwired into their code that we believe will make them especially attractive to institutional investors. (Teeka will give you all the details at his special briefing.)
I’d wager that 99.9% of people have never heard of this tiny niche of cryptos. That’s how tiny this opportunity is now.
But once people see the types of gains you can make from these tokens, the Moneymaker effect will kick in.
If you want a chance to reach your Freedom Number in 2024, you have to focus on this subsector of the crypto market that accounts for less than 1% of all coins.
Look, no one thought Chris Moneymaker would kickstart poker mania. Or that DOGE would run to nearly $90 billion and become one of the biggest winners in crypto history.
Sometimes you just need a spark to ignite a frenzy. And we might see a similar Moneymaker effect starting January 10.
So don’t delay. Make sure to sign up for Teeka’s Freedom 2024 event today. If you wait and just watch the replay later, it could be too late.
Regards,
Houston Molnar
Analyst, Palm Beach Daily
P.S. There’s one critical step you need to take to make the most out of this event: Click here to enroll in Teeka’s (optional) free VIP reminder alert service. When you do, we’ll send you reminders to make sure you don’t miss Teeka’s strategy session.
This is very important because when you join on January 9, you might have less than 24 hours to act. If you wait and just watch the replay later, it could be too late.
Plus, by becoming a VIP, you’ll get access to a brand-new report called How to Get Free Ethereum With One Click. Inside this report, Teeka will tell you about a website that can put you in a position to get free Ethereum with just one click.