Market Signal Briefing

Representation of Ripple and a laptop keyboard are seen in this illustration photo taken in Krakow, Poland on June 10, 2022. (Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

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XRP hit $2.40 in January on a rush of ETF euphoria. Two months later it's back at $1.38, down roughly 43%, and the mood has shifted. Standard Chartered just slashed its year-end XRP price prediction by 65%. Spot ETF inflows, which started at a record clip, have slowed to a trickle.

But the bulls also have a narrative. Ripple has a pending U.S. bank charter. Multiple spot XRP ETFs are trading. And for the first time, XRP holders can actually do something with their tokens in DeFi. The question is whether any of it matters within the context of the broader crypto market .

What Analysts Are Predicting For XRP PriceGeoffrey Kendrick, head of digital asset research at Standard Chartered, set a 2026 year-end target of $8 for XRP in April 2025. In mid-February he cut it to $2.80, a 65% reduction, citing ETF outflows, high interest rates and geopolitical uncertainty. The bank still sees $28 by 2030, but the near-term call got a lot less exciting.

The ETF picture is mixed. Spot XRP funds launched in November 2025 and accumulated roughly $1.6 billion in AUM by January, with cumulative net inflows of about $1.26 billion. That made XRP the second-fastest crypto ETF category to cross the billion-dollar threshold after bitcoin. Bitwise’s XRP ETF grew to $289 million in assets, the largest in the U.S. But the pace has slowed. Total AUM has dropped from a peak near $1.6 billion to around $1 billion. Inflows in the first quarter of 2026 have come in at roughly $88 million, a fraction of the launch surge. Canada’s Scotiabank’s asset management subsidiary has also added XRP exposure through a multi-crypto ETF with 3iQ.

On March 11, the Kurv XRP Enhanced Income ETF becomes effective. Unlike spot products, the Kurv fund uses options and derivatives to convert XRP price volatility into monthly income distributions, giving yield-seeking institutions a new way to gain exposure without holding the token directly.

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More conservative forecasts exist. CoinCodex projects XRP trading between $1.36 and $1.54 in March, with a broader 2026 range of $1.90 to $2.20.

Ripple’s Bank Push And What It Means For XRPPeople use "Ripple" and "XRP" interchangeably. They shouldn't. Ripple is a San Francisco payments company. XRP is a token that runs on the XRP Ledger, an open-source blockchain anyone can use. Ripple holds billions of XRP in escrow and uses the token in some products, but the two are legally and technically distinct. When Ripple stock goes up, XRP doesn't necessarily follow.

That's worth keeping in mind when parsing Ripple's bank news. The OCC granted Ripple conditional approval for a national trust bank charter back in December. Full approval would let the company custody digital assets and offer trust services inside the U.S. banking system. Good for Ripple. But whether it moves the needle for XRP depends on something less certain: whether Ripple's banking ambitions actually funnel more demand into the token itself.

The bigger overhang is gone, at least. The SEC sued Ripple in December 2020, and the case dragged on for years. It finally ended in August 2025 when both sides agreed to drop their appeals. Judge Analisa Torres's earlier ruling that exchange sales of XRP were not securities transactions has since become a template for how regulators think about token classification.

Flare Is Bringing XRP Into DeFiIf Ripple's bank charter is a top-down institutional play, Flare represents a bottom-up effort to give XRP holders access to decentralized finance.

Flare is a separate Layer 1 blockchain with its own token, FLR. It is not part of Ripple and does not run on the XRP Ledger. What it does is bridge XRP into a smart contract environment where users can lend, borrow and earn yield on their holdings for the first time.

Since launching its XRP bridge in September 2025, Flare has attracted over 100 million XRP from retail users. "That's without kind of relying on institutions or asking Ripple to mint anything. So that's purely organic," said Hugo, a representative of Flare, in an interview with Forbes contributor Boaz Sobrado. The network currently has around 9,000 DeFi users. The cap was recently raised to 170 million XRP.

The next step is a product called Smart Accounts. The idea: XRP holders should be able to tap into Flare's lending and yield products without ever leaving their XRP wallet. "Smart Accounts is an abstraction for the XRP ledger. Eventually it will allow people to use Flare without ever touching Flare," Hugo said. If it works, 9,000 DeFi users could grow a lot faster.

Does any of this push the price of XRP up? Maybe. Hugo doesn't oversell it. "My goal is that Ripple does the BD to get the issuers onto XRP ledger and we end up as the place where it moves around," he said. Flare makes XRP more useful. Whether "more useful" means "more expensive" is a different bet.

Not Everyone Is ConvincedA technical analyst known as ChartNerd, has flagged a near-term risk. If XRP closes below its 50-month exponential moving average at $1.40, he argues a retest of $0.75 becomes likely. "If $XRP closes below its 50 Month EMA ($1.40), then a Mid GC retest is almost inevitable ($0.75)," he wrote on March 6.

XRP has posted five red monthly candles in a row heading into March. The token peaked near $2.40 in early January and has shed roughly 43% since. At an $83 billion market cap, reversing that kind of slide takes serious buying pressure.

Then there's supply. Somewhere between 60% and 70% of all XRP sits on exchanges, according to Flare's Hugo, and Ripple still holds billions in escrow that unlocks on a monthly schedule. If sentiment turns, there is no shortage of tokens available to sell.

What Could Move The XRP Price NextKurv's income ETF goes live March 11. Flare's Smart Accounts are in the wild. Ripple's full bank charter has no public timeline, but the OCC tends to move quietly before it moves definitively.

Even Standard Chartered's reduced $2.80 target means XRP roughly doubling from here by December. That's still an optimistic bet. It assumes the ETFs stabilize and resume inflows, the bank charter gets finalized, and Flare's DeFi play finds an audience beyond 9,000 early adopters.

Twelve months ago XRP was still in court. Now it has exchange-traded funds in multiple countries, a pending bank charter and its first real DeFi ecosystem.

Aave’s temp check passed, but governance is fracturing. Here’s the bull and bear case for AAVE, and what value capture looks like if the DAO stops working.

Aave’s governance fight is forcing a simple question: is this a great protocol with a shaky token, or a token about to earn its keep?

Posted March 7, 2026 at 11:00 am EST.

This week Aave governance advanced a framework proposal called “Aave Will Win” by passing a temperature check, which is an early, non-binding signal vote that precedes a formal onchain proposal. The vote passed narrowly: 52.58% in favor, 42% against, and 5.42% abstain, with about 622,300 votes on the yes side.

At a high level, the framework is trying to resolve an awkward reality: crypto’s biggest DeFi borrow/lend protocol is governed by a DAO, but much of the user-facing product layer has been built and operated by the centralized company, Aave Labs. “Aave Will Win” proposes routing 100% of revenue from Labs-run products back to the DAO treasury (net of partner payouts), formally positioning Aave v4 as the long-term technical foundation, and pairing that with a major funding request of $25 million in stablecoins plus 75,000 AAVE.

The problem is that this vote is landing in the middle of a governance credibility crisis. A dispute over interface fees and control escalated into broader accusations that Labs-linked voting power can effectively decide outcomes, and key groups have announced plans to step back this spring and summer.

As Taylor Monahan put it on Uneasy Money: “What the heck is the AAVE token going to be useful for moving forward?”

In the rest of this article, we’ll cover Whether AAVE is actually a good investment after the DAO drama, not just a “big DeFi name” The bull case and the bear case, and what has to happen for each to be true Real value capture: fees, buybacks, treasury flows, and what is real versus aspirational What Aave v4 changes economically, and what it breaks if it ships late or ships wrong Whether Aave can defend its moat if key builders and governance stewards keep leaving Why serious investors subscribe:

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Bitcoin’s Short Term Holders (STHs) are looking to make a profit from recent price swings, and that might dent the prospect of an immediate price recovery, analytics from CryptoQuant show. The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization is currently hovering around $67k after failing to break through the $70k resistance earlier this week.

CryptoQuant’s official handle tweeted:

Image Source: X The metric used here by the crypto analytics firm is Short-Term Holder (STH) Profit / Loss to Exchanges (often abbreviated as STH P&L to Exchanges. It is used to see whether short-term investors are looking to liquidate their BTC holdings on exchanges. Short-term holders are defined as BTC addresses that have held their reserves for 155 days or less, and this metric is commonly used not just by CryptoQuant but also by other analytics websites.

If the metric is higher, it indicates that STHs are selling their crypto at a profit based on recent price movements, while a lower value indicates that short-term holders are capitulating. Recently, as CryptoQuant points out, the value has jumped sharply, surpassing the benchmarked spot price. Roughly 27,000 BTC have been deposited by these short-term players.

The Macro Outlook Due to the recent price recovery above $70k, an opportunity has emerged for these STHs, and they are taking advantage of it, thereby creating selling pressure on the market. The crypto market has shown strong resilience amid recent external factors, with the digital asset holding well despite ongoing troubles in the Middle East. 

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However, the rising STH profit-taking shows an apparent reluctance to hold in the long term, but that is not always the case. Historically, much of this post-price-recovery selling activity can be absorbed easily by the market if the price index doesn’t drop much. It can easily turn into a contrarian buy signal after sellers exit, even if the price still doesn’t move much. 

Currently, Bitcoin’s realized price is around $68,000, hovering just above the spot level. STHs are typically younger investors who are more emotionally driven and looking to make quick trades. Real buying pressure from this demographic will come when they deem a certain price level alluring for short-term gains. In some instances, more mature users from this group begin to hold out for longer-term gains, which is generally considered more suitable for a strong, long-term outlook.

Quantum computing has emerged as a major topic of discussion in the crypto industry over the past few months.

The risks posed by quantum computing could represent a serious threat to Bitcoin, particularly because advanced quantum capabilities might allow malicious actors to break into older wallets, including those believed to belong to the pseudonymous BTC creator Satoshi Nakamoto.

After analyzing these potential threats, Versan Aljarrah, founder of Black Swan Capitalist, noted that Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP all depend on cryptographic systems that could, in theory, become vulnerable if Quantum computing advances significantly.

While none of these networks are fully shielded from the rising risks posed by Quantum computing, Aljarrah suggested that XRP could hold an advantage due to the way the XRP Ledger (XRPL) was originally designed by its architects.

Quantum Computers Could Threaten Blockchain Security In a recent post on the X social media platform, Versan Aljarrah noted that modern blockchains depend on a security method called elliptic curve cryptography.

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For those unfamiliar, this cryptographic system safeguards digital assets through a pair of keys: a public key that is visible on the network and a private key that remains confidential, allowing the holder to access and manage their funds.

The Black Swan Capitalist founder explained that the risk lies in the possibility that a sufficiently advanced quantum computing system could eventually crack this form of encryption. If that were to happen, attackers might be able to derive private keys from public ones, potentially allowing them to gain control of digital wallets.

In his opinion, such a threat would extend far beyond cryptocurrency. Aljarrah believes that if quantum computing reaches that level of capability, it could jeopardize many systems that depend on similar cryptographic protections, including global banking networks, the SWIFT payment system, military encryption, and large portions of the internet.

Is XRP Quantum-Resistant? While most major blockchains face this same vulnerability, Versan Aljarrah argued that XRP may have an architectural advantage if Quantum computing becomes a genuine threat. He noted that the cryptographic frameworks underpinning Bitcoin and Ethereum are deeply embedded in their networks, making significant upgrades more complex.

He noted that updating the cryptography for Bitcoin or Ethereum would likely necessitate major network upgrades and hard forks. Such changes typically require lengthy debates and coordination among developers and community members, which can slow implementation and introduce additional risks to the network.

However, the XRP Ledger functions differently. Versan Aljarrah explained that the network uses a protocol-level governance system that enables validators to approve cryptographic upgrades through consensus without taking the network offline. This design allows the system to adapt in real time if new security standards are needed.

He also pointed out that Bitcoin was built to be rigid, while Ethereum upgrades often proceed slowly and require complex changes. In contrast, he described XRP as a financial infrastructure designed to address emerging challenges while continuing to process transactions seamlessly.

When crude starts leading the headlines, crypto people tend to ask the wrong questions, like what it is that oil actually does to Bitcoin.

While it's the simplest and easiest way to explain what you don't know, it's a pretty bad question. A better one is what oil actually does to the cost of money, because Bitcoin is now trading like a live chart of liquidity expectations.

Oil is one of the fastest ways to force that repricing, especially when the move comes from geopolitics and shipping risks rather than a slow increase in demand for BTC.

That's basically the backdrop right now. Brent has been trading in the low $80s, and WTI in the mid $70s as the market prices disruption risk around the Strait of Hormuz, with banks and strategists openly talking about scenarios that could drag oil toward $90 or $100 if flows stay impaired.

While the end state of the conflict in Iran matters, the market mechanisms that determine price start working long before the world gets any certainty.

Oil is a Fed story told through inflation psychologyOil hits inflation in two ways at once.

One is very literal: energy feeds directly into headline CPI, and higher fuel costs also filter through shipping, plastics, and basic inputs.

The other is psychological: people see gasoline prices, they talk about them, politicians react to them, and that visibility keeps inflation from feeling finished. Central banks care about the second part more than the first because it shapes expectations, wage behavior, and the political tolerance for staying tight.

You can find this logic in plain-English terms across mainstream econ explainers, including older but still useful guidance from the San Francisco Fed. It breaks the oil-to-inflation link into a simple pass-through story: energy prices feed directly into headline CPI, and they also spill into other prices through transportation and production costs, with the size and staying power depending on whether households and firms start to expect higher inflation and build it into wages and pricing.

Guidance from the US EIA, drawing from Lutz Kilian's work, adds a more technical layer to this. It explains that not all oil moves are the same, because their effect on inflation depends on what caused the shock (a disruption of supply or a surge in demand), how quickly retail fuel prices transmit the move, and whether the jump leaks into broader inflation via second-round effects rather than fading as a one-off energy spike.

Markets take all of that and start basing their trades on what happens to the path of Fed cuts. If oil's jump pulls inflation expectations up at the margin, the market tends to push the first cut further out, price fewer cuts over the year, or both.

That repricing can happen in a single day, and it shows up first in the two places Bitcoin watches most closely, even when crypto doesn't say it out loud.

The two-variable squeeze: yields and the dollarThose two places are Treasury yields and the US dollar.

Yields are the discount rate for everything. When the 10-year yield climbs, long-duration assets reprice. That includes tech, credit-sensitive equities, and Bitcoin, which still behaves like an asset that benefits from easier financial conditions.

The dollar is the global funding unit. When the dollar strengthens at the same time yields rise, global financial conditions tighten in a way that reaches far beyond the US, because so much trade and debt is dollar-linked.

This week provided us with a perfect example of that chain in action.

The oil shock was followed by a jump in Treasury yields and a stronger dollar as investors reassessed inflation risk and the cut path. Reuters described a broader dash-for-cash dynamic, with cross-asset stress and the dollar bid firming as oil rose.

If you want a simple macro dashboard for BTC in weeks like this, watch the dollar index and the 10-year yield together. When both are climbing, liquidity gets pricier. When both ease, risk appetite usually finds oxygen again.

Why Bitcoin can look crypto-native even when the first domino is macroOnce oil tightens the Fed-path narrative, and yields and the dollar react, crypto supplies its own amplification. That's the most complicated part of this reaction, because the second-order effects happen inside the complex machinery of crypto leverage.

Start with the basic reality of modern crypto markets, which is that most of price discovery comes from perpetual futures, basis trades, and options hedging. When macro volatility increases, risk desks and systematic traders reduce gross exposure. In crypto, that often looks like funding swinging hard, open interest dropping, and liquidations doing what liquidations always do.

On March 2, Bitcoin held up better than equities as the Iran conflict drove oil higher, with liquidations rolling through over the weekend and price rebounding toward the mid-$60,000s.

People expected Bitcoin to behave like a panic asset in these market conditions, but it didn't. This is mostly because it had already paid the price in positioning.

Derivatives data from late February also fits that story. Deribit's report showed a growing demand for protection and skew conditions through the February drawdown and into the late-month stabilization. CME has written about volatility spikes and how open interest and the mix of puts and calls can hint at how participants are positioning for the next move.

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All of this tells us that spot can hold up or recover even when macro feels heavy, because the market has already rotated into protection and reduced leveraged longs. When that happens, the next bounce can be driven by shorts covering and hedges being adjusted rather than a sudden wave of new spot buying.

The cleaning phase: leverage resets can set up the next legLeverage getting trimmed is usually framed negatively. But in practice, it's often the market turning itself into something tradable again.

When funding gets stretched one way and then snaps back, it tells you positioning was crowded.

When open interest drops sharply, it tells you that traders reduced gross exposure. When options skew gets more put-heavy while spot stabilizes, it tells you buyers want upside exposure but still want insurance, which can dampen forced selling.

Derivatives show whether the move is coming from flows or from positioning. If price drops in a hurry and leverage drains at the same time, you're often watching a positioning reset.

If price rises and open interest rises with it, that means new risk is being added. Neither is good nor bad by itself, as each one just changes what the next 1% move tends to look like.

Oil as the backdrop, not the verdictSo where does oil fit now?

It fits as a macro backdrop that can keep the Fed-path conversation jumpy. Markets are treating Hormuz risk as a reason oil could stay high for days, which is another way of saying the inflation tail stays alive as long as the disruption premium stays embedded.

When strategists talk about $90 to $100 scenarios, they're also telling you what kind of inflation psychology they're bracing for, even if the final outcome never reaches those price levels. For Bitcoin, that means the easy macro tailwind depends on what happens next in the yields-and-dollar pair.

If oil cools and the market pulls rate-cut expectations forward again, Bitcoin will get room to breathe, because financial conditions loosen quickly when those two variables ease together.

If oil holds its risk premium and inflation fears stick, the market can keep pricing money as scarce, and Bitcoin tends to trade with that constraint in the background.

The useful way to hold the whole chain in your head is simple, and it keeps you from getting lost in narratives:

Oil sets the inflation tone, the inflation tone shapes the cut path, and the cut path moves yields and the dollar. Yields and the dollar then set the liquidity climate. Crypto leverage then either amplifies the move or cushions it, depending on how crowded positioning already was.

That's why crude is worth watching, even if you're never going to own a barrel. It's a fast, public, globally traded number that pushes markets into repricing the cost of money. Bitcoin sits downstream from that repricing, and it tends to show you the result in real time.

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In their latest post on CryptoQuant, XWIN Research Japan explores how developing affairs in the United States could affect the trajectory of Bitcoin and other risk assets in the near-term. According to the education institute, concerns of a potential stagflation period have begun to come up, which could potentially boost or mar Bitcoin’s growth.

Unemployment Rate Rises To 4% As Inflation Builds Up For context, stagflation is a rare economic condition that combines two concerning events at the same time: high inflation and high unemployment. In their QuickTake post on CryptoQuant, XWIN Research Japan reveals that the number of people who are employed in the United States declined by 92,000 in February, indicating a 4% rise in unemployment rates. 

This was followed by a rising state of tension in the United States, owing to the geopolitical strife caused by a combined US-Israeli attack on Iran. This conflict has resulted in heightened oil prices, leading energy sources to become even more expensive. According to XWIN Research Japan, this increase in energy costs could also significantly trigger inflation, thereby completing the stagflation equation.

Notably, a shared historical example of stagflation occurred in the United States during the period of oil shocks in the 1970s; there was a surge of inflation into double digits, with unemployment rates following in such a destructive path. According to XWIN Research, the inflation was eventually subdued by the Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, who raised interest rates to nearly 20%, with a severe recession as the ensuing consequence.

Source: @jjcmoreno How Bitcoin Has Fit Into Past Stagflation Periods XWIN Research Japan further notes that the Bitcoin relationship with US stagflation is a complicated one, rather than a linear, straightforward relationship.

The analysts explain that the early phases of stagflation are marked by headwinds to risk assets. When inflation heightens sharply (as was seen in 2022), both the NASDAQ and the Bitcoin price would decline sharply, indicating that Bitcoin has attained a high-beta asset title.

However, the dynamic could see a quick turnaround in cases where stagflation triggers financial instability, as was the case in the 2023 US banking crisis. In this scenario, capital moved into high-risk assets like Bitcoin, causing a more than 80% bullish rally. Also, Bitcoin’s unique supply structure has to be considered while predictions are being made.

Unlike fiat currencies, the issuance of Bitcoin is in line with a fixed algorithm where periodic halving events reduce the rate of new supply entering circulation. This means that Bitcoin’s inflation rate continues to fall, thereby potentially increasing its appeal in a market where traditional currencies are suffering the effects of inflation. 

If this scenario holds now, the Bitcoin market could witness a significant amount of inflows in the mid term. As of this writing, Bitcoin trades for $68,225, recording a more than 4% loss since the past day.

BTC trading at $67,703 on the daily chart | Source: BTCUSDT chart on Tradingview.com Featured image from Flickr, chart from Tradingview

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Although Bitcoin has shown strong price movements earlier this week, the leading cryptocurrency has, however, closed the week on a negative note as investors' sentiment continues to grow weak.

Following Bitcoin’s negative price trend, institutional demand for spot Bitcoin ETFs has slowed significantly as data from SoSoValue shows that investors have pulled hundreds of millions of dollars across all funds during their last trading session.

Bitcoin ETFs see $348 million withdrawalsThe data has revealed that the U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded a net outflow of $348.83 million on Friday, March 6, signaling a pause in institutional demand as Bitcoin faces another price correction.

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While the withdrawal saw the Bitcoin ETFs close the week on a bearish note, it came as Bitcoin traded around $68,110, a massive decline from the $74,000 level it reclaimed three days prior.

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This massive withdrawal marks the biggest outflow the Bitcoin funds have collectively recorded in March, sparking concerns among market participants.

While the pullback in the Bitcoin-based ETF demand comes amid broader market volatility, analysts are less worried as the overall inflow since the approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs in the United States in 2024 remains extremely positive.

BlackRock retains dominanceWhile BlackRock has always maintained its lead regardless of the market conditions, the firm has seen its Bitcoin ETF dubbed IBIT record the largest withdrawals among all ETFs, seeing $143.45 million leave the fund.

As usual, Fidelity’s (FBTC) followed closely after posting $158.54 million in outflows over the same trading session. Meanwhile, the Grayscale Bitcoin ETF also experienced smaller withdrawals, seeing $9.56 million exit the fund.

While the funds pulled in extremely negative moves, none of the Bitcoin ETFs saw the mildest capital intake as institutional investors appear to be taking caution.

Lead Plaintiff Deadline is April 24, 2026

, /PRNewswire/ -- Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz LLP announces that a securities class action lawsuit has been filed against Navan, Inc. (NASDAQ: NAVN) and certain of its officers on behalf of investors who purchased or otherwise acquired Navan securities pursuant to the company's October 31, 2025 initial public offering (IPO). Investors have until April 24, 2026, to seek appointments as lead plaintiff.

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Contained materially false and misleading statements, and/or Omitted material facts necessary to make statements not misleading. Specifically, the lawsuit claims that Navan:

Would need to significantly increase sales and marketing expenses shortly after the IPO In order to sustain revenue growth, Gross Booking Volume (GBV), and usage yield growth Failed to adequately disclose these anticipated cost increases and their potential impact on financial performance Investors who suffered losses have until April 24,  2026 to seek appointment as lead plaintiff.

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Liberty Formula One Group (NASDAQ:FWONK) has had a rough few months. After peaking near $109, the stock has pulled back hard, and Jim Cramer recently commented on the stock’s pullback.

“At $83 and change, I think it’s a terrific buying opportunity,” Cramer said, pointing to the company’s recent earnings as his foundation.

The setup is straightforward. The Series C shares began trading in August of 2023, found their footing in late 2023, rallied from the low 60s to a high of $109, and have since pulled back roughly 23% to the $83 range.

What the Numbers Actually Say The Q4 2025 report, filed February 26, 2026, gave Cramer plenty to work with. For the Formula 1 segment specifically, revenue grew 14% and operating income before depreciation and amortization grew 20%. Those aren’t flashy numbers, but they’re consistent and contractually underpinned.

Fan engagement is the real story. Attendance was up 4% year over year, and live viewership jumped 21%. More eyeballs, more leverage over broadcasters and sponsors when contracts come up for renewal. That’s the compounding engine here.

Zoom out to the full business and the numbers get bigger. Broader revenue grew 23% year over year, and adjusted OIBDA jumped 38%. A big chunk of that lift came from the MotoGP acquisition, which closed July 3, 2025, adding an entirely new motorsport franchise to the portfolio.

The Geopolitical Overhang Not everyone is buying the dip. Reddit’s r/stocks community has been fixated on a different headline: “F1 owner loses over $2 billion as Iran war clouds Middle East races,” a post that generated significant engagement. The concern is real. F1 operates globally, and geopolitical disruption can force race cancellations or venue changes that hit revenue directly.

But it’s worth separating sentiment from fundamentals. The bearish Reddit narrative is driven by geopolitical fear, not by any deterioration in F1’s core business model. The Concorde Agreement is signed with all F1 teams and the FIA through 2030, locking in the revenue-sharing framework. Apple is the new U.S. broadcast partner. Cadillac and Audi debut on the grid in 2026. Madrid gets a new Grand Prix. The pipeline of growth catalysts is intact.

The Bottom Line Cramer’s thesis rests on the idea that the business is growing, the brand is stronger than ever, and the stock is cheaper than it was when the fundamentals were weaker. Cramer has argued that for investors who believe premium live sports are one of the few truly irreplaceable entertainment categories, and that F1’s global expansion still has runway, the pullback from $109 to $83 represents a meaningful discount in his view — though whether the business fundamentals justify the decline is a judgment each investor must make independently.

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Oscar Health (NYSE:OSCR) CEO Mark Bertolini has been making the same promise for four consecutive quarters: 2026 is the year the company turns profitable. Now, with the Q4 2025 results in hand, we can see exactly what he’s betting on to make that happen.

The headline numbers from Q4 were rough. EPS came in at -$1.24, missing the estimate of -$0.92 by nearly 35%. More alarming, the medical loss ratio hit 95.4% in Q4, up from 88.1% the prior year — meaning Oscar spent 95 cents in medical costs for every dollar of premium it collected. That’s not a business. That’s a charity with extra steps.

But the stock still jumped roughly 9.6% following the Q4 announcement, because investors focused on what Bertolini said about 2026, not what happened in 2025.

Here’s the core quote from the earnings call:

“Oscar is on track to return to profitability this year. We expect a significant year-over-year improvement of nearly $750 million in earnings from operations in 2026, representing the midpoint of our guidance.”

That $750 million swing is the whole story. Oscar’s 2026 guidance targets earnings from operations of $250 million to $450 million, against a 2025 loss from operations of $396 million.

The math only works if the medical loss ratio comes down dramatically. Oscar is guiding for an MLR of 82.4% to 83.4% in 2026 — a massive improvement from Q4’s 95.4%. To get there, Bertolini is pulling three levers.

Lever one: AI-driven efficiency. Bertolini was unusually specific here. “Our Agentic AI bot for care guides reduced response times by 67% during peak open enrollment periods,” he said. More tellingly: “Oswell, our industry-first health agent, now completes 86% of questions received from members with high accuracy and quality.” That’s not a pilot program. That’s operational infrastructure.

Lever two: pricing discipline. Oscar took a weighted average rate increase of approximately 28% for 2026 and explicitly priced in the expiration of enhanced premium tax credits that inflated enrollment with higher-risk members in 2025.

Lever three: record membership. Oscar enrolled 3.4 million members as of February 1, 2026, up sharply from prior years. More members spread fixed costs thinner. Oscar’s market share across its footprint expanded from 17% in 2025 to 30% in 2026.

The competitive backdrop helps too. CVS Health (NYSE:CVS) exited the individual ACA exchange market for 2026, ceding ground that Oscar is actively taking.

The risk is real. Bertolini made this same profitability promise in Q2, Q3, and Q4 of 2025, while the MLR deteriorated each quarter. EPS came in at -$1.24, missing the estimate of -$0.92. The 2026 guidance requires execution on pricing, underwriting, and AI efficiency simultaneously. But with $2.77 billion in cash and a new $475 million revolving credit facility, Oscar has the runway to find out if Bertolini’s bet finally pays off.

If you're hunting for reliable income in this choppy market, dividend stocks and high-yield bonds could be your best bets right now.

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Pool Corporation Has Fallen 39% in a Year – Here Is What Analysts Are Saying Pool Corporation (NASDAQ:POOL) is sitting at $213.66 as of March 6, 2026, while the average analyst price target sits at $266.09. That’s a gap of roughly 25% implied upside just to reach consensus. But zoom out and the story gets more striking: the stock has fallen 39% over the past year from $351.23, and it’s now trading near its 52-week low of $210.67. The dislocation between where the stock is trading and where analysts think it belongs is hard to ignore.

Pool Corporation is the world’s largest wholesale distributor of swimming pool supplies, equipment, and outdoor living products. With 456 sales centers globally, it sits in the middle of a distribution network connecting manufacturers to pool builders, contractors, and retailers. It’s not a flashy business, but it’s a dominant one. And that dominance is exactly why Wall Street hasn’t given up on it even as the stock has been cut nearly in half from its highs.

Q4 Delivered a Gut Punch and the Market Responded The most recent selloff accelerated after Pool Corporation reported Q4 2025 earnings on February 19, 2026. The headline numbers were ugly. Adjusted diluted EPS came in at $0.84 versus the $0.98 estimate, a miss of nearly 14%. Revenue of $982.21 million fell short of the $999.16 million consensus and was down 0.5% year over year.

The deeper problem wasn’t the top line. It was the expense structure. Operating expenses surged 6% to $243.74 million, driven by higher employee costs, technology investments, and new greenfield sales center openings. That pushed operating income down 14% year over year to $52.01 million. For the full year, operating cash flow collapsed 44.5% to $365.85 million, largely because management pre-bought inventory ahead of anticipated price increases, sending inventory up 13% to $1.45 billion.

The arc across 2025 tells the story: Q1 missed on weather headwinds, Q2 stabilized, Q3 showed genuine recovery with positive revenue growth, then Q4 reversed hard. The pattern of costs growing faster than revenue is the central concern the market is pricing in. Add in a consumer sentiment reading of 56.4 as of January 2026, which sits in what economists classify as recessionary territory, and you understand why discretionary pool upgrades remain under pressure.

Analysts See Stabilization, Not a Turnaround Despite the selloff, Wall Street hasn’t abandoned Pool Corporation. Of the 14 analysts covering the stock, 5 rate it a Buy, 8 rate it a Hold, and just 1 rates it a Strong Sell. That’s a cautiously constructive posture, not panic. The average price target of $266.09 implies that the majority of analysts believe the current price represents an overshoot to the downside.

The bull case rests on a few specific pillars. First, gross margins are actually improving. Gross margin expanded 70 basis points to 30.1% in Q4, suggesting the core distribution business is healthy even if operating expenses are running hot. Second, management’s 2026 EPS guidance of $10.85 to $11.15 implies modest earnings growth from the $10.73 full-year 2025 actual. That’s not exciting, but it signals the bottom may be forming. Third, CEO Peter D. Arvan noted on the earnings call that the company was “encouraged by improving trends for discretionary products in the second half of the year, even with ongoing consumer pressures.”

Analysts are also watching the housing starts data closely. December 2025 housing starts came in at 1.40 million units annualized, recovering from October’s low of 1.27 million. New pool construction follows housing activity with a lag, so a stabilizing housing market is a meaningful forward indicator for Pool Corporation’s new construction revenue. The maintenance side of the business, which is non-discretionary, provides a stable floor regardless.

Where Things Stand Current Situation:

Current Price: $213.66 Average Analyst Target: $266.09 Implied Upside: approximately 25% Number of Analysts Covering: 14 1-Year Performance: down 39.17% Year-to-Date Performance: down 6.6% 52-Week High / Low: $368.65 / $210.67 Analyst Ratings Breakdown:

Buy: 5 Hold: 8 Strong Sell: 1 Key Valuation Metrics:

Trailing P/E: approximately 20x Dividend Yield: 2.27% 200-Day Moving Average: $280.30 The stock is trading well below its 200-day moving average of $280.30 and has been in a persistent downtrend. The Hold-heavy analyst consensus tells you most on Wall Street aren’t pounding the table here, but they’re also not calling it a value trap. The lone Strong Sell is the outlier. That distribution suggests a stock where the debate is about timing and macro recovery, not business model viability.

Leslie’s (LESL): A Sector Contrast The contrast with Leslie’s (NASDAQ:LESL) is instructive. Leslie’s, the pool and spa retailer, is down 95.24% over the past year and is now trading at $0.95 with negative stockholders’ equity of $489.85 million and just $3.62 million in cash. Pool Corporation and Leslie’s are both in the pool industry, but they are not the same business. Pool Corporation is the distributor with a durable network. Leslie’s is a struggling retailer in active restructuring. The sector is under pressure, but not all players are equal.

The Risk/Reward Is Real But Not Obvious The bull case centers on consumer sentiment finding a floor and housing starts continuing to recover into the 2026 pool season. The maintenance business provides a non-discretionary revenue base that doesn’t disappear when consumers tighten their belts, and gross margins are actually expanding even during the downturn. A stock trading near a 52-week low with insider buying and a 25% gap to analyst consensus presents a situation analysts are watching closely. The 2.27% dividend yield isn’t transformative, but it represents real income for investors holding through the recovery.

The bear case rests on whether the operating expense problem is structural rather than transitional. Management is spending heavily on technology platforms like POOL360 and greenfield expansion at exactly the moment revenue is flat and cash flow is under pressure. If those investments don’t generate measurable returns in 2026, the earnings guidance of $10.85 to $11.15 starts to look optimistic rather than conservative. The consumer sentiment reading of 56.4 is still in recessionary territory, and tariff uncertainty adds another layer of cost risk to a business that sources globally.

Analyst price targets are not guarantees. They’re informed opinions with a shelf life. But when a dominant business with a 40% one-year decline, insider buying near the lows, and a 25% gap to consensus is sitting near a multi-year floor, that’s a situation analysts are watching closely. Pool Corporation has historically been a dominant distributor in its space. The question is whether 2026 is the year the recovery actually shows up in the numbers. That answer will determine whether today’s price looks like opportunity or a very patient wait.

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Amazon is dominating financial headlines right now, and sure, AWS grew 24% in Q4 and the AI story is real. But here’s what you should actually be watching.

I’ve seen this movie before. A company announces a jaw-dropping capex plan, the Street cheers the vision, and retirement accounts quietly absorb the risk. Andy Jassy just told the world Amazon plans to “invest about $200 billion in capital expenditures across Amazon in 2026.” That’s not a growth story. That’s a bet. And energy prices are the variable nobody’s pricing in.

WTI crude is sitting at $71.13 per barrel after surging 10.3% in the past month alone. If oil reaches $100, Amazon’s $200 billion buildout of data centers, fulfillment networks, and satellites becomes dramatically more expensive. Walmart doesn’t. Here’s why.

Point One: Amazon’s Capex Is an Energy Sponge Amazon added 3.8 gigawatts of power capacity in the past 12 months. Data centers eat electricity. Fulfillment centers run fleets. Satellites require launch infrastructure. Every dollar of that $200 billion capex plan has an energy cost embedded in it that goes up when oil goes up.

The financial signal is already flashing. Amazon’s free cash flow collapsed 65.95% year-over-year in FY2025 even as operating cash flow grew 20.4%. The capex surge is consuming cash faster than the business generates it. Add an oil shock on top of that, and the margin cushion gets thin fast. Amazon explicitly listed energy prices as a risk factor in its forward outlook. They know.

Point Two: Walmart’s Infrastructure Is Already Built Walmart isn’t in a build phase. The stores exist. The supply chain is established. Store-fulfilled delivery now reaches 95% of U.S. households in under three hours, using physical locations that were already paid for. That’s a toll bridge that doesn’t need new construction when energy gets expensive.

Walmart’s capex discipline tells the whole story: FY26 capital expenditures came in at $26.64 billion, roughly 3.5% of net sales. Amazon is planning to spend $200 billion in a single year. The incremental energy exposure Walmart faces is manageable. Amazon’s is structural.

Point Three: Grocery Anchors Walmart Against a Consumer Pullback Consumer sentiment is sitting at 56.4 on the University of Michigan index, which is recessionary territory. When oil hits $100, that number goes lower. People stop buying discretionary goods. They don’t stop buying groceries.

Walmart’s grocery-anchored model is designed for exactly this environment. The company reported consistent U.S. comp sales of approximately 4.5% to 4.6% every single quarter of FY26. Not a spike. Not a fluke. Consistent execution. And critically, Walmart is gaining share across all income tiers, led by upper-income households who are trading down as costs rise. That’s the exact customer flow you want when energy inflation bites.

Meanwhile, Walmart’s free cash flow grew 17.88% year-over-year to $14.92 billion in FY26, and the company just authorized a new $30 billion share repurchase program with an annual dividend raised to $0.99 per share for FY27. That’s a company returning cash, not burning it.

Amazon is a great business. But you’re not buying the business at this price, with this capex plan, in this energy environment. You’re buying the hype. Walmart is up 11.12% year-to-date while Amazon is down 7.63%, and the gap will widen if oil keeps climbing. If you’re building a retirement portfolio and oil is moving toward $100, stop chasing the headline and buy the retailer that was built for exactly this moment.

Things are going from bad to worse for Novo Nordisk (NVO 1.27%). The Denmark-based drugmaker had already seen its blockbuster weight loss medicine, Wegovy, lose ground to Eli Lilly's (LLY +0.70%) Zepbound in this fast-growing market. But Novo Nordisk just released data from a clinical trial for its newer obesity drug, CagriSema, in which it was pitted against Zepbound. The result: Zepbound came out on top, suggesting that even Novo Nordisk's next launch in this niche won't allow it to keep pace with its rival.

Is there any hope left for the pharmaceutical leader? Novo Nordisk quietly announced results from a phase 2 study of another candidate that investors should consider.

Image source: Getty Images.

Impressive mid-stage data Last year, Novo Nordisk acquired the rights to commercialize UBT251, an investigational weight loss medicine, in most countries from a China-based drugmaker. There's one notable thing about this therapy: It mimics the action of three different gut hormones: GLP-1, glucagon, and GIP, which play various roles in the body, including blood sugar and insulin regulation, and satiety control. Targeting three different pathways to induce weight loss could improve efficacy.

On Feb. 24, Novo Nordisk announced that, in a study conducted in China, UBT251 led to a mean weight loss of up to 19.7% in just 24 weeks. Comparing results across studies is always tricky, but it's worth noting that in Novo Nordisk's recent phase 3 study pitting CagriSema against Zepbound, the former led to an average weight loss of 23% compared to the latter's 25.5% -- but that was over 84 weeks.

In fact, in a 72-week study, Zepbound's 20.2% mean weight loss was only slightly better than UBT251's 24-week performance. UBT251's phase 2 results suggest it could outperform Zepbound and CagriSema (and Wegovy) in a study of equal length.

Today's Change

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What this means for Novo Nordisk There are several things to keep in mind here. First, UBT251's results in China won't support approval in the U.S. Second, this was still a mid-stage study. Late-stage clinical trial results may not be nearly as strong as that. Third, Eli Lilly is working on its own triple agonist, retatrutide. In a recent phase 3 study, retatrutide achieved best-in-class weight loss of 28.7% over 68 weeks.

That's a high bar to emulate, even for the so far very impressive UBT251. What does this tell us? Even if UBT251 performs well in late-stage clinical trials, that alone likely won't allow Novo Nordisk to capture the weight loss medicine lead back from its longtime rival. However, CagriSema's performance, albeit below Zepbound's, was still very competitive and ahead of Wegovy. With UBT251 also making steady progress, and several other candidates in the pipeline, the pharmaceutical leader should at least maintain its position as the second-leading drugmaker in this large and fast-growing market.

With the stock near multi-year lows and the weight-loss space projected to exceed $100 billion in sales over the next decade, Novo Nordisk could bounce back and deliver competitive returns over the next few years, provided UBT251 and other candidates pan out.

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Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have no stock, option or similar derivative position in any of the companies mentioned, and no plans to initiate any such positions within the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

Seeking Alpha's Disclosure: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. Any views or opinions expressed above may not reflect those of Seeking Alpha as a whole. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank. Our analysts are third party authors that include both professional investors and individual investors who may not be licensed or certified by any institute or regulatory body.

United Airlines flight attendants speak with students about job opportunities inside a Boeing 757 during Aviation Career Day at LAX in October 2025. (Photo by Patrick T. Fallon)

AFP via Getty Images

Both United Airlines and its flight attendants union said Friday that they are close to reaching a revised tentative contract agreement.

The United contract became amendable in August 2021. The airline’s 30,000 flight attendants, members of the Association of Flight Attendants, rejected a tentative contract agreement in July 2025. That deal offered 27% raises, but 71% of members voted against it.

“This week, we met in federal mediation in Chicago,” AFA said Friday, in a negotiations update to members from its four-person negotiating committee. “The parties made substantial progress on all outstanding issues and we are very close to a final tentative agreement.

“We are down to several open issues which we anticipate resolving at our next mediation session in Washington, DC, from March 24th to the 27th,” the committee said. “We expect we will be able to reach a compete tentative agreement at that session.”

“Given the substantial progress towards reaching an agreement,” the union said it would postpone a scheduled membership action day that had been scheduled for March 19th,” the committee said.

Meanwhile, in a message to flight attendants from Nathan Lopp, vice president of labor relations, United said, “ While there is still work to do, we are encouraged by the progress made this week and remain confident we’re on track toward a new tentative agreement.”

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At the next session, “We expect to finalize signing bonuses and other remaining items,” Lopp wrote.

“At our last session, United offered a proposal that would deliver the highest flight attendant pay among U.S. carriers,” he wrote. “Over the term of the agreement, pay for every flight attendant at every level would be top of industry. During this session, we made progress on several other areas that the AFA has indicated are priorities for you, including wage rates and alignment on language for redeye rules and sit pay.

“Our discussions centered around the pathways to delivering those priorities while preserving our industry-leading pay proposal and ensuring the overall agreement remains balanced, competitive and financially sustainable for our airline,” he wrote.

In the past few weeks, AFA President Sara Nelson has made clear that the union is focused on getting a deal quickly. She has compared United CEO Scott Kirby unfavorably to American Airlines CEO Robert Isom, who has reached contract deals with all major work groups.

“Scott Kirby keeps saying that if our people are happy, they are going to make our customers happy,” but if he believed that, Nelson said in a February interview, “He would do what Robert Isom is doing. One knows how to do labor deals and one has yet to finish them.”

It now appears that the two sides have found a way to bridge the negotiating gap and to reach a deal they hope will win approval.

Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP Securities Litigation Partner James (Josh) Wilson Encourages Investors Who Suffered Losses In Zynex To Contact Him Directly To Discuss Their Options

If you purchased or acquired securities in Zynex between February 25, 2021 and December 15, 2025 and would like to discuss your legal rights, call Faruqi & Faruqi partner Josh Wilson directly at 877-247-4292 or 212-983-9330 (Ext. 1310).

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New York, New York--(Newsfile Corp. - March 7, 2026) - Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP, a leading national securities law firm, is investigating potential claims against Zynex, Inc. ("Zynex" or the "Company") (OTC Pink: ZYXIQ) and reminds investors of the April 21, 2026 deadline to seek the role of lead plaintiff in a federal securities class action that has been filed against the Company.

Faruqi & Faruqi is a leading national securities law firm with offices in New York, Pennsylvania, California and Georgia. The firm has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for investors since its founding in 1995. See www.faruqilaw.com.

As detailed below, the complaint alleges that the Company and its executives violated federal securities laws by making false and/or misleading statements and/or failing to disclose that: (a) Zynex shipped products, including electrodes, in excess of need; (b) as a result of this practice, the Company inflated its revenue; (c) the Company's practice of filing false claims drew scrutiny from insurers, including Tricare; (d) on August 21, 2023, Travelers commenced an action against Zynex, Sandgaard, Lucsok and Fox in the Superior Court of California alleging that Zynex and the defendants had embarked on a fraudulent overbilling scheme and sought more than $23 million in damages and civil penalties relating to hundreds of fraudulent claims between 2018 and 2023; (e) management had prioritized aggressive sales strategies to drive orders over compliance with industry laws, rules and regulations; (f) the Company was not committed to maintaining a strong internal control environment; (g) the Company's order growth was a result of illegal overbilling; (h) as a result, it was reasonably likely that Zynex would face adverse consequences, including removal from insurer networks and penalties from the federal government; and (i) as a result of the foregoing, Defendants' positive statements about the Company's business, operations, and prospects were materially misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis.

On March 11, 2025, after the market closed, Zynex reported its fourth quarter and full year 2024 financial results, revealing a significant revenue "shortfall" in the quarter "due to slower than normal payments from certain payers." Zynex further revealed "Tricare has temporarily suspended payments as they review prior claims." Tricare is the health insurance program for the U.S. military, and Zynex's largest customer, accounting for 20-25% of revenue.

On this news, Zynex's stock price fell $3.59 per share, or 51.3%, to close at $3.41 per share on March 12, 2025, on unusually heavy trading volume.

Then, on July 31, 2025, the full extent of Defendants' misdeeds were revealed when the Company acknowledged that it had not been in compliance with industry regulations. Also that day, the Company remarked on the "transformational" leadership change during the quarter with the appointment of new Chief Executive Officer ("CEO") Steven Dyson ("Dyson") to replace Sandgaard, and the announced departure of the Company's Chief Financial Officer ("CFO") Daniel Moorhead ("Moorhead"). The Company also temporarily suspended revenue and profitability guidance.

On August 1, 2025, the stock fell from the previous day's $2.23 per share to $1.26 per share, a 45% decline in heavy trading volume.

The court-appointed lead plaintiff is the investor with the largest financial interest in the relief sought by the class who is adequate and typical of class members who directs and oversees the litigation on behalf of the putative class. Any member of the putative class may move the Court to serve as lead plaintiff through counsel of their choice, or may choose to do nothing and remain an absent class member. Your ability to share in any recovery is not affected by the decision to serve as a lead plaintiff or not.

Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP also encourages anyone with information regarding Zynex's conduct to contact the firm, including whistleblowers, former employees, shareholders and others.

To learn more about the Zynex, Inc. class action, go to www.faruqilaw.com/ZYXIQ or call Faruqi & Faruqi partner Josh Wilson directly at 877-247-4292 or 212-983-9330 (Ext. 1310).

Follow us for updates on LinkedIn, on X, or on Facebook.

Attorney Advertising. The law firm responsible for this advertisement is Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP (www.faruqilaw.com). Prior results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome with respect to any future matter. We welcome the opportunity to discuss your particular case. All communications will be treated in a confidential manner.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/286588

Source: Faruqi & Faruqi LLP

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Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP Securities Litigation Partner James (Josh) Wilson Encourages Investors Who Suffered In Ramaco To Contact Him Directly To Discuss Their Options

If you purchased or acquired securities in Ramaco between July 31, 2025 and October 23, 2025 and would like to discuss your legal rights, call Faruqi & Faruqi partner Josh Wilson directly at 877-247-4292 or 212-983-9330 (Ext. 1310).

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New York, New York--(Newsfile Corp. - March 7, 2026) - Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP, a leading national securities law firm, is investigating potential claims against Ramaco Resources, Inc. ("Ramaco" or the "Company") (NASDAQ: METC) and reminds investors of the March 31, 2026 deadline to seek the role of lead plaintiff in a federal securities class action that has been filed against the Company.

Faruqi & Faruqi is a leading national securities law firm with offices in New York, Pennsylvania, California and Georgia. The firm has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for investors since its founding in 1995. See www.faruqilaw.com.

As detailed below, the complaint alleges that the Company and its executives violated federal securities laws by making false and/or misleading statements and/or failing to disclose that: (1) that Defendants had not commenced any significant mining activity at the Brook Mine after groundbreaking; (2) that no active work was taking place at the Brook Mine; (3) that, as a result, the Company overstated development progress at the Brook Mine; and (4) that, as a result of the foregoing, Defendants' positive statements about the Company's business, operations, and prospects were materially misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis.

On October 23, 2025, Wolfpack Research published a report alleging, among other things, that Ramaco's Brook Mine in northern Wyoming is a "hoax" and a "Potemkin Mine" which was not, in fact, mined after its July groundbreaking. The report alleges that the Company "built this mine for show," and reveals that, as shown by drone footage taken three months after the mine's opening, no active work appears to have occurred. The report states that "[d]espite multiple site visits during working hours over several weeks" Wolfpack researchers "never observed the equipment mentioned in news reports or any active work."

On this news, Ramaco's stock price fell $3.81, or 9.6%, to close at $36.01 per share on October 23, 2025, on unusually heavy trading volume.

The court-appointed lead plaintiff is the investor with the largest financial interest in the relief sought by the class who is adequate and typical of class members who directs and oversees the litigation on behalf of the putative class. Any member of the putative class may move the Court to serve as lead plaintiff through counsel of their choice, or may choose to do nothing and remain an absent class member. Your ability to share in any recovery is not affected by the decision to serve as a lead plaintiff or not.

Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP also encourages anyone with information regarding Ramaco's conduct to contact the firm, including whistleblowers, former employees, shareholders and others.

To learn more about the Ramaco Resources class action, go to www.faruqilaw.com/METC or call Faruqi & Faruqi partner Josh Wilson directly at 877-247-4292 or 212-983-9330 (Ext. 1310).

Follow us for updates on LinkedIn, on X, or on Facebook.

Attorney Advertising. The law firm responsible for this advertisement is Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP (www.faruqilaw.com). Prior results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome with respect to any future matter. We welcome the opportunity to discuss your particular case. All communications will be treated in a confidential manner.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/286583

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TQQQ has delivered a 47.69% gain over the past year and 2,653.53% over the past decade. Those numbers explain why retail investors keep coming back to it. The appeal is simple: own the Nasdaq-100, but with the accelerator pressed to the floor. In a sustained bull market, that logic works extraordinarily well. The problem is what happens when it the music stops.

ProShares UltraPro QQQ seeks to deliver three times the daily performance of the Nasdaq-100 Index, before fees and expenses. It does this through swaps and derivatives, resetting that 3x exposure at the close of every trading day. That daily reset is the key detail most investors gloss over, and it is where the fund’s most serious risk lives.

The Math That Quietly Erodes Your Position The daily reset mechanism creates a problem called volatility decay, sometimes called beta slippage. The core issue is that compounding works asymmetrically. The compounding math works against leveraged holders in choppy markets. A fund that drops and then recovers by the same percentage does not return to its starting point — the percentage gain required to recover always exceeds the percentage lost. This asymmetry compounds with each daily reset.

This is not a theoretical concern. In a trending market, the daily reset causes no meaningful harm and can even slightly enhance returns. But in a choppy, volatile, or sideways market, each daily reset locks in a small loss that compounds against the holder. The fund does not need to fall sharply in a straight line to destroy value. It can grind an investor down through repeated oscillations that leave the underlying index roughly unchanged while TQQQ steadily loses ground.

The VIX, which measures expected 30-day volatility in the S&P 500, sits at 23.75 as of March 5, 2026, placing it in the elevated uncertainty range. That reading is higher than 88.4% of readings over the past year. More telling is the trajectory: the VIX has risen 31.9% over the past month, climbing from around 18 in early February to its current level. That kind of rapid shift from calm to uncertainty is precisely the environment where volatility decay accelerates.

TQQQ is already down 8.27% year to date through March 6, 2026. Over the same period, QQQ, the unleveraged Nasdaq-100 ETF, is down only 1.78%. That divergence illustrates exactly how volatility decay operates in real time. The underlying index has barely moved, yet the leveraged version has lost more than four times as much.

When the Underlying Index Itself Becomes a Liability The second major risk compounds the first. The Nasdaq-100 is not a diversified index. It is heavily concentrated in a handful of mega-cap technology and technology-adjacent companies. TQQQ’s top individual equity holdings reflect this directly: Nvidia sits at 5.42% of the portfolio, Apple at 4.70%, Microsoft at 3.56%, Amazon at 2.59%, Tesla at 2.47%, Meta at 2.26%, and both share classes of Alphabet together at roughly 4.09%. The Information Technology sector alone accounts for 29.9% of the portfolio weight.

When you apply 3x leverage to a concentrated index, a sector rotation or a macro shock does not hit you proportionally. It hits you three times harder. During 2022, when rising interest rates compressed growth stock valuations, QQQ fell roughly 33%. TQQQ fell more than 80% from its peak. During the COVID crash in early 2020, TQQQ dropped approximately 70% in a matter of weeks.

The April 2025 VIX spike to 52.33 on April 8 provides the most recent extreme stress test, thought with the current war with Iran the VIX may test those same levels again very soon.. That reading placed the VIX firmly in the extreme panic category, a rare event that would have triggered severe daily rebalancing losses for anyone holding TQQQ through the drawdown.

The rate environment adds another layer. The 10-year Treasury yield currently sits at 4.09%, having pulled back from a 12-month high of 4.58% in May 2025. Growth stocks, which dominate the Nasdaq-100, are particularly sensitive to rate movements because their valuations depend heavily on discounting future earnings. A renewed push higher in yields would pressure the underlying index and amplify through TQQQ’s 3x structure.

ProShares is explicit about this in its own documentation. The fund is designed as a short-term trading instrument, not a buy-and-hold position. The prospectus makes clear that performance over periods longer than a single day will differ from the stated 3x objective, often significantly in volatile conditions.

What to Monitor and When It Matters Two indicators deserve consistent attention from anyone holding TQQQ.

The VIX is the most direct signal. FRED publishes daily VIX data and it updates each trading day. When the VIX is below 15, the environment is relatively favorable for leveraged exposure. Between 20 and 30, volatility decay becomes an active drag, which is where the market sits right now. Above 30, the risk of severe compounding losses rises sharply. The current reading of 23.75 warrants caution. A move toward or above 30 would be a meaningful escalation signal.

The Nasdaq-100’s trend direction matters equally. TQQQ only works as intended in a consistently trending market. Sideways chop is its enemy even when the index ends roughly flat. Watching whether QQQ is making higher highs or oscillating within a range gives a practical read on whether the compounding math is working for or against the holder.

The 10-year Treasury yield is worth checking around Federal Reserve meetings and major economic data releases, particularly CPI and jobs reports. A rapid move back toward the 12-month high of 4.58% or beyond would likely pressure Nasdaq-100 valuations and amplify through TQQQ’s leverage.

The Honest Assessment for Current Holders TQQQ does exactly what it promises for traders who understand its mechanics and use it tactically over short windows in trending markets. The problem is holding it through volatile, choppy, or declining conditions where the daily reset works against the investor every session.

Right now, the VIX is elevated and rising, the Nasdaq-100 is under mild pressure year to date, and the rate environment remains uncertain. None of those conditions are catastrophic in isolation, but together they describe an environment where volatility decay is actively eroding value. The year-to-date gap between TQQQ’s -8.27% and QQQ’s -1.78% is not a fluke. It is the mechanism working exactly as the math predicts.

Investors who own TQQQ as a long-term position because of its 10-year return chart should understand that those returns were generated through one of the strongest sustained technology bull markets in history. The same structure that produced those gains will amplify the next sustained downturn by the same factor.

After sharp sell-offs that began on Jan. 29, the prices of gold and silver have rebounded. Most recently, the impetus for those precious metals’ bullish price action has been the war between Iran and an allied United States and Israel, which began on Saturday, Feb. 28.

But as impressive as the precious metals rally was last year—and how it has notably continued this year—both gold and silver are being outperformed by one critical industrial metal: lithium. 

Gold’s nearly 19% year-to-date (YTD) gain and silver’s nearly 17% YTD gain are impressive and continue to generate eye-catching headlines. But so far in 2026, lithium has generated a YTD gain of almost 30%. 

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Here’s why the metal’s price is surging, and three ways investors looking to gain exposure can add it to their portfolios.  

Global Demand Is Robust and Growing More than 75% of the world’s supply is used for lithium-ion electric vehicle (EV) batteries and electronics, but the metal’s applications also include grid storage, heat-resistant materials, medications, and aerospace alloys, as well as a thickening agent in lubricating greases. 

According to industry consultancy firm Grand View Research, the global lithium market finished 2025 with an estimated value of more than $32 billion and is forecast to undergo a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14.5% from 2026 to 2033. At the end of that forecast period, the total addressable market is expected to be valued at $96.45 billion.  

And while EV adoption is only slowly taking hold in the United States, the U.S. lithium market—valued at $1.06 billion in 2023—is expected to grow at a CAGR of 12.6% through 2030, with major driving factors for rising demand including lithium-ion batteries, consumer goods, and grid storage.

Tap Into the Rally With the World’s Largest Lithium ETF Global X Lithium & Battery Tech ETF Today

LIT

Global X Lithium & Battery Tech ETF

$68.97 -0.17 (-0.25%)

As of 03/6/2026 04:10 PM Eastern

52-Week Range$31.44▼

$78.00Dividend Yield0.45%

Assets Under Management$1.66 billion

With $1.67 billion in assets under management (AUM), the Global X Lithium & Battery Tech ETF NYSEARCA: LIT is the largest lithium exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the world. 

The fund sees average daily trading volume of nearly 456,000 shares, and had gained more than 16% this year before a healthy pullback began on Feb. 25. Today, shares of LIT are trading nearly 8% lower but are already ticking higher again.  

Among its top five holdings are Albemarle NYSE: ALB—the world’s largest lithium producer—Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile NYSE: SQM, and British-Australian mining company Rio Tinto NYSE: RIO, the fund’s largest holding at nearly 23%. 

While the LIT’s focus is primarily mining, it also provides exposure to companies operating in the chemicals, electronics, renewable energy, and EV markets. By geographic exposure, 39% of the ETF’s companies operate in the United States, while more than 29% are located in China, and another 11% call South Korea home.   

The fund receives an aggregate rating of Moderate Buy based on 103 analyst ratings issued over the past year covering six companies in the LIT’s portfolio.

A Lithium Fund With a Mining Focus iShares Lithium Miners and Producers ETF Today

ILIT

iShares Lithium Miners and Producers ETF

$16.10 -0.11 (-0.68%)

As of 03/6/2026 03:50 PM Eastern

52-Week Range$6.46▼

$19.97Dividend Yield2.17%

Assets Under Management$19.37 million

With a focus on lithium miners and producers, the iShares Lithium Miners and Producers ETF NASDAQ: ILIT also pulled back beginning on Feb. 25 after gaining nearly 17% YTD. Like the LIT, the fund has already begun ticking back up again. 

Considerably smaller than its counterparts, the ETF has $19.63 million in AUM and average daily trading volume of just under 50,000 shares, which could present short-term traders with liquidity concerns. But for buy-and-hold investors with longer horizons, the fund can provide them with access to a basket of lithium miners and compound manufacturers. 

While less diversified than the LIT, current short interest stands at just 1.86%—lower than the LIT’s 2.26% and nearly 26% less than short interest was the month prior.  

The ILIT receives an aggregate rating of Hold based on 71 analyst ratings issued over the past year covering seven companies in the fund’s portfolio, which also includes market dominators Albemarle and Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile.

A Lithium ETF With EV Maker and EV Battery Exposure Amplify Lithium & Battery Technology ETF Today

BATT

Amplify Lithium & Battery Technology ETF

$14.60 -0.25 (-1.68%)

As of 03/6/2026 04:10 PM Eastern

52-Week Range$6.78▼

$16.68Dividend Yield1.71%

Assets Under Management$113.55 million

Before also pulling back on Feb. 25, the Amplify Lithium & Battery Technology ETF NYSEARCA: BATT—a lithium fund with an EV battery bent—had gained more than 17% YTD. After pulling back nearly 9%, like the LIT and ILIT, the fund is back on the rise. 

The ETF, which has $115.50 million in AUM and daily trading volume of nearly 83,000 shares, holds lithium producers including Albemarle, it also provides exposure to EV makers and EV battery tech. Its second-largest holding, for example, is Magnificent Seven member Tesla NASDAQ: TSLA with a 7% weighting. 

The current short interest of 1.67% is the lowest of all three lithium ETFs on this list and is more than 47% lower than the month prior. Meanwhile, institutional inflows of nearly $6 million over the past year have far outpaced outflows of just $731,000.

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On-chain data shows the Bitcoin Difficulty has seen little change in the latest adjustment as a result of the recent sideways trend in the Hashrate.

Bitcoin Difficulty Has Only Seen A Change Of 0.45% In The New Adjustment The Bitcoin “Difficulty” refers to a metric built into the blockchain that controls how hard the miners would find it to mine a block on the network right now. This indicator’s value automatically changes about every two weeks based on network conditions.

Satoshi wrote in one simple rule for the chain to follow: bring block production rate to a consistent value of 10 minutes per block. Whenever miners produce blocks in an interval faster than this, the network raises its Difficulty just enough to slow them back down to it. Similarly, BTC eases things up instead if miners are slower than expected.

The latest Difficulty adjustment has just occurred on the Bitcoin network. This event, however, didn’t lead to any notable changes in the metric, with its value going up by just 0.45%.

Below is a chart from CoinWarz that shows how the recent Difficulty adjustments have looked for the cryptocurrency.

The value of the metric seems to have gone up during the last two adjustments | Source: CoinWarz From the graph, it’s visible that the Bitcoin Difficulty saw a huge decline two adjustments ago. The reason behind this aggressive drawdown in the indicator lied in special circumstances in the United States: the snow storm of late January.

Miners become faster or slower at their task when they change their computing power, collectively known as the network Hashrate. This metric saw a huge drop following the onset of the snow storm; miners were forced to curtail their power in order to ease pressure on the nation’s electricity grid, which was facing disruptions due to the extreme weather event. The resulting network slowdown is what forced the Difficulty decrease.

Since this event was extraordinary and lasted only shortly, it didn’t take long for the Hashrate to bounce back. Here is a chart from Blockchain.com that shows the trajectory that the 7-day average value of the indicator has followed recently:

Looks like the 7-day average value of the indicator has gone down in recent days | Source: Blockchain.com The quick recovery in the Bitcoin Hashrate led into a Difficulty increase that corrected the earlier sharp drawdown. Since the rebound in the indicator, however, its value has taken to sideways movement, suggesting miners are neither expanding nor decommissioning.

This flat trajectory in the Hashrate is why the Difficulty also mostly remained unchanged during the latest adjustment.

BTC Price Bitcoin broke above the $70,000 level earlier this week, but the asset has now seen a drop back below it as its price is now trading around $68,300.

The trend in the price of the coin over the last five days | Source: BTCUSDT on TradingView Featured image from Dall-E, chart from TradingView.com

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Keshav is a Physics graduate who has been employed as a writer with Bitcoinist since June 2021. He is passionate about writing and through the years, he has gained experience working in a variety of niches. Keshav holds an active interest in the cryptocurrency market, with on-chain analysis being an area he particularly likes to research and write about.

TLDR Ripple unveiled a comprehensive whitepaper detailing its “Digital Prime Broker” framework designed for institutional and banking clients XRP and the XRP Ledger facilitate early settlement mechanisms through on-chain credit infrastructure Clients of Ripple Prime can now trade CFTC-regulated futures for Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, and Solana via Coinbase Derivatives with Nodal Clear settlement XRP Ledger’s Permissioned DEX enables institutional participation within a KYC/AML-compliant regulatory framework XRP currently hovers around $1.40, experiencing decline over the past 24-hour period Ripple has introduced a comprehensive whitepaper detailing its strategy to streamline institutional access to cryptocurrency markets. At the heart of this initiative is a “Digital Prime Broker” framework, with XRP serving as a fundamental component of the system’s functionality.

Have you read Ripple’s new whitepaper in full?$XRP isn’t just payments now. They’re expanding into institutional trading infrastructure

Onchain credit lines. Prime brokerage netting Transparent funding costs

Payments was the start. This is the next layer
NEW DEMAND FOR $XRP! pic.twitter.com/S9tWuKMasz

— X Finance Bull (@Xfinancebull) March 2, 2026

The primary objective addresses the currently disjointed approach institutions face when accessing digital asset markets. Presently, major financial entities navigate multiple trading partnerships, disparate credit arrangements, and substantial regulatory compliance burdens. Ripple’s proposed framework consolidates these elements into a unified access layer.

Within this architecture, a prime broker would provide on-chain credit facilities to brokers and market makers. This structure enables participants to tap into liquidity prior to standard settlement completion, accelerating transactions while improving capital efficiency.

The XRP Ledger manages settlement operations. According to Ripple, the platform supports accelerated settlement by facilitating on-chain credit lines that finance transactions before the conventional net settlement timeline concludes. Associated funding expenses are disclosed with complete transparency.

Ripple possesses existing infrastructure to support this vision. The firm’s acquisition of Hidden Road last year—now rebranded as Ripple Prime—provides an operational prime brokerage platform rather than merely a conceptual framework.

Permissioned DEX Opens Door for Regulated Institutional Trading A recently activated Permissioned DEX on the XRP Ledger represents a crucial element of this strategic initiative. This feature enables institutional trading on-chain while maintaining control over counterparty interactions through credential-based access restrictions.

This architecture embeds KYC and AML protocols directly into the trading infrastructure. For institutions operating under stringent regulatory mandates, this integrated compliance framework proves essential.

The Permissioned DEX effectively establishes a regulated pathway within a decentralized framework, addressing what has traditionally been a significant barrier to institutional cryptocurrency adoption.

Ripple Prime Now Offers Crypto Futures on Coinbase Ripple has further announced that Ripple Prime users can now access cryptocurrency derivatives through Coinbase Derivatives. Available products include futures contracts for Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, and Solana.

These contracts operate under CFTC regulation and trade continuously around the clock. Nodal Clear provides clearing services. With Ripple Prime maintaining a Futures Commission Merchant license, the platform delivers these products directly without intermediary involvement.

Coinbase additionally provides U.S. perpetual-style futures contracts, broadening the available product suite. In the previous month, Ripple Prime integrated Hyperliquid support, enabling client access to on-chain derivative products.

XRP trades near $1.40 currently, showing decline over the recent 24-hour window based on CoinMarketCap reporting.

SOL rebounds after dipping near $82, but analysts warn a break below $83 could trigger a deeper drop toward the $75 zone.

Solana (SOL) is navigating a tense period as traders closely monitor key support and resistance levels. The coin has experienced significant price swings over the past week, highlighting the influence of liquidity clusters and market structure on its short-term trajectory. Currently trading at $84.43 with a 24-hour decline of 2.2%, SOL shows a 6.7% gain over the past seven days, signaling ongoing volatility and trader uncertainty.

Liquidity Clusters Signal Potential MovesAnalyst TedPillows points out that SOL is concentrated around two major liquidity clusters. The first cluster sits near $95 on the upside, representing a modest resistance zone. 

Conversely, the downside features a larger liquidity cluster between $78 and $85, which could act as a magnet for price in the event of a decline. Consequently, a sweep of the lower cluster followed by a rebound appears plausible, as traders position themselves for a potential rally after testing support.

Mid-Range Defense Key for BullsAccording to Poseidon, the $83 level has emerged as a critical mid-range point for SOL. Bulls must maintain control here to prevent a decline toward $75, the next major liquidity zone. The coin recently faced rejection around $90–$92, reinforcing this range high as a significant resistance area. 

Source: X

If buyers can defend $83, SOL could stabilize and potentially retest the $90 level, maintaining short-term structure. However, a clean break below $83 would suggest sellers dominate, increasing the likelihood of a move toward range lows.

Market Sentiment and Speculative ActivityMilk Road observes that some traders consider SOL “cooked,” citing the weakened memecoin ecosystem that powered Solana’s speculative gains in 2024 and 2025. Yet, the crowd may overreact. 

After hitting $82, SOL rebounded to $94 over three days, showing that short-term support remains intact. While targets around $59 exist if support fails, these levels are not confirmed. Solana has historically withstood severe market disruptions, including the 2022 FTX collapse, suggesting resilience even during bearish trends.

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Izabela Anna is a knowledgeable freelance journalist, who boasts over five years of experience covering the cryptocurrency market. Her tenure has seen her navigate through the ebbs and flows of multiple market cycles, giving her a deep understanding within. Her journalistic focus lies in dissecting price action dynamics, scrutinizing the on-chain landscape, and providing insights from a technical perspective, making her a trusted voice in the realm of cryptocurrency reporting.

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Latest Solana (SOL) News Today

Journalist

Posted: March 7, 2026

Jane Street and market manipulation often go hand in hand.

From a technical perspective, the firm’s involvement in the infamous 10 A.M. Bitcoin [BTC] moves can have dual effects – It may trigger risk-off sentiment, or it may act as a market test, revealing underlying resilience.

In line with this, a wallet linked to Jane Street recently transferred $19 million worth of Bitcoin, immediately drawing market attention. The question is – Does this signal another bearish phase, or will existing liquidity absorb the shock and reinforce market conviction?

Source: TradingView (BTC/USDT)

Notably, the timing of this move is critical.

Bitcoin began the week bullish, rallying by roughly 12% from the $65k support level. However, in the latter half of the week, nearly 8% of those gains were wiped out, leaving only about 3% of the weekly advance intact. The result? A long liquidity crunch.

Coinglass data revealed that traders liquidated nearly $200 million in the derivatives market within 48 hours. Especially as long positions closed following a week of sustained short squeezes.

In such an environment, Jane Street’s Bitcoin transfer might appear deliberate.

With BTC trapped in a volatility loop, such large moves can increase liquidation risk while creating opportunities for traders to profit. Hence, the key question is – Will this FUD trigger another corrective phase, or can underlying liquidity reveal the market’s resilience?

Jane Street move puts Bitcoin’s resilience to the test Given historical trends, absorbing this shock will be difficult.

Jane Street’s past actions provide some context though. The firm was sued for manipulating Bitcoin and played a role in the October crash last year, which triggered a 30%+ correction and drove market sentiment to all-time lows.

The question now is whether history will repeat itself. According to CryptoQuant, short-term hodlers are selling, with 27k BTC offloaded in the last 24 hours. This coincided with Bitcoin’s nearly 4% correction from the $70k-level.

Source: CryptoQuant

The lack of follow-through highlights Bitcoin’s weak underlying bid. 

ETF flows support this view too. Nearly $600 million flowed out over the past two days after peaking at roughly $1 billion in net inflows earlier this week. This simply reinforces the link between capital flows and BTC’s volatile weekly action.

In this environment, Jane Street’s $19 million Bitcoin move reflects strategic positioning rather than speculation. As the market slowly flips back to risk-off, this action could trigger another long squeeze, creating opportunities for bears to capitalize.

If this thesis holds, a crash could unfold, making this a key event to watch.

Final Summary Jane Street’s $19 million Bitcoin move tests market resilience as weak bids and ETF outflows highlight growing downside pressure. Market faces the risk of a cascading long squeeze, pushing Bitcoin towards another sharp corrective phase.

Cryptocurrency prices are tumbling as some investors take profits from the midweek rally to $74,000, while others shift toward safer assets amid escalating tensions in the Middle East. The conflict between the United States and Iran showed no signs of easing this week, with hostilities continuing to escalate across the region.

Bitcoin has dropped about 4.3% over the past 24 hours, hovering around $67,800 as of publication time, according to CoinGecko data.

This comes as U.S.-listed spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded their largest daily outflows in three weeks on March 5, with investors withdrawing roughly $228 million from the funds. The outflows highlight continued institutional caution toward Bitcoin, extending the risk-off sentiment that emerged after the market crash in early October.

The outflow trend was led by BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), which saw $89 million exit the fund on Thursday, according to data from Farside Investors. Fidelity Investments’s Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) followed with $48 million in outflows, while the Bitwise Bitcoin ETF (BITB) from Bitwise Asset Management recorded $46 million leaving the fund.

Thursday’s withdrawals represented the biggest single-day outflow since the $410 million exit recorded on Feb. 12. So far in 2026, cumulative inflows into spot Bitcoin ETFs stand at $3.58 billion, while total outflows have reached $4.49 billion amid a cautious macro backdrop.

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Solana ETFs Show Surprising Strength Despite 57% Price Drop Negative sentiment weighed on altcoin ETFs, with Ethereum funds recording $91 million in withdrawals. XRP and Solana ETFs also posted smaller redemptions of $6 million and $5 million, respectively.

Notably, the outflows from Solana ETFs represent their first losses since early February, although year-to-date inflows still stand at around $200 million. By comparison, XRP funds have attracted about $86 million in inflows so far this year.

According to Eric Balchunas, a senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg, Solana ETFs have attracted about $1.5 billion in cumulative inflows even though SOL’s price has fallen 57% since spot ETFs launched in July. Balchunas shared the figures in a Friday post on X.

“Yet they managed to not only accumulate $1.5 billion in flows but not really give any of it up,” Balchunas said, adding that many institutions have increased exposure to Solana in the fourth quarter of 2025. “Both are really good signs for the future,” Balchunas noted.