San Diego Comic-Con is in full swing, and Google is back with another fun experience for attendees. Last year, the company had a whole Ferris wheel setup, but this time around, the experience is much more immersive, thanks to a collaboration with Monopoly Go! and Marvel’s “The Fantastic Four: First Steps,” which hits theaters on July 25.

Visitors will be able to take their first steps into the Google Play Rewards Lab, with unique experiences related to each of the members of the Fantastic Four. However, Google also has some rewards for members who aren’t able to experience the Rewards Lab in person.

Taking your first steps

The Google Play Rewards Lab was all about letting you experience what it’s like to be a member of the Fantastic Four. You step onto a conveyor belt that leads you into each of the four pods with four very different experiences.

The first experience was inside the Stretch pod, after Reed Richards, aka Mister Fantastic. Here, you get to play a game where you try to catch Play Store rewards points utilizing touch pads to control Mister Fantastic’s stretched arms. The goal is to score a certain number of points within a given time.

Image 1 of 2

The second pod is perhaps my favorite, and it’s the Force Field pod. Here, you can hone your inner Sue Storm, aka The Invisible Woman, who is able to create and manipulate force fields.

This pod won’t let you turn invisible, but it will let you manipulate a display of cascading lights with your hands. The lights change colors and move in response to your hands, allowing you to create a variety of figures and images.

Image 1 of 2

The third pod is the Strength pod, which is probably my second favorite area. Here, you can have your own Ben Grimm, aka The Thing, moment and clobber the floor with your feet. You can team up with a few other people to stomp on the digital display on the floor from four different corners of the room, which will crumble beneath your feet to reveal a rather cool (and somewhat disorienting) display.

There are several levels to complete, which means smashing through a few surfaces. Once you smash through enough of the floor, you’ll be rewarded with a special honor for saving the day.

Image 1 of 4

Finally, the last pod was the Fire pod for the fiery Johnny Storm, aka Human Torch. Here, you can “flame on” and become the Human Torch by shooting a video of yourself flying in the air. Your video will be inserted into a clip from the new film, which you can then preview and even send to yourself to share with your friends or on social media.

You can see my video below:

You can stop by the Rewards Lab outside the San Diego Convention Center starting July 24, and you’ll even get prioritized entry and other rewards if you’re a Google Play Points member.

Perks for everyone

If you’re unable to attend San Diego Comic-Con for the full experience, don’t worry, because Google is offering everyone a chance to get in on some rewards. Thanks to the collaboration with Monopoly Go!, players can grab a limited-edition Fantastic Four in-game rewards in the form of an exclusive The Thing Tea Emoji for U.S. players. This can be added to their showrooms, and users can also use it to react to other players.

Furthermore, Google is letting Play Points members redeem their points for other exclusives, such as a Fantastic Four Fan Pack, an enamel The Thing pin, a signed comic book, and even a Citizen watch.

Image 1 of 2

Google’s Four Days of Fantastic Rewards is available from July 24 to 27, while the exclusive in-game Monopoly Go! reward will be available until August 4, which you can redeem over on the Play Store.

Shares of space flight company Rocket Lab (RKLB -0.10%) soared 40.4% in the first half of 2025, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. A fast-growing company in the exciting space economy, Rocket Lab is up close to 600% in the last year and is inching its way closer to competing with SpaceX, which now has a reported valuation of $400 billion.

There is a ton of excitement around Rocket Lab and the space economy today. Here’s why the stock surged in the first half of 2025.

Image source: Getty Images.

The next SpaceX?

Rocket Lab is aiming to build the next vertically integrated space flight company based in the United States. It began with its small Electron rocket, which has now completed 68 missions and has a large backlog from customers. The launch vehicle is the only other consistent commercial launcher, outside of SpaceX, carrying payloads for third-party customers.

On top of launching, Rocket Lab has built and acquired capabilities to sell space systems to customers, which include things like satellites, communication systems, and solar arrays. This has been a huge boon to the company, leading to the division now accounting for the majority of its overall sales.

Lastly, Rocket Lab is working on a larger rocket system called the Neutron, which is going to compete with SpaceX more directly. Testing of the Neutron will begin shortly, with the full-fledged reusable system expected to be ready within the next year or two. If the Neutron is successful, Rocket Lab could see a step change in growth in the coming years.

Revenue was $122.5 million last quarter, up 32% year over year, and is up an astonishing 734% in the last five years. Seeing this growth, investors are extremely optimistic about Rocket Lab’s future.

Should you buy Rocket Lab stock?

Today, after Rocket Lab’s surge, the stock is at a market cap of $18 billion. Revenue was just $466 million over the last 12 months.

Sales should continue to grow quickly, but this is an extreme valuation. The stock has a price-to-sales ratio (P/S) of 42, which is unsustainable. Investors are placing huge forward expectations on Rocket Lab after seeing the stock rise 600%, which should make any investor looking to buy right now nervous. Even if the company eventually reaches billions of dollars in annual sales, the stock will likely not perform well for shareholders going forward. Avoid buying Rocket Lab stock in your portfolio today.

Space exploration is rapidly shifting away from being the work of governments to private companies, and Wall Street is taking notice. If analysts at McKinsey & Company are correct, the industry could add an eye-watering $1.8 trillion to the global economy, driven by demand for satellites and their downstream effects on terrestrial companies.

Industry leader SpaceX has already demonstrated the value-creating potential in this industry, offering internet connectivity and payload launches. However, regular investors have no access because it’s private, creating a need for viable alternatives. Let’s dig deeper to decide if Rocket Lab USA (RKLB -1.99%) can fit the bill over the coming years.

Is Rocket Lab a viable alternative?

Founded in 2006 and going public through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) in 2021, Rocket Lab is one of the few ways investors can get direct access to the rocket launch services industry, currently dominated by SpaceX. Both companies help public and private sector clients transport payloads into space while also selling satellite-related hardware. But they aren’t totally the same.

SpaceX focuses on developing larger rockets like its flagship Warship, which may be capable of carrying payloads of 100 to 150 tons when it is complete. Rocket Lab’s rockets are significantly smaller. Its largest rocket under development is the Neutron, which will only be able to carry relatively small payloads of 13,000 kg (roughly 13 tons) to low Earth orbit. There is also a big difference in the scale of the two companies’ operations.

Elon Musk projects that SpaceX could earn a profit of $15.5 billion in 2025 alone — driven in large part by its broadband internet service segment, Starlink. Assuming a market average price-to-earnings multiple (P/E) of 29, the company would be valued at $450 billion. For comparison, Rocket Lab’s market capitalization is just under $17 billion.

Operational results are mixed

While Rocket Lab is small, its business is growing fast. First-quarter revenue jumped 32% year over year to $123 million as the company launched several missions through its small orbital rocket, Electron, which helps clients deliver microsatellites and observation spacecraft. These types of services are crucial for national security and intelligence agencies that need up-to-date tracking of geopolitical hotspots.

With that said, like many SPAC companies, Rocket Labs seems to have hit the market less-than-ready for prime time. While its top line is growing, margins remain weak. Operating losses actually expanded 37% in Q1 2025 to $59.2 million. And it’s hard to see the company establishing a pathway to profitability because of its vast research and development (R&D) budget, which will be hard to cut back in such a technical industry.

Image source: Getty Images.

While Rocket Lab has around $303 million in cash and equivalents on its balance sheet, this won’t actually last very long in the face of operational losses that could exceed $200 million per year if current trends continue. Investors should expect management to eventually turn to outside sources of capital, such as equity dilution, which could hurt the stock price by increasing the number of shares outstanding.

Where will Rocket Lab be in 5 years?

Over the next five years, Rocket Lab looks capable of achieving positive net income, especially when its new Neutron program comes online. This partially reusable medium-sized rocket is designed to compete with SpaceX’s workhorse, the Falcon 9, which helped slash the larger company’s operating costs when it launched in 2010.

Rocket Lab claims the Neutron will be ready to launch in the second half of 2025. But while this is exciting, it also goes to show how far behind the company is compared to its larger rival. Rocket Lab is not really a good SpaceX alternative right now, and investors may want to wait for more signs of progress before considering a position in the stock.

Two of the most chaotic token explosions of the year – Movement Lab’s Movement Scandal and the collapse of the Mantra’s OM – are sending shockwaves through the crypto market production business.

In both cases, a rapid price crash unlocked the hidden actor, suspicious tokens, revealing a secondary contract that claimed blind market participants to blind.

Unlike traditional finance, where market manufacturers offer orderly bidding spreads in regulated venues, crypto market manufacturers often operate like high stakes trading desks.

They’re not just quoting prices. They negotiate pre-launch token allocations, accept lockups, structuring the liquidity of central exchanges, and sometimes fair or advised interests.

As a result, there is a dark space where liquidity regulations are caught up in private trade, toconemics and, in many cases, insider politics.

In late April, Coindesk Exposé showed that some Movement Lab executives had conspired with their own market makers to abandon the $38 million move in open markets.

Now, some companies are questioning whether they are too casual to trust counterparties. How do you hedge positions if the token unlock schedule is opaque? What happens when a handshake quietly overrides DAO’s suggestion?

“Our approach currently includes a broader preliminary discussion and educational sessions with the project team, ensuring a thorough understanding of the mechanisms of market production,” Hong Kong-based Metalpha’s Metalpha Making Division told Coindesk in an interview.

“Our trading structure has evolved to emphasize long-term strategic alignment against short-term performance metrics, which incorporates certain safeguards against unethical behaviors such as excessive token damping and artificial trading volumes.”

Behind the scenes, the conversation is intensifying. The terms of the transaction are being examined more carefully. Some liquidity desks are reassessing how they take on token risks.

Others are demanding more severe transparency – or walking completely away from dark projects.

“The project no longer accepts an honorable reputation at face value. We have witnessed whether even established players can exploit shadow allocations or engage in harmful token sales practices.” “The era of presumed trust concludes,” he argued.

Beneath the refined surface of the token is the announcement of the announcement and the sorting of market production agreements. There is another layer of cryptocurrency. In the secondary OTC market, locked tokens quietly exchange hands before they hit the public eye before they win the cliff.

Trading beneath these tables, often struck between early supporters, funds and syndicates, is currently distorting supply dynamics and findings of distorted prices, some traders say. And for market makers tasked with providing orderly fluidity, they are becoming increasingly opaque and dangerous variables.

“The secondary OTC market has changed the dynamics of the industry,” said Min Jung, an analyst at Presto Research, which runs the market production division. “When you look at tokens with questionable price actions like $layer, $om, $mov, etc., they are often the most aggressively traded in the secondary OTC market.”

“The entire supply and vesting schedule is skewed due to these out-of-market transactions, and because of liquid funds, the real challenge is to get a sense of when the supply is actually unlocked,” Jung added.

In a market where prices are fiction and supplies are negotiated in the back room, actual risk is not volatility for traders. I believe float is what the white paper and founders say.

Read more: Movement Lab secretly promises millions of people with tokens that promise to be advisors, leaked documentary show

Rocket Lab USA (RKLB 2.16%) stock went on an incredible run in the last 12 months. Some may say it even went to the moon. Shares went from around $4 in the spring of 2024 to breaching $30 in January of this year, a more than 7x gain in less than a year. Investors went from pessimistic to optimistic on this upstart competitor to SpaceX as it launches more rockets and builds on its capabilities as an end-to-end space economy platform.

Now, investors have turned pessimistic again. Some analysts estimate that the company’s highly anticipated Neutron rocket will not be ready in 2025 as management currently claims, which is likely why Rocket Lab’s stock has fallen so much in just the last few weeks. With share prices now down 40% from recent highs, does that make Rocket Lab stock a buy right now?

Reliable rocket launches

Like SpaceX a decade ago, it’s almost a miracle that Rocket Lab is a viable business. Building a private space flight company is incredibly difficult. Launching a rocket into space is a complicated pursuit, and if your rockets go through catastrophic failure and blow up a customer’s products even once, you risk ruining your brand reputation.

All this to say, Rocket Lab is now the second private company in North America to reliably launch rockets for commercial and government contractors. It attacked the market by focusing on small payloads with its Electron rocket, a niche that SpaceX does not serve. In 2024, the Electron rocket launched 16 times with a 100% mission success rate. In 2025, Rocket Lab hopes the Electron project gets even more missions.

To further its offering for customers, Rocket Lab has rapidly developed a Space Systems segment that helps build the products launched on its Electron missions for customers (as well as third parties such as SpaceX). Space Systems revenue was $311 million in 2024, up from $172.7 million in 2023. Combined, the two segments generated $436 million in revenue last year, up from less than $100 million just a few years ago. Rocket Lab is one of the fastest-growing companies in public markets today.

Rumblings over Neutron rocket delays

Rocket Lab’s growth has been nothing short of phenomenal. However, bulls on the stock will tell you that this growth party is just getting started. In 2025, management says it will debut and test flight its new Neutron rocket, which is significantly larger than the Electron. Larger payloads mean a more complicated launching system but should allow the company to generate much more revenue per launch. Reports are that Rocket Lab will charge customers at least $50 million per Neutron launch compared to under $10 million for the Electron.

The stock has run higher due to the anticipation of the Neutron debut. Some bears say the company is getting too aggressive with its development timeline, though. With the full rocket system not built yet and its landing/launching infrastructure not finished, analysts such as Bleecker Street Capital believe the Neutron deployment will be delayed until 2026 or 2027. With large development costs, this could cause Rocket Lab to burn a ton of cash and require them to raise more money through stock or debt offerings, which would drive down the stock price.

Data by YCharts.

Should you buy Rocket Lab stock?

Past execution has been strong, and the company has now built a good reputation with investors and customers. It is reliably launching Electron rockets and successfully expanding its Space Systems division. However, there is still a ton of uncertainty over the Neutron rocket.

The company is at a crossroads. If the Neutron development isn’t delayed, Rocket Lab will likely keep growing its revenue at a rapid pace and see a nice profit inflection. We haven’t even mentioned its next business model plan of building its own satellite constellation that can sell software services to third parties. Like Starlink at SpaceX, this could prove highly lucrative for Rocket Lab if they build it.

I don’t think Rocket Lab’s stock is a buy right now. Why? Because it doesn’t properly account for the downside potential of a delayed Neutron rocket debut. At a market cap of $9.5 billion, the stock price suggests that Neutron’s success is a guarantee. Rocket launching is a low-margin business. Even if Rocket Lab’s revenue boomed higher to $2 billion and garnered a 20% profit margin, that is just $400 million in earnings. Or, a forward price-to-earnings ratio (P/E) of 24. Remember, these earnings are not guaranteed and would not materialize for many years into the future.

Today, the company is generating less than $500 million in revenue and losing close to $200 million a year. From my vantage point, it is best to keep Rocket Lab stock on the watchlist for now despite this 40% drawdown in 2025.