The Digital Credit Podcast Episode 3 | Matthew Tuttle

Timothy Kotzman (0:00)

Welcome back to The Digital Credit Podcast. I'm Tim Kotzman. Today, I'm joined by Matthew Tuttle, CEO of Tuttle Capital Management, one of the more innovative ETF issuers in the market, and someone who has built a reputation around finding opportunities that traditional asset managers often overlook.

Most recently, Tuttle Capital partnered with Strive Asset Management to launch DCAP, the T-Strive Digital Credit Preferred Income ETF, focused on preferred securities like Strategies, STRC, and Strives, SATA. Matthew, welcome to the Digital Credit Podcast.

Matthew Tuttle (0:39)

Thank you very much for having me.

Timothy Kotzman (0:42)

Thanks for doing this on a Saturday also.

Matthew Tuttle (0:44)

No, not a problem. What's a Saturday?

Timothy Kotzman (0:47)

Exactly. Things are moving quick. Maybe we could start with your background before digital credit existed and before you found Bitcoin.

For our audience, whatever you'd like to share from your bed.

Matthew Tuttle (1:02)

Yeah. So BDC, I guess. So I started investing in 1981

I was on Wall Street in the 90s, saw the Internet bubble. What I saw passed for advice horrified me. Ended up forming my own wealth management firm in the early 2000s. Had other wealth managers see what we're doing. Because my thoughts about investment management, asset allocation are different.

And wanted us to start managing money for them. Formed a money management firm, found it was easier to manage money using ETFs. Started launching ETFs in 2015 Sitting here now, I mean, we've got 79 or 80 of them, about 6 billion in assets. And just scratching the surface on where we want to go with this. So been a fun ride, but definitely looking forward to the next 10, 20, 30 years.

Timothy Kotzman (2:10)

What was the Bitcoin journey like for you? Was there one conversation or did you see it for time after time after time, and then finally something clicked?

Matthew Tuttle (2:21)

Yeah. So I wish I could say, oh yeah, I bought it at 10 and hold it and wrote it all the way up.

I didn't. What it was for me was iBit. I think iBit was a game changer because that really allowed, I'm 57 years old. I'm not going to set up an account at some crypto broker. I'm used to buying ETS. There are probably a lot of people like me as well, but iBit opened it up to financial advisors. Now, you're seeing a whole ecosystem. You're seeing digital credit. You're seeing Bitcoin Treasury.

To me now, it is a real asset class. It's got some history. I don't believe past returns, past performance equals future results, but I think you can get an idea what to expect.

From what I look at, it's a real asset class. And iBit was what really said to me like, all right, this belongs in my portfolio, and it belongs in client portfolios, and it's an asset that's got staying power. So I was not an early adopter. I'm a big fan now. We do ETF model portfolios for advisors, for retail. And we're probably on the higher end. When you look at like financial advisors or retail people, look, you should have 12.5% of your portfolio dedicated to crypto assets. And we think that's half Bitcoin and half digital credit.

Timothy Kotzman (4:10)

Interesting.

Can you give some perspective for the audience on BlackRock? Maybe who BlackRock is? What do you say that you saw iBit, which is sponsored by BlackRock, it's their product. Like, can you talk about BlackRock versus like the rest of the market? And of course, there's Fidelity and on and on and on. But some of these bigger players, I presume carry weight and credibility in the space. Is that kind of what is underscoring your statement there?

Matthew Tuttle (4:43)

Yeah. I mean, you know, BlackRock, depending on who you ask, they're the evil empire or, you know, the New York Yankees of EPS. But what they have is it got a lock and load with the big wirehouses, the Merrill Lynch's, the Morgan Stanley's, all those guys.

So, you know, if I launched a Bitcoin ETF, you'd have independent advisors buying it, but you don't have the wirehouses buying it. And by BlackRock doing it, it just opens it up to pretty much the entire world because their stuff is approved everywhere. So that to me is just it was a game changer. And then obviously, I mean, there's a lot of different personalities in there. And everyone who's big that isn't is getting into it. Now, doesn't mean Bitcoin is going to a million. It just means Bitcoin is probably not going to go to zero.

And I think it's an asset class you can comfortably own. And again, owning it in an ETF, when you're an old fart like me, there's a comfort level versus a cold wallet or some crypto broker that you're worried quantum computers are going to hack into.