Best buds Spencer & Jake are still bullish on Bitcoin

By Ben Westcott, Chronicle Staff Writer

When The Chronicle first profiled Bitcoin investors and Glens Falls residents Jake Zanoni and Spencer Bray in 2018, Bitcoin was worth around $10,000, Spencer said.

As of March 4, it was worth $67,334.

“We both are very much believers that we are at the very beginning stages of a new bull run right now,” Spencer said. “We could see Bitcoin exceed $100,000 within the year.”

Jake, 29, and Spencer, 28, friends since they met in sixth grade at Glens Falls Middle School, have been investing in Bitcoin since their early 20s.

“Together, we both kind of stumbled upon it,” Spencer said. “It was 2016 when we first started hearing about crypto [shorthand for cryptocurrency], so we just started doing more research, and then slowly started buying it, trading it, and becoming more involved.”

Jake says, “Obviously at that time I was a young, broke college kid, so it was theory at that point. Now it’s practice.”

Simple curiosity was a lot of what got the two interested. “At the time, there was even more of an element that people didn’t really know what the heck cryptocurrency was,” Jake said. “Both of us are fairly curious as far as novel ideas and new technologies, and really wanting to understand what the potential implications for things like that could be.”

So what is Bitcoin? “The simplest way I would explain it is that it’s a medium for the exchange of value,” Jake said.

“The biggest reason it’s so revolutionary is that it’s trustless. Bitcoin isn’t a person, it’s not an institution, it doesn’t have a board of directors or anything like that. I could send you Bitcoin, and you know without knowing anything about me that you now have Bitcoin in your wallet.”
Still confused? You’re not alone.

“Trying to explain it to my grandparents, they’re like this is crazy sounding, I’m going to stick to my stocks,” Jake said with a laugh.

But as digital natives, Spencer and Jake, get it. “We grew up with computers, we grew up with a lot of this technology, and we’re pretty savvy with it,” Spencer said. “And I think being savvy with that type of technology is definitely beneficial if you’re going to jump into crypto.”

Jake said the majority of his investment portfolio these days is in “conventional” investments. But 25% is in cryptocurrency. “It’s the obvious amount, at least for somebody who’s knowledgeable about it, because it’s such an asymmetric trade,” he said.

“It’s definitely very volatile,” Spencer added. “You don’t want to put in any more money than you’re willing to lose. Slowly acquiring it and potentially looking at some sort of exit strategy is also very wise.”

Jake’s biggest cryptocurrency investment is with XRP, the native crypto for a company called Ripple. Spencer’s ‘biggest plays’ are in Bitcoin and Ethereum, with a little bit of Litecoin and XRP.

The duo typically sticks to ‘blue chip cryptos,’ i.e. cryptocurrencies that are pretty well established.

Spencer and Jake mostly invest individually now, but still share secrets.

“If either of us discovers an opportunity, the other one’s like the first one on the phone,” Jake said. “We’re constantly sharing information about what we see and thoughts about how the market’s moving. Which is good, because the power of two brains is always better than one. It’s really an effective team approach.”

Jake adds, “I think Spencer likes a little bit more risk than I do, so he’ll come across more opportunities that I’m not necessarily interested in, but he always lets me know regardless.”

Spencer said, “We never really disagree. I think our brains work very similarly together.”

So where is cryptocurrency headed?

“I think it’s still very much in the potential phase right now,” Jake said.

“The financial drag that currently exists between transactions and waiting for payments and things like that will just disappear. It will start to be a lot more instantaneous.”

Jake cautions that investing in cryptocurrency isn’t for the faint of heart, or the uninformed. “I think probably 99% of people shouldn’t get into it,” he said. “Just because probably most people will lose money.

“If you are really serious about it, then I personally think it’s a fantastic investment, but you have to be able to hold through watching your account go through swings. The swings that can occur in crypto are so much more volatile than anything you’ll see in the stock market. The average person is just not emotionally equipped to handle that.”

Aside from investing, Spencer is part-owner of Realize Brokers in Glens Falls and is a licensed private pilot.

Jake is a quality engineer for Becton, Dickinson in Queensbury.

Both guys intend to stay in Glens Falls.

“My family’s here,” Jake said. “I love the Adirondacks. I’m a big outdoors guy. To have a technical job that I really enjoy where in the summertime you can be barbecuing on one of the islands in Lake George 40 minutes after getting out of work — that’s a fantastic location. So for me, the location as far as career, family and extracurriculars — you can’t beat it.”

Spencer said, “I’ve lived here my whole life. The connections that can help me through business and with crypto and some of these other ventures are quite important.”

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