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Revenue is up 20% in the last quarter, hitting $271.2 million. Which is…good. It’s definitely good. It was roughly what they expected, so no major catastrophes there. Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) climbed 21% to $1.119 billion. Which sounds impressive when you say it fast. They added $64 million in new ARR. I added approximately zero to my savings account this month, so, you know, perspective. The number of customers spending over $100,000 has gone up 18% to 1,667. I’m pretty sure my average monthly spending is higher than that, but let’s not dwell.

I suspect two further contenders will join their ranks within the next three years. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM) and Broadcom (AVGO), both purveyors of essential components for the increasingly frantic world of digital conjuring. They have some way to go, mind you. TSMC currently boasts a valuation of $1.75 trillion, Broadcom a respectable $1.59 trillion. To reach the three trillion mark, they require growth of 71% and 89% respectively. A significant undertaking, but not entirely improbable. Especially when one considers the sheer, unbridled demand for… well, everything digital.²

However, let us not mistake a rising tide for a perfectly predictable journey. The market, like a seasoned gambler, enjoys a bit of capriciousness. A close examination of 98 years of S&P 500 data reveals a curious pattern: certain days of the week treat investors with marginally more kindness than others. It’s a subtle distinction, mind you, but in the world of finance, we chase even the most fleeting advantage, like moths to a flickering lamp.

The whispers of panic are loud, but a closer look reveals the foundations remain. Here, we examine not just numbers, but the quiet resilience of businesses built to endure, and the opportunities that arise when fear outweighs reason.

The prevailing narrative speaks of earnings growth, a metric treated as immutable law. The S&P 500, for eleven consecutive quarters, has offered a steady stream of positive year-over-year results, a testament to efficient extraction and relentless optimization. Six quarters have seen double-digit increases, a pattern of accumulation that borders on the predictable. Yet, consider the S&P 600 Small Cap Index. For the same period, it endured six consecutive quarters of earnings contraction – a negative ten percent or worse – a sustained winter of discontent. Only recently, in the second quarter of 2025, did a tentative thaw begin.

The promoters of XRP posit two ‘catalysts.’ Two pillars upon which this edifice of speculation is to be built. Let us examine them with the detached amusement of a man watching a particularly elaborate sandcastle being constructed on a rising tide.

It is in such times that attention should turn to those companies offering a degree of stability, a predictable income stream, regardless of the prevailing economic winds. These are not necessarily exciting prospects, but excitement is rarely a virtue in investment. They offer, at the very least, a defense against erosion, and, if forecasts prove unduly pessimistic, a modest opportunity for gain.

Yet, amidst this turbulence, certain entities have demonstrated a resilience that merits closer scrutiny. Not a reckless exuberance, but a quiet fortitude. Two such players—Agnico Eagle Mines and Wheaton Precious Metals—have, against the prevailing currents, charted a course of upward momentum. A divergence from the broader market’s descent—the S&P 500, burdened by its own complexities, has faltered—suggests a deeper story, one of strategic positioning and, perhaps, a degree of prescience.

The data, as presented by CORP-DEPO, reveals a staggering truth: eighty-six percent of high-net-worth individuals engaged in cryptocurrency speculation now hold these… ephemeral assets. This is not investment; it is a symptom. A symptom of a profound detachment from reality, a willful embrace of the absurd, and a desperate search for exponential returns in a market increasingly divorced from any tangible value. It is a new form of serfdom, where the wealthy gamble on digital trinkets while the rest toil in the fields of economic necessity.