Kellen Ainey (00:00)
Hi everyone, welcome back to the Ask Andrew podcast. Once again, we're joined by Andrew Slade. Thank you for coming back, Andrew.
Andrew Sleigh (00:06)
Great to be back. Thank you very much, Kellen.
Kellen Ainey (00:09)
So I have four more questions from our viewers and with everything that's happening in the world, I feel like they're some pretty good questions. So why don't we dive right in?
So do cryptocurrencies affect the value or demand of precious metals like gold, silver or platinum? And if so, what are the direct impacts we could see from big movements in the cryptocurrency markets?
Andrew Sleigh (00:31)
I think that's an excellent question. ⁓ So I would say that cryptos do have an impact on the price of precious metals. ⁓ They were brought on to the ⁓ scene roughly 12, 13 years ago, I think now. And that's almost like an engineered program where it gave people that wanted to be out of the markets instead of going into gold and silver, they went into cryptos and they promoted the heck out of those.
And it's been long said that if Bitcoin and such weren't around, gold would have been doing the same thing that Bitcoin did. So from that aspect, if these cryptos weren't around, that money would have gone into silver and gold. And that would have been a huge ⁓ uptake on physical demand. So in a reverse kind of way, yes, it was used to manipulate, to give somebody else something else to buy.
and not go after gold and silver, so that helps suppress the price and keep the demand low. And if they hadn't been introduced, then of course prices of gold and silver would have been sky high.
Kellen Ainey (01:40)
Now, of course, they're both alternative investments. They're outside of the New York Stock Exchange, all of the above. What are the specific benefits of investing into precious metals as opposed to crypto?
Andrew Sleigh (01:53)
Well, number one would be counterparty risk. So when you have a crypto, you have no control of anything. You don't own anything. It's, you know, ask anyone to put their crypto in their hand and show it to you. Like, what is it? It's nothing more than a digital one and zero, on a laptop or somewhere in space. And, just look at the people that lost hundreds of millions on various exchanges that were hacked or.
or shut down or, you know, in Canada, we had that laptop that had 120 million of people's investments in it that the guy died and nobody else had the password. so the 120 million died with them. Like ⁓ if that was real cash, it'd be in a vault somewhere. People go get their cash. If it was real bullion, you could go.
Kellen Ainey (02:40)
Well, even the same with
storing precious metals with us specifically, even if that does come to fruition and our clients do pass away, the gold is still very much tracked and accessible to their next of kin, correct?
Andrew Sleigh (02:54)
100%. Yeah. Yeah. Like it's just not gonna, it's not something that's just going to disappear like crypto as well. uh, there's, you know, there's no debate on my side at all with regards to how much money some people have made on cryptos. That's, that's irrefutable. Um, but for every amount of gain, there's been an equal amount of loss by other people and people forget that they think anyone that goes into cryptos, it's an automatic money winner for them. But
Kellen Ainey (03:22)
So do
you think that more so crypto has kind of played its course in a sense, or do think that there's still a very good reason for investing in crypto specifically as opposed to the US or Canadian markets?
Andrew Sleigh (03:22)
If
Well, that's a pretty good question. That's going to come down to, think, personal preference. I've had my fun of doing a crypto 10 plus years ago and on paper it went to multiple millions. So I'm a ⁓ multi-millionaire USD that I'll never have access to the crypto. So what do I have? The company never got off the ground, never issued anything that said it was going to do. So I have on paper.
three, four million, I looked at it for years, but it mean it was three, $4 million USD. Do I, am I really a millionaire? If I can never get access to it, do I own the money?
Kellen Ainey (04:13)
I think yeah, I would say that's a negative. No, I would say that's it's not truly your money at that point if you're
Andrew Sleigh (04:15)
That's right. It's not
my money. So, you know, if you have 10 million in, you know, in a Bitcoin or any crypto that's on Coinbase exchange platform and they suspend withdrawals of any profit or cash, that's them suspending control of your so-called asset.
So.
Kellen Ainey (04:37)
even
with gold and silver, if let's say that someone bought from one of our competitors and said competitor was refusing to buy it back, there's always an additional firm to liquidate it with, is that correct?
Andrew Sleigh (04:54)
Yeah, like look at Scotiabank is a good example where they got rid of their trading desk. I don't know, 10 years ago, roughly. ⁓ And so for multiple decades, people were buying Scotiabank silver and gold for years, never dreaming that Scotiabank would give up their trading desk. Now you go back to the Scotiabank and you want to sell back some product. They refuse to take it because they say, we no longer have a trading desk. We can't do anything with it.
Well, they sold it to you in the first place and oh yeah, no problem. Come back anytime. But now 30 years later, no, sorry, you're to have to take it somewhere else. so that's, you know, then they just sell it on the street with a street store or us or whoever. And they can still liquidate it. It's still a physical metal in their hand. But just kind of circling back to the guy's question a little bit closer is.
With regards to have they played out. ⁓
I think it's highly volatile to jump in with any crypto now. And people should only go in with whatever they're prepared to write off. And they have to be completely honest with themselves what they're prepared to write off. And if they're lucky enough to gain a good kick at the cat before things shut down, ⁓ then they really need to take any profit they gain.
out of the system immediately and put it into something to lock their game, which would be physical metal. And that's the only way I'd play that. I wouldn't personally be involved with any of that stuff myself, but ⁓ it does have an affinity for the younger crowd that want to do that stuff. you know, stars are, you know, big, big gains and being a millionaire at 30 or whatever age is very attractive and intoxicating for younger people. But
they gotta be prepared to write it off too.
Kellen Ainey (06:54)
So to summarize, you would say that there is still the opportunity there in crypto. With that being said, there's a just a major risk factor to account for.
Andrew Sleigh (07:04)
Yeah, it's really hard to say what the deadline is, but when they shut the system down and I've got some stuff I made some notes on with regards to countries adopting the CBDC, which has been announced multiple times last year, but there's been now just recently some stuff I saw. ⁓ when the CBDC start to get launched, and that's for Europe, that deadline is October of this year.
And so when that happens, they won't allow, in my opinion, the cryptos will be shut down instantly. They won't be allowed to function because that's competition for something that is basically another form of currency that's undermining the sovereign nation's own currency. They've spent billions of dollars developing and unleashing, not to mention they want total control. So. ⁓
Kellen Ainey (08:01)
Do you see any direct impact with gold and silver to that?
Andrew Sleigh (08:07)
⁓ Well, I think when the CBDCs start to be impacted, as in shut down or whatever, if there's still a banking system intact, I think you're going to see a massive flood of money move from these figments of imagination, which are a non-real, ⁓ not a real, it's an intangible, like it's not, can't put it in your hand type of asset ⁓ to everyone.
running to the exits and looking for something to put in your hand. So that's going to be a ⁓ phenomenal ⁓ occurrence when it happens. just a little segue, making some notes this morning ⁓ with regards to European Union doing the CBDC for October, all of sudden now this week, I'm seeing some stuff that ⁓
So March 12th, European Union announced the CBDCs by October. EU news from 2026, EU citizens to have a European digital ID and digital wallet. And that was from our article from 2024. IFC, European Union to ban trading of privacy coins from 2027. Now, I don't know what that includes exactly. I'm still learning what privacy coins are, but that could be dangerously close to any crypto.
⁓ July 11th of this year ⁓ from Reclaim the Net, EU plan to ban private messaging could have global impact. Private messaging services, they're going to ban that. Whatever that totally encompasses, we'll find out. The Guardian, June 5th, 2025. ⁓ Downing Street, exploring options for progressive UK digital ID.
The papers, ⁓ this is another newspaper around the same time, MasterCard certified to provide digital ID services in the UK. CNN Travel, the real ID, which is in the US, is nearly here. Here's what to know. And the article goes on. So the real ID is going to be the US version of some kind of, I believe, CBDC.
July 1st, zero hedge circle.com applies for US Trust Bank licensing to run the USDC, United States digital currency. Australia, August 16th, 2024, Australia's digital ID act and new trusted exchange is put into force.
Kellen Ainey (10:54)
Wow, so yeah, I see why you wanted to get some notes put together for today's show.
Andrew Sleigh (11:00)
I just had a chance to write that down. just saw something that put all that in that summary since yesterday morning. I have not had a chance to write it all down and make notes and watch it and make some notes. that just hits home what you and I have been talking about the last month when we've talked about the European Union bringing a CBDC. And I've talked about, if that occurs for October, that means it's going to occur everywhere else.
in my opinion. Well, it's not my opinion anymore, right? There's all kinds of all over the place where there's articles if you dig deep enough. Mainstream's just
Okay? But, you know, there's more confirmation of what we've been saying.
Kellen Ainey (11:50)
Well, do you see any world governments crapping down on the sale of precious metals?
Andrew Sleigh (11:54)
Well, I ⁓ would say that's a difficult nut to crack. ⁓ I think they'll probably do it in other ways. ⁓ One, they've done it by manipulation and indoctrinating and programming everybody since birth for the last hundred years that gold and silver are volatile, risky assets to be in. They can't ban it that easily. I mean, they've tried doing that in the States. They only did it with gold and then it was illegal to buy. ⁓
a gold bullion and then they in 1974 dropped that finally and they never banned silver. So they certainly have done a good job. I'm not sure if they really have to ban it because only half a percent of the population are buying metal anyway. So, you know, like, yeah, they've completely programmed everybody into buying stocks and bonds and all that stuff.
Kellen Ainey (12:38)
So you're saying it's more of an awareness thing on the consumer,
Andrew Sleigh (12:48)
and be in the markets and forget about gold and silver. That's a archaic relic that of course has never gone to zero and has been gold's been outperforming the S and P for the last 20 years.
Kellen Ainey (12:59)
So not so much gold, we did have a viewer ask about platinum as well even. With the recent run in platinum, where do you see the value of platinum holding for the foreseeable future and how will this impact both gold and silver pricing?
Andrew Sleigh (12:59)
button.
Well, ⁓ I'm completely at a loss for how platinum will actually impact gold and silver in the future. I don't really have a good idea of how that will play out. So if I'm going to be completely honest and frank, that's my answer for that. And I don't study platinum and the correlations at all because platinum has been such a niche market that's ⁓
probably one reason why I don't have any answer even for a correlation. I do know from history, just because I'm older, that platinum used to be much more expensive than gold. And that's why they had a gold card. And then in my lifetime, know, then if you wanted to scale up from that, they had a platinum card. Okay. For like a master card or whatever. Well, I didn't know anything about all that back then, but, so platinum used to, historically has been more expensive than gold.
Kellen Ainey (14:01)
Yep.
Andrew Sleigh (14:11)
Will it return there? I don't know. I don't follow platinum. And I'm sorry, what was the other part of the question?
Kellen Ainey (14:20)
Just how, do you see it holding and how does this impact both gold and silver pricing?
Andrew Sleigh (14:26)
Well, commercial demand, platinum is such a niche market and it's so small that it takes very little demand for it to be sold out. Look what happened in the last couple of months in Canada, where platinum had...
Kellen Ainey (14:38)
Exactly. It's been very difficult
to procure any type of plasma.
Andrew Sleigh (14:43)
Yeah, like just a little bit of news about platinum moving and all of a sudden a few people in Canada bought it and then and then there was no coins to be had just like that like it just from one month to the next all of a sudden we can't get anything so
Kellen Ainey (14:54)
No,
it's, you've gone through it, I've gone through it myself. It's been a shortage to say the least.
Andrew Sleigh (14:58)
Yeah.
Yeah. So, how it will stand up. I would only be a buyer of platinum if I was completely inundated and I had more than enough gold and silver because platinum at the end of the day is not a monetary metal. It's an industrial metal, even though it's going to, like, if you buy a government issued platinum coin, it does have a dollar value on it, but it's still not a monetary metal. And my
My thoughts on the exit for platinum for people holding it could be problematic down the road, meaning that if we have a disruption in normal services for a short period of time, whatever that is, and the normal exit routes of people that hold platinum, be that selling it back to a large distributor like ourselves or somebody else, ⁓ we may not be in a position that we're buying any platinum.
or anybody else for that matter. So if they start using the platinum to use it as money as barter, people will, people, well, it looks like silver for one, right? So it's like, they're not sure. Like if I came to you and said, you know, would you take this silver as payment or would you take this platinum as payment? The silver you've got a fairly good understanding of, and you know that you can probably flip that and use it to buy something else from somebody else. But with platinum,
You have no idea what you can or can't do with it. So the average person is going to be like, you know, I don't know what I can do with platinum. So do you have any silver or gold? I'd rather take that. So people could get stuck with that unless there's, you know, the mainstream ⁓ companies are online. So long term, I heard one argument the other day that somebody said, ⁓
that they were buying platinum as one more hedge of the three metals that they wanted to buy, gold, silver, and platinum. Also, I don't know if the person was in the States or not, but if there was any ban of gold, platinum is still just an industrial metal and it's so small, there's no point in banning it. They were using it as another hedge that no matter what, it still stores value. It still holds value and it can still be converted
to anything in the future in whatever currency form it may be. And for that, I thought that's a good one. I haven't heard that one before. But that's still people that are maxed out in gold, maxed out in silver. And they're like, OK, well, I've got to spare 100 grand kicking around. You know what? I'm going to do some diversification into platinum, and it will still hold value just in case. And I don't argue with that.
Kellen Ainey (17:41)
Yep.
So more so a
additional level of protection even hedging against almost the gold and silver from what I understand.
Andrew Sleigh (18:01)
I didn't quite hear the first part of what you said.
Kellen Ainey (18:04)
So it's very much a hedge against gold and silver from what I understand.
Andrew Sleigh (18:09)
Yep.
Yep.
Kellen Ainey (18:10)
Okay, so it's funny though that you mentioned that platinum being an industrial metal whereas a lot of silver's uses are very industrial too. Silver really does have that kind of best of both worlds where it's very much a monetary metal that's affected by the markets as well as gold pricing as well. But it also does get affected by the industrial uses behind it. So that's where it's, silver does really have the big advantage even over the two of them I'd say, plus it's low buy in price, right?
Andrew Sleigh (18:37)
I couldn't agree more. think when everyone realizes, I mean, the people that are stacking know or should know or should learn whatever the case is ⁓ of how much of a super advantage that silver has. And as soon as we get through the shenanigans of all the markets and the COMEX closes its doors and we have, you know, the affordability of that metal right now is unreal.
And ⁓ the usability and the demand for it worldwide is more than anything else. ⁓ I think it's going to be an awesome ride for those that are holding it. ⁓ Platinum, yes, it's primarily industrial, but it's such a teeny tiny ⁓ market that ⁓ it's still used only in very unique items like the catalytic converters, or guess maybe platyms in that now. anyway, it's very, very minimal.
industrial demand, but it doesn't take much because there's not that much around. ⁓ I think by far silver has a huge advantage ⁓ over all the other metals. Except for ⁓ space. So it doesn't have that advantage over gold, that's for sure, because I'd rather have a million dollars in silver any day over gold.
Kellen Ainey (19:46)
Yeah, well...
Okay, thank you.
Andrew Sleigh (19:58)
but I sure as heck can't store a million dollars of silver. ⁓
Kellen Ainey (20:02)
Yeah, yeah. A hundred ounce
silver bars versus a gold maple are very, very different storing practices. Going back into that, because we do have a oil based question here, it is quite funny to see how silver is even impacted just by the energy industry. Of course, it's one of, if not the most conduct, well, it's the most conductible metal, if I'm correct on that. So it's, we do really see that it's
It's not only a technological side of things, but it's really the energy sector as well. So it almost competes against oil. So when oil does start to phase out, and we've seen world governments look to phase out oil combustion cars and move to the full EV style of things, that really does ⁓ line silver up to have the best advantage as possible.
Andrew Sleigh (20:50)
Yeah, it's weird. It's kind of like a, you know, the golden goose and the golden egg, which comes first. You know, if you have a, if we snapped our fingers and eliminated oil, just like that, then there's no more silver coming out of the ground. And so if silver becomes like the use of, you know, electric cars and all that crap that they're trying to do, and it shuts down oil or makes that, or makes oil
Kellen Ainey (21:05)
Yeah.
Andrew Sleigh (21:18)
that much more expensive because they shut so much production down. ⁓ It's like two cousins that also hate each other. They're family, but there's conflict between the two of them because they're at odds with each other and that silver needs oil, oil needs silver. So not in regards to, ⁓ well...
Kellen Ainey (21:28)
you
Andrew Sleigh (21:41)
Like the cars, guess the cars are using like three ounces of silver now because there's so much computerization in the car. you know, obviously oil is in the gasoline and whatnot and the high tech silver needs to be in the car as well. And eventually when you go to an EV car, well, there's no oil, ⁓ but then you need oil and, you know, the diesel equipment that's mining the stuff out of the ground. You know, sooner or later the oil is going to say, why am I doing this to myself?
Kellen Ainey (22:07)
Exactly.
Well, speaking of oil specifically, so it's been breaking news that Canada has actually begun to sell our oil to China, Asia, China specifically for the first time. How do you see that specifically impacting the Canadian dollar as well, just Canada's energy industry?
Andrew Sleigh (22:27)
Well, I'd like to see a report that actually says what's actually left the mainland of Canada. So, you know,
Kellen Ainey (22:34)
Okay, so you would like
to look at kind of the full number breakdown, how much we're shipping per, even per week versus per month, as opposed to being a blankets data.
Andrew Sleigh (22:41)
Like I just, I don't know if that's,
I don't know if that's a government, you know, a government announcement, you know, that we've got a, we've got a sale of X amount, but maybe it's not happening for a year or two because they don't have a pipeline to deliver it. I'm not even sure what the status of the pipeline from, you know, from Alberta and the BC to deliver crude is because there was safety concerns on one pipeline. ⁓ they were trying to build another pipeline to do crude to the coast.
Kellen Ainey (22:55)
Mm-hmm.
Andrew Sleigh (23:09)
a BC and that was ⁓ canceled. Like, I don't know where all that stands right now and what they're actually can pump to the coast. If anything, I just don't, I don't know. So it's kind of like, you know, the government talking about fixing the border problems and they make all kinds of promises, but there's not really too many changes going on, which may take five or six years. I don't know. But to answer the person's question, ⁓
whatever we sell to China is irrelevant to the Canadian dollar. The Canadian dollar is going down for the count, regardless of what we do.
Kellen Ainey (23:44)
And do you see there being any style or any chance of a, not a comeback, even just holding its strength, the Canadian dollar, or do you really just see this kind of continuing the devaluation?
Andrew Sleigh (24:03)
⁓ It's absolutely going to continue the devaluation. The Canadian dollar is going to be completely destroyed. The economy in Canada is utterly falling apart. Almost the largest employer in the country now is now the government.
Kellen Ainey (24:17)
I think it's been that for, I think it's something close to 60%. Again, I don't have those numbers in front of me, nor did I prepare that prior to this podcast. I I remember seeing it was something like 60 % of Canadians work for government or government contracted ⁓ entities.
Andrew Sleigh (24:24)
Yeah. I know we've talked about a little bit before.
Yeah.
And that's, that's a horrendous statistic. Anywhere close to that is horrendous. And they think that's the economy. the government needs to tax the free economy to generate revenue to pay for government. So if you grow government, you have to grow the tax base. Government is now expanding at the fastest pace and has been for close to a decade. And the private sector,
Kellen Ainey (24:43)
Exactly.
Andrew Sleigh (25:01)
has been contracting at the fastest pace in Canadian history. That's a horrendous, horrendous stat. And every Canadian should be up in arms in their faces of their politicians saying, you guys are a bunch of monkeys, absolute crazy circus clowns. ⁓ everything is being done to shut down the private industries, private sector, mom and pop shop business, and everything is being done to expand government.
And that does not have a good ending.
Kellen Ainey (25:33)
Well, it's even just how difficult the government makes it to do business in Canada. The amount of red tape, the regulations that they follow behind it. We very much do not encourage the free market in our economy, I would say.
Andrew Sleigh (25:47)
Not at all. And that's by design now. Like the government wants to run everything. And, know, in another language, that's called communism. When you have the expansion of government greater than anywhere else in the history of Canada, and you have the contraction of private industry, and you have the merger of the largest corporations in Canada working hand in hand with the government, you know, there's a definition that that fits, you know, and the title of that definition is called fascism.
Kellen Ainey (25:55)
Yeah,
Andrew Sleigh (26:15)
And that's, you know, that is what by definition is going on in the West, really. ⁓ And nobody wants to talk about that or acknowledge it or it's just too much. that is what the definition of that term is. ⁓ And we see that playing out with shutting down of making it very hard for small private industries to thrive and make it difficult so that
only the largest corporations can thrive because they're in cahoots with the government.
Kellen Ainey (26:48)
Well, even my
friend of mine told me a joke. Well, it was a half joke really, but Canada is really run by five companies, two of which being phone companies, the other three being grocery store company, well, grocery stores in general. So it's.
Andrew Sleigh (27:02)
I never would have guessed grocery
stores, I guess that's, you they're everywhere. But yeah, I can.
Kellen Ainey (27:06)
Well, the log logs,
the ASEA, Sobe, so on and so forth. So they're the ones that everyone's lobbying for. Right. So it's, with that being said, Andrew, we do have to wrap up today, not to end on a bit more of a morbid note, but thank you once again for joining us. How can our clients reach you?
Andrew Sleigh (27:10)
Sobeys, yeah I know. Their head off is in my province.
Thank you for having me, Kellen. So if you need more expansion on a question that we answered or something, you're free to give me a call at the 888-861-0775. 230 is my extension. You can email me at deathofthedollar at spropmoney.com. And happy to hear from anybody that wants to expand on a question. And thank you, Kellen, for reading off the questions as always. I appreciate that.
Kellen Ainey (27:56)
No worries, it's been a pleasure and we will connect within the next month, I'm sure.
Andrew Sleigh (28:01)
All right. Thank you. Good day.
Kellen Ainey (28:03)
Cheers, you have a good one.
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