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It was, in fact, the 11th consecutive quarter in which Buffett, the grandmaster of the ‘wait and see’ philosophy, turned his gaze away from the investment horizon’s bright shimmer and instead turned his attention to the contents of his cash cavern-$344 billion of it. That’s enough to bribe every wizard in the Guild of Alchemists and still have enough left over to buy a small country, or at least a really nice island with a golf course on it. During this period, he bought a modest $4 billion worth of stocks but was unambiguously eager to part company with about $7 billion worth-an act of financial spring cleaning that might have even made the Dowager Countess of Downton proud.

Let us now turn our attention to the iShares Bitcoin Trust itself-a vehicle, ostensibly, for navigating this intriguing landscape.

At present, Upstart trades at seventy-nine dollars a share, a modest offering for a company holding a market value of seven and a half billion. To reach the promised land-ten times that-its shares must multiply nine hundred percent, up to about eight hundred dollars, swelling its market to three-quarters of a trillion dollars-a sum that makes every small investor wonder if this is hope or folly. Still, it’s a stark reminder of how far from the roots of the earth the promise of growth can reach, in a financial landscape that favors the mighty and the well-connected.

Take XRP and Dogecoin. They’re like that ex who texts you “I’ve changed” after three months. Sure, they’ve got a spot in some investor’s portfolio, but August? Oh, sweet summer child, August is going to be a dumpster fire of a rebound. And 2025? Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

Revenue soared to a resounding $167.7 billion, with earnings per share of $1.68-figures that danced elegantly above Wall Street’s expectations. Alas, as often happens with these titans of commerce, the guidance for Q3 operating income was set at a modest $18 billion (midpoint), a number some analysts find wanting when compared to the $19.5 billion forecast. But for those who look beyond the quarterly vicissitudes, such underpromising may well be the canvas upon which bold, enduring strategies are painted.

Consider the current grotesque parade: artificial intelligence, that eight-legged spider spinning its web across every industry. Investors, like moths to a flame, flock to its gilded labyrinth, blind to the cobwebs of overvaluation. Yet not all are entranced. David Tepper, that grizzled bear of Appaloosa, has been selling shares of AI’s most anointed acolytes-Nvidia, AMD, TSMC-as if exorcising demons from his portfolio. Meanwhile, he piles into Broadcom, that unassuming octopus with tentacles in a dozen industries, as though it were the last remaining lighthouse in a storm of delusion.