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A few years ago, the merits of either stock rested on rather more terrestrial concerns. Now, however, both enterprises present themselves as pioneers of a digital future, a future which, one suspects, may arrive considerably later than advertised. Tesla, naturally, proposes to unleash a fleet of driverless vehicles, a vision of automated convenience. Meta, meanwhile, aspires to something grander, a ‘superintelligence’ – a phrase which, in the current climate, evokes less scientific optimism than existential dread.

Dogecoin and Shiba Inu, those digital embodiments of internet whimsy, have fared particularly poorly. They declined by 61% and 66% respectively in 2025. But those numbers, while alarming to anyone who invested their life savings, are merely previews of a more substantial gravitational pull downwards. They’re also, if we’re being honest, rather predictable. (Predictability, of course, is a relative term. Predicting the weather next Tuesday is far more reliable than predicting the future of a digital asset based on a meme.)

A mere forty-one gold dragons² invested at the Initial Public Offering – a quaint ritual involving much shouting and the waving of parchment – would now purchase a small kingdom. Or, failing that, a very comfortable townhouse. The question isn’t whether Amazon has made millionaires; it’s whether it continues to be a reliable path to such a state. A path, let’s be honest, increasingly crowded with hopefuls and slightly desperate hedge fund managers.

For five years, the S&P 500, that behemoth of established fortunes, has held sway. And, of course, the recent delirium over artificial intelligence has disproportionately benefited its most celebrated denizens. But the market, like a capricious lepidopterist, often shifts its affections. And the Russell 2000, after a promising start, appears poised to, shall we say, inconvenience the larger index. Two reasons, delicately interwoven, suggest this is more than mere happenstance.

The truth of it, as near as I can figure, ain’t so much about this one chip itself. It’s more about a trend, a notion that these big cloud fellas – Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet – are gettin’ the itch to build their own contraptions. They’ve got pockets deep enough to do it, and a powerful incentive to avoid payin’ Nvidia’s prices. The question ain’t whether Nvidia can still build a fine machine, but whether they can keep hold of a good share of the spendin’ as these cloud providers start makin’ their own parts.

I’ve been looking at three: XRP, Solana, and Chainlink. They’ve got a chance. A sliver, really. But a chance nonetheless. To outperform the giants. To make someone, somewhere, a little less miserable. That’s the best we can hope for, isn’t it?

To invest is to choose a narrative. Both FBTC and ETHA offer a direct line to a single tale: Bitcoin, the established legend, and Ethereum, the evolving saga. One is a stone, weathered by time, the other, a sapling reaching for the sun. The choice, then, isn’t merely about price, but about which story one believes will unfold with greater resonance.

Ripple, the company tethered to XRP’s fate, has announced a strategic dalliance with Jeel, the innovation arm of Riyad Bank. The stated purpose? To assist Saudi Arabia in its ambitious Vision 2030 program – a scheme so grand in scope it threatens to eclipse the very horizon. The implication, naturally, is that XRP might play a role in upgrading the Kingdom’s financial arteries. A tantalizing prospect, though one must remember that even the most elegantly designed plumbing can still spring a leak.

The trouble, as near as one can gather, stems from a recent earnings report that, while not precisely disastrous, left investors feeling a trifle peckish for better tidings. It appears the company is experiencing a spot of difficulty in actually getting the finished articles off the production line, despite a perfectly healthy appetite from those eager to purchase them. Management, in a most candid admission, has confessed to “acute internal supply constraints,” which, translated from the jargon, means they’re a bit stuck. This, naturally, has caused a bit of a ripple in the pond, with the stock taking a near 20% dip on Friday after the report landed. A most unfortunate state of affairs, but let’s not get the vapours just yet.