Joining forces with Polygon Labs and some random payments firm called Mercuryo, Mastercard is swapping those dreadful hexadecimal codes (aka “the shopping list of blockchain”) for chill, email-style aliases. Finally, crypto can stop making us feel like we’re in a 2001 space odyssey! 🚀
The numbers are tidy: $13.4 million, 3.4% of their U.S. equity assets, a new position that’s now just outside their top five holdings. But here’s the thing about contrarians-they don’t just follow trends; they wait for the moment when the trend is no longer a trend. Baidu, once a mere search engine, is now a cloud-based AI juggernaut, its ERNIE models humming like a well-tuned symphony. I can almost hear the fund managers whispering, “This isn’t the same Baidu we knew. This is the one that’s finally figured out how to be relevant.”
Beta: The soul-screaming volatility of tech. The 1-yr return: A fleeting glance at the rollercoaster of your portfolio.
Both funds claim to own the entire U.S. equity market-large, mid, and small-cap stocks, stitched together with the same thread of low cost. Yet the gulf between them is not in what they hold, but in how they hold it. VTI, with its 3,598 stocks and 24.5-year track record, is a machine honed by time. ITOT, with 2,497 stocks, is a capable workhorse, but its wheels lack the grease of VTI’s scale. The question is not which is better, but which is more likely to outlast the next crisis.
Two slices of the same delicious pie-one for the insiders, led by Wall Street’s finest: Jane Street, DRW Venture Capital, HSG, Oppenheimer, and Tribe. Oh, and Kraken’s own family office, sweetening the deal with its own hefty slice. Because nothing says confidence like family money in a high-stakes game. 🍰
The numbers dance thus: 115,000 shares, once held in indirect trust, now exchanged for liquid promise. His remaining holding of 859,709 shares, valued at $52.4 million, remains substantial – a testament to enduring faith in Karman’s iron and composite bones. The sale price, $58.63 per share, kissed the closing market quote like a lover’s farewell.
VOO proclaims itself the guardian of the American canonical, a broad mosaic spanning the nation’s great edifice of commerce-504 stocks, like pages in an infinite tome where each chapter holds a promise of stability. Conversely, QQQ seeks the celestial heights of technological eminence-an exclusive monastery of 101 companies, illuminated by the glow of innovation. To the outsider, both appear as gateways, yet each is a labyrinth with a different contour: one a hall of mirrors reflecting the universe in its all-encompassing embrace; the other, a narrowing spiral focusing on the flickering light of a single sector.
The fund, which invests in US Treasury bills and reverse repurchase agreements (thrilling, we know), is now available to non-US institutional investors who crave the thrill of near-instant subscription or redemption in USDC. Circle, having absorbed Hashnote into its ever-expanding empire earlier this year, continues its quest to make tokenized Treasuries as exciting as watching paint dry-a feat achieved via daily yield accruals that inflate the token’s price like a Macy’s Thanksgiving balloon. 🎈
ETF launches, those shiny new toys in the world of finance, are being touted as the next big thing. But let’s be honest-history has shown that ETFs are like a box of chocolates. You never know if you’re getting a gold-plated bonbon or a soggy raisin. Some debut with the vigor of a caffeinated squirrel, while others sputter out like a deflated balloon. So yes, fresh liquidity is coming, but don’t expect it to solve all your problems-or at least, not yet.
In the grand ballet of modern financial catastrophe, Argentina’s once-mild political crisis rekindles its flame, all because of that notorious $LIBRA token, now less a currency and more a punchline. Across the stage, President Milei-a man who once promised fiscal poetry-finds himself cast as the lead in a gubernatorial farce, accused of “alleged fraud,” a phrase as delicate as a butterfly in a hurricane.