In an August 18 press release, Paxton accused both of presenting themselves as mental health tools without proper qualifications. He argued that artificial intelligence (AI) platforms can give the false impression of offering real therapy.

He said this puts children at risk of relying on chatbots for help instead of licensed professionals. According to his office, the companies created personas that appear as trusted advisers despite lacking medical oversight or credentials.

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Character.AI has millions of user-created personas. One of them, called “Psychologist”, is especially popular with young users. Meta does not promote therapy-specific bots for children, but its general AI assistant and third-party personas can still be used for emotional advice.

Still, Paxton pointed to privacy and data concerns. He said chatbots often promise confidentiality, but their terms of service reveal otherwise. According to him, conversations are stored, tracked, and used to develop algorithms or deliver advertising.

Meta’s privacy policy confirms that it collects prompts, feedback, and other interactions to improve AI. The company also shares some data with third parties, including search engines, to provide more personalized outputs.

Meanwhile, Character.AI’s shows that the company logs details such as demographics, device identifiers, location, browsing history, and app activity. It also tracks users across major platforms like TikTok, YouTube, Reddit, Instagram, and Discord.

Recently, Illinois approved new rules that stop licensed therapists from using AI chatbots to help with mental health treatment. What do the rules include? Read the full story.

After reaching multi-year lows in 2024, Dollar General (DG 0.18%) and Dollar Tree (DLTR 1.17%) are staging epic recoveries in 2025.

Year to date (YTD) at the time of this writing, Dollar General has surged a staggering 49.5% and Dollar Tree is up 25.2%, compared to a mere 2.1% gain in the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC).

Even with those gains, both stocks have drastically underperformed the S&P 500 and larger retailers like Walmart (WMT -1.68%) and Costco Wholesale (COST -1.12%) over the last few years.

Here’s what’s driving the rebound in discount retailers, and whether investors are better off with a 50/50 split of Dollar General and Dollar Tree or Walmart and Costco.

Image source: Getty Images.

Signs of improvement

The rebound in Dollar General and Dollar Tree provides a good lesson on the importance of expectations and valuation.

Going into this year, expectations for the discount retailers were as low as they could be. Both companies were struggling to offset inflationary pressures with price increases.

In 2021, Dollar Tree upped the base price of its products to $1.25, which cushioned profits but strained demand. It’s also worth mentioning that Dollar Tree is selling Family Dollar in the second quarter of 2025 for about $1 billion — a significant loss compared to the roughly $9 billion purchase price in 2015.

Frequent customers of Dollar General and Dollar Tree can be more sensitive to inflation and overall higher living costs than retail outlets that aren’t so value-focused. As a result, both companies rely on sales volume to offset their razor-thin margins. The business model can work well when consumer spending is strong, but it can backfire when people tighten their purse strings.

As you can see in the following chart, Dollar General continued boosting sales, but margins are near a 10-year low, reflecting pricing pressure. Dollar Tree’s margins are holding up, but its revenue is down significantly due to store closures and demand pressures.

DG Operating Margin (TTM) data by YCharts.

Despite lackluster results, recent financials for both companies show signs of improvement. Dollar General grew sales and earnings in its recent quarter. Dollar Tree got a jolt from improving results and potential cost savings from the Family Dollar spin-off.

Results for Dollar General and Dollar Tree weren’t great, but because expectations were so low and both stocks were so beaten down, the stage was set for an epic rebound, even if results were mediocre. However, some investors may prefer to go with higher-quality names like Walmart and Costco.

Delivering value and driving customer loyalty

Walmart and Costco have ultra-razor-thin margins, often lower than those of Dollar General and Dollar Tree. But the key difference is that Walmart and Costco deliver masterfully on their value propositions to customers.

Walmart caters to value-focused customers, just like dollar stores. Yet, it has grown sales steadily and sustained decent margins despite pullbacks in consumer spending, because it can go toe-to-toe on price with just about any brick-and-mortar retailer or e-commerce platform. Additionally, Walmart has built out other shopping options, like pickup, delivery through Walmart+, and more.

Similarly, Costco can afford to pass along value to customers on merchandise sales because it generates steady cash flow from annual membership rates. Costco makes the majority of its net income from membership fees, and profits very little from merchandise sales. Customers are incentivized to shop at Costco as much as possible to justify the membership, and Costco gives them good deals in return. Costco could charge more and boost near-term profits, but management is laser-focused on the brand’s strength and long-term customer loyalty.

Priced to perfection

Walmart and Costco are undeniably better businesses than Dollar General and Dollar Tree, but their valuations have reached sky-high levels. Even on a forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio basis, Costco and Walmart sport more expensive valuations than all of the “Magnificent Seven” stocks (except Tesla), whereas Dollar General and Dollar Tree have forward P/E ratios under 20.

COST PE Ratio (Forward) data by YCharts.

Over the long term, quality is more important than present-day valuation, because a company that consistently improves earnings can grow into its valuation. But if a company’s stock price keeps increasing faster than its earnings rise, its valuation will remain inflated. This dynamic has been at play with Walmart and Costco, which have seen their P/E ratios balloon far above their historical averages due to their stock prices outpacing earnings growth.

What’s more, both stocks no longer have serviceable dividend yields because their stock prices have outpaced their dividend growth rates. Walmart yields just 0.9% and Costco yields 0.5%. Dollar General sports a decent yield of 2.1%, and Dollar Tree has never paid a dividend. Granted, Costco occasionally pays special dividends when its cash on the balance sheet reaches a comfortable level. But even during special dividend years, like in 2024 and 2020, Costco still only yields around 2% to 3%.

The better buy now

If I had to pick, I’d go with a 50/50 split of Dollar General and Dollar Tree over Walmart and Costco simply because their valuations are so much lower, and Walmart and Costco aren’t growing quickly enough to justify their high valuations. At that valuation level, investors are arguably better off buying a top growth stock like Microsoft, which is expanding margins and consistently generating strong revenue growth.

Walmart and Costco are phenomenal companies, but a great company isn’t always worth investing in if its valuation is at nose-bleed levels — especially when faster-growing alternatives are available at reasonable multiples.

According to data compiled by S&P Global Market Intelligence, discount retailer Dollar General‘s (DG -0.33%) share price ballooned by almost 17% across the trading week. In retrospect that wasn’t surprising, as the company simply crushed it in its latest earnings report, and analysts fell over themselves publishing bullish new takes on its stock.

The dollars rolled in

Dollar General delivered its first-quarter figures Tuesday morning, and investors couldn’t wait to pile into its shares.

Image source: Getty Images.

This was understandable, because those fundamentals were solid. The retailer’s net sales climbed more than 5% higher year over year to land at $10.4 billion. This was on the back of a 2%-plus rise in same-store sales, always a core performance metric in the retail industry.

Profitability headed north too, with GAAP net income rising almost 8% to slightly under $392 million. In per-share terms, Dollar General earned $1.78.

Both headline figures topped the consensus analyst estimates. On average, pundits tracking the stock were modeling $10.25 billion on the top line, and only $1.46 per share for net income.

Some of those pundits might not be underestimating Dollar General quite so much. A clutch of them raised their price targets on the stock, with a few even upgrading their recommendations.

One of the upgrades was enacted by Oppenheimer‘s Rupesh Parikh, who now feels the company is worthy of an overperform (buy) rating at $130 per share, where previously it was only rated a perform (hold).

Solid and sustainable

According to reports, Parikh was not only impressed by Dollar General’s ability to sustain 2% to 3% comparable sales growth figures, he feels it’s an excellent play in a recessionary environment. That’s been a persistent fear lately of numerous economists and more than a few investors, given the current shakiness in the global and domestic economies.

Dollar General definitely seems as if it’s on a roll, and it might just become a hot, go-to retailer if those gloomy predictions come true. It’s absolutely a stock to consider for our times.

A federal judge has approved a motion to suspend the lawsuit filed by a group of state attorneys general and the advocacy group DeFi Education Fund against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The complaint filed in November alleges that the SEC acted beyond its authority in filing enforcement actions against crypto exchanges, arguing that the power the regulator asserts over digital assets belongs to individual states.

“[W]ithout Congressional authorization, the SEC has sought to unilaterally wrest regulatory authority away from the States through an ongoing series of enforcement actions targeting the digital asset industry, premised on the theory that practically all purchases and sales of digital assets are ‘investment contracts.’”

On April 16th, Judge Gregory Van Tatenhove of the Eastern District of Kentucky ordered a 60-day pause on the deadlines and legal proceedings related to the case following the appointment of pro-crypto businessman Paul Atkins as the new SEC chair.

The development comes as the SEC takes a more friendly approach to the digital assets industry. The securities watchdog has already dropped numerous key crypto cases, including those involving the blockchain payments firm Ripple and the crypto exchange Kraken.

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Disclaimer: Opinions expressed at The Daily Hodl are not investment advice. Investors should do their due diligence before making any high-risk investments in Bitcoin, cryptocurrency or digital assets. Please be advised that your transfers and trades are at your own risk, and any losses you may incur are your responsibility. The Daily Hodl does not recommend the buying or selling of any cryptocurrencies or digital assets, nor is The Daily Hodl an investment advisor. Please note that The Daily Hodl participates in affiliate marketing.

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On Monday, Deputy Attorney General (DAG) Blanche released a memo entitled “Prosecutor’s Ending Regulations,” which stated that the U.S. Department of Justice would stop crackdowns on Bitcoin and crypto mixers.

Here is the exact language he used in his notes:

“…The Department of Justice will suspend participation in regulations through prosecutions in this area. Specifically, the department will no longer target crypto exchanges, mixed and tumbling services, and offline wallets due to end-user conduct or unconscious violations of regulations.”

The next day, New York Attorney General (NYAG) James co-authored a letter calling on Congressional leaders to create federal crypto regulations to prevent the use of crypto mixers for illegal purposes.

Here’s what she and her co-authors had to say about the crypto mixer:

“Effective laws must require cryptocurrency platforms to expressly comply with the Anti-Money Laundering Act. To know about customer (“KYC”) regulations and cybersecurity protocols, we must prevent terrorism, hostile regimes and crime financing to prevent the use of cryptocurrencies. USD. ”

Dag Blanche has benefited from the doubts of users of Bitcoin and Crypto mixers, but NY AG James implied that all users of such mixers are criminals, as all users of such mixers call them “money laundering mixers.”

Such language is deeply concerned about hearing from the state’s attorney general (the lawyer) as if to speculate on guilt.

NY AG James has adopted this type of rhetoric, mainly in Bitcoin and crypto since taking on the role of Attorney General in 2018, and has been working on the role of 1. ) She has never allowed human rights and democratic activists to use the mixer to preserve both the privacy and privacy of donors.

So, as Bitcoin privacy becomes more prominent in the political field, you should amplify the type of rhetoric that Dag Blanche uses, and make sure it pushes back dangerous and unjust rhetoric from things like NY AG James.

It is up to us to hear our voices on this issue and to let elected officials know that it is important to us.

The fight is underway for the right to personally transfer value across the Internet. Don’t stay on the sidelines.

This article is a take. The opinions expressed are entirely the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.