Bitcoin ETFs will be a great place to put your 'lottery ticket money,' investment strategist says

• Bitcoin ETFs could be great for more speculative bets, an Edward Jones strategist said.
• "Everyone has that 5% that's lottery ticket money, but that's a great place to put it," Mona Mahajan told CNBC.
• Spot bitcoin ETF applications could be approved as soon as Wednesday.

Spot bitcoin ETFs should offer a promising place for riskier bets, according to Edward Jones senior investment strategist Mona Mahajan.

"I think the bitcoin ETF is a great part of your speculative basket," she told CNBC on Wednesday morning. "Everyone has that 5% that's lottery ticket money, but that's a great place to put it."

The comments came ahead of the SEC's expected approval of spot bitcoin ETFs, which have generated much hype in recent weeks. Some 13 applications could be approved as soon as today.

In December, crypto enthusiast Anthony Scaramucci similarly called for a small bet on bitcoin, saying that even a limited portfolio exposure will allow investors to benefit from the token's expected upswing. 

For the rest of an investor's holdings, Mahajan said the stock market should see broader gains this year than in 2023, when growth was concentrated tightly in the so-called Magnificent Seven mega-cap tech giants.

"So you want to make sure in your portfolios that you have not only some of that Mag Seven and artificial intelligence exposure, but also some of that equal-weighted S&P — the S&P 493 — parts of value and cyclical, even mid- and small-cap, which are starting to catch up but we think have more scope to run," she said, adding that bonds will also become more "meaningful" this year.

Others have cheered on bitcoin ETFs as a key driver of demand, opening the cryptosphere to more traditional investors who will get easier access to the market.

The apex coin is expected to see a seismic bounce from the ETF inflows that could sent its price to $100,000 later this year and $200,000 by the end of 2025, Standard Chartered said on Monday. This year alone, inflows are estimated to amount to between $50 billion-$100 billion. 

Paired with the fact there's a limited supply of bitcoin, the coin could rise to $500,000 in the next five years, Fundstrat's Tom Lee predicted on Wednesday.