Well, butter my biscuit, if it ain’t the UK and its 40+ sidekicks playing taxman with the OECD’s Cryptoasset Reporting Framework (CARF). Starting January 1, crypto exchanges are roped into tattling on their UK users’ every move to HMRC. Seems the government’s got a hankering to know where every digital dime’s been. 🤑
In the grand tapestry of blockchain tales, there stands the figure of Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, casting his vision for the year 2026 like a modern-day prophet. As he surveys the landscape, he sees the progress of 2025, yet warns that they must not stray from their noble quest: to build a decentralized, censorship-resistant infrastructure for the internet. He’s like a digital Don Quixote, tilting at the windmills of centralized power-and we love him for it!
The publication of the SEC’s clandestine manuscript on November 13 reveals the stake-a testament to the enduring ambiguity of financial symbolism. The fund’s latest act constructs a mirror in which Comerica now stands as its most significant reflection, a monolith amid shifting shadows. Two million shares, a fragment of the multiverse, echo through the corridors of the institutional mind, positioning the bank as a colossus in their portfolio-a figure reshaped by the act of holding.
In a recent X post that could’ve been titled “How to Sound Smug in 280 Characters,” Cryptoinsight declared that Ripple haters are “so close to being right, but miss one key step.” Translation: you’re wrong, but we’ll give you a participation trophy. 🏆 The haters’ big theory? Ripple sells XRP to fund a real-world empire. Oh, the irony! As if selling tokens to buy companies isn’t exactly what money is for. 🤷♂️
According to the filing, a document that might as well have been etched into parchment by some forgotten clerk, HoldCo’s position in Columbia Banking System expanded during the third quarter. The new stake, 5.72 million shares, carried a valuation of $147.30 million as of September 30-a date chosen not for its significance but by the arbitrary rhythm of quarterly reckonings. The bank, with its branches sprawling across Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and California, now constitutes 15.55% of HoldCo’s $947.56 million 13F AUM, a fraction that seems both deliberate and absurd.
The aforementioned filing, submitted to the unyielding machinery of the SEC, disclosed to any who might care to decipher its convoluted contents a new position in BankUnited (BKU 0.11%). The fund’s decision to procure 936,900 shares during the preceding quarter, which now stands as a testament to some inscrutable strategy, translates to a portfolio position deemed to be worth $35.75 million at the quarter’s end-an investment that constitutes a disconcerting 3.77% of its total $947.56 million in reportable U.S. equity assets, spread across a labyrinthine array of 26 positions.
In the actual process-I mean, the process that qualifies as such within the sprawling, opaque bureaucratic hive-the filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on a day marked by the meaningless chronology of November 13 reveals nothing more than the continued inflation of a shadowy figure-HoldCo, now holding a stake valued at approximately $116.32 million-though whether this figure meaningfully represents something tangible, or merely a fragment of the endless, recursive game, remains open to question. It is, after all, the third quarter, a period that mirrors the cyclical rise and inevitable fall, yet also a testament to the insatiable appetite for accumulating holdings, as if such acts could somehow alter the relentless, creeping entropy of the financial universe.
As is the way with these things, all it took was one jolly trigger in H2 to set off a profit-taking spree, sending top-caps tumbling faster than Bertie Wooster at a fancy dress party. 🎭 And Ripple [XRP], my dear reader, is the poster child for this financial fandango. A 36% drop in Q4 alone wiped out H1’s gains like a butler clearing away the crumbs of a particularly indulgent tea. 🍰
In my humble experience as a stock market aficionado, I have traversed the familiar realms of mutual funds and their charming cousins-exchange-traded funds. They are the reliable steeds of investment: simple, low-maintenance, and economical, allowing shareholders to revel in pursuits far nobler than mere financial maneuvers. Yet, after nearly two decades penning my thoughts as an analyst for The CORP-DEPO, the time has arrived to unfurl the sails of curiosity and explore the forgotten isles of the stock world-those enigmatic equities that linger in the shadows, waiting for the daring to uncover them. Join me, if you will, on this audacious expedition.
Just so you know, here are the delightful titbits: