Track market-moving stories before they get noisy

Chainlink (LINK) is gaining renewed bullish momentum as buyers defend the recent price breakout and key resistance levels come into view. The altcoin, a decentralized oracle network enabling smart contracts to securely connect with real-world data, continues to attract attention due to improved market activity, positive technical signals, and strengthening adoption within its ecosystem.

LINK Rally Gathers PaceAt press time, LINK was trading at $12.32 with a 24-hour trading volume of $360 million and a market capitalization of $9.2 billion. The token has risen 4.78% in the last 24 hours, reflecting growing investor confidence and heightened interest among both spot and derivatives traders.

Investor Jordan, a prominent crypto analyst, indicated that LINK is now approaching a critical resistance zone. Traders are observing whether bullish momentum can push the token and close above the $12 resistance. Consolidation is expected in the short term, but a successful breakthrough above $12 could unlock stronger gains, with $15 as the next target and $20 as a more optimistic milestone.

Clearing the $12 level with sustained buying pressure could open the path for LINK to rally toward $15, with $20 seen as an ambitious objective in a robust upward trend.

If LINK overcomes resistance and maintains momentum, analysts expect broader market confidence to increase, potentially making the fourth quarter eventful for Chainlink with high volatility and stronger participation.

Volume and Technical Indicators Point to StrengthMarket data shows notable growth in trading activity. LINK’s 24-hour trading volume jumped 25.02% to $503.90 million, while open interest advanced 8.26% to $696.89 million, suggesting deeper involvement from derivatives traders and a more active market environment.

Technical analysis based on TradingView data reveals that LINK has broken out of its prolonged consolidation range between $7.20 and $8.50. The Bollinger Bands have widened, with the price rising to $12.29 and maintaining levels above the 20-day moving average of $11.39. LINK is currently pressing against upper resistance at $12.59, while the predominant trend remains positive.

MetricPreviousCurrentPrice$11.76$12.3224h Volume$403 million$503.90 millionOpen Interest$644 million$696.89 millionThe Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) indicator signals a brief pause in momentum as the histogram remains slightly negative at -0.01822, but both MACD lines are positioned well above zero, indicating an ongoing upward trend with potential for additional gains.

Analysts link LINK’s upward trajectory to broader improvements in the crypto market, as Bitcoin has also started to rise, providing further support to altcoins.

Chainlink announced that FRNT, the stablecoin issued by Wyoming, has integrated Chainlink Proof of Reserve to publish on-chain data about the assets backing the token. FRNT is now the first stablecoin from a US publicly owned entity to offer real-time reserve transparency through the Chainlink platform. This new system provides added visibility and accountability, establishing a use case for blockchain-based public accounting in government-issued digital currency.

Chainlink stated that this integration not only meets but exceeds requirements set by the GENIUS Act, a regulatory framework for digital assets, and could influence other regulated stablecoin providers to adopt similar solutions.

Mini dictionary: Chainlink Proof of Reserve, an on-chain audit mechanism, allows blockchain-based assets like stablecoins to publicly and verifiably share data about underlying reserves, ensuring transparency and increasing trust among users and regulators.

LINK price is now facing a crucial resistance level. A breakout above $12, with supportive volume and buying interest, could trigger a move toward $15 or $20. However, failure to overcome resistance may see the token enter another consolidation phase.

FRNT’s adoption of Chainlink Proof of Reserve marks the first time an American publicly owned entity has provided real-time reserve disclosure on chain, offering a new model for transparency in the stablecoin sector.

South Korea is preparing what appears to be one of the most progressive official programs yet to put conventional capital-market products onto blockchain rails. On September 4, 2026, the Financial Services Commission presented a staged policy roadmap for tokenized securities after a public-private council meeting at the Korea Securities Depository.

The plan is not a one-day switch of the whole market.

It is a legal and operational build-out that begins when amended electronic-registration rules take effect on February 4, 2027, and then widens if early results hold.

The regulator’s notice is explicit about scope. Tokenized instruments will be treated as digitized securities, not as a separate crypto class sitting outside capital-markets law.

Brokerages and the depository are expected to build the issuance and account infrastructure together.

The first wave is deliberately narrow: privately pooled money-market funds and privately placed corporate bonds limited to institutions; unlisted shares tokenized through a trust, so the underlying electronic security remains in the existing registry while investors hold tokenized beneficial interests; and publicly offered fractional-investment products.

Listed exchange stocks are not in that first basket.

Officials instead signaled pilot work with the Korea Exchange, drawing on experiments already discussed at venues such as the NYSE and Nasdaq.

Phase two would open the same machinery to publicly offered securities more broadly.

Phase three is the most far-reaching: an on-chain payment layer that could settle tokenized stocks, bonds, and funds with stablecoins. That last step is not automatic.

The commission said later phases will depend on first-phase performance, how quickly market firms adopt the technology, and whether pending stablecoin legislation moves.

In other words, Seoul wants a single digital market that can cover issuance, trading, clearing, settlement, and the exercise of investor rights, but it is sequencing risk rather than declaring an overnight migration.

Avalanche entered the story the same day.

The network’s official account said the Financial Services Commission and Korea Securities Depository were laying the groundwork to bring stocks, bonds, and funds on-chain, “powered by Avalanche.”

That framing has circulated widely because Avalanche already has Korean institutional footprints in adjacent work: a won-backed stablecoin proof of concept, payments experiments with NHN KCP, and tokenized trade-receivables activity involving POSCO International on an Avalanche-based layer.

Those projects help explain why the network positioned itself as infrastructure for a national tokenization push.

They do not, however, appear in the commission’s own press text, which names no public chain.

The careful reading is therefore dual: Korea has a government roadmap for tokenized capital markets, and Avalanche is publicly claiming a central technical role based on its local partnerships, not on an exclusive designation printed in the FSC notice.

That distinction matters for market participants.

If the depository screens distributed ledger connections firm by firm, more than one network could theoretically plug into the same legal wrapper.

Avalanche’s wager is that custom Layer-1s, institutional validators, and existing Korean pilots give it an early operating advantage when February 2027 arrives.

The state’s wager is different: use distributed ledgers to modernize post-trade plumbing without abandoning investor-protection rules already written for securities.

Implementation now shifts to the unglamorous work. Subordinate rules are slated for late September 2026.

Securities firms must connect new ledgers to the depository.

Retail limits, pooling standards for fractional products, and OTC trading guidelines still have to be finalized. The prize, if the three phases hold, is a regulated market in which traditional Korean instruments can be issued and, eventually, settled on-chain.

Ahead of Lululemon's (LULU -17.38%) fiscal Q2 earnings report, I wrote an article published on Aug. 26 that said the stock looked like a value trap and that the warning from Dick's Sporting Goods would likely spill over and impact it as well. The stock subsequently plunged 17% on Sept. 4, in the session following its earnings report, as the athleisure company reported disappointing results and cut its full-year outlook. The stock has now lost more than half its value this year and nearly three-quarters of its value over the past five years.

Let's dive into the yoga brand's latest results and prospects to see what could come next for the once-high-flying apparel stock.

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Troubles continue Unfortunately for Lululemon, cutting guidance has become commonplace. For the fourth time since last June, it slashed its full-year outlook. It now expects revenue to decline by 7% to 5% to between $10.35 billion and $10.5 billion, down from prior expectations for sales in a range of $11 billion to $11.15 billion. Full-year adjusted EPS is projected to be between $9.48 and $9.73, but that includes a $0.86 tariff refund. Earlier, it guided to adjusted EPS of $10.95 to $11.15 without a tariff refund.

The company's Q2 results were pretty dreadful, and it looks like things are only worsening. Management noted everything from negative social media commentary to weak responses to new product launches to increased competition and brand deterioration.

Overall, the company's Q2 revenue fell 4% year over year to $2.42 billion, missing the $2.46 billion consensus estimate. Adjusted earnings per share (EPS) plunged 34% to $2.01, but were above the $1.79 consensus.

The underlying numbers were even worse. Americas revenue sank 8%, while same-store sales plunged 12%. International revenue rose 4%, but only 2% in constant currencies, while comparable sales in constant currencies slipped 6%.

China had long been a bright spot for Lululemon, but revenue fell 2% in constant currencies while same-store sales dropped 8% excluding foreign currency movements. The company said it was impacted by negative brand sentiment, which shouldn't be surprising given its big PR gaffe in China when, at an important yoga event held on the Great Wall, it inadvertently gave a Chinese actor a Japanese taiko drum to play instead of a Chinese dagu drum. Rest-of-world sales rose 6% in constant currencies, but comparable-store sales on the same basis dropped 6%.

Gross margin decreased by 200 basis points to 60.5%, but it would have been down 360 basis points when excluding the tariff refund.

Inventory was basically flat year over year, and it is doing a decent job of keeping this in check. This is an important metric to monitor for struggling brands, as big increases above sales growth can lead to more markdowns and sales.

Looking ahead, things will start getting worse for the company just as its new CEO takes over. While it is not uncommon to set a low bar when a new CEO or CFO comes on board, the company still projected a pretty meaningful sales decline. It expects Q3 revenue to decline by 10% to 11% to between $2.290 billion and $2.320 billion. Adjusted EPS is expected to fall to between $0.93 and $0.98 for the quarter, versus $2.59 a year ago.

Image source: The Motley Fool

Is the stock a buy on the dip? While Lululemon stock looks cheap, now trading at a forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of around 9 times this year's and next year's analyst estimates, the stock looks like it is set to fall into the same trap as other once very popular athletic apparel brands like Nike and Under Armour. The brand has lost its luster and faces increased competition, and, quite frankly, from my viewpoint, the athleisure fashion trend is shifting. I was recently eating lunch at Panera, and nearly everyone was wearing jeans. That is not something you would have seen a few years ago.

As such, this is a stock I'd still stay far away from, and it will likely take at least several years for a potential turnaround.

Raydium’s native token RAY jumped roughly 61% in 24 hours, vaulting from the $0.80-$0.91 range to above $1.30 as a surge of trading activity flooded the Solana-based decentralized exchange. The catalyst: growing usage tied to the StonkFun launchpad, which integrated with Raydium’s infrastructure and brought a fresh wave of liquidity and speculation to the platform.

Trading volume on Raydium hit approximately $31.8 million during the spike, a figure that reflects just how much attention the launchpad-driven frenzy attracted.

What’s driving the rally The immediate trigger traces back to StonkFun, a Solana-based launchpad that integrated features through Raydium’s LaunchLab. LaunchLab essentially allows new token projects to bootstrap liquidity directly on Raydium’s automated market maker, meaning every new listing funnels trading activity, and fees, through the protocol.

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StonkFun’s own platform token, STONK, reportedly saw multi-hundred-percent gains during the same window, suggesting that speculative momentum around newly launched tokens was feeding directly into Raydium’s ecosystem. Traders chasing the next breakout listing were effectively forced to route through Raydium, boosting both volume and the perceived utility of RAY itself.

The buyback machine behind RAY Beyond the short-term trading frenzy, Raydium has been running a structural tailwind that doesn’t get enough attention. The protocol allocates 12% of its trading fees to fund buybacks of RAY tokens on the open market.

As of late August 2026, those buybacks had removed over 30% of RAY’s circulating supply. When you combine aggressive supply reduction with a sudden demand spike, the price math gets very friendly very fast.

For context, the 12% fee allocation is significant compared to most DeFi protocols, which typically direct the majority of fee revenue to liquidity providers. Raydium’s decision to carve out a dedicated buyback fund signals a deliberate bet that long-term token value appreciation will attract more participants than simply offering the highest yield.

Solana’s DEX landscape heats up The integration with launchpads like StonkFun also highlights Raydium’s positioning as infrastructure rather than just another swap interface. By offering LaunchLab as a toolkit for new projects, Raydium is essentially embedding itself deeper into the Solana token lifecycle. Projects launch on its rails, trade on its pools, and generate fees that flow back into its token.

The STONK token’s explosive gains during this period also carry a cautionary note. Multi-hundred-percent moves in newly launched tokens are exciting on the way up and devastating on the way down. Much of the trading volume driving RAY’s rally could be speculative and short-lived. If StonkFun’s momentum fades, so could the elevated fee revenue and trading activity propping up RAY’s price.

Investors watching this space should pay attention to whether the volume increase is sustained or just a sugar rush. The buyback mechanism provides some structural price support, but 61% single-day moves rarely hold without continued demand. The key metric to track is whether daily trading volume on Raydium stays elevated in the weeks following StonkFun’s integration, or whether it reverts to pre-surge levels.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.

Netflix (NFLX -5.35%) raised prices on every one of its U.K. plans in the past few days. The ad-supported standard plan took the biggest jump, moving from £5.99 to £7.99 a month (a third more), while the ad-free standard plan went to £13.99 and premium to £20.99. New members pay the new prices right away, and existing members typically get 30 days' notice before the change reaches their bills.

Shares of the streaming giant fell 5.4% on Friday to $78.25, the same day the increase made headlines.

Price increases are nothing new for this company, though. Netflix has been raising prices for 15 years, in markets all over the world, and its annual revenue has grown every single year through all of them.

But that streak is a low bar. The better measure, I'd argue, is what each increase did to the company's revenue growth rate -- and that record is more interesting than the streak itself.

Image source: Netflix.

The increases are coming fasterNetflix last raised U.K. prices in February 2025, when the ad-supported plan went from £4.99 to £5.99 a month. That makes this the second U.K. increase in about 19 months, and it leaves the ad tier costing 60% more than it did at the start of last year.

Netflix raised U.S. prices in March too, its second increase there in about 14 months, taking the standard plan from $17.99 to $19.99 a month.

Notably, the ad-supported tier (the plan built to catch price-sensitive members) is climbing fastest in both markets.

Revenue has grown through every increaseThe worst increase Netflix ever made came in July 2011, when the company split its $9.99 streaming-plus-DVD plan into two $7.99 plans. Management acknowledged in its second-quarter 2011 shareholder letter that the change could be "as much as a 60% increase" for members who wanted to keep both services.

Hundreds of thousands of members canceled. Netflix ended the third quarter of 2011 with about 23.8 million U.S. subscribers, down about 805,000 in three months. And still, revenue rose 48% that year, and it grew another 13% in 2012.

The closest the streak has come to breaking was 2022. Netflix had raised U.S. prices that January, taking the standard plan from $13.99 to $15.49, and revenue for the year grew just 6.5% -- the company's slowest year of growth in at least a decade. A subscriber slump and a strong dollar contributed too. Even then, the top line grew. Growth stayed slow in 2023, then reaccelerated: revenue rose about 16% in both 2024 and 2025, reaching $45.2 billion last year, and 2025 opened with another round of U.S. price increases.

In short, no Netflix price increase has ever been followed by a down year of revenue. Where an increase can show up is in the growth rate, and even the clearest case took more than pricing to get there.

What's different this time is where the increase lands. Netflix's advertising business is its fastest-growing revenue line (ad revenue topped $1.5 billion in 2025, up more than 150%, and management is aiming to roughly double it this year), and that business depends on the ad-supported plan attracting members. Raising the plan's price by a third may test how much that audience is willing to pay.

The early evidence from the U.S. increase looks fine. In the shareholder letter accompanying its second-quarter results, Netflix said U.S. and Canada revenue grew 10% year over year, with what it described as only a partial quarter of impact from the March increase. The change, in management's words, "has gone well and as expected."

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The companywide trend deserves more caution. Second-quarter revenue growth was 13% year over year, and the forecast for the third quarter is 11.7% -- a decelerating path. Full-year revenue guidance sits at $51.0 billion to $51.4 billion, or 13% to 14% growth, down from nearly 16% in 2025.

Meanwhile, engagement is nearly flat, with members watching only 2% more hours in this year's first half than in last year's. In other words, more members, higher prices, and advertising are carrying the growth, not more hours watched.

Ultimately, I expect the streak to survive this increase too. That kind of pricing power, I think, is rare, and Netflix has proved it over and over.

But the stock's valuation arguably already gives the company credit for it. At about $78, the price-to-earnings ratio is about 20 measured against expected 2027 earnings, a level that arguably assumes the pricing power continues.

Chevron (CVX -1.29%) just signed a landmark deal to significantly expand its operations in Venezuela. The agreement, which positions the oil giant to double its output over the next five years, is a testament to its patience. "You have to hang in there until all the conditions come together: the technology, the economics, the markets, the politics," stated CEO Mike Wirth in a recent interview with Bloomberg. It stayed long after rivals ExxonMobil (XOM -1.69%) and ConocoPhillips (COP -1.08%) left, putting it in a position to capitalize on this major opportunity to help revitalize Venezuela's oil industry.

Here's a look at how Chevron's patience has proven to be a significant competitive advantage in Venezuela.

Image source: Getty Images.

Staying when things got toughExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips both left Venezuela in 2007 after the country nationalized their assets. Both have been seeking restitution, with ConocoPhillips winning an arbitration award of $12 billion that it has been trying to recover for years. The oil companies have been considering a return this year, as they each sent technical teams to evaluate potential investment opportunities. While ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods called Venezuela "uninvestable" this past January, President Trump recently said that Exxon would be going back into Venezuela.

However, both companies are far behind Chevron, which has maintained operations in the country for over 100 years. That's part of the company's patient strategy in the country. CEO Mike Wirth told Bloomberg: "You have to have some patience and look at this out over time and not become discouraged. Not pick up and leave when things are difficult." By hanging on during the tough times, which included dealing with hyperinflation, power outages, and unstable civil conditions, Chevron was able to pounce when the opportunity came around to participate in the revival of Venezuela's oil industry.

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Building on its legacyChevron has already been expanding its operations in Venezuela. In April, it consolidated its heavy-oil position in the country through an asset swap with Venezuela's national oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela, S. A. (PDVSA). It received an additional 13.21% working interest in Petroindependencia, increasing its stake in that joint venture (JV) to 49%. Additionally, its Petropiar JV (30% interest) was granted rights to develop the adjacent Ayacucho 8 area in the Orinoco Oil Belt. In exchange, Chevron gave up its interest in two gas licenses and in another non-operated joint venture. This trade enhances Chevron's ability to increase production by 50% by the end of 2028, from its recent rate of 280,000 barrels per day.

Now, Chevron is further building on this legacy position with additional enhancements to its JVs. Its new deal with Venezuela will provide it with more acreage in the Orinoco Belt. Petroindependencia received the rights to develop the adjacent Carabobo-1 and Carabobo-2-South-A areas. Additionally, the deal includes enhanced fiscal, commercial, and legal terms that will support durable, competitive long-term investments in the country. Improved financial terms are something ExxonMobil has been seeking before it would agree to reenter the country.

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This increased position and improved terms support Chevron's new plan to invest more than $7 billion over the next five years. That would enable the company to more than double its production to around 600,000 barrels per day. Chevron estimates that its costs will be less than $20 a barrel, positioning it to drive strong earnings growth over the next five years from this investment.

However, while Wirth told Bloomberg that it has "good, high-quality resource positions" in Venezuela, "They're also sometimes not the easiest resource to produce." That's a risk investors should keep an eye on as the oil company ramps up its investment rate in the country. There's also the potential for renewed political risks, both in Venezuela and from future elections in the U.S.

Chevron's patience could pay massive dividendsChevron's decision to remain in Venezuela during the tough times is paying off. Its existing joint ventures in the country are receiving additional resources, which, together with improved terms, will enable the company to significantly increase production over the next five years. Given its low-cost resources, it could generate meaningful cash flow growth. It now has a huge head start over Exxon and ConocoPhillips, both of which are still evaluating whether to reenter the country. That could benefit the oil stock in the long run, as its low-cost growth in Venezuela could give it the fuel to deliver higher total returns than its rivals over the next few years.

WOO X, the crypto trading platform acquired by FusionX Digital late last year, is facing mounting user complaints over withdrawals that have been stuck in limbo for days. On-chain investigator ZachXBT amplified the concerns on September 6, drawing attention to a pattern of transactions frozen in “pending” or “processing” status for more than three days, with some reportedly canceled outright.

The timing is, to put it mildly, not great. FusionX Digital is linked to Sheldon Xia, the founder of BitMart, an exchange that announced on July 26 it would cease operations and restructure. BitMart users were left unable to access their funds. Now a platform under the same ownership umbrella is exhibiting eerily similar symptoms.

What users are experiencing ZachXBT’s alert highlighted an increasing volume of complaints from verified WOO X users, painting a picture of an exchange where getting money out has become unreliable.

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WOO X eventually responded later on September 6, acknowledging the situation publicly. The platform said it was investigating individual cases and evaluating its systems. It attributed some delays to manual review processes and ongoing blockchain processing.

The exchange encouraged affected users to reach out to official support channels with transaction details. It also warned users not to share account credentials.

No timeline was provided for resolution. No specifics were offered about the security of user funds.

The FusionX Digital and BitMart connection WOO X changed hands in the fourth quarter of 2025 when FusionX Digital completed its acquisition. FusionX Digital’s ties to Sheldon Xia connect WOO X to a lineage that now includes a failed exchange.

BitMart suffered a roughly $200M hack back in December 2021. The July 2026 announcement that BitMart would cease operations and restructure left users who had funds on the platform locked out.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.

$851 Billion Profit Projection $851 billion. That is the approximate annual net income NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA | NVDA Price Prediction) would generate three years out if Wall Street’s forecast of a 64% compounded EPS growth rate plays through, applied to a…

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$851 Billion Profit Projection $851 billion. That is the approximate annual net income NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA | NVDA Price Prediction) would generate three years out if Wall Street’s forecast of a 64% compounded EPS growth rate plays through, applied to a trailing-12-month base of roughly $193 billion in net income and $7.91 in TTM diluted EPS. For context, Saudi Aramco holds the record for the largest annual profit any company has ever reported, at $161.1 billion in 2022. This is a projection based on analyst compounding assumptions rather than issued company guidance.

What It Means Operationally The projected walk is stepwise: Year 1 EPS $13.0 (about $316 billion in net income), Year 2 $21.3 (about $519 billion), and Year 3 $34.9 (about $851 billion). Back into revenue at NVIDIA’s current profitability profile and Year 3 sales land near $1.35 trillion, roughly 4 to 4.5 times the current trailing-12-month revenue of about $303 billion.

The base is grounded in reported results. NVIDIA’s most recent quarter (Q2 FY2027, reported August 26, 2026) delivered $96.22 billion in revenue, up 105.85% year over year, with net income of $59.688 billion, up 125.9%. Operating margin ran 60.38%, net margin 55.6%, and return on equity 101.5%. Full-year FY2026 net income was $120.067 billion, up from $4.368 billion in fiscal 2023. The compounding runway is what makes a Year 3 number that eclipses Aramco even conceivable.

What that means is, if Nvidia reported a total annual revenue of $1.35 trillion in 2029, it would rank as the 18th-largest economy in the world when evaluated directly against national GDP figures. It would place the chipmaker just below Saudi Arabia’s GDP of $1.45 trillion, but ahead of Switzerland at $1.29 trillion.

Market Reaction Shares closed at $230.36 on September 4, 2026. NVDA is up 23.67% year to date, 34.37% over the last year, and 911.71% over five years. The stock carries a P/E of 46 and a market capitalization of $5.5625 trillion.

Bull Case The demand picture behind the projection is the argument. Data Center revenue reached $89.023 billion in Q2, up 117% year over year. Management said cloud industry backlog now exceeds $2 trillion, with top-five hyperscaler capex projected at nearly $800 billion in 2026 and $1.3 trillion in 2027. NVIDIA’s revenue opportunity per gigawatt has stepped from roughly $18 billion on Hopper to $25 billion on Blackwell to $40 billion on Vera Rubin.

The customer commitments back the ramp. AWS is deploying an additional 2 million GPUs through Q2 FY2029. OpenAI has committed to approximately 12 gigawatts of NVIDIA compute through 2030. Neocloud partners are expected to exit the year with eight gigawatts of installed capacity, up from about three gigawatts at the end of 2025. All of that compute has to be powered, cooled, and networked by somebody, which is why we put seven of the picks-and-shovels suppliers behind the buildout in a free AI infrastructure report. Management guided fiscal 2028 revenue growth to approximately 70% year over year and called the outlook supply constrained, with Jensen Huang saying “Our entire supply chain is challenged. And everybody is really running flat out.”

Analyst sentiment supports the compounding thesis. Fiscal 2028 EPS estimates have moved from $12.6011 ninety days ago to $15.4043, with 52 analysts covering the fiscal year and zero downward revisions in the trailing 30 days. Analyst sentiment breaks 95 bullish to 2 bearish. Q3 FY27 revenue is guided to $108.0 billion, plus or minus 2%, excluding China Data Center compute. Capital return remains active: NVIDIA returned about $26.0 billion to shareholders in Q2 with $99.0 billion remaining under the buyback authorization.

Bottom Line For long-term holders, the $851 billion projection reframes the debate. It is what NVIDIA’s own math produces if the current earnings trajectory and analyst assumptions hold through 2029. The next test is Q3, where management has already committed to $108 billion in revenue, followed by the dividend payment on October 1, 2026 (record date September 10, 2026). If Vera Rubin ramps as promised and hyperscaler capex holds, the record book for corporate profitability may need a new binding.

Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.

Shares of ChargePoint (CHPT +8.92%) rocketed more than 77% higher this past week after the electric vehicle charging infrastructure provider reported stronger-than-expected financial results, and its leadership team gave upbeat commentary on the EV industry.

Image source: Getty Images.

ChargePoint's losses are narrowing as it scales its operations ChargePoint's revenue rose 18% year over year to $116 million in its fiscal 2027 second quarter, which ended July 31.

The gains were fueled by a 25% surge in networked charging systems revenue to $63 million, and a 10% jump in subscription revenue to $44 million.

During a conference call with analysts, CEO Rick Wilmer noted that higher gas prices are boosting demand for EVs in the U.S. He also pointed to a J.D. Power report showing that once someone purchases an EV, they're likely to continue to do so.

"Once consumers go electric, they stay," Wilmer said.

Additionally, Wilmer said EV trends are even more favorable in Europe, with sales up 33% year over year in July.

"Globally, the long-term case for EV adoption continues to strengthen, and we are seeing meaningful real-time market dynamics that support continued growth for ChargePoint," Wilmer said.

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At the same time, ChargePoint is working to cut costs. The company's adjusted operating expenses declined by 11% to $52.3 million.

All told, ChargePoint's adjusted net loss shrank by 72% to $9.2 million.

New innovations should drive ChargePoint's expansion Wilmer highlighted an ultrafast new charger that ChargePoint codeveloped with power management giant Eaton. Billed as "the world's fastest stand-alone EV charger," the Express Solo can deliver up to 600 kilowatts of power and charge an EV from 10% to 80% in just 11 minutes.

"We co-engineered Express with Eaton with an uncompromising focus on performance, scalability, energy density, and economics that we believe is unmatched," Wilmer said. "Early access units have begun shipping, and the demand signal from customers has been exceptional."

Ollie’s Bargain Outlet's NASDAQ: OLLI share price fell in the wake of its Q2 release as near-term headwinds overshadowed structural improvements.

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The near-term headwind is a weak comp-store showing, with comps down unexpectedly on a contraction in basket size. The weakness runs counter to industry trends, which show other retailers, specifically off-price and discount retailers, doing well, and may be more of a one-off than not.

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Management cited weather, consumer headwinds, and an increasingly promotional selling environment as responsible for the top-line miss. Investors should focus on the fact that Ollie’s provides value for its customers, as reflected in its loyalty membership base.

It grew 12.7% year over year as of Q2, and it is not the only structural improvement to note.

Ollie’s story is converting old Big Lots facilities into new Ollie’s Bargain Outlets. The strategy involves high upfront costs, including significant dark rent, but enables rapid growth and a path to margin recovery.

The company grew store count by nearly 12% over the trailing 12 months leading up to the release, and expects to sustain the robust pace through year’s end. The path to margin recovery involves turning dark rent into revenue-producing floorspace and leveraging scale. Ollie’s business is expanding rapidly, enabling stronger relationships and better deals with its supply chain partners.

Ollie’s Mixed Q2 Was Strong Where It CountsOllie’s Q2 report was not without disappointments. Revenue growth missed expectations, but the 9.1% advance still outpaced most retailers. New stores underpinned growth, offset by weak comp, but there were also strengths.

The main driver was the impact of dark rent conversion on margin, cash flow, and profits, which expanded and outperformed despite the revenue miss. Key details include a 330 basis-point (bps) improvement in adjusted EBITDA margin, a nearly 40% increase in net income, and a 43% increase in adjusted earnings per share (EPS), with adjusted EPS of $1.42 30 cents better than expected.

Guidance is a near-term hurdle for the stock, but one blunted by profitability. Ollie's reduced its full-year revenue outlook, putting the midpoint below MarketBeat's consensus. Improved margins and a stronger earnings forecast, however, should cushion that top-line miss and reinforce the case for capital returns. While growth is a critical factor, cash flow and the capacity to return capital matter is even more critical—and Ollie's is on track to return ample cash over time.

Catalysts for investment include buybacks, which are expected to accelerate, as indicated in the guidance. Trailing 12-month activity reduced the count by more than 2.5% in Q2 on average, giving investors significant leverage; the full-year guidance update includes a 40% increase in expected annualized buyback spending.

Analysts Stay Bullish Despite Mixed ReactionsAnalysts' responses to the release were mixed, like the results. Some analysts focused on headwinds and others on margins, with some lowering price targets and others raising them, while others reaffirmed the consensus rating and price target.

As it stands, MarketBeat tracks 17 analysts rating OLLI a Moderate Buy; the data shows a bullish bias and about 40% upside relative to post-earnings price action. Key takeaways include expectations that headwinds will ease, comps will improve, and margins will expand over time. Institutions also reflect confidence in the long-term outlook and capital return, owning more than 99% of the shares and accumulating moderately in 2026.

Ollie's Strong Balance Sheet Fuels Growth StrategyOllie’s Bargain Outlets’ balance sheet provides no red flags for investors. Highlights at the end of the quarter included reduced cash linked to buybacks, increased inventory, and investments, offset by smaller increases in liabilities and improved equity despite share buybacks.

Leverage remains very light, with long-term, non-lease debt below 0.1x equity, total liabilities below 1x equity, and improving cash flow. Looking ahead, Ollie’s is set up for accelerated earnings growth even without improvement in consumer habits; improving consumer habits will accelerate both revenue and earnings even more.

This year’s catalysts include completing and opening two new distribution centers. These centers will enable the company to serve more than 800 locations seamlessly before needing more infrastructure. This sets the stage for profitable growth over the next two years without additional capital expenditure. The biggest risks are consumer headwinds, inflation, and gasoline prices, which are pressuring Ollie’s lower-end customers.

Investors should remember that Ollie’s Bargain Outlet is an off-price merchant akin to TJX Companies NYSE: TJX, not a discount retailer or dollar store, and is not locked into any single product or category. It can shift with trends, opportunistically offering shoppers bargains as they emerge. The only downside is that its treasure-hunt strategy doesn’t mesh well with digital sales, a pillar of today’s retail environment.

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Hyperliquid repurchased and burned approximately 9,730 HYPE tokens during the 24 hours ending Sept. 6, according to blockchain data published by Onchain Lens.

Summary

Hyperliquid bought and burned 9,730 HYPE worth approximately $829,500 during the latest 24-hour reporting period. The purchases averaged $85.27 per HYPE, according to Onchain Lens’s public blockchain tracking data snapshot. Cumulative burns reached approximately 48.42 million HYPE, equal to 4.84% of maximum token supply overall. HYPE traded near $86 after the report, remaining below its latest record high price level. Hyperliquid’s Assistance Fund converts most eligible trading fees into automated open-market HYPE purchases and burns. The transactions were worth about $829,500 at an average purchase price of $85.27 per token. The latest activity increased the amount of HYPE classified as burned to approximately 48.42 million tokens.

That total represents about 4.84% of HYPE’s original maximum supply of 1 billion tokens. At a price of roughly $85.50, the cumulative balance would be valued near $4.14 billion.

The $4.14 billion figure is a mark-to-market calculation. It does not represent the amount Hyperliquid spent acquiring the tokens. The Assistance Fund purchased HYPE at different prices over time, and Onchain Lens did not publish a cumulative acquisition cost in its latest update.

HYPERLIQUID BURNS $830K HYPE IN 24 HOURS

Hyperliquid bought and burned 9.73K $HYPE (~$829.5K) over the past 24 hours at an $85.27 average price.

Lifetime:

· 48.42M $HYPE burned
· ~$4.14B at current value
· 4.84% of max supply permanently removed pic.twitter.com/SsqxWR2wRt

— Onchain Lens (@OnchainLens) September 6, 2026 Hyperliquid burns HYPE through its Assistance Fund Hyperliquid uses an automated mechanism called the Assistance Fund to direct most eligible protocol fee revenue toward open-market HYPE purchases. The tokens are then removed from circulating and total supply under the network’s burn framework.

The protocol’s current documentation states that HYPE held by the Assistance Fund is burned permanently. Hyperliquid’s validators formally recognized the fund’s accumulated HYPE as burned following a governance process in December 2025.

Before that decision, the Assistance Fund accumulated tokens at a system address that lacked a conventional private key. Although market observers often treated those tokens as removed from circulation, the governance decision formally committed validators against approving an upgrade that could restore access.

The mechanism links token purchases directly to activity on Hyperliquid. Greater trading volume and fee generation provide more resources for HYPE purchases. Lower activity reduces the amount available. The program therefore has no fixed daily repurchase level.

An earlier examination of Hyperliquid’s fee-funded buyback mechanism found that roughly 97% to 99% of applicable protocol fees were directed to the Assistance Fund, depending on the market and fee category.

Priority fees follow a different process and are burned directly. The Assistance Fund should also not be confused with HLP, the protocol’s separate market-making vault.

The 48.42 million HYPE figure needs context Multiplying 48.42 million HYPE by the reported $85.27 average produces approximately $4.13 billion. However, $85.27 was the average price for the latest 9,730-token purchase, not the historical average cost of all burned tokens.

The reported $4.14 billion total instead reflects what the cumulative tokens would be worth at current market prices. It can rise or fall without additional burns because HYPE’s market value changes continuously.

The supply calculation is more direct. Dividing 48.42 million by the original 1 billion maximum supply produces 4.842%, matching the approximately 4.84% reported by Onchain Lens.

Current data providers may display a maximum or total supply below 1 billion because previously burned tokens have already been deducted. CoinGecko, for example, listed HYPE’s fully diluted supply near 955 million tokens on Sept. 6 rather than the original maximum.

Those differences do not mean additional tokens disappeared without explanation. They reflect whether a data provider uses the original authorized maximum or a burn-adjusted supply figure. Writers comparing burn percentages should specify which denominator they use.

The burn also does not transfer cash directly to HYPE holders. HYPE is not company stock, and token ownership does not provide a legal claim on Hyperliquid Labs’ revenue. The mechanism reduces token supply and creates open-market demand, but it does not guarantee a higher price.

HYPE traded near its record after the burn HYPE traded around $86 on Sept. 6, according to market data from CoinGecko. It gained approximately 2.6% over 24 hours and remained less than 2% below its reported record of $88.06.

CoinGecko recorded about $865 million in 24-hour trading volume and placed HYPE’s circulating market capitalization near $19.2 billion. Other platforms showed prices between approximately $85 and $87 during the same period, reflecting normal differences between venues and collection times.

The price increase occurred alongside the latest burn, but the timing alone does not prove that the 9,730-token purchase caused the movement. HYPE also responds to derivatives activity, broader market conditions, token unlocks, demand for network staking and expectations surrounding protocol revenue.

At an average price of $85.27, the latest $829,500 purchase represented a small fraction of HYPE’s daily trading volume. Its immediate price effect therefore cannot be isolated from other orders without more detailed market data.

The broader buyback program is more material because it operates repeatedly. Research published in May found that the Assistance Fund had been buying approximately $1 million in HYPE per day on average, although the amount varied with protocol revenue and token prices.

Crypto projects collectively spent a record amount on repurchases during 2026, with Hyperliquid and Pump.fun accounting for most tracked buybacks. The programs differ in funding sources, implementation and treatment of repurchased tokens.

Additional revenue could fund future HYPE burns Hyperliquid added another potential source of Assistance Fund revenue through its aligned quote asset framework in August. AQAv2 directs most cost-adjusted reserve yield from eligible stablecoins toward the protocol.

For USDC, approximately 90% of cost-adjusted reserve income is expected to reach the Assistance Fund. Coinbase acts as the treasury deployer, while Circle provides the stablecoin’s issuance and cross-chain infrastructure.

The USDC reserve-yield arrangement began operating in August, but the first payment is scheduled for Oct. 3 because of an initial grace period and the framework’s settlement schedule.

The payment amount remains unknown. It will depend on the USDC supply deployed on Hyperliquid, prevailing reserve yields, operating costs and other terms. Any estimate before the first transfer would be forward-looking.

Until then, trading fees remain the main observable driver of Assistance Fund purchases. Daily burn totals will continue to change with platform activity and HYPE’s market price. A higher token price allows the same dollar amount to purchase fewer HYPE tokens, while a lower price increases the number removed for an equal expenditure.

Future burn reports should therefore be assessed through three separate measures: the number of HYPE removed, the money spent during the period and the token’s prevailing price. Combining them into a single dollar figure can obscure how the mechanism is performing.

Banks, asset managers, and trading firms have revealed notable positions in US-listed Hyperliquid exchange-traded funds (ETFs), marking a growing institutional interest in these investment vehicles. UBS, Bank of Montreal, and Jane Street have been identified among the earliest institutional participants in these Hyperliquid ETFs.

Major institutional investors revealedA total of thirty institutions collectively reported holdings of $74.9 million across three Hyperliquid ETFs, according to James Seyffart, an ETF analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. Wealth High Governance Asset Management emerged as the largest institutional holder, controlling 632,614 shares of 21Shares’ THYP fund valued at $23.95 million. OLP Capital Management followed as the second-largest stakeholder, with its ETF position totaling $10.5 million.

UBS disclosed $7.5 million in Hyperliquid ETF holdings, ranking as the third-largest institutional participant. Bank of Montreal reported $6.7 million, while Jane Street held $4.4 million in the funds. Combined, these five largest holders account for roughly $53 million, representing about 71% of all reported positions. Other notable institutional participants include Discovery Capital, Brevan Howard, Balyasny Asset Management, and Boothbay Fund Management.

InstitutionHoldings in Hyperliquid ETFs (USD)Wealth High Governance Asset Management$23.95 millionOLP Capital Management$10.5 millionUBS$7.5 millionBank of Montreal$6.7 millionJane Street$4.4 millionGrowth in HYPE exposure through ETFsThese developments signal increasing exposure to the HYPE token through regulated investment vehicles rather than direct interaction with Hyperliquid. ETF offerings provide investors with the ability to gain access via established brokerage accounts. Hyperliquid, the platform behind these products, operates its own blockchain and focuses primarily on perpetual futures markets.

US-based investors still face restrictions accessing Hyperliquid’s direct products. However, Payward, the operator of Kraken, reportedly is collaborating with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to introduce regulated Hyperliquid-linked perpetuals in the US market.

Mini dictionary: Hyperliquid is a decentralized derivatives trading platform specializing in perpetual futures contracts. It operates its own blockchain to power these financial products, and its native token, HYPE, is used within its ecosystem.

Implications for market and regulationThe most recent disclosures stem from 13F filings, a quarterly requirement for institutional investment managers. However, analysts caution that this data provides only a partial view, as certain holdings may be omitted depending on reporting rules. Additionally, banks often maintain securities on behalf of clients and trading firms may use ETF positions for hedging.

Current 13F filings show 30 institutions invested $74.9 million in Hyperliquid ETFs, with the five largest accounting for about $53 million of those reported positions.

Attention is now turning to upcoming regulatory steps affecting Hyperliquid ETF flows and further portfolio disclosures. Hyperliquid’s scheduled token unlock on September 6, alongside ongoing buybacks of HYPE, are also expected to play a role in shaping market dynamics in the near term.

Disclaimer: The information contained in this article does not constitute investment advice. Investors should be aware that cryptocurrencies carry high volatility and therefore risk, and should conduct their own research.

Somewhere out there, a miner (or miners) who earned Bitcoin when it was essentially worthless just moved 600 BTC that had been collecting digital dust since around 2010. At current prices, that stash is worth tens of millions of dollars. Whale Alert, the blockchain tracking service, identified the movement across 12 separate mining block rewards, each containing the original 50 BTC coinbase reward from Bitcoin’s earliest days.

The natural first question: is this Satoshi? The answer, according to Whale Alert’s analysis, is no. None of the 12 blocks show any connection to the patterns associated with Bitcoin’s pseudonymous creator.

Ghost coins come back to life Each of the 12 blocks dates back to roughly 2010, when Bitcoin mining could be done on a regular laptop and the price hovered somewhere between fractions of a penny and a few dollars. The 50 BTC reward per block was standard at the time, before Bitcoin’s first halving in 2012 cut that reward in half.

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The blocks appear to belong to anonymous individual miners rather than any known entity. What makes this movement notable is the sheer duration of dormancy. Sixteen years of inactivity followed by a sudden transfer raises eyebrows across the crypto community every single time it happens.

A pattern, not an anomaly This isn’t an isolated incident. On September 6, seven addresses tied to early miners moved a combined 350 BTC, valued at approximately $28 million at the time. That transaction followed the same playbook: coins from Bitcoin’s earliest era suddenly transferring to new, unlabeled addresses.

The key detail in both cases is where the coins went. They didn’t land on exchange deposit addresses. Instead, the transfers routed to fresh wallets with no known exchange affiliation. When dormant Bitcoin moves to an exchange, it typically signals intent to sell. When it moves to a new cold wallet, it looks more like housekeeping.

Throughout 2026, substantial amounts of early-era Bitcoin from wallets dating to the 2011-2014 period have also shown signs of reactivation. The cumulative effect is a steady drip of ancient coins waking up, creating a broader trend that on-chain analysts have been tracking closely.

Why dormant Bitcoin movements spook the market Even when the data suggests no selling intent, these movements carry psychological weight. The fear is straightforward: if early holders who accumulated Bitcoin at negligible cost start selling, the supply shock could pressure prices downward. A single miner from 2010 sitting on a few hundred BTC has a cost basis of essentially zero.

For traders watching on-chain flows, the distinction between exchange-bound transfers and wallet-to-wallet consolidation is critical. The former is a sell signal. The latter is closer to a vote of confidence.

That said, the mere visibility of these transactions can influence short-term sentiment. When Whale Alert flags a multi-million-dollar transfer from a dormant wallet, it gets amplified across social media within minutes. Traders who don’t dig into the destination details may react reflexively, creating brief volatility that has nothing to do with actual selling pressure.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.

Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, has introduced a revised conceptual framework for processing transactions on the Ethereum network. He emphasized that separating transaction “actions” from their “dependencies” could unlock significant efficiency gains for future developments.

Transaction Components: Actions and DependenciesButerin stated that ongoing advances in account abstraction, cryptographic proof systems, and novel state models are bringing about a clearer delineation between the tasks a transaction performs, and the conditions that must be met beforehand. He highlighted work around Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 8141, the use of alternative state models, the introduction of keyed nonces, and experiments with recursive STARK-based mempools as key contributors to this emerging model.

He described “actions” as the tangible effects caused by a transaction, such as transferring tokens or interacting with smart contracts. By contrast, “dependencies” represent the requirements that must be met before those actions can be carried out. This distinction, according to Buterin, would enable developers to pursue optimizations tailored to each component.

Actions define what a transaction changes within Ethereum, while dependencies set out the prerequisites before those changes can take place.

According to Buterin, most Ethereum nodes currently combine validation and execution: they receive transactions, verify them against network rules, and then execute any approved operations. Decoupling these functions, he argued, could lead to performance improvements and more nuanced security guarantees.

Optimizing Dependencies and State ValidationButerin pointed out that many transaction dependencies can be reviewed in parallel, enabling more streamlined pre-checks before transactions reach inclusion in a block. He also noted that certain dependencies, particularly so-called “pure” dependencies, do not require live access to Ethereum’s global state. These, he said, present a prime opportunity for enhancement.

If implemented, mempools—the systems that collect pending transactions—could process and validate these pure dependencies only once, rather than requiring every network validator to repeat the same checks as blocks are created and confirmed.

Large batches of such validated dependencies may eventually be aggregated into a single succinct cryptographic proof, specifically a STARK, which could demonstrate the correctness of all checks in a single step.

Mini dictionary: STARK (Scalable Transparent Argument of Knowledge), a cryptographic proof technology designed for efficient, trustless verification of complex computations without requiring confidential setup or assumptions. STARKs are widely used in scaling solutions and privacy applications within blockchain networks.

Many dependencies can be checked in parallel, streamlining the validation process and reducing duplication across validators.

Buterin views this model as an important architectural shift. He suggested that these changes might form the basis for future updates, as Ethereum’s developers aim to keep evolving the platform for scalability and security.

Disclaimer: The information contained in this article does not constitute investment advice. Investors should be aware that cryptocurrencies carry high volatility and therefore risk, and should conduct their own research.

Ethereum’s wider network is gaining momentum as Layer 2 and DeFi tokens outperform other crypto market segments, coinciding with a significant uptick in on-chain activity.

Layer 2 Scaling Networks Dominate ActivityTrader Daan Crypto pointed to a clear rotation in the market, noting on Sunday that Ethereum, along with Layer 2 networks and DeFi tokens, led major crypto sectors over the previous week. His market analysis, which excluded smaller memecoins, suggested this rotation signals more than just a brief altcoin rally.

Recent blockchain data indicates that Ethereum’s Layer 2 scaling solutions have become dominant, now accounting for 94% of all transactions across the amalgamated Ethereum mainnet and Layer 2 environment.

According to growthepie, Ethereum Layer 2 networks currently handle approximately 29.95 million daily transactions, while the Ethereum mainnet processes just 1.97 million. In terms of computational output, L2s now represent 97% of the system’s total throughput, facilitating about 92.4 million gas units per second compared to just 2.52 million on mainnet.

NetworkDaily TransactionsGas Units/secValue SecuredEthereum Mainnet1.97 million2.52 million$162 billion (Stablecoins)Layer 2s (Total)29.95 million92.4 million$14.51B (Base), $12.47B (Arbitrum), $2.8B (Robinhood Chain)Leading Layer 2 platforms include Base, which secures $14.51 billion or 41% of total L2 value, and Arbitrum with $12.47 billion. Robinhood Chain has drawn particular attention after growing its secured value by more than 150% in 30 days, now reaching $2.8 billion.

The expansion of these networks is reflected in token markets. ARB, the native asset of the Arbitrum network, has surged over 120%, driven in part by increased activity associated with the Robinhood Chain.

Mini dictionary: Robinhood Chain is a relatively new Ethereum Layer 2 network designed to enhance scalability and reduce transaction fees within the Robinhood ecosystem, contributing to increased DeFi activity and token performance.

DeFi Activity Shifting, But Capital Base Remains on MainnetOver the last 30 days, Ethereum Layer 2 networks processed an estimated 337 million decentralized finance transactions. This represents approximately 99% of all Ethereum DeFi transactions, reflecting a near-total migration of activity from the mainnet to L2s.

Uniswap, a leading decentralized exchange, contributed more than 57 million Layer 2 transactions within the period, making it the most-utilized application in Ethereum’s L2 ecosystem by transaction count.

Uniswap emerged as the most heavily used Layer 2 DeFi application, generating more than 57 million transactions in the past month.

Despite this, the majority of capital remains on Ethereum’s mainnet. The main network holds around $162 billion in stablecoins, dwarfing the $12 billion present on Layer 2 networks. Meanwhile, institutional data places the mainnet DeFi total value locked (TVL) close to $49 billion.

ETH is currently trading near $2,500, recovering from $2,390 earlier in the week. Ethereum exchange-traded funds have continued to report net inflows, reinforcing ongoing institutional interest amid a broader return of demand for crypto investment products.

Two-Tiered Ecosystem EmergesThe Ethereum ecosystem is now separated into distinct layers: Layer 2 networks are responsible for processing the vast majority of activity, while the mainnet remains the primary hub for capital allocation and settlement.

Layer 2 platforms fuel record transaction volumes, while Ethereum mainnet retains its role as the asset and liquidity center.

This division may explain why current market strength is spreading from ETH itself to DeFi and Layer 2 tokens, rather than being isolated as a simple upward move in Ether’s price alone.

Disclaimer: The information contained in this article does not constitute investment advice. Investors should be aware that cryptocurrencies carry high volatility and therefore risk, and should conduct their own research.

Cardano (ADA) traded near $0.224 on Friday, marking a strong week of upward movement following gains across major support levels. The digital asset climbed 17% over the past seven days, supported by growing on-chain activity and a surge in purchases by large wallet holders.

Analysts see breakout potentialTechnical analysts on X have turned positive on ADA’s price potential. One market commentator projected that Cardano could rally as high as $2.92—representing nearly 14 times its current value—if bullish momentum persists. This optimistic outlook follows ADA’s continued testing of key resistance areas throughout the week.

Commentator Sssebi shared their views on social media, stating that ADA’s persistence at resistance levels increases the probability of a breakout. As ADA traded within these zones, Sssebi emphasized the coin’s resilience and ongoing optimism among traders.

$ADA is showing persistence at resistance levels. The longer it remains in this range, the greater the potential for a breakout, according to market observers.

DEX activity and on-chain data signal growthBlockchain analytics provider DeFiLlama reported a dramatic surge in decentralized exchange (DEX) trading on the Cardano network. Within a 48-hour period, trading volumes soared from $2.01 million to $7.28 million, signaling heightened user engagement and investor interest.

Santiment, an analytics firm specializing in blockchain data, indicated that Cardano wallets holding between 1 million and 10 million ADA collectively purchased an additional 60 million tokens starting Sunday. This wave of accumulation from large holders provided consistent upward price pressure during the week.

The total value locked (TVL) in Cardano’s decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem increased notably as well, rising from 268.47 million ADA on August 28 to 299.81 million ADA. The blockchain is also set to integrate DeFi platform RealFi on October 1, aiming to further expand its decentralized finance offerings.

Mini dictionary: RealFi, short for “Real Finance,” is a DeFi platform that aims to connect real-world assets and financial activities to blockchain-based decentralized protocols.

Derivative market analytics from CoinGlass showed a long-to-short ratio of 1.10 for ADA, approaching the month’s high. Futures funding rates turned positive at 0.0087% on Friday, reflecting an overall bullish bias among leveraged traders.

MetricValueChange/TimeframePrice (ADA)$0.224+17% past 7 daysDEX Volume$7.28 millionTripled in 48 hoursLarge Holder Accumulation60 million ADASince SundayTVL299.81 million ADAIncrease of 31 million ADA since Aug 28Long/Short Ratio1.10Highest in a monthFunding Rate0.0087%FridayTechnical indicators show bullish setupCardano is trading above both its 50-day and 100-day exponential moving averages (EMA), although it remains slightly below the 200-day EMA. The relative strength index (RSI) stands at 64, suggesting firm bullish momentum without entering overbought territory. The MACD technical indicator recently crossed into mildly positive territory as well.

Key resistance is identified at the 61.8% Fibonacci retracement near $0.231 and $0.236, while the 200-day EMA stands at around $0.245. Immediate support lies at $0.213 with additional stability provided by the 100-day EMA at $0.198.

Despite positive breadth in multiple metrics, total stablecoin market capitalization on Cardano has contracted slightly from $67.95 million to $63.97 million, according to DeFiLlama.

ADA is currently above mid-term moving averages, but technical analysts highlight ongoing resistance near $0.231 as a key marker for future momentum.

Continued accumulation by large holders, combined with rising DEX activity and a favorable derivatives outlook, has contributed to positive sentiment throughout the Cardano ecosystem.

Disclaimer: The information contained in this article does not constitute investment advice. Investors should be aware that cryptocurrencies carry high volatility and therefore risk, and should conduct their own research.

Tether, the company behind the world’s largest stablecoin, is quietly becoming one of the most important buyers of US government debt. With over $122 billion in direct Treasury bill holdings and a total exposure exceeding $141 billion when indirect positions are included, the firm has already outpaced several sovereign nations in its appetite for American paper.

From stablecoin issuer to Treasury heavyweight Every USDT token in circulation needs to be backed by reserves, and Tether has chosen to park the vast majority of those reserves, roughly 83%, in US Treasury bills. As USDT’s market cap has ballooned to approximately $185 billion, the company has been forced to hoover up T-bills at a pace that would make most central banks raise an eyebrow.

In 2024, Tether made net Treasury purchases of $33.1 billion. That was enough to rank it seventh among all foreign buyers of US debt. In 2025, the figure came in at $28.2 billion, again landing in seventh place globally.

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Tether has described itself as the fifth-largest purchaser of US Treasuries when hedge fund activity is excluded from the rankings. The company’s CEO has stated expectations that Tether will climb into the top 10 purchasers of T-bills in 2026, driven by continued USDT growth and new product lines.

What’s fueling the growth Tether reports adding approximately 30 million new users per quarter, bringing its total user base to around 530 million. Each new user who acquires USDT effectively triggers demand for more reserve assets, and Tether’s reserve policy channels that demand straight into the Treasury market.

This flywheel generated over $10 billion in profits for Tether in 2025, almost entirely from the yield on its Treasury portfolio.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has publicly discussed the potential for stablecoin issuers to become a structural source of demand for T-bills, projecting that the sector could eventually absorb between $800 billion and $1 trillion in Treasuries as it scales.

Why Washington isn’t complaining Stablecoin legislation moving through Congress would formalize reserve requirements that effectively mandate Treasury holdings, creating a regulatory framework that locks in this demand. Tether’s 83% allocation to Treasury bills is a far cry from the opaque mix of commercial paper and other instruments that drew scrutiny in earlier years.

The risks that come with scale If USDT ever experienced a rapid redemption event, Tether would need to liquidate tens of billions in T-bills in a compressed timeframe. Treasury bills are among the most liquid instruments on earth, but selling $50 billion or more in a panic scenario could still create ripples in short-term funding markets.

Competitors like Circle, which issues USDC, also hold substantial Treasury reserves but at a smaller scale. As stablecoin legislation takes shape, the reserve requirements embedded in new laws could push the entire sector deeper into Treasuries, potentially validating Bessent’s $800 billion to $1 trillion projection.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.

Cover image via depositphotos.com Disclaimer: The opinions expressed by our writers are their own and do not represent the views of U.Today. The financial and market information provided on U.Today is intended for informational purposes only. U.Today is not liable for any financial losses incurred while trading cryptocurrencies. Conduct your own research by contacting financial experts before making any investment decisions. We believe that all content is accurate as of the date of publication, but certain offers mentioned may no longer be available.

World's biggest crypto exchange Binance officially expanded its derivatives lineup today, launching perpetual contracts for two fundamentally different assets: the utility token PONS (Robinhood Chain) and the meme coin HAJIMI (BNB Smart Chain).

When setting the trading conditions, the exchange applied a differentiated approach to risk management: leverage of up to 20x is available for PONS, while leverage for the highly speculative HAJIMI is strictly capped at 3x.

Binance listing market reaction for HAJIMI and PONS tokens, Source: TradingViewThe listings triggered an immediate influx of liquidity onto the exchange, reflected in a vertical surge in trading volumes on TradingView charts, and opened a window for a major on-chain attack.

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The difference in available leverage stems from the projects' different natures and business models. PONS is the native utility token of Pons, the dominant launchpad on Robinhood Chain, an Arbitrum-based L2 network.

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Its deflationary model is built on automatic PONS buybacks and burns funded by fees. Following the news, the asset hit new highs around $0.93, with a daily trading volume of $20.39 million, while its market capitalization is already approaching $1 billion.

In contrast, HAJIMI is a pure meme coin on BNB Chain, launched through the four.meme platform. The asset is fueled exclusively by hype within the Asian community, while the conservative 3x leverage cap underscores its extreme volatility. HAJIMI is currently holding around $0.072, with a trading volume of $26.66 million.

How one bot hijacked the entire listing while everyone else was reading the push notificationImmediately after Binance published its announcement, a technological drama unfolded in the HAJIMI meme coin market. Automated algorithms captured the entire initial wave of liquidity ahead of retail traders.

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According to on-chain analyst EmberCN, at exactly 13:55:12 UTC — the very second the news broke — a news trader carried out a successful MEV attack (front-running):

Hidden costs: To secure the very top position in the block, the bot sent its transaction through a private RPC channel directly to the BNB48 Club validator node, paying a bribe of 35.3 BNB ($26,800) and another 5.5 BNB ($4,200) in priority gas fees.Trade and profit-taking: After spending $31,000 on fees, the bot was the first to buy 9.89 million HAJIMI for $200,000 at $0.02 per token and, a few minutes later, sold its entire position into the incoming wave of orders at an average price of $0.058, locking in $378,000 in net profit.Trading in both pairs continues amid heightened volatility.

Nvidia (NVDA +0.84%) recently announced results that crushed Wall Street estimates. Its sales surged 106% year over year to $96.2 billion. Diluted earnings per share were up by an even better 128%.

It looks like the leading artificial intelligence (AI) business can do no wrong. Momentum continues to be on its side. Nvidia has possibly been the biggest winner in the ongoing AI infrastructure build-out.

And it shows, as shares have jumped 920% in five years (as of Sept. 3). This company has established itself as the world's most valuable enterprise.

But what's surprising to learn is that the AI stock isn't expensive. It trades at a forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 24.2. Based strictly on the jaw-dropping financial results this business keeps reporting, it's easy to argue that shares should command double the current valuation multiple.

Is the market warning investors about what's to come?

Image source: The Motley Fool.

AI to the moon By any metric, AI usage is showing no sign of slowing. The number of tokens processed by Alphabet model APIs, for example, totaled 22 billion per minute last quarter. This was up from 16 billion three months before.

OpenAI and Anthropic, the two prominent AI labs that are planning for trillion-dollar initial public offerings in the near future, are posting skyrocketing revenue figures. And they have rapidly expanding user bases.

Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud are major hyperscalers that continue to reveal gargantuan customer order amounts with each passing quarter. As of June 30, they had a combined $1.7 trillion in cloud backlogs.

Consequently, the spending isn't letting up. Colette Kress, Nvidia's chief financial officer, estimates that hyperscaler capital expenditures (capex) will come in at $1.3 trillion in 2027. And before the end of the decade, management believes annual AI infrastructure spending will be between $3 trillion and $4 trillion.

All of this demand directly flows to the impressive financial metrics coming from Nvidia. It sells the powerful data center graphics processing units (GPUs) that support AI model training and inference.

On the recent Q2 2027 earnings call, Kress noted that the company expects 70% revenue growth in fiscal 2028. Assuming consensus estimates hold up and Nvidia's margin profile doesn't change, this outlook implies that the business will report a whopping $461 billion in operating income next fiscal year. This would be well ahead of anyone else.

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Durability of demand is the trillion-dollar question All of this information should make every investor extremely bullish about Nvidia's prospects. However, the market is concerned about the durability of Nvidia's growth. The forward P/E ratio of 24.2 demonstrates this.

No matter how smart the experts might sound, no one has any idea how long the AI boom will last. While the robust demand trends and ballooning capex numbers are optimistic data points, things could change quickly.

Maybe the enterprises that are driving usage don't realize the tangible benefits they were hoping for, prompting these customers to cut their AI-related budgets. There's a material probability that meaningful returns come later than the bulls hope, creating a timing gap (and potential bubble bursting) that calls into question how long the sizable capex can continue.

That would have a ripple effect up the value chain. If there's any evidence that AI spending is going to slow, sell-side analysts will be forced to lower their profit estimates for Nvidia. And the share price could drop.

Watching Nvidia's meteoric rise has been very exciting. AI can truly be a game-changing technology.

However, this is uncharted territory. And Nvidia's success rides on the music not stopping, not to mention its ability to fend off rivals developing more advanced chips.

Just like the industry is starved for Nvidia GPUs, the market has an unquenchable thirst for certainty. This is exactly why the company's quarterly results are so closely watched to ensure the growth story is alive. Trillions of dollars are on the line.

E-commerce platform Shopify (SHOP -0.54%) is doing something big companies rarely do: growing faster as it gets bigger. Gross merchandise volume (GMV), the dollar value of everything its merchants sell through the platform, grew 12% in 2022 and has accelerated every year since -- 20%, then 24%, then 29% in 2025. And 2026 is running faster still.

However, the stock hasn't followed the same line. It trades around $148 as of this writing, about 19% off its 52-week high of $182.19.

Where will Shopify stock be in five years? I think it hinges on a few numbers the company reports every quarter -- how fast volume grows, how much of it Shopify keeps, and how much of that turns into cash. It also hinges on how much of all that is already in the price.

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Faster every yearShopify's second-quarter report, released in early August, extended the pattern. Revenue climbed 34% year over year to $3.6 billion, the second straight quarter of 34% growth, and GMV rose 32% to $115.6 billion.

For scale, Shopify estimates its merchants handled more than 14% of U.S. e-commerce in 2025.

"GMV growth accelerated on top of last year's already strong Q2 with solid results across all merchant sizes, channels, and geographies," said chief financial officer Jeff Hoffmeister in the second-quarter earnings release.

Of course, a five-year view also has to account for artificial intelligence (AI). If AI shopping tools help merchants sell more, volume per merchant can keep climbing. If they mostly make it easier for anyone to launch a competing storefront, they raise competition among Shopify's merchants instead.

The reported figures don't settle it yet.

Can Shopify keep more of each dollar?Volume only matters to shareholders after Shopify takes its cut. The company's take rate, or revenue as a share of GMV, came to about 3.1% last quarter. That was a touch higher than a year earlier, as merchants adopted more of its services.

Merchant solutions revenue (payments and the other services merchants pay for as they sell) rose 37% year over year to $2.8 billion, while subscription revenue grew 22% to $802 million. Merchant solutions now make up about 78% of total revenue. Notably, those are lower-margin dollars. Gross margin there runs near 38%, versus about 80% on subscriptions. That mix is why gross profit rose 31% last quarter, trailing revenue's 34% growth -- a gap management expects again in the third quarter.

Meanwhile, cost discipline has more than made up for the cheaper revenue mix. Not only did operating income rise 68% year over year to $488 million, but free cash flow margin (free cash flow as a percent of revenue) also climbed to 18%, after 16% a year earlier and 15% in the prior quarter.

Investors are already paying for years of growthThe trouble is that none of it is a secret. At a market cap near $190 billion, Shopify trades at about 14 times its trailing-12-month sales, about 80 times its free cash flow over the same period, and about 60 times its expected adjusted 2027 earnings.

To justify those multiples of sales and cash flow, Shopify would need years of strong execution. If GMV compounds at 20% annually for five years (slower than today's pace), volume would reach about $1.1 trillion, from about $432 billion over the past year. A take rate near 3.1% turns that into revenue of around $33 billion. And if free cash flow margin climbs from 18% to 25%, Shopify would produce roughly $8 billion of cash in year five.

Today's market cap is still about 23 times that year-five cash flow. Five years of very good execution, in other words, gets a buyer to a valuation that is arguably just reasonable.

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A materially higher stock needs more than that. GMV growth could hold near 30% for the full five years, which would put revenue around $50 billion and free cash flow above $12 billion at that same 25% margin. At today's price, that outcome would work out to about 15 times year-five cash flow, cheap enough to leave room for the stock to climb.

Additionally, the take rate may keep inching higher as merchants adopt more services, raising revenue without another dollar of volume. Both are possible. But neither is the kind of assumption I'd want my returns to depend on.

Ultimately, I expect Shopify to be a much bigger business in five years. But I don't expect the stock to climb nearly as fast as the business grows, because so much of that growth is already reflected in the price.

I'm not buying the stock at today's price. If shares pull back meaningfully, or a few more quarters show the take rate and free cash flow margin climbing together, I'd take another look.

Uniswap V4 held $59.1 million in tokenized stock deposits as of Sept. 6, making it the largest decentralized finance venue for the category, according to Token Terminal.

Summary

Uniswap V4 held $59.1 million in tokenized stock deposits, leading Token Terminal’s latest market snapshot. Kamino Lend ranked second with $41.7 million, while Uniswap V3 held another $20.9 million overall. The three platforms controlled approximately 63% of the category’s reported $192.6 million DeFi TVL combined. Solana hosted $79.1 million in deposited tokenized stocks, the largest blockchain total reported overall currently. Robinhood-issued stocks contributed $73.1 million, while xStocks supplied $63.9 million across DeFi venues combined overall. Solana-based Kamino Lend ranked second with $41.7 million. Uniswap V3 followed with $20.9 million, Token Terminal’s data showed. Together, the three venues accounted for $121.7 million, or approximately 63.2% of the measured category.

Total tokenized stock DeFi TVL stood at approximately $192.6 million. The figure measures equity-linked tokens deposited into decentralized exchanges, lending markets and related applications. It does not represent the total value of tokenized equities issued across blockchains.

Token Terminal defines total value locked as the value of onchain deposits and, in some cases, the tokenized value of user deposits made offchain. The metric changes when assets enter or leave protocols and when the prices of the underlying shares move.

Tokenized stocks deposited into Uniswap V4 total $59.1M, making it the largest DeFi venue for the category

Kamino Lend follows at $41.7M and Uniswap V3 at $20.9M

Together, the three venues account for 63% of total tokenized stock DeFi TVL pic.twitter.com/PDlwDIS8uZ

— Token Terminal 📊 (@tokenterminal) September 5, 2026 Uniswap V4 leads through tokenized stock liquidity Uniswap V4’s $59.1 million primarily represents tokenized shares supplied to liquidity pools. Users deposit paired assets into these pools so other participants can trade without relying on a conventional order book.

Uniswap V3 held another $20.9 million, bringing the two versions’ combined tokenized stock deposits to $80 million. That equals approximately 41.5% of the $192.6 million measured by Token Terminal.

The comparison between Uniswap and Kamino requires context. Uniswap is a decentralized exchange, meaning its deposited assets primarily support token swaps and market liquidity. Kamino Lend is a lending protocol where tokenized stocks can serve as supplied assets or collateral.

Both activities count toward DeFi TVL, but they perform different functions. Exchange liquidity supports trading. Lending deposits let holders borrow against their positions or receive interest from borrowers. TVL alone does not measure trading volume, borrowing demand or revenue.

The growth forms part of a broader rise in productive uses for tokenized assets. Real-world asset deposits across decentralized applications increased from $2.3 billion to $7.4 billion between the second quarters of 2025 and 2026. During that period, tokenized asset spot volume grew approximately 220% even as wider decentralized exchange activity declined.

Tokenized stock DeFi TVL remains concentrated The three leading venues controlled more than three-fifths of the measured category. All remaining applications collectively held approximately $70.9 million in tokenized stock deposits.

That concentration creates operational dependencies. A technical failure, pricing problem or major liquidity withdrawal at one leading venue could affect a considerable portion of the market. However, the deposits remain distributed across separate smart contracts and blockchains.

Token Terminal’s network breakdown showed that Solana hosted $79.1 million in tokenized stock DeFi deposits, the largest total among tracked blockchains. Kamino accounted for a substantial share, alongside other Solana trading and lending applications.

Robinhood Chain and Ethereum also hosted material deposits. Robinhood launched its mainnet in July as an Ethereum Layer 2 supporting equity-linked tokens and decentralized applications. Eligible users can trade tokenized stocks and deploy them within DeFi, including through lending pools and decentralized exchanges.

Token Terminal’s issuer data showed another form of concentration. Robinhood-issued stocks contributed $73.1 million to DeFi TVL, while xStocks accounted for $63.9 million.

Together, Robinhood and xStocks supplied $137 million, or approximately 71.1% of the category total. Other issuers and tokenization providers accounted for the remaining $55.6 million.

Issuer concentration has also appeared in ownership data. In July, the number of tokenized equity holders across five platforms reached 752,000, following 92% growth over 30 days. Robinhood held a 44% share of those users, while Ondo and xStocks led by issued asset value.

Deposits do not always provide direct share ownership Tokenized stocks use different legal structures. Some are backed by conventional shares held with custodians. Others are structured as debt instruments or contractual claims designed to track an equity’s economic value.

Owning a token therefore does not always provide voting rights, dividends or the legal status of a conventional shareholder. Rights depend on the issuer’s terms, reserve structure, jurisdiction, custody arrangements and redemption process.

Token Terminal describes Robinhood’s tokenized SoFi product as providing one-to-one price exposure to the U.S.-listed company. Its description of Ondo’s tokenized ASML product says the asset is structured as a debt instrument whose payable value changes with the underlying security.

Robinhood’s products have attracted scrutiny over this distinction. AMC Entertainment CEO Adam Aron said his company had no role in Robinhood’s AMC-linked token. The products provide economic exposure without giving holders direct ownership in the represented companies, as AMC sought legal advice over unauthorized stock tokens.

Other providers are developing models intended to confer stronger ownership rights. Base and Coinbase have said they are preparing tokenized equities backed one-to-one by underlying shares. However, key custody and transfer details remain undisclosed, and no launch date has been confirmed.

These differences matter when tokens enter lending pools. Users assume the smart-contract risk of the DeFi venue alongside the custody, legal and counterparty risks attached to the underlying token.

DeFi deposits remain below total equity issuance The $192.6 million held in DeFi represents only part of the broader tokenized stock market. CoinShares and Token Terminal estimated that approximately $2.2 billion in equities had been tokenized during the second quarter.

The difference shows that most issued tokenized equities have not been deposited into decentralized lending or trading applications. Assets may remain in customer wallets, centralized platforms or issuer-controlled systems.

Tokenized stocks were already one of the fastest-growing real-world asset categories by holder count. However, onchain equities remain small beside global stock markets, which are valued in excess of $100 trillion.

FWDI and SPYx ranked among the largest individual assets deposited across the tracked venues, according to Token Terminal’s asset breakdown. Their positions indicate that both individual-company and broad-market products can attract onchain liquidity.

Trading has also become concentrated in particular products. Tokenized QQQ generated much of the category’s decentralized trading activity in July, when tokenized stock volume increased by 288%.

More tokenized equities could enter DeFi The range of assets available to DeFi applications is expected to grow. Payward plans to tokenize the 100 largest London-listed equities through its xStocks framework.

The London Stock Exchange intends to support the products through its planned LSE 24 venue, subject to regulatory approval. The collaboration will also examine issuer-sponsored equity tokens. The London Stock Exchange and Payward partnership could expand xStocks beyond its existing U.S., European and Asian-linked products.

The new London-listed xStocks are expected to appear on Kraken and other supporting platforms before the planned exchange integration. They are not currently available to U.K. investors, and their addition does not guarantee immediate deposits into Uniswap or lending protocols.

Future data will show whether Uniswap V4 retains its lead or whether lending markets capture more tokenized equity deposits. Relevant measures include pool liquidity, borrowing demand, collateral performance, trading volume and issuer concentration.

There was no verified market reaction directly attributable to Token Terminal’s report. UNI and KMNO respond to wider market conditions, while the deposited assets do not represent revenue belonging to either token’s holders.

There are nuclear stocks trading at lower valuations than BWX Technologies (NYSE: BWXT), including Constellation (NASDAQ: CEG) and Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK), large utility companies that use nuclear power, but compared with its peers, BWX stock is still a steal. The stock is down more than 7% so far this year.

Hot nuclear stocks GE Vernova (GEV +0.01%), NuScale Power (SMR -0.51%), Oklo (OKLO +3.59%), Cameco (CCJ +0.12%), and Uranium Energy (UEC +0.26%) all trade at higher valuations than BWX whether you look at trailing price-to-earnings (P/E), forward P/E, or price-to-sales (P/S) ratio.

BWX may not be the flavor of the month, but that presents an opportunity for investors. The stock benefits from a near-sole-source monopoly supplying nuclear reactors and high-assay enriched fuel for the U.S. Navy's submarine and aircraft carrier fleet. Here are three reasons to buy this stock now.

Image source: Getty Images.

Strong financial health and a big backlog In the second quarter, the defense company reported $901.6 million in revenue, up 18% year over year, driven by expansion in government and commercial nuclear services. It also reported $1.07 in earnings per share (EPS), a 5% increase from the same quarter a year ago.

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The company recently signed more than $1.4 billion in contracts with the U.S. Navy to support its Nuclear Propulsion Program, including a five-year, $1.3 billion long-lead material procurement deal and $165 million to procure long-lead time nuclear system components and manufacturing to support the Navy's Ford-class aircraft carrier program.

BWX carries a backlog of more than $8.6 billion, giving it multiyear revenue visibility that insulates it from broader economic downturns.

The company was confident enough to raise its yearly revenue guidance to $3.8 billion, up 61.7%, and non-GAAP EPS of $4.70 to $4.80, up 18% at the midpoint.

A nice naval military-driven moat BWX is the lone manufacturer of nuclear reactors and fuel for the U.S. Navy's submarine, Virginia-class and Columbia-class, and aircraft carrier fleets.

There are high levels of regulatory requirements, security clearances, and technology that any competitor would have to address to process high-assay, low-enriched uranium (HALEU) and build military-grade naval nuclear reactors. That gives BWX significant pricing power.

In addition, the war in Iran has highlighted the need for Navy modernization and fleet expansion. That's become a high-priority defense agenda, ensuring long-term government demand for BWX's services.

The company is expanding its commercial sales Thanks to its position as a component and fuel manufacturer for next-generation small modular reactors (SMRs) and its manufacture of radioisotopes for diagnostic imaging and targeted cancer therapies, BWX is diversifying its revenue stream into high-margin markets.

In Q2, it reported commercial revenue of $303 million, up 72%, year over year, and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) of $36 million, up 123% over the same period a year ago. The company is predicting 45% growth in commercial sales this year thanks in large part to two recent acquisitions. In 2025, it purchased Kinectrics , which serves the small modular reactor and traditional large-scale nuclear reactor markets. This past July, it completed its purchase of Precision Components Group, which makes complex, heavy-walled, and heat-transfer components.

Offchain Labs co-founder Steven Goldfeder and Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko exchanged competing views on Sept. 6 over why Robinhood built its blockchain using Arbitrum technology instead of operating applications directly on Solana.

Summary

Offchain Labs co-founder Steven Goldfeder said Robinhood retains roughly 90% of net chain revenue generated. Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko argued Robinhood could instead monetize users through application-level fees directly itself. Robinhood Chain routes 10% of net protocol revenue to the broader Arbitrum ecosystem under agreements. Eight percentage points go to Arbitrum DAO, while two support its developer guild funding program. Robinhood Chain recorded $6.04 million daily fees, retaining approximately $5.44 million after costs and sharing. Goldfeder argued that Robinhood can retain roughly 90% of its chain revenue under the Arbitrum Expansion Program. A Solana-based application would pay network fees without receiving the underlying chain’s revenue, he said.

“Robinhood chose Arbitrum so they could be a landlord and not a tenant,” Goldfeder wrote. His comment responded to Yakovenko’s position that Robinhood could subsidize Solana transaction fees while charging users through its own application.

The debate followed a sharp rise in Robinhood Chain activity. The network recently collected $6.04 million in daily transaction fees and retained about $5.44 million after expenses and its Arbitrum revenue-sharing obligation.

I have a ton of respect for @toly but this is a ridiculous take. On Arbitrum, Robinhood keeps 90% of gas fees. On Solana they would retain 0 and any gas fees they subsidized would come out of pocket.

Robinhood chose Arbitrum so they could be a landlord and not a tenant. https://t.co/vWjBtn9PYh

— Steven Goldfeder (@sgoldfed) September 5, 2026 Robinhood keeps 90% of net revenue, not gross fees Goldfeder’s 90% figure reflects the Arbitrum Expansion Program’s share of net protocol revenue. It should not be interpreted as Robinhood automatically retaining 90% of every gross fee paid by users.

Under the program, Robinhood Chain sends 10% of its net protocol revenue to the Arbitrum ecosystem. Eight percentage points go to the Arbitrum DAO treasury, while two percentage points fund the Arbitrum Developer Guild.

Net revenue is calculated after relevant network expenses, including the cost of posting transaction data to Ethereum. Robinhood’s actual retained amount therefore depends on gross transaction fees, Ethereum data costs, infrastructure expenses and the Arbitrum payment.

The arrangement has already produced measurable results. Robinhood Chain collected a record $6.04 million in transaction fees during its latest 24-hour reporting period and retained approximately $5.44 million. The figures show the network keeping about 90% after associated costs and allocations.

The network also generated $20.33 million in revenue over seven days. Maintaining that rate for a full year would produce approximately $1.06 billion, but such annualization is only a projection based on a brief period of unusually high activity.

The latest Robinhood Chain fee record followed rapid growth in memecoin trading, token launches and decentralized exchange volume. GMGN, Pons and Uniswap accounted for much of the application activity.

Yakovenko says applications can collect fees on Solana Yakovenko’s argument focuses on the application layer. Robinhood could deploy its services on Solana, subsidize transaction costs and charge customers through its interface, avoiding the expense of operating a separate Layer 2 network.

This approach could work for transactions initiated through Robinhood’s application. Brokerages can charge commissions, spreads, subscription fees or service fees without controlling the blockchain underneath their products.

Goldfeder countered that this model would not capture value from activity occurring outside Robinhood’s interface. Third-party wallets, trading bots, decentralized exchanges and token launchpads can interact directly with blockchain contracts.

Robinhood would pay to subsidize transactions initiated by its customers on Solana but would receive none of the network fees produced by independent users. Solana validators and stakers would receive those fees instead.

On Robinhood Chain, the company operates the network’s sequencing infrastructure. This allows it to collect transaction fees from activity across the chain, including transactions that bypass Robinhood’s front end.

Recent data supports Goldfeder’s point about outside activity. Memecoin launchpad Pons and trading platform GMGN have become large contributors to Robinhood Chain’s traffic. Many transactions generated by those applications do not originate through Robinhood’s brokerage interface.

The economic distinction is therefore broader than the cost of individual transactions. Yakovenko’s model lets Robinhood monetize its customers at the application level. Goldfeder’s model lets Robinhood capture revenue generated across an entire network.

Robinhood Chain still pays Ethereum and Arbitrum Robinhood does not retain all the value generated by its blockchain. Robinhood Chain is an Ethereum Layer 2 built using Arbitrum Orbit, rather than an independent Layer 1.

The network uses ETH as its native gas token and posts transaction data to Ethereum using blobs, according to Robinhood’s documentation. Each transaction includes an execution component and a data-availability component.

The L2 execution fee covers computation performed on Robinhood Chain. The L1 data fee pays for publishing transaction information to Ethereum. Both components are bundled into the amount presented to users.

Robinhood also pays the Arbitrum ecosystem’s 10% share of net protocol revenue. Consequently, the “landlord” description refers to Robinhood’s control over its own chain and sequencer, not complete independence from outside infrastructure.

As an earlier examination of the revenue-sharing arrangement reported, Robinhood received a branded network, EVM compatibility, existing Ethereum tools and technical support in exchange for part of its net revenue.

Building a new Layer 1 could theoretically allow Robinhood to retain more revenue. It would also require the company to develop and maintain its own execution, consensus, bridging and security infrastructure.

Using Solana would remove the need to operate those components. However, Robinhood would become an application on infrastructure it did not control and would not collect the network’s transaction fees.

Gas subsidies complicate the revenue comparison Robinhood launched its chain with a 90-day gas subsidy for transactions conducted through Robinhood Wallet. The subsidy is scheduled to expire on Sept. 29.

The promotion means eligible wallet users do not directly pay gas during the subsidy period. Robinhood covers those costs. However, the subsidy does not necessarily cover every transaction conducted by independent applications and wallets across the network.

That distinction is central to the founders’ debate. Goldfeder argued that much of Robinhood Chain’s activity now occurs beyond the Robinhood front end. The company can collect fees from those transactions because it operates the underlying chain.

Robinhood Chain’s activity increased rapidly during the subsidy. Its daily decentralized exchange volume recently reached approximately $1.71 billion, while total value locked in native protocols stood near $1.17 billion.

The network has also exceeded Solana in daily chain revenue during some reporting periods. However, direct comparisons require caution because the networks have different cost structures, subsidies, fee markets and validator arrangements.

The Robinhood Chain and Solana comparison identified the subsidy’s expiration as a major test. User activity could fall when customers begin paying gas, or Robinhood could extend or restructure the program.

The fee debate will become clearer after Sept. 29 The first major test arrives when the gas subsidy expires. Post-subsidy data will show how many Robinhood Wallet users continue transacting when they must pay their own network costs.

It will also show whether independent activity from Pons, GMGN, Uniswap and other applications remains strong. These applications have contributed heavily to the network’s recent fee growth.

A detailed onchain investigation by Bitquery found that Robinhood Chain’s gas price increased roughly 25-fold within 11 days. The report attributed much of the additional demand to a limited group of heavily active wallets.

The concentration creates uncertainty over whether current fee revenue is sustainable. A decline in activity from several large addresses could reduce transaction fees even if total user numbers continue rising.

Robinhood has not publicly announced whether it will extend the subsidy beyond Sept. 29. It also has not disclosed how network revenue will appear in its financial reporting.

There was no verified movement in HOOD, SOL, ETH or ARB directly attributable to the founders’ exchange. Linking broader market fluctuations to their comments without additional evidence would be speculative.

The commercial question will remain whether owning a Layer 2 produces more value than deploying an application on an existing Layer 1. Robinhood Chain’s first unsubsidized operating period will provide the clearest evidence.

Arbitrum (ARB) surged from approximately $0.08 in late August to nearly $0.20 in September, marking one of its largest rallies in 2025. This move represents an increase of more than 120% from its recent low. The latest daily trading session alone saw an almost 10% jump in ARB price.

Robinhood Chain delivers revenue surgeRobinhood Chain, a dedicated Arbitrum-based network created by the trading platform Robinhood, appeared to drive the latest momentum. Over a 24-hour period, Robinhood Chain generated more than $2 million in transaction revenue, and 10% of its net protocol revenue is redirected to the Arbitrum ecosystem. If activity remains consistent, Arbitrum’s share could translate into an estimated annualized income of $73 million.

In late August, Robinhood Chain’s gross revenue sharply increased from about $54,700 on August 22 to more than $1.08 million by August 30. During the same period, Arbitrum’s matching stake grew from roughly $5,400 to $108,000. Key metrics across the Arbitrum ecosystem also showed notable improvement.

Mini dictionary: Robinhood Chain, a blockchain developed as part of Robinhood’s expansion into decentralized finance (DeFi), leverages Arbitrum’s technology to offer users faster and cheaper transactions compared to Ethereum mainnet.

Arbitrum ecosystem demonstrates rapid growthThe Arbitrum Foundation reported that its networks handled 478 million transactions during the first half of 2025. Stablecoin transfers on Arbitrum networks exceeded a monthly average of $70 billion. In the same period, ArbitrumDAO, the project’s decentralized autonomous organization, earned $6.19 million. In July, which marked Robinhood Chain’s first full month on mainnet, license fees from the Expansion Program made up 35% of the DAO’s revenue.

MetricValueTransactions (H1 2025)478 millionMonthly stablecoin transfer volume$70 billionArbitrumDAO earnings (H1 2025)$6.19 millionExpansion Program share (July)35% of DAO revenueMarket sentiment and technical outlookIntense speculative activity has added further energy to the rally. Open interest in ARB futures contracts rose sharply during the initial breakout phase as traders increased their exposure through new long positions. Since August 31, open interest climbed by an estimated 30%, magnifying leverage in an already expanding spot market.

Currently, ARB trades near $0.195 on the daily chart after reaching an intraday peak close to $0.206. The Relative Strength Index (RSI) stands near 85, well above typical overbought thresholds. This overextension in technical indicators suggests the risk of a short-term correction despite strong fundamentals stemming from Robinhood Chain’s performance.

Presently, the rally is fundamentally supported by growth in Robinhood Chain, but the pace of ARB’s rise increases the possibility of a market correction as technical factors indicate overbought conditions.

The 200-day moving average sits near $0.119, highlighting ARB’s significant overperformance relative to its long-term trend. Maintained support at the $0.17–$0.18 range could sustain the breakout structure. However, a breakdown below this zone may trigger a deeper retracement after the notable 120% climb.

Disclaimer: The information contained in this article does not constitute investment advice. Investors should be aware that cryptocurrencies carry high volatility and therefore risk, and should conduct their own research.

It wasn't too long ago that Snowflake (SNOW -5.41%) was viewed as a potential AI loser. Today, the company looks to be one of the biggest AI winners outside the infrastructure space. The stock recently surged 16.6% the session following its fiscal second-quarter earnings report and is now up nearly 70% on the year.

The cloud-based data warehousing and analytics company's architecture, which separates storage from compute to allow customers to store data and then process it across multiple cloud computing providers, is proving integral in the age of AI. Its solution has become an important system of record for agentic AI and also, importantly, allows for model choice.

Let's take a closer look at Snowflake's fiscal Q2 results to see whether the growth stock can keep its momentum or if it's too late to buy the rally.

Image source: The Motley Fool.

Snowflake's strong momentum continues AI continues to be a big growth driver for Snowflake, with the company saying that it is at the center of the push toward enterprise agentic AI, as its platform "provides that trusted foundation." It's seeing rapid adoption of its AI coding agent CoCo and ready-to-use agentic app CoWork, while noting that its flexible model approach, which lets customers switch models and optimize costs, is a competitive advantage.

During the quarter, which ended July 31, the company's revenue climbed 35% year over year to $1.55 billion, topping the $1.48 billion analyst consensus. Product revenue, meanwhile, jumped 37% to $1.49 billion, its third-straight quarter of acceleration. Adjusted earnings per share (EPS) surged to $0.62 from $0.35 a year ago, easily surpassing the $0.45 consensus.

Snowflake continues to see strong expansion within its existing customer base, with net revenue retention rate coming in at 126% over the past 12 months, the same as in Q1. A number more than 100% indicates that existing customer usage is increasing after accounting for customer churn.

Snowflake also added 692 new customers in the quarter, including 14 Global 2000 companies. That was a 32% increase in net additions year over year. Meanwhile, it now has 828 customers who spend more than $1 million annually.

Snowflake raised its forecast for full-year product revenue to approximately $6.07 billion, up from previous guidance of $5.84 billion. The new outlook represents year-over-year growth of 36%. The company also raised guidance for its adjusted operating margin to 14.5% from 13.5%.

For fiscal Q3, it forecast product revenue between $1.588 billion and $1.593 billion, representing growth of 37% to 38%. It's looking for adjusted operating margin of 15.5%.

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Snowflake continues to fire on all cylinders. It continues to see great growth with existing customers, despite its large size, while it is also doing a great job of bringing on new customers.

It's truly positioned itself as an important model-agnostic platform that is paramount for the deployment of enterprise AI. With agentic AI still in the very early innings and the company continuing to build its own strong pipeline of AI products, Snowflake should have many years of strong growth in front of it.

The stock's valuation, though, is another story. With its strong performance this year, the stock now trades at a forward price-to-sales (P/S) multiple of 20 times this fiscal year's analyst estimates and 16 times fiscal 2028 (ending January 2028). That's toward the high end of its range since 2024, with similar to slightly higher revenue growth.

While I think Snowflake is positioned to be a long-term winner, its valuation could cap its near- to medium-term upside. As such, I wouldn't chase the stock here, but investors should be on the lookout to add shares on any meaningful pullback.