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They’re pitching this as a sure thing. A “pure-play beneficiary,” they call it. Like that means anything. It’s a stock that’s gone up a lot. A lot. And that’s always the first sign of trouble. It’s like people are actively trying to be fleeced. I dug into the filings, and honestly, it’s just… a mess. A carefully constructed mess, but a mess nonetheless. Three things, three red flags, and I’m out.

The forecasts speak of growth, of course. Numbers dance across the screens – fifty percent annual increases, a tripling of investment by the decade’s end. But these are merely the outward signs. Beneath them lies a fundamental shift, a re-ordering of the digital terrain. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing speaks of demand, Cathie Wood of trillions. These are not simply financial projections; they are the echoes of a new world taking form. It is as if the very soil of computation is quickening, preparing for a harvest unlike any seen before.

The divestment, it should be noted, coincided with a period of peculiar volatility for Tencent Music. The stock, a creature of habit and expectation, dipped nearly 25% during that quarter, a fall that likely prompted a reassessment of risk-reward ratios. One imagines portfolio managers, those meticulous gardeners of wealth, compelled to make difficult choices, perhaps with a sigh and a glance at the quarterly reports. The subsequent rally, a 37.2% ascent over the year—a performance that rather outstripped the S&P 500 by a comfortable 25.05 percentage points—only complicates the narrative. Was this a vote of no confidence, or simply a demonstration of disciplined portfolio management?

Bitmine, unlike some of its brethren, didn’t chase the gold rush of Bitcoin. It sought a different vein, a path paved with the potential of Ethereum. And they began to buy, hand over fist, amassing a significant portion of the outstanding tokens – over three percent, to be exact. A bold move, costing some $16.3 billion at the time, predicated on an Ether price of around $3,800. Now, that price is halved, and Bitmine’s holdings feel less like a fortune and more like a weight.

The shares have diminished by nearly twenty percent since the commencement of trading this week, a figure corroborated by data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. This is not merely a correction; it is a demonstration of the market’s growing discomfort with the inherent contradictions within Iren’s operational structure. The company persists in deriving the vast majority – ninety percent, as of December 31, 2026 – of its revenue from Bitcoin mining, a practice increasingly viewed as…peripheral to its stated ambitions. It is a foundation of sand upon which a digital palace is being constructed.