Market Signal Briefing

Deals between pharmaceutical companies and Washington to reduce prices for medicines in the United States will likely push up the cost of new drugs in Switzerland, the CEO of Swiss pharma giant Roche was quoted as saying on Saturday.

The AI infrastructure specialist will likely see massive revenue growth in the coming quarters and years. But this growth will come at a steep cost.

CoreWeave (CRWV +22.55%) shares jumped on Friday, after Citigroup analysts gave the AI (artificial intelligence) computing stock a buy rating and a 12-month price target of $192 -- far ahead of where the stock is trading now (even after its nearly 23% jump on Friday).

While CoreWeave bulls undoubtedly appreciate the big move higher, nothing has changed in the underlying business. CoreWeave's core problem remains: It will likely need to spend an extraordinary amount of capital before it can prove it can produce substantial and durable profits that live up to its valuation.

The tech company, which runs data centers packed with Nvidia graphics processing units (GPUs) and sells that computing power to AI labs and hyperscalers that want to train and run large and powerful AI models, has seen explosive demand. Of course, the challenge is translating that demand into revenue and, ultimately, into profits.

Image source: Getty Images.

Demand keeps outrunning capacity
CoreWeave's latest quarter shows both the pull and the limits of its business expansion. In its third-quarter 2025 update, CoreWeave CEO Michael Intrator pointed to record-breaking revenue and a near-doubling of its revenue backlog sequentially. Revenue for the period came in at $1.365 billion, up 134% year over year, while revenue backlog stood at an astounding $55.6 billion as of Sept. 30 (up from $30.1 billion just three months earlier.

With a backlog that is far in excess of its quarterly limits, the company will undoubtedly strive to grow as fast as it possibly can. But there are limits to how fast a company can grow -- especially in a capital-intensive business like AI infrastructure.

Indeed, growth is already cooling from an extreme pace. CoreWeave's revenue growth decelerated from 207% year over year in Q2. That does not automatically mean something is wrong, but the slowdown matters because investors will likely value this business on how long its breakneck pace of growth can persist. In addition, this deceleration highlights some of the risks to the timeline of CoreWeave's buildout.

Spending and debt
CoreWeave's income statement shows why investors should stay cautious even after the stock's momentum late last week. The company posted third-quarter operating income of $51.9 million; but it still reported a net loss of $110.1 million. Interest expense is the big culprit: CoreWeave's net interest expense for the quarter was $310.6 million -- up from $104.4 million in the year-ago quarter as the company takes on debt to finance its expansion.

And CoreWeave's financing burden is not going away anytime soon. Growing into its backlog will require a lot more hardware and power. CoreWeave reported $1.9 billion of capital expenditures in the third quarter alone, and it guided to $12 billion to $14 billion of capital expenditures for full-year 2025.

Of course, debt isn't the only way to raise money. But when the company isn't securing debt to finance its buildout, it is diluting shareholders through equity sales. Either way, there are risks to shareholder returns involved.

Highlighting just how capital-hungry CoreWeave is, the company has secured $14 billion in debt and equity transactions year to date.

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Time to buy?
For CoreWeave, execution is what matters. The company will need to bring new sites online on schedule, filling them with contracted demand, and do so without its cost of capital rising faster than its operating income.

We're already seeing some risks in execution. In its third-quarter update, management flagged that a third-party data center developer fell behind schedule, negatively affecting the company's fourth-quarter outlook.

Of course, we can't rule out the possibility that CoreWeave will turn into a long-term winner in the fast-growing AI infrastructure space. For now, the company's soaring backlog suggests customers are desperate for capacity from the company. Still, risks seem to be building just as fast as revenue.

So, is the growth stock a buy today? With shares trading at a price-to-sales ratio of almost 10, even as interest expense is soaring and the company remains unprofitable, I personally think that waiting for a more attractive entry point makes sense. Sure, there's no guarantee we'll see a more attractive entry point. But instead of buying into the hype, I'd rather patiently wait for a potentially lower price that better balances risks with the potential reward.

DBRG stock has collapsed more than 85% over the past decade -- but one fund seems confident things are looking up.

Boston-based Portolan Capital Management reported a buy of nearly 2.4 million shares of DigitalBridge Group (DBRG +0.30%), contributing to an increase in its stake of about $32.1 million, according to a November 13 SEC filing.

What HappenedAccording to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission dated November 13, Portolan Capital Management increased its position in DigitalBridge Group by nearly 2.4 million shares during the third quarter. The fund’s stake grew to about 5.5 million shares with a market value of $63.98 million as of September 30.

What Else to KnowPortolan Capital Management's purchase brings the DigitalBridge stake to 3.5% of reported U.S. equity AUM.

Top five holdings after the filing: 

NYSE:MOD: $85.6 million (4.6% of AUM)NASDAQ:TTMI: $68.5 million (3.7% of AUM)NYSE:ELF: $64.6 million (3.5% of AUM)NYSE:DBRG: $64 million (3.5% of AUM)NYSE:CLS: $62 million (3.4% of AUM)As of Friday, DBRG shares were priced at $13.19, up about 18% over the past year and slightly outperforming the S&P 500's 16.5% gain in the same period.

Company OverviewMetricValueRevenue (TTM)$86.1 millionNet Income (TTM)$12.8 millionDividend Yield0.3%Price (as of Friday)$13.19Company SnapshotDigitalBridge offers investments and operational expertise across digital infrastructure assets, including cell towers, data centers, fiber, small cells, edge infrastructure, and related real estate.The company operates as an infrastructure investment firm specializing in investing and operating businesses across the digital ecosystem, including cell towers, data centers, fiber, small cells, edge infrastructure, digital infrastructure, and real estate.It's headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida, with additional offices in major U.S. and international cities.DigitalBridge Group, Inc. is an investor and operator in the digital infrastructure sector, specializing in businesses such as cell towers, data centers, fiber, small cells, edge infrastructure, and digital real estate. The company specializes in operating and investing in digital infrastructure and real estate businesses, including cell towers, data centers, fiber, small cells, and edge infrastructure.

Foolish TakeThis position sits alongside a mix of industrial, consumer, and electronics names, and that seems to signal this digital infrastructure play is being treated as a structural growth sleeve rather than a speculative bet. At just 3.5% of reported assets, the sizing looks to be a sign of conviction without concentration risk, a notable contrast to funds that lean far more heavily into single themes.

That measured approach lines up with DigitalBridge’s fundamentals. In the third quarter, the company generated $94 million in fee revenue, up 22% year over year, while fee-related earnings climbed 43% to $37.3 million. Fee-earning equity under management reached $40.7 billion, rising 19% year over year, driven by organic fundraising and co-invest activity. Management also confirmed it exceeded its full-year fee-earning equity target a quarter early, underscoring operating momentum despite market swings.

For patient investors, it’s important to know that this isn’t necessarily a bet on a smooth ride, but it is a bet that digital infrastructure platforms with recurring fees, global scale, and exposure to AI-driven demand can compound value over time, even when the stock itself remains volatile along the way.

GlossaryAssets under management (AUM): The total market value of investments managed on behalf of clients by a fund or firm.

Stake: The ownership interest or share a fund or investor holds in a company.

Reportable assets: Assets that an investment manager must disclose in regulatory filings, typically above a certain threshold.

Position: The amount of a particular security or asset held by an investor or fund.

Dividend yield: A financial ratio showing how much a company pays in dividends each year relative to its share price.

Digital infrastructure: Physical assets supporting digital communications, such as data centers, cell towers, fiber networks, and related real estate.

Edge infrastructure: Computing resources and facilities located close to end-users to reduce latency and improve digital service delivery.

Small cells: Low-powered cellular radio access nodes that improve mobile network coverage and capacity in specific areas.

Filing: An official document submitted to a regulatory authority, often containing financial or ownership information.

TTM: The 12-month period ending with the most recent quarterly report.

The reduction hints at a shift away from execution risk toward steadier compounders, even as the underlying business continues to post solid operating results.

Boston-based Portolan Capital Management reduced its stake in Shift4 Payments (FOUR 0.56%) by 246,414 shares in the third quarter saw its exposure fall by $28.5 million, according to a November 13 SEC filing.

What HappenedAccording to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing dated November 13, Portolan Capital Management sold 246,414 shares of Shift4 Payments (FOUR 0.56%) during the third quarter. The fund's position declined in value by $28.52 million compared to the previous filing period. After the trade, Portolan held 188,761 shares worth $14.61 million.

What Else to KnowShift4 Payments now represents 0.79% of Portolan's reportable U.S. equity AUM.

Top holdings after the filing: 

NYSE:MOD: $85.6 million (4.6% of AUM)NASDAQ:TTMI: $68.5 million (3.7% of AUM)NYSE:ELF: $64.6 million (3.5% of AUM)NYSE:DBRG: $64 million (3.5% of AUM)NYSE:CLS: $62 million (3.4% of AUM)As of Friday, shares were priced at $64.07, down 37% over the past year and well underperforming the S&P 500's roughly 16.5% gain in the same period.

Company OverviewMetricValueRevenue (TTM)$3.9 billionNet Income (TTM)$194.8 millionPrice (as of market close Friday)$64.07One-Year Price Change(37%)Company snapshotShift4 Payments offers integrated payment processing, omni-channel card acceptance, POS solutions, fraud prevention, eCommerce, and business analytics tools.The company serves merchants across retail, hospitality, stadiums, entertainment venues, and eCommerce sectors in the United States.It employs proprietary cloud-based platforms to deliver secure, scalable payment and business management solutions.Shift4 Payments is a technology-driven provider of integrated payment and commerce-enabling solutions, serving a diverse merchant base. The company leverages proprietary platforms and cloud-based tools to deliver secure, scalable payment processing and business management capabilities. Its focus on omni-channel integration and vertical-specific solutions supports competitive differentiation in the evolving payments landscape.

Foolish TakeIn a portfolio dominated by industrial, consumer, and infrastructure-oriented holdings, this position had already shrunk to a peripheral role, making it a logical source of funds as conviction shifted elsewhere. At less than 1% of reported assets, the stake no longer reflects a high-conviction growth bet, but rather a residual exposure to a volatile payments name.

That trimming comes despite a solid operating quarter. Shift4 reported third-quarter gross revenue of $1.18 billion, up 29% year over year, with gross revenue less network fees rising 61%. Adjusted EBITDA reached $292 million, representing a 50% margin, while adjusted free cash flow increased 27% year over year to $141 million. Management also authorized a new $1 billion share repurchase program, the largest in the company’s history, underscoring confidence in long-term cash generation.

Ultimately, the business is executing well and generating cash, but the stock’s underperformance suggests that growth alone is not enough. In portfolios prioritizing durability and lower volatility, even strong operators can be downsized when risk-reward tilts unfavorably.

GlossaryAUM (Assets Under Management): The total market value of investments managed by a fund or investment firm.

Omni-channel: An approach that integrates multiple sales and communication channels for a seamless customer experience.

POS (Point of Sale) solutions: Systems used by businesses to process transactions at the place where sales are made.

Equity assets: Investments in company shares, as opposed to bonds or other asset classes.

Proprietary platforms: Technology systems owned and developed by a company, not available for public use.

Vertical-specific solutions: Products or services tailored to meet the needs of a particular industry or sector.

Fraud prevention: Tools and processes designed to detect and stop unauthorized or illegal financial transactions.

Reportable U.S. equity assets: U.S. stock holdings that must be disclosed in regulatory filings by investment managers.

Stake: The ownership interest or number of shares held in a company by an investor or fund.

TTM: The 12-month period ending with the most recent quarterly report.

Commerce-enabling solutions: Technology or services that help businesses accept payments and manage sales transactions.

Fund's top holdings: The largest investments by value within an investment fund's portfolio.

Jonathan Ponciano has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Celestica, Modine Manufacturing, Shift4 Payments, and e.l.f. Beauty. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk's net worth surged to $749 billion after the Delaware Supreme Court reinstated Tesla stock options worth $139 billion that were voided last year, according to Forbes' billionaires index.

Both funds target tech, but they offer distinct investment strategies.

Investing in tech ETFs can be a fantastic way to buy into this profitable sector of the market without having to invest in individual stocks, diversifying your portfolio and amplifying your earnings at the same time.

The Vanguard Information Technology ETF (VGT +1.98%) and the Invesco Semiconductors ETF (PSI +2.77%) are both tech-focused funds with ties to the artificial intelligence (AI) industry, but which one is the better buy? Here's what you need to know.

Image source: Getty Images.

Diversification is the key difference to consider
Both of these ETFs are strong performers in their own right, but the deciding differentiator for many investors will be their diversification.

The Vanguard Information Technology ETF contains 322 tech stocks, and while its top sector allocation is semiconductors, it also includes stocks from nearly a dozen other subsectors as well -- from software and hardware to infrastructure to manufacturing services.

That level of diversification can help limit risk, especially during periods of market volatility. However, it also increases the chances that lower-performing stocks will dilute the fund's overall returns.

The Invesco Semiconductor ETF, on the other hand, is less diversified but offers greater earning potential. It contains only 30 holdings, all of which are semiconductor stocks. That narrow focus increases its risk substantially, but sometimes, a more targeted approach can lead to higher total returns.

PSI data by YCharts

Over the last 10 years, for example, the Vanguard Information Technology ETF has earned an average rate of return of 22.18% per year, compared to the Invesco Semiconductor ETF's 24.98% average annual return in that time.

Both ETFs can be powerful investments, but the right one for you will depend on your risk tolerance, goals, and gaps you're looking to fill within your portfolio.

Katie Brockman has positions in Vanguard Information Technology ETF. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Tesla (TSLA) experienced a bumpy road in 2025 even though the stock recently hit all-time highs. George Tsilis talks about Tesla's evolution as an energy and EV company, along with its acceleration in autonomous driving through robotaxi and robotics like Optimus.

With the holiday season upon us, many people think of Macy's (M +2.01%), known for its televised Thanksgiving Day parade and renowned holiday window displays. From an investor's standpoint, there are key things to consider when looking at the past year and evaluating key issues for 2026.

This time of the year is also a good time for investors to review the retailer's performance. Once you do that, you can look at the key things to look for in 2026.

Here's a look back to see what happened with Macy's over the past year, and what to look for in the year ahead.

Image source: Getty Images.

A 2025 review
Macy's shareholders have good reason to celebrate this year, with the stock performing very well this year. The price gained 36.3% through Dec. 16, easily outpacing the S&P 500's (^GSPC +0.88%) 14.8%.

Macy's shareholders and those investing passively in the S&P 500 also receive dividends. They also factor into the total return. Adding those payouts, Macy's stock produced a total return of 43.3%, outperforming the S&P 500 by 27.6 percentage points.

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It's challenging to decipher Macy's sales, since there have been store closings. The best measure to compare is same-store sales (comps). Management presents this in a couple of ways, but I like the owned-plus-licensed-plus marketplace measure, which includes online sales and sales by departments licensed to others.

On this basis, Macy's comp growth has improved this year, including a 3.2% gain in the fiscal third quarter. This increase fell in the period that ended on Nov. 1.

What to watch in 2026
Management has been executing its turnaround plan, which involves closing underperforming locations, revamping stores, and improving customer service. There's also an effort to sell more to upper-income consumers, including at its Bloomingdale's and Bluemercury brands.

Fortunately for Macy's, while lower- and middle-income consumers have been struggling with high overall prices, those at the higher end have been doing well. One thing to watch is whether this continues.

A slowdown in housing price gains and a pullback in the stock market would be a good indicator of sluggishness in this group, since these have helped this demographic. You can also look at comps at the Bloomingdale's and Bluemercury brands. The former has been doing particularly well, including a 9% increase in the latest quarter.

You should also watch other macroeconomic statistics. These include unemployment, consumer confidence, and the Consumer Price Index. Remember, Macy's is trying to appeal to a higher-income consumer.

However, if these statistics worsen dramatically, it could indicate that high earners are being affected and will slow down discretionary spending on expensive items. After all, they're not immune to the economic cycle.

Despite the stock's massive run in 2025, shares can still double over the next five years.

Not only is Alphabet's (GOOG +1.60%)(GOOGL +1.47%) core business already throwing off tons of cash, but it has a second growth engine that is quickly morphing into a separate material cash machine for the company. When combining this fast-growing cloud computing business with Alphabet's core advertising business (powered by Google Search and YouTube), the technology giant has a lot going for it. Indeed, there may even be a path to the stock doubling in five years -- and that's on top of a huge move higher in 2025.

To understand why a doubling of Alphabet's stock price by 2030 is possible, let's take a look at the company's underlying business momentum -- and what would need to go right in the coming years for the stock to get to levels above $600.

Image source: Getty Images.

Why the stock has soared
Showing Alphabet's impressive momentum, its growth has been accelerating recently. Its revenue grew revenue 14% year over year in the second quarter of 2025, and then 16% in Q3.

But the tech company's bottom-line momentum is even more impressive. Alphabet's third-quarter net income hit $35.0 billion, up from $326.3 billion in the year-ago quarter. And earnings per share rose more than 35% year over year.

Of course, aggressive share repurchases have played a key role in the company's outsize earnings-per-share growth relative to its top-line growth. And investors are likely pleased with the company's still-young but growing dividend; in Q1, Alphabet's board approved a 5% dividend increase and a new $70 billion repurchase authorization.

This business momentum, even as the company returns huge sums of capital to shareholders, helps explain the stock's significant move higher this year. Shares have gained an extraordinary 62% year to date.

Why the stock can keep climbing
Alphabet's main catalyst to watch over the next five years, in addition to an already strong core advertising business, is its cloud computing business, Google Cloud. The segment's revenue rose 34% year over year in Q3, hitting $15.2 billion (about 15% of the quarter's total revenue).

Even more, the segment is proving to be quite lucrative. Google Cloud operating income in Q3 was $3.6 billion, up about 85% year over year.

If this segment grows as a percent of overall revenue and continues to become more profitable as it scales, it could provide a substantial boost to the company's overall profits in the coming years.

But this buildout will cost a lot of money. Management recently raised its 2025 capital expenditures outlook, saying that it now expects to spend between $91 billion $93 billion in capital expenditures in 2025. Spending like this will likely pressure free cash flow in the near term, making it critical that Alphabet's big investments eventually pay off.

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The math to a double
With this background on the company's momentum in mind, here's the simple math behind a potential double for the stock.

If Alphabet trades at about a price-to-earnings ratio of about 25 in 2030 and the stock price is trading at approximately $614 (compared to its current price of about $307), annualized earnings per share would need to be near $24.60.

That implies earnings per share a bit more than doubling from where it sits today on a trailing basis (Alphabet's trailing-12-month earnings per share currently stands at $10.13), and it works out to something like high-teens annual growth over five years.

To achieve this, revenue needs to keep growing at a rate similar to what it has been, and expenses need to rise more slowly than sales. Further, repurchases need to keep chipping away at the share count.

Given how much AI has been catalyzing Alphabet's business recently, these assumptions seem plausible.

Of course, there are some critical risks. AI could reshape search monetization faster than Alphabet can adapt. Additionally, regulators can force changes that reduce pricing power in ads or make distribution more expensive. Finally, the capital spending cycle for the company to capture its growth opportunities in AI looks like it's going to be intense.

In short, it's possible -- and arguably even likely -- that Alphabet's stock doubles by the end of 2030. However, investors will need to continually assess the ever-changing risks, particularly given the capital-intensive nature of the company's cloud computing business. If these big investments pay off in even faster revenue growth and margin expansion over time, the stock could easily double. But if strong growth from these investments is never realized, investors may need to reassess the bull case.

The timing looks bold, but the fundamentals suggest this investor may be underwriting something much bigger than Bitcoin price swings.

On November 13, New York City-based Aurelius Capital Management disclosed a new position in Riot Platforms (RIOT +8.37%), acquiring 238,220 shares valued at approximately $4.5 million.

What HappenedAurelius Capital Management established a new equity position in Riot Platforms (RIOT +8.37%), according to a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing released November 13. The fund reported ownership of 238,220 shares valued at $4.5 million based on September 30 quarter-end data. This entry marks Riot Platforms as one of the five largest holdings in Aurelius’s portfolio.

What Else to KnowThe new position accounts for 8.2% of Aurelius’s 13F reportable assets under management.

Top holdings after filing: 

NASDAQ:BITF: $19 million (34.4% of AUM)NASDAQ:CORZ: $8.4 million (15.3% of AUM)NASDAQ:CIFR: $6.3 million (11.4% of AUM)NASDAQ:WULF: $5.1 million (9.3% of AUM)NASDAQ:RIOT: $4.5 million (8.2% of AUM)As of Friday, shares were priced at $14.50, up about 30% over the past year and well outperforming the S&P 500, which is up 16% in the same period.

Company OverviewMetricValuePrice (as of Friday)$14.50Market capitalization$5.4 billionRevenue (TTM)$637.2 millionNet income (TTM)$164 millionCompany SnapshotRiot Platforms provides Bitcoin mining services, engineering solutions, and manufactures power distribution equipment for large-scale commercial and governmental customers.The company generates revenue primarily through its Bitcoin mining operations and the sale of custom electrical infrastructure products and services.It targets institutional-scale Bitcoin miners, data centers, utilities, and industrial clients in the United States.Riot Platforms is a U.S.-based Bitcoin mining company with operations in infrastructure engineering and power distribution solutions. It operates multiple large-scale mining facilities and provides services to institutional clients in the digital asset infrastructure sector.

Foolish TakeWhat matters here isn’t the trade itself, but the message it sends about where durable value may be forming inside the digital infrastructure stack. Riot has spent the past several years being priced more than 75% below its 2021 highs, but the latest data suggests a turnaround might be in sight.

In the third quarter, Riot posted record revenue of $180.2 million, more than doubling year over year, alongside $104.5 million in net income and $197.2 million in adjusted EBITDA. Importantly, those results weren’t driven solely by higher Bitcoin prices. The company is actively repositioning around large-scale data center development, including the initiation of 112 megawatts of core and shell capacity at its Corsicana campus. That shift expands Riot’s addressable market well beyond self-mining.

The balance sheet helps explain the confidence. Riot ended the quarter with $330.7 million in unrestricted cash, $170 million in working capital, and nearly 19,300 bitcoin worth roughly $2.2 billion at quarter end. Within this portfolio, the Riot position sits behind more speculative miners but ahead of smaller allocations -- suggesting targeted conviction rather than a broad crypto bet.

Glossary13F: A quarterly Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing by institutional investment managers disclosing their equity holdings.

Assets under management (AUM): The total market value of investments managed on behalf of clients by a fund or firm.

Alpha: A measure of an investment's performance relative to a benchmark, showing excess return or underperformance.

Total return: The investment's price change plus all dividends and distributions, assuming those payouts are reinvested.

Institutional-scale: Refers to products or services designed for large organizations, not individual investors.

Power distribution equipment: Hardware that manages and delivers electrical power to large facilities or industrial operations.

Quarter-end data: Financial or position information reported as of the last day of a fiscal quarter.

TTM: The 12-month period ending with the most recent quarterly report.

Bitcoin mining: The process of validating Bitcoin transactions and earning new coins using specialized computing equipment.

Two veteran AI companies, two very different growth stories. Here's how SoundHound AI and C3.ai stack up.

Plenty of companies are slapping "AI" onto their products, their press releases, and their investor pitches these days. But only a handful went all-in and baked artificial intelligence right into their company names.

Today I'm comparing two of these deeply committed AI experts: SoundHound AI (SOUN +1.19%) and C3.ai (AI +4.79%). They jumped on the AI bandwagon before it was cool, though. One of them has owned the ticker symbol "AI" since December 2020, and the other added "AI" to its name in April 2022. As you know, the ongoing generative AI boom didn't start until November 2022, as OpenAI released ChatGPT to a curious world.

So, SoundHound AI and C3.ai are veterans of the AI trade, but which one deserves a spot in your portfolio?

Image source: Getty Images.

Round 1: AI expertise
These two companies have a lot of qualities in common.

They entered the public stock market in recent years, but were founded way back in 2009 (C3.ai) and 2005 (SoundHound AI).
After all these years, the founders are still closely involved in running the companies. Thomas Siebel recently stepped down from the CEO role but remains C3.ai's executive chairman. The three co-founders of SoundHound AI serve as CEO, Chief Product Officer, and Chief Science Officer today, and two of them also have seats on the board of directors.
They started developing AI-based services right away. SoundHound AI's song-identification tool applied machine learning to hummable sound patterns; C3.ai focused its predictive data analytics on energy management at first. The lessons learned and AI systems that were developed around their early operations are still at each company's core in 2025.

However, I would argue that SoundHound AI has been more focused on a single topic over time. What started as a way to identify songs with your smartphone's microphone has evolved into a voice-driven system for drive-through windows, phone menus, vehicle infotainment systems, and more. C3.ai has changed names several times, attempting to find a stronghold in the Energy, Internet of Things, and AI industries.

Granted, I'm comparing two inveterate AI experts here, but SoundHound AI's single-minded focus gives it the edge in this round. C3.ai's AI portfolio may be broader, but SoundHound AI has a deeper understanding of one crucial technology -- AI-driven voice controls.

Round 2: Business prospects
Here's another round of similarities. Both SoundHound AI and C3.ai are running classic growth-stock business models, absorbing bottom-line losses and burning substantial amounts of cash on the hunt for rapid revenue growth.

However, SoundHound AI's growth is running circles around C3.ai these days:

SOUN Revenue (TTM) data by YCharts

SoundHound AI's top-line sales are still small next to C3.ai's, but that could change very soon. As you can see in the graph above, C3.ai's sales rose by 31% over the last three years while the audio interpretation expert's revenues more than quintupled.

And don't forget about SoundHound AI's backlog of long-term contracts, which should keep the revenue line rising for years to come. At the latest update in Q4 2024, the backlog was worth $1.2 billion with an average contract term of roughly 7 years. That was up from $661 million in 2023, and I can't wait to see how the order bookings stack up in the next full-year report, scheduled for February 2026.

In a battle of unprofitable growth stocks, I strongly prefer the one that's growing faster. That's an easy win for SoundHound AI.

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Round 3: How expensive are these AI stocks?
It's time for a counterpunch. Profit-based valuation metrics such as price-to-earnings ratios and discounted cash flow calculations don't make sense here, because both companies are deeply unprofitable. So I have to compare them by price-to-sales and adjust for top-line growth instead.

Value investors, please look away. Keep the smelling salts handy.

C3.ai almost looks affordable here, trading at 5.5 times trailing sales. That's comparable to old-school tech titans like Cisco Systems or Automatic Data Processing -- mature giants with single-digit business growth.

SoundHound AI plays a different tune. Trading at 31 times sales, its revenue-based valuation is comparable to market darlings like Nebius Group. It makes mighty Nvidia (NVDA +3.80%) look like a bargain at 23 times sales.

You could argue that SoundHound AI's valuation ignores that promising order backlog, but that's moving the goalposts. C3.ai earned a win in this round, despite SoundHound AI's superior sales growth.

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Winner by technical knockout: SoundHound AI
Two rounds to one, SoundHound AI takes home the championship belt. It's pricier, sure, but you get what you pay for: sharper AI focus, faster growth, and $1.2 billion in contracted future revenue.

C3.ai isn't a bad company, but SoundHound AI is the better stock to buy today. The voice-control specialist is winning on the metrics that matter most to me, and its valuation should start to make sense in 2026 or 2027.

The move signals a shift toward scale, contracted revenue, and balance sheet strength as crypto infrastructure begins to look a little more like energy and data center investing.

On November 13, New York City-based Aurelius Capital Management disclosed a new position in Cipher Mining Inc. (CIFR +7.00%), acquiring 500,000 shares valued at approximately $6.3 million.

What HappenedAurelius Capital Management initiated a new position in Cipher Mining Inc. (CIFR +7.00%), purchasing 500,000 shares during the third quarter, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission dated November 13. The stake, valued at $6.3 million at quarter-end, comprised 11.4% of the fund’s $55.2 million in reportable U.S. equity assets.

What Else to KnowThe new position now reresents 11.4% of total 13F assets under management.

Top holdings after the filing: 

NASDAQ:BITF: $19 million (34.4% of AUM)NASDAQ:CORZ: $8.4 million (15.3% of AUM)NASDAQ:CIFR: $6.3 million (11.4% of AUM)NASDAQ:WULF: $5.1 million (9.3% of AUM)NASDAQ:RIOT: $4.5 million (8.2% of AUM)As of Friday, shares of Cipher Mining were priced at $16.21, up 182% over the past year and significantly outperforming the S&P 500's 16.5% gain in the same period.

Company OverviewMetricValuePrice (as of Friday)$16.21Market Capitalization$6.4 billionRevenue (TTM)$206.5 millionNet Income (TTM)($70.5 million)Company SnapshotCipher Mining operates bitcoin mining facilities and provides technology services focused on cryptocurrency mining, with revenue primarily generated from mining and selling bitcoin.Cipher Mining Inc. is a U.S.-based technology company specializing in bitcoin mining, leveraging advanced infrastructure and energy management to scale operations efficiently. The company pursues growth through expanding its mining capacity and optimizing operational efficiency to maintain competitiveness in the evolving digital asset sector. Cipher Mining's strategic focus on cost-effective, high-volume bitcoin production positions it to capitalize on increasing institutional and market demand for digital assets.

Foolish TakeThis portfolio has really leaned hard into a sector thesis, with the vast majority of its reported assets concentrated in publicly traded bitcoin miners and infrastructure operators. Within that context, this position sits between the fund’s largest holding and other mining names, reinforcing a high-conviction view that scale and power access will define the next phase of the cycle.

That thesis aligns with Cipher Mining’s most recent quarter. The company reported third-quarter revenue of $72 million and adjusted earnings of $41 million, a sharp contrast to the losses that defined prior crypto downturns. More importantly, Cipher is no longer positioning itself as a pure bitcoin price lever. Management disclosed roughly $8.5 billion in long-term AI hosting lease payments, including a 15-year agreement with Amazon Web Services to deliver 300 megawatts of capacity beginning in 2026, and majority ownership in a planned 1-gigawatt West Texas site. Ultimately, this certainly looks like a bet that crypto and AI infrastructure can justify durable capital allocation even after a steep run.

Glossary13F reportable assets: U.S. equity securities that institutional investment managers must disclose quarterly to the SEC.
Assets under management (AUM): The total market value of investments managed by a fund or investment firm.
Position: The amount of a particular security or asset owned by an investor or fund.
Initiated a new position: When an investor or fund purchases a security it did not previously own.
Trailing twelve months (TTM): The 12-month period ending with the most recent quarterly report.
Outperforming: Achieving a higher return than a benchmark or comparable investment over a given period.
Net loss: When a company's total expenses exceed its total revenues over a specific period.
Mining capacity: The total computational power a company dedicates to cryptocurrency mining operations.
Operational efficiency: The ability to deliver products or services using the least amount of resources.
Institutional demand: Interest and investment in an asset class from large organizations like funds, banks, or endowments.
Digital asset sector: The industry focused on cryptocurrencies, tokens, and other blockchain-based assets.
Quarter-end: The last day of a fiscal quarter, used as a reference point for financial reporting.

Jonathan Ponciano has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

, /PRNewswire/ -- 

Why: Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, reminds purchasers of securities of Gauzy Ltd. (NASDAQ: GAUZ) between March 11, 2025 and November 13, 2025, both dates inclusive (the "Class Period"), of the important February 6, 2026 lead plaintiff deadline.

So what: If you purchased Gauzy securities during the Class Period you may be entitled to compensation without payment of any out of pocket fees or costs through a contingency fee arrangement.

What to do next: To join the Gauzy class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=48715 or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email [email protected] for information on the class action. A class action lawsuit has already been filed. If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than February 6, 2026. A lead plaintiff is a representative party acting on behalf of other class members in directing the litigation.

Why Rosen Law: We encourage investors to select qualified counsel with a track record of success in leadership roles. Often, firms issuing notices do not have comparable experience, resources, or any meaningful peer recognition. Many of these firms do not actually litigate securities class actions, but are merely middlemen that refer clients or partner with law firms that actually litigate the cases. Be wise in selecting counsel. The Rosen Law Firm represents investors throughout the globe, concentrating its practice in securities class actions and shareholder derivative litigation. Rosen Law Firm has achieved, at that time, the largest ever securities class action settlement against a Chinese Company. Rosen Law Firm was Ranked No. 1 by ISS Securities Class Action Services for number of securities class action settlements in 2017. The firm has been ranked in the top 4 each year since 2013 and has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for investors. In 2019 alone the firm secured over $438 million for investors. In 2020, founding partner Laurence Rosen was named by law360 as a Titan of Plaintiffs' Bar. Many of the firm's attorneys have been recognized by Lawdragon and Super Lawyers.

Details of the Case: According to the lawsuit, defendants throughout the Class Period made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) three of Gauzy's French subsidiaries lacked the financial means to meet their debts as they became due; (2) as a result, it was substantially likely insolvency proceedings would be commenced; (3) as a result, it was substantially likely a potential default under Gauzy's existing senior secured debt facilities would be triggered; and (4) as a result of the foregoing, defendants' positive statements about Gauzy's business, operations, and prospects were materially misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis. When the true details entered the market, the lawsuit claims that investors suffered damages.

To join the Gauzy class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=48715 or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email [email protected] for information on the class action.

No Class Has Been Certified. Until a class is certified, you are not represented by counsel unless you retain one. You may select counsel of your choice. You may also remain an absent class member and do nothing at this point. An investor's ability to share in any potential future recovery is not dependent upon serving as lead plaintiff.

Follow us for updates on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-rosen-law-firm, on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rosen_firm or on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rosenlawfirm/.

Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

Contact Information:

Laurence Rosen, Esq.
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The Rosen Law Firm, P.A.
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New York, NY 10016
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SOURCE THE ROSEN LAW FIRM, P. A.

Bitcoin (BTC) versus gold has entered classic bottom territory as a key support retest begins.

Key points:

Bitcoin drops to 20 ounces of gold for the first time since early 2024.

This represents a the border between bull and bear-market territory, analysis says.

A three-year Bitcoin uptrend versus gold is now almost lost.

Bitcoin vs. gold: Bullish divergence at supportAnalysis from crypto trader, analyst and entrepreneur Michaël van de Poppe on Saturday predicted “more upside on the horizon” for Bitcoin.

Bitcoin has struggled in gold terms as the precious metal stays near all-time highs through the Q4 crypto market correction.

Data from Cointelegraph Markets and TradingView shows that BTC/XAU now trades at around 20 ounces — its lowest levels since early 2024.

For Van de Poppe, however, opportunity is in the air.

“The last times the markets have hit their low, that was the moment BTCUSD/Gold has hit the low as well. One of them is getting overvalued. One of them is getting undervalued,” he told X followers. 

“In my thesis, Gold is getting overvalued, while #Bitcoin is getting undervalued.” BTC/XAU one-week chart with RSI, volume data. Source: Michaël van de Poppe/X
Historical comparisons show that in each Bitcoin bear cycle, the weekly relative strength index (RSI) dropping into “oversold” territory below 30 marked a long-term bottom for the pair.

“The best part: on the daily timeframe it starts to make a bullish divergence, signalling that there's more upside on the horizon in the short term,” Van de Poppe added.

BTC/XAU one-day chart with RSI data. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView
While the daily RSI begins to move in the opposite direction of the price, the weekly RSI currently sits at 29.5, carving out lows not seen in nearly three years.

BTC/XAU one-week chart with RSI data. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingViewSupport break “likely within the next few weeks”Continuing on the topic, trading and commentary account Wealthmanager nonetheless reiterated that Bitcoin’s last bear market began thanks to the failure of BTC/XAU to hold the 20-ounce mark.

“Bitcoin against Gold is at a crucial support level. The last Bitcoin bear market officially started when we lost this support,” an X post warned. 

“I expect we will consolidate here for a while, but a break is likely within the next few weeks.” BTC/XAU one-week chart. Source: @Wealthmanager/X
Crypto trader and entrepreneur Ted Pillows, meanwhile, eyed the loss of a long-term uptrend with the latest drop.

— Ted (@TedPillows) December 20, 2025
This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision. While we strive to provide accurate and timely information, Cointelegraph does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of any information in this article. This article may contain forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Cointelegraph will not be liable for any loss or damage arising from your reliance on this information.

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision. While we strive to provide accurate and timely information, Cointelegraph does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of any information in this article. This article may contain forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Cointelegraph will not be liable for any loss or damage arising from your reliance on this information.

This new deal unlocks XRP for retirement: DWP launches rules-based algo trading in tax-advantaged plans.

Market Sentiment:

Bullish

Bearish

Neutral

Published:
December 20, 2025 │ 5:00 PM GMT

Created by Kornelija Poderskytė from DailyCoin

The United States (USA) continues to find new ways of adopting Ripple’s XRP chain. This time, Digital Wealth Partners (DWP), a US-based registered investment advisory, has set up an algorithmic Ripple (XRP) investment strategy. This is applicable to pension funds, retirement plans & more.

XRP Gains Key Role In American Digital WealthThis included Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs), backed by Anchorage Digital, which is providing federally-chartered XRP coin custody. In its core, this new Ripple (XRP) long-term investment strategy tackles emotionless trading, executing trades on the behalf of the investor.

🚨JUST IN:

Digital Wealth Partners has launched algorithmic $XRP trading for retirement accounts.

At the same time, the media landscape is shifting — journalists are no longer tied to institutions.

They operate independently, publish without restrictions, and receive direct,… pic.twitter.com/RTgIpM9laR

— ToniTheRippler (@thatgirl_chichi) December 20, 2025
Instead of focusing on XRP’s price swings, DWP’s trading strategy revolves around moments of strong liquidity. For most Americans, another key factor comes into play. Setting up an automated XRP trading system inside an IRA allows them to nail high-frequency transactions without the need to report each of them to the IRS.

Sponsored

With XRP’s retirement plan gains being either tax-deferred or tax-free, DWP aims to bring the same Ripple (XRP) coin investment strategies like the institutional players have. With Ripple Labs securing over 300 partnerships with traditional banking institutions, the specific altcoin was chosen because of deep liquidity, said DWP’s President Erin Friez.

Stay in the loop with DailyCoin’s popular crypto news:
SWIFT Urges XRP, HBAR & Others To Co-op: Who’ll Prevail?
Cardano Founder Calls Midnight An Epic Win: Is It Really?

People Also Ask:How does this make XRP a viable retirement plan option?

The strategy runs in tax-advantaged accounts, where trades may avoid immediate taxable events; automated execution removes emotion, pursuing compounded growth while assets stay in secure custody.

Who powers the algorithmic trading?

Quantitative firm Arch Public builds and runs the strategy using predefined signals and technical indicators for consistent, non-discretionary trades across market conditions.

Why did DWP choose XRP for this strategy?

XRP offers deep liquidity, fast 3-5 second settlements, and suitable volatility—ideal for high-volume systematic algo trading with minimal slippage.

DailyCoin's Vibe Check: Which way are you leaning towards after reading this article?

Market Sentiment

100% Bullish

This article is for information purposes only and should not be considered trading or investment advice. Nothing herein shall be construed as financial, legal, or tax advice. Trading forex, cryptocurrencies, and CFDs pose a considerable risk of loss.

Four XRP spot ETFs now trade in the US, with combined assets of $941.7 million as of Dec. 18. Grayscale's GXRP holds $148.1 million, Canary Capital's XRPC $373.6 million, Franklin Templeton's XRPZ $189 million, and Bitwise's XRP ETF $215.6 million.

That stack grew from roughly $336 million at launch in November to current levels in under two months, front-loading a lot of excitement into a narrow window.

XRP now runs two parallel stories: an ETF layer that has already captured regulated US demand, and a payments and infrastructure layer that still has to prove it can stand on its own if those flows plateau.

The question isn't whether XRP has generated interest for its ETF products, it's whether the asset has durable demand anchored in cross-border flows, stablecoin rails, and persistent liquidity that survives when ETF AUM stops climbing.

ETF exposure has already outgrown the $293 million of RLUSD sitting on XRPL as of Dec. 19, according to DefiLlama data. Still, it is not comparable in magnitude to the $15 billion in Ripple's On-Demand Liquidity processed in 2024.

That means the ETF wrapper is measurable but still relatively thin compared to the full flow running through RippleNet over a year, and to XRPL address-based and daily payments.

If ETF flows stagnate, the answer about real adoption sits in the plumbing, not the tickers.

Payments and corridor reality in 2025RippleNet now counts more than 300 financial institutions across 55-plus countries, with roughly 40% actively using XRP for On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) rather than just messaging rails.

ODL processed more than $15 billion of cross-border payments in 2024, a 32% year-over-year increase, with Asia-Pacific accounting for roughly 56% of volume.

ODL now spans more than 70 corridor pairs and covers an estimated 80% of major global remittance corridors. DAS Research puts ODL volume at about $1.3 billion just in the second quarter of 2025 alone, framed as part of Ripple's push to make XRP a core payments infrastructure.

XRPL's average daily active addresses surged 142% to 134,600 in Q1 2025, while daily transactions increased 13.3% to 2 million. Image: DAS ResearchRippleNet as a whole, including corridors that do not yet settle in XRP, is processing more than $15 billion in cross-border transaction volume per month as of 2025.

That distinction matters: many institutions use RippleNet messaging and fiat-only settlement. XRP only appears where pre-funding costs and FX spreads justify taking token volatility risk. The relevant metrics are ODL volume, corridor coverage, and the share of partners routing traffic through XRP, not the total RippleNet client count.

Global cross-border payment volumes range from $130 trillion to $150 trillion annually, according to SWIFT-linked estimates.

Even $30 billion in annual ODL volume is meaningful for XRP but marginal for global payments. Real adoption on this axis would look like ODL volumes compounding from the current $15 billion and the baseline, more than half of RippleNet clients opting into XRP, and corridor expansion beyond the APAC remittance niches that dominate today.

On-chain activity beyond speculationXRPL handled roughly 1.8 million transactions per day in the third quarter of 2025, up about 9% quarter-on-quarter from 1.6 million in the previous quarter, with typical finality in 3 to 5 seconds.

Average daily active sender addresses reached about 25,300, with 447,200 new addresses created in the quarter, bringing total addresses to roughly 6.9 million. Weekly payment counts are up roughly 430% versus 2023 levels. Payments remain the dominant use case.

“Payment” transactions accounted for about 55.7% of total activity in the third quarter of 2025, with daily payment counts around 989,600.

The RWA angle adds weight. XRPL's tokenized real-world asset market cap hit $347 million at the end of the third quarter, up 193% quarter-on-quarter, according to rwa.xyz data. The movement was driven by US Treasury funds like Ondo's OUSG, commercial paper, and real-estate tokens.

XRPL's tokenized asset market value grew from near zero in early 2025 to over $400 million by December, driven by stablecoins and RWAs. Image: rwa.xyzRipple's RLUSD stablecoin launched in December 2024 on XRPL and Ethereum, and its total supply sits at $1.3 billion as of Dec. 19. Within XRPL specifically, RLUSD had a market cap of roughly $293 million, up by 41% in the past 30 days.

Ripple is now piloting RLUSD on L2s like Optimism and Base via Wormhole's NTT standard.

RLUSD is already a billion-plus-dollar asset with a material but still minority presence on XRPL, and XRPL's RWA footprint is now hundreds of millions rather than hobby-scale. Still, it remains tiny versus USDT and USDC on Ethereum and Solana.

Durable on-chain adoption means three things at once: payment transactions remaining the dominant type and growing in absolute terms, RWA capitalization and RLUSD usage on XRPL growing rather than migrating to Ethereum, and active addresses and new wallets expanding rather than spiking around price action and retracing.

Liquidity structure and institutional plumbingKaiko's crypto asset ranking for the third quarter places XRP tied with Ethereum in second place, with an AA score of 95 out of 100, earning full marks for liquidity, market depth, exchange availability, institutional adoption, and derivatives maturity, on par with Bitcoin.

Kaiko's Q3 2025 ranking placed XRP tied with Ethereum in second place with an AA score of 95, behind only Bitcoin's AAA rating. Image: KaikoXRP's average daily trading volume was around $1.73 billion in early 2025, a roughly 22% year-over-year increase. XRP is treated by market makers more like a top-tier asset than a fringe alt, regardless of ETF headlines.

At the DEX and AMM layer on XRPL, average daily CLOB volume for fungible issued currencies was about $7.9 million in the third quarter, with around 1 million CLOB trades and roughly 7,800 daily CLOB traders. Additionally, average daily AMM volume was about $1.7 million.

Those numbers are small versus centralized venues but illustrate fragmented liquidity: deep off-chain order books and perps versus fairly modest on-ledger liquidity, even as the network becomes more composable with AMMs, oracles, and upcoming smart-contract extensions.

Adoption testAssume ETF AUM stabilizes around $1.6 billion to $1.7 billion. What would have to move over the next 12 to 24 months to call XRP's demand “durable” rather than ETF-driven?

First, ODL volumes and corridor coverage would need to keep growing from the $15 billion registered in 2024, and from the 70-plus corridor pairs.

That means total annual ODL volume stepping into the tens of billions and staying there, more than half of RippleNet clients opting into XRP rather than fiat-only rails, and corridor expansion with disclosed volumes rather than pilot language.

Second, XRPL's on-chain payments base of roughly 1.8 million daily transactions, 6.9 million addresses, and the majority of payment activity would need to continue rising rather than plateau.

A durable story has those curves sloping up even if price and ETF flows are flat: more payment transactions, more active addresses, more RWA issuance, and RLUSD volume on XRPL specifically, not just on Ethereum.

(This is the RLUSD supply divided by chain)16:45RLUSD's $293 million supply on XRPL represents 21.93% of total issuance, with Ethereum holding the remaining 78.07% as of Dec. 19. Image: DefiLlamaThird, liquidity quality would need to hold up. Kaiko's AA, 95/100 profile already has XRP's depth and derivative structure on par with Ethereum. The test in a stagnation scenario is whether order-book depth, bid-ask spreads, and open interest stay robust when ETF net flows normalize.

If they do, it suggests a base of market-maker and corridor-driven demand that isn't chasing ETF narratives.

Fourth, RLUSD and tokenized assets on XRPL would need to grow from a few hundred million in RWA market cap and about $88.8 million of RLUSD on XRPL into genuinely system-level collateral, rather than remaining a sidecar to the much larger Ethereum DeFi stack.

If those four things happen while ETF AUM is flat, XRP adoption is real: ETF products are just another access channel into an asset whose demand is anchored in cross-border flows, stablecoin rails, tokenized treasuries, and deep liquidity.

If ODL volumes stall, payment and address metrics roll over, RWA and RLUSD growth shift off-ledger, and liquidity scores slip once ETF inflows cool, the honest conclusion is that the 2025-26 XRP trade was mostly about ETFs, not structural demand. The plumbing will decide.

Mentioned in this article

XRP has struggled to sustain a recovery over the past several days, with price repeatedly failing to gain traction near key resistance levels. Despite the hesitation, investor behavior is shifting. 

Large holders appear to be increasing exposure, signaling growing confidence that current prices may offer an attractive entry point.

Sponsored

Sponsored

XRP Holders Are Imbuing ConfidenceOn-chain data shows a notable increase in whale accumulation. Addresses holding between 100 million and 1 billion XRP added roughly 330 million tokens over the past 48 hours.

This accumulation is valued at approximately $642 million, highlighting renewed demand from large investors.

Such behavior suggests XRP whales are capitalizing on depressed prices rather than exiting positions. Accumulation during consolidation phases often reflects expectations of recovery.

This demand can provide structural support, reducing downside risk while improving the probability of a sustained rebound.

Want more token insights like this? Sign up for Editor Harsh Notariya’s Daily Crypto Newsletter here.

XRP Whale Holding. Source: SantimentSponsored

Sponsored

Macro indicators further support the constructive outlook. XRP’s liveliness metric has declined over the past week, signaling reduced coin movement. This trend suggests that long-term holders are shifting away from a selling behavior.

Lower liveliness readings often reflect accumulation or holding patterns. Even a pause in selling by long-term holders can stabilize price action.

Reduced distribution helps absorb short-term volatility, improving conditions for recovery when new demand enters the market.

XRP Liveliness. Source: GlassnodeXRP Price Can EscapeXRP trades near $1.94 at the time of writing, sitting just below a month-long downtrend that has capped upside. The immediate recovery target stands at $2.02. A break above this level would signal renewed strength and an improvement in the trend.

Accumulation by whales and declining long-term selling pressure favor a bullish scenario. If these factors persist, XRP could push past $2.02 and advance toward $2.20. Such a move would mark a clear breakout from the prevailing downtrend.

XRP Price Analysis. Source: TradingViewDownside risks remain if bearish pressure regains control. A failure to sustain momentum could pull XRP back toward $1.85. Further weakness may expose the $1.79 support. Losing that level would invalidate the bullish thesis and reinforce near-term downside risk.

19h05 ▪
4
min read ▪ by
Ifeoluwa O.

Summarize this article with:

Bitcoin has been on a downward path since October, with its price slipping below $85,000. While market observers often assume these declines are driven by investors selling their holdings, data tells a different story. Recent pullbacks are mainly linked to short positions opened using stablecoins, with broader market dynamics helping to amplify the effect. 

In Brief

Recent Bitcoin pullbacks are largely driven by short positions opened using stablecoins, creating downward pressure without triggering large-scale selling from holders.
About 300 billion dollars of dormant Bitcoin returned to circulation in 2025 through holder sales, OTC trades, and ETF activity.

Market Mechanics Behind Recent Bitcoin Pullbacks
Sweep, co-founder of GlydeGG, explained that stablecoin-denominated leveraged shorts are the main force behind the recent dips. When these positions enter the market, market makers must respond by selling Bitcoin to manage exposure and maintain neutrality. This operational selling is not reflective of negative sentiment but is necessary to balance positions. Consequently, prices can decline without sparking widespread alarm, rushed selling, or spot sales from long-term holders.

The analyst further described how the U.S. dollar itself plays a role in this cycle, explaining that as it moves through the global system, it acts as leverage and exerts pressure on the market. Traders respond to this pressure by adjusting their positions through hedging, which affects spot Bitcoin prices and maintains the ongoing cycle.

Meanwhile, sell-offs remain subdued because most retail investors have already exited, leaving the market to operate within a system measured against a weakening currency. This setup contributes to rising volatility even when overall investor conviction stays steady, highlighting the market’s sensitivity to the dollar’s influence.

According to Sweep, this is less a traditional bear market and more a rebalancing of liquidity pools, allowing larger players to acquire Bitcoin at lower prices without directly holding it.

Long-Term Holder Activity and Supply Changes
Additional insights come from Crypto Miners, an ambassador at Wolfswapdotapp, who highlighted research from K33Research showing that approximately $300 billion of previously dormant Bitcoin re-entered circulation in 2025. This surge in supply was fueled by long-term holder sales, over-the-counter transactions, and ETF absorption, representing one of the largest increases in available Bitcoin supply in the network’s history.

According to on-chain metrics provided by CryptoQuant, long-term holders have been distributing Bitcoin at rates not seen in over five years, marking one of the most active periods of holder activity in recent history. Alongside this, the market is experiencing strong downward pressure that currently outweighs demand, intensified by negative ETF flows and reduced participation from retail investors. 

However, K33Research suggests that the current Bitcoin distribution phase may be ending, with long-term holders expected to ease their releases sometime in the first half of next year. This could create an opportunity for fresh buying as institutional adjustments help stabilize supply.

They stated, “Markets remain sensitive, but structurally, this looks like a late cycle redistribution rather than panic selling.”

Bitcoin Flows and Key ETF Price Levels in Focus
In line with these movements, Julio Moreno, head of research at CryptoQuant, pointed out that significant Bitcoin inflows have occurred on Binance as the price fell below $85,000. At the same time, Bitcoin has moved back toward the average cost basis of U.S. spot ETFs, placing many ETF investors close to their initial investment value.

According to Glassnode, this zone is especially important, as future movements will depend on whether fresh buying enters the market or selling pressure increases while holders review their positions.

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Ifeoluwa O.

Ifeoluwa specializes in Web3 writing and marketing, with over 5 years of experience creating insightful and strategic content. Beyond this, he trades crypto and is skilled at conducting technical, fundamental, and on-chain analyses.

DISCLAIMER

The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this article belong solely to the author, and should not be taken as investment advice. Do your own research before taking any investment decisions.

Sat, 20/12/2025 - 18:10

Despite its sudden price shift, XRP still stands a chance at retesting $1.77 if momentum fades, propelling its price for a deeper correction.

Cover image via U.Today

After multiple days of trading sideways, XRP is finally back to the bullish zone as its price has continued to witness a rapid increase since the last day.

While XRP has remained on the bullish side till today, climbing more than 4% over the past 24 hours, on-chain data provided by popular crypto analyst Ali Martinez suggests the rally could face a critical test if momentum fades.

XRP risks retesting $1.77The analyst shared data from Glassnode revealing that a large amount of XRP was accumulated around the $1.77 level, making it a key support zone.

HOT Stories

Apparently, the $1.77 level marks the area where many holders last moved their tokens, making it act as a strong defense zone during periods of price pullbacks.

Nonetheless, the chart showcased by Ali pointed at a thin liquidity zone below $1.77. This suggests the amount of XRP accumulated in this area is limited compared to the next major support zone near $0.79.

While it is not certain how long XRP will be able to hold the current price rally, the data suggests that if XRP fails to hold above $1.77 and the current rally proves short-lived, selling pressure could increase rapidly, opening the door for a deeper correction toward the $0.79 level.

However, it is important to note that the bullish momentum remains intact for now, with XRP trading near the crucial $2 level following the renewed market optimism.

As such, a sustained move higher could reinforce confidence and attract fresh inflows, pushing the price back to the much-anticipated $2.50.

Related articles

The full scope of Glamsterdam has not yet been finalized, but developers are targeting it to go live in 2026.
Dec 20, 2025, 7:00 p.m.

Ethereum developers, fresh off last month’s successful Fusaka upgrade, which cut down costs for nodes, are already moving full-steam ahead on planning the blockchain’s next major change.

STORY CONTINUES BELOW

Enter “Glamsterdam.”

The name is a portmanteau of two simultaneous upgrades taking place on Ethereum’s two core layers. The execution layer, where transaction rules and smart contracts live, will undergo the Amsterdam upgrade, while the consensus layer, which coordinates validators and finalizes blocks, will see an upgrade known as Gloas.

At the heart of Glamsterdam is enshrined Proposer-Builder Separation (ePBS), formally tracked as EIP-7732. The proposal would bake into Ethereum’s core protocol a rule that separates nodes who build blocks from those who propose them, preventing any single actor from controlling which transactions are included or how they are ordered.

Today, this separation largely relies on off-chain services known as relays, which introduces trust assumptions and centralization risks. Under ePBS, block builders would assemble blocks and cryptographically seal their contents, while proposers would simply choose the highest-paying block without being able to see or tamper with what’s inside. The transactions would only be revealed after the block is finalized, reducing opportunities for manipulation and abuse related to MEV, or maximal extractable value — the extra profit validators or builders can make by reordering, inserting or censoring transactions.

Another proposal slated for Glamsterdam is Block-level Access Lists (EIP-7928), an under-the-hood change that allows a block to declare in advance which accounts and smart-contract data it will access. Rather than discovering this information transaction by transaction, Ethereum software — known as clients — can preload and reuse data more efficiently, making block execution faster, more predictable, and easier to optimize. The change could help smooth gas costs and lay important groundwork for future scaling improvements.

Both ePBS and Block-level Access Lists are examples of Ethereum Improvement Proposals, or EIPs, which are formal proposals that outline changes to the protocol and serve as the main coordination mechanism for Ethereum’s development process.

The full scope of Glamsterdam has not yet been finalized, with additional EIPs expected to be selected over the coming weeks. As for timing, developers have not committed to a specific date, but have indicated the upgrade is likely to take place sometime in 2026.

Read more: Ethereum Activates Fusaka Upgrade, Aiming to Cut Node Costs, Speed Layer-2 Settlements

AI Disclaimer: Parts of this article were generated with the assistance from AI tools and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and adherence to our standards. For more information, see CoinDesk's full AI Policy.

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Nov 14, 2025

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Journalist

Posted: December 21, 2025

ZCash [ZEC] made an impressive move in the past 24 hours, as the privacy token once again attracted investor interest.

At press time, trading volume reached $744 million, with the asset surging over 11% in a single day, maintaining nearly a 1,000% gain over the past year.

While some may view these gains as temporary, given market conditions, chart developments indicate further upside is still likely.

Bullish momentum driven by ecosystem development
Ecosystem development has been a key factor in ZCash’s recent price boost. The privacy blockchain has expanded token utility, giving holders direct access to multi-chain yield opportunities with an APY of up to 2%.

Such developments are part of a broader strategy to intensify long-term investor commitment, as holders deposit assets to earn fixed income. This reduces the tendency to sell compared to keeping assets on exchanges.

Institutional adoption has also played a role. DeFiLlama reports that Cyberpunk holds about 1.42% of ZEC’s total supply at the time of writing.

Increased institutional participation, along with positive investor sentiment from yield options, could limit circulating supply and contribute to higher demand.

Technical indicators signal a bullish trend
Technical indicators provide insight into potential price direction. The Aroon indicator shows Aroon Up remaining above Aroon Down, suggesting that bulls are in control.

While Aroon Up remains below 70%, as of writing, it indicates the market is bullish but moderately so.

Source: TradingView

Liquidity inflows were visible through the Money Flow Index (MFI), which sat at 65, well within the bullish zone (anything above 50).

A continued upward trend in MFI within this range, without exceeding the overbought threshold of 80, could reinforce the bullish outlook and support overall gains.

Chart patterns support prices
The potential for a bullish outcome remains strong following a breakout from a well-known bullish pattern, the symmetrical triangle.

The pattern shows price consolidating within a defined zone before a breakout. Breaching the upper resistance would indicate broader bullish movement.

Source: TradingView

Chart targets suggest ZEC could extend toward $750, its previous all-time high of the year. For now, the outlook remains strongly bullish, with ZEC holders likely to witness more upside in the short to near term.

Final Thoughts

ZEC holders can now earn an annual percentage yield (APY) on their assets, sparking short-term gains.
Chart analysis and technical indicators all point toward a continued bullish uptrend, suggesting ZEC will continue dominating.

Discover why Applied Digital's massive new contracts could spark one of the biggest AI infrastructure rallies of the decade.

Applied Digital (APLD +16.53%) is gaining momentum as billions in long-term AI data center leases reshape its financial future. With demand for compute surging, the company's shift toward high-margin recurring revenue could unlock explosive upside for investors willing to bet on its execution.

Stock prices used were the market prices of Dec. 15, 2025. The video was published on Dec. 19, 2025.

Rick Orford has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Rick Orford is an affiliate of The Motley Fool and may be compensated for promoting its services. If you choose to subscribe through their link, they will earn some extra money that supports their channel. Their opinions remain their own and are unaffected by The Motley Fool.

Sandisk's first year back on the stock market couldn't have gone any better.

The AI infrastructure giant has pulled back significantly of late, but it could make a big comeback in the new year.

The sentiment around Oracle (ORCL +6.63%) stock has not been favorable lately. After a stunning surge in the first nine months of the year, shares of the cloud computing and database services provider have witnessed a steep sell-off thanks to mounting concerns about the company's heavy spending on building artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, which is inflating its debt.

Oracle stock has shed 42% of its value since hitting a 52-week high on Sept. 10. Shares of the company saw another steep pullback after the release of its fiscal 2026 second-quarter results (for the three months ended Nov. 30) on Dec. 10. Let's see why investors have lost confidence in Oracle stock.

Image source: Getty Images.

Oracle's aggressive spending has spooked investors
Oracle's fiscal Q2 revenue increased by just 14% year over year to $16.1 billion, missing the consensus estimate of $16.2 billion. Its non-GAAP earnings shot up by 54% year over year to $2.26 per share, driven by a $2.7 billion pre-tax gain from the sale of its stake in chip designer Ampere earlier this year. Additionally, Oracle stuck to its $67 billion revenue forecast for the current fiscal year, which may have raised questions about the company's ability to convert its massive backlog into revenue.

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Meanwhile, Oracle's heavy borrowing to fund its rapid capex expansion is another cause for concern. The company's free cash flow was a negative $10 billion last quarter. It has been burning cash for three quarters on the trot. Oracle's capex jumped by 3 times year over year in the previous quarter to $12 billion. It anticipates shelling out $50 billion in capital expenses this year, which is significantly higher than the $35 billion Wall Street estimate.

Oracle is borrowing heavily to fund its spending. Its debt ballooned to $124 billion (including operating lease liabilities) by the end of the previous quarter, an increase of 39% from the year-ago period. Of course, the company has a tremendous revenue backlog to fulfill, driven mainly by its $300 billion contract with OpenAI that will kick off in 2027 and will run for five years. Still, it is easy to see why investors aren't convinced about Oracle spending so much to meet its backlog.

After all, OpenAI has been burning through cash. HSBC expects the AI specialist to remain free cash flow negative over the next five years, pointing out that it would need to raise $207 billion through debt, equity offerings, or by rapidly increasing its revenue. The good part is that OpenAI's top line is expected to grow from an estimated $35 billion in 2026 to $213 billion in 2030, according to HSBC. That's not surprising, as the company has a massive base of 800 million weekly users for its popular chatbot ChatGPT that it can monetize.

Moreover, its enterprise business has been growing at a nice clip because of the productivity gains that AI is helping businesses achieve. Just last month, OpenAI pointed out that the number of ChatGPT Enterprise seats has jumped by a whopping 9 times year over year. As such, don't be surprised to see OpenAI actually finding the money that it needs to pay Oracle from 2027 onward and actually fulfill its commitments in the long run.

Also, investors should note that market research firm IDC estimates that every dollar of spending on AI services by businesses is likely to generate $4.60 in value. As a result, AI infrastructure spending is likely to attract more funding in the future, and that's why it won't be surprising to see Oracle actually converting its backlog into revenue in the long run.

Why the stock seems poised for a comeback in 2026
Oracle's remaining performance obligations (RPO) stood at $523 billion last quarter, up by 438% from the year-ago period. The company attributed this massive jump in the total value of its unfulfilled contracts to the new commitments it received from the likes of Meta Platforms, Nvidia, and others.

This huge figure is the reason why Oracle has been focused on aggressively bringing more capacity online. CEO Clay Magouyrk remarked on the latest earnings call that the company currently serves more than 700 AI customers on the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) platform. These include a "vast majority of the large model providers" who spend the additional AI data center capacity that Oracle gives them in a span of just two to three days.

This explains why Oracle has raised its fiscal 2027 (which will end on May 31, 2027) revenue guidance by $4 billion to $89 billion. So, the company's top-line growth is on track to accelerate to 33% next year, double the revenue jump it is on track to deliver in the current fiscal year. Moreover, Oracle's recent sell-off has made the stock affordable.

It is now trading at 9 times sales, almost in line with the U.S. technology sector's average sales multiple. The potential acceleration in its sales growth from next year means that investors are getting a good deal on Oracle stock right now. Assuming it maintains its price-to-sales ratio at the end of fiscal 2027 and achieves $89 billion in revenue, its market cap could hit $801 billion.

That suggests a potential jump of 48% from current levels over the next year and a half. As such, this AI stock could overcome the recent negativity surrounding it and surprise investors in the new year with a significantly improved performance in the market.

This AI infrastructure company is poised to deliver terrific growth in 2026.

Technology stocks endured a shaky start to 2025 as concerns about the heavy spending on artificial intelligence (AI) hardware, the possibility of a recession, and the uncertainty caused by tariffs dented investor confidence in the sector. However, tech stocks made a terrific comeback after a poor first quarter.

This is evident from the 32% surge in the tech-laden Nasdaq Composite index since the beginning of April. The index has clocked overall gains of 20% this year. The good news for tech investors is that the rally is likely to continue in 2026 as well. According to Ryan Detrick, the chief market strategist of financial services and investment management firm Carson Group, a bull market could stretch up to an average of eight years once it is three years old.

Detrick cites historical data going back to 1950. It is worth noting that the S&P 500 index's bull market turned three years old a couple of months ago. Therefore, there is a strong possibility that the index will continue to rise in 2026, which could have a positive impact on the broader market, including Nasdaq stocks. That's the reason why it may be a good time for investors to load up on shares of CoreWeave (CRWV +22.64%), as this Nasdaq stock has the potential to jump impressively in the new year.

Image source: Getty Images.

CoreWeave's outstanding growth is set to drive the stock higher in 2026
CoreWeave is a neocloud company that rents out dedicated AI data centers powered by graphics processing units (GPUs). It relies on a wide range of Nvidia's GPUs -- including Blackwell, Hopper, and even the old A100 GPU -- to offer AI computing power to customers. The company has built a wide customer base that includes Meta Platforms, Microsoft, OpenAI, Google, and many other hyperscalers and companies looking to build and deploy AI applications in the cloud.

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From compute to data storage to networking to managed software services, CoreWeave customers can access a wide range of AI-related services on its platform. Not surprisingly, CoreWeave is experiencing remarkable demand for its AI data center capacity, resulting in significant revenue growth. It generated $3.6 billion in revenue in the first three quarters of 2025, up from $1.17 billion in the same period last year.

It is on track to end 2025 with $5.1 billion in revenue, as per its guidance. More importantly, CoreWeave is expected to sustain its remarkable growth in 2026, as it has a sizable revenue backlog. The company's revenue backlog jumped almost fourfold to $55.6 billion in the third quarter. CoreWeave points out that its revenue backlog includes remaining performance obligations (RPO) as well as the revenue it expects to realize in the future under committed customer contracts.

The company's massive backlog growth was driven by the huge contracts it has received from the likes of OpenAI, Meta Platforms, Nvidia, and other hyperscalers in recent months. Not surprisingly, analysts are expecting CoreWeave's revenue to more than double in 2026.

Data by YCharts.

Analysts believe that this stunning growth will send the stock up by 76% in the coming year, based on CoreWeave's 12-month median price target of $122, as per 33 analysts covering the stock. However, CoreWeave could do much better than that.

The stock may soar past Wall Street's price target in the next year
We have seen in the chart above that CoreWeave's 2026 revenue is expected to exceed $12 billion. Importantly, the company has a big enough backlog that should help it easily meet that target. Another point worth noting is that CoreWeave is quickly building more data center capacity to convert that huge backlog into revenue.

It ended Q3 with 590 megawatts (MW) of active data center capacity, up by 120 MW from Q2. CoreWeave management anticipates bringing at least 1 gigawatt (GW) of active data center capacity online within the next 12 to 24 months. That would translate into a quarterly addition of 125 MW, assuming it takes two years to put the 1 GW active capacity into operation.

So, CoreWeave's active power capacity could at least double in 2026, even if it adds 125 MW every quarter, paving the way for it to double its revenue. However, CoreWeave remains focused on "accessing new capital pools that meaningfully reduce our cost of capital, and scaling both our capacity and organization at an unprecedented pace."

The company's aggressive capacity expansion isn't surprising as it operates in a "highly supply-constrained environment where the demand for CoreWeave best-in-class AI cloud platform far exceeds available capacity." Hyperscalers and AI companies are seeking to acquire AI compute capacity to run AI workloads and harness the productivity gains of this technology.

CoreWeave, therefore, is operating in a favorable demand-supply environment, which should ensure that whatever capacity it offers to customers is quickly taken up. So, if it manages to add capacity at a more aggressive pace next year, it could easily beat Wall Street's revenue estimates. However, even if its revenue is in line with consensus expectations at $12.1 billion and it trades at 5.5 times sales after a year (in line with the Nasdaq Composite index's average sales multiple), its market cap could reach $67 billion.

CoreWeave has a market cap of $35 billion as of this writing, which means that its stock price could nearly double by next year. So, investors looking to capitalize on the AI infrastructure boom should still consider buying this AI stock, as the Nasdaq's rally and CoreWeave's impressive growth could send it soaring in the new year.