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Yet, to dismiss it entirely would be foolish. This Bitcoin… it’s a coiled spring, they say. Awaiting release. I suspect it will jump, yes. A hundred and seventeen percent, some predict, reaching for a $200,000 illusion. It’s a gamble, of course. Everything is a gamble when you have nothing left to lose.

The market price as of January 15, 2026, serves as the baseline for this assessment. This analysis was compiled on January 20, 2026, and incorporates available data as of that date.

They’re currently chasing $3.3 billion in contracts, with a backlog of $28.2 billion. A substantial number, really. Enough to keep a lot of people busy, building things that will, eventually, be used. Or not. It rarely matters in the long run.

Blackstone boasts a decade of 26.5% annualized returns. Brookfield, a respectable 18.3%. Better than the S&P 500, they say. But what does ‘better’ mean when the game is rigged? These numbers are whispers in the halls of power, while the worker struggles to afford a loaf of bread. Still, the market cares little for bread; it craves growth, even if built on shifting sands.

The share price, currently experiencing a bit of a wobble – down over 41% in the last quarter, my dear – is, of course, alarming. But frankly, these short-term fluctuations are rarely indicative of genuine worth. One must look beneath the surface, assess the fundamentals, and decide if a little risk might yield a rather handsome return. And SoundHound, despite its recent misfortunes, possesses a certain… allure.

But time, as they say, marches on. Or, in the case of blockchain technology, iterates at a frankly alarming rate. Which begs the question: is it time to cast a discerning eye towards the up-and-coming challengers to Ethereum’s throne? If one of these rivals does manage to overtake Ethereum and become the dominant Layer 1 blockchain, well, let’s just say the resulting valuation could be… significant. And by ‘significant’, I mean potentially capable of funding a small nation-state. (Or, more realistically, a moderately comfortable retirement.)

The trouble is, the world changed. It used to be, if you wanted tunes in your car, you had two choices: AM radio, which mostly played polka and emergency broadcasts, or Sirius XM. Now? Now you’ve got more options than there are characters in a Gilbert & Sullivan operetta! And they’re all fighting for your attention…and your subscription dollars.

For some time, the architecture of modern chips has resembled a congested city, with interconnects – those delicate threads of communication – and power delivery systems vying for space. This congestion, once a minor inconvenience, has become a palpable constraint as density increases. It is as if the very arteries of these silicon brains are becoming clogged, hindering their capacity for swift thought. The solution, as Intel has demonstrated, lies in a re-thinking of the layout—a shifting of the power infrastructure to the reverse side of the chip, freeing the front for unimpeded communication.

The thing is, a company doesn’t just start handing out cash like it’s confetti. It has to… stabilize. Get its act together. Which means, ideally, it’s not about to crater. Though, let’s not kid ourselves, ‘stable’ is a relative term. Still, it’s a better bet than throwing your money into the black hole of “disruptive innovation.” So, I’ve been digging. Into the muck. And I’ve found three… specimens. Three potential lifelines in this accelerating freefall.