Donald Trump’s crypto initiative, World Liberty Financial, went live on Sept. 1 with a market valuation above $7.4 billion, sparking heavy trading in its opening hours.

According to CoinMarketCap data, WLFI climbed 13% to $0.2525 shortly after launch, while its trading volume has already surpassed $1.8 billion across centralized and decentralized exchanges.

Notably, this rush of activity spilled over into the broader market.

According to Milk Road data, Ethereum gas fees, which hovered near zero before the token’s debut, surged to more than 60 gwei as traders competed to settle WLFI transactions on the chain.

This spike highlighted how much interest the Trump-linked token has generated among retail traders and institutions.

WLFI token

In a Sept.1 blog post, the World Liberty Financial team stated that the launch introduced more than 24.6 billion WLFI into circulation.

Out of this supply, about 10 billion tokens were retained by the project’s parent company, World Liberty Financial, Inc. Another 7.78 billion tokens were assigned to Alt5 Sigma Corporation, giving it close to eight percent of the total supply as part of its treasury strategy.

Nearly 2.9 billion tokens were directed toward exchange activity to maintain liquidity and support early marketing. At the same time, more than 4 billion were distributed to public sale participants with an initial 20 percent unlocked at launch.

The team stated that the remaining 76 billion tokens are “subject to vesting schedules or are otherwise locked.” These tokens belong to its strategic partners, the project’s team, and its treasury.

Trump Jr. framed the token as central to the project’s long-term mission, emphasizing that WLFI is designed as a governance layer rather than a speculative instrument.

Meanwhile, Tron founder Justin Sun, who publicly aligned himself with the project, reinforced this position by pledging not to sell his unlocked holdings.

He also announced that to mark the launch, USD1 circulation on Tron would expand to $200 million, linking the success of WLFI with broader stablecoin growth on his blockchain.

Mentioned in this article

Shares of Standard Lithium (SLI 11.71%) jumped on Thursday, finishing the day up 11.7%. The rise came as the S&P 500 (^GSPC 0.27%) gained 0.3% and the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC 0.09%) was flat.

Standard Lithium moved higher alongside much of the industry after MP Materials announced it had inked a major deal with the Department of Defense (DoD).

This mining company has a new shareholder

MP, which owns the sole operating rare earth mine in the US, announced this morning that the Pentagon is purchasing $400 million worth of shares in the company. The DoD is now the largest shareholder, controlling more than 15% and nearly twice that of CEO James Litinsky and BlackRock Advisors.

The Trump administration has been considering direct investment in domestic mining in order to shore up critical security and defense supply chains. Investors across the industry were hopeful that more deals such as this would follow, leading to today’s rise in Standard Lithium stock.

Image source: Getty Images.

Standard Lithium is still speculative

There are no guarantees that the Pentagon will follow up with more deals such as this, and even if it does, there’s certainly no guarantee that Standard Lithium would be one of the company’s choices. Given that it is Canadian-owned, I would venture to guess it won’t. The company is still pre-revenue, and only investors without particularly high risk tolerance should consider investing.

Still, the company’s Arkansas project was designated as a “Priority Transparency Critical Mineral Project” in the Trump administration’s executive order. It would seem that even if it doesn’t get a direct investment, it is seen favorably by the administration.

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse says there’s a widely-held belief that the stablecoin market could grow almost ten times over the next few years. 

The stablecoin industry is currently around $250 billion in market capitalization, and “many people think it will reach $1 to $2 trillion in a handful of years,” said Garlinghouse on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Wednesday.

He added that the growth behind it has been “profound,” saying that Ripple joined the market late partly because the firm was using stablecoins in its payment flows for its institutional customers. 

“We can participate in this [stablecoin] market given our institutional background and regulatory compliance,” he said, confirming that the growth ahead will serve the firm well.

The comments came as Garlinghouse announced that BNY Mellon would be the firm’s stablecoin custodian for its Ripple USD dollar-pegged asset.

Ripple launched its own enterprise-focused stablecoin, RLUSD, in late 2024. Since then, its market capitalization has grown to $500 million, a milestone it reached on Wednesday.  

Huge growth for stablecoins

Apollo Capital’s chief investment officer, Henrik Andersson, agreed with Garlinghouse’s prediction, telling Cointelegraph on Thursday, “The $1-2 trillion market cap for stablecoins is in line with our prediction.” 

“We are seeing fintechs, banks, social networks, and large retailers all launch their own stablecoins.” 

Andersson cited Tether’s profitability as an example of how lucrative the business can be. 

“The next catalyst for stablecoin adoption will be the GENIUS Act in the US, which will make stablecoins legal tender,” he added.

The stablecoin legislation passed a Senate vote in June and is likely to be made into law this month. 

“The crypto-friendly SEC, along with the GENIUS Act, can align the crypto industry to rapidly expand, with the potential for the stablecoin market to reach $1-2 trillion in market cap in a few years,” Nick Ruck, director at LVRG Research, told Cointelegraph. 

Ripple banking license 

Ripple, which primarily serves institutional clients, is aiming to become fully compliant in the US so that it can operate under the same framework as banks and financial institutions. 

Earlier this month, Ripple applied for a banking license with the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC).

The firm has also applied for a Federal Reserve Master Account, said Garlinghouse, adding, “We think that the key thing for crypto and decentralized finance […] is building bridges between traditional finance and DeFi.” 

XRP hits seven-week high

This week, Ripple also announced that its stablecoin has received a significant boost by integrating with Transak, a major cryptocurrency payments platform.

The firm’s cross-border payments token XRP (XRP) has rallied 7% since Monday and was trading at $2.42 at the time of writing, its highest price for seven weeks. 

Magazine: Inside a 30,000 phone bot farm stealing crypto airdrops from real users

]]> https://earlybirdsinvest.com/many-see-stablecoins-soaring-to-2t-in-handful-of-years-ripple-ceo/feed/ 0 46775 https://earlybirdsinvest.com/15b-bitcoin-options-expire-today-will-this-send-btc-bull-token-soaring/ https://earlybirdsinvest.com/15b-bitcoin-options-expire-today-will-this-send-btc-bull-token-soaring/#respond Fri, 27 Jun 2025 13:51:07 +0000 https://earlybirdsinvest.com/15b-bitcoin-options-expire-today-will-this-send-btc-bull-token-soaring/

Bitcoin traders everywhere will be watching their feeds closely, willing the world’s largest crypto to hold steady at or near its current $107K mark.

$15B in Bitcoin options expire today, a major portion of the roughly $40B in options outstanding.

If $BTC’s price falls to $102K or below, the market would endure a true ‘pain point.’ As long as that doesn’t happen, Bitcoin looks set to press on with business as normal – setting the stage for further growth of the ecosystem and the first meme coin offering direct $BTC exposure, BTC Bull Token ($BTCBULL).

Narrowing Volatility Indicates Positive Outlook

The $BTC volatility index has narrowed in recent days, drawing more closely to the historical volatility and generally indicating that traders don’t expect dramatic price moves either way – up or down.

That was supported by Deribit Chief Commercial Officer Jean-David Péquignot, who stated:

‘Low open interest in perps and fairly depressed Bitcoin implied volatility and skew are indicative of limited expectations for sharp price movements…’

Where does that leave Bitcoin? Still looking bullish. Crypto treasury strategies are still expanding, adding thousands of $BTC tokens to long-term reserves and increasing demand. Metaplanet just added 1,234 $BTC, bringing its total portfolio north of 12K $BTC.

And it isn’t just direct Bitcoin purchases; the ecosystem around the world’s leading crypto continues to fuel demand.

ETFs Notch 13 Days Consecutive Inflows, Bitcoin Overtakes Google

Bitcoin ETFs are building on a 13-day stretch of positive inflows. Monday to Thursday, daily cumulative inflows amounted to:

Positive inflows point to long-term interest from retail and institutional investors, rather than short-term traders, and contribute to underlying buying pressure.

And with the largest Bitcoin ETF, BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust, holding over $70B in total assets, Bitcoin took advantage of weakening Alphabet stock to overthrow Google as the world’s sixth-largest asset.

It’s a combination of fundamentally positive factors, reinforcing a bullish case for $BTC – and the meme coin built on that case.

BTC Bull Token ($BTCBULL) – Meme Coin Trusting $BTC to Hit $250K and Beyond

BTC Bull Token ($BTCBULL) is confident that Bitcoin will one day reach $250K and more – so confident that the project is built around key Bitcoin price milestones.

• Bitcoin $125K: The project burns $BTCBULL tokens to exert deflationary pressure on the price.
• Bitcoin $150K: BTC Bull token investors who hold their tokens in the Best Wallet app receive a free $BTC airdrop.
• Bitcoin $175K: Another $BTCBULL token burn.
• Bitcoin $200K: Another $BTC airdrop!
• Bitcoin $225K: A final $BTCBULL burn.
• Bitcoin $250K: A massive $BTCBULL airdrop.

The combination of token burns and airdrops encourages positive momentum for BTC Bull Token, following Bitcoin’s upward trajectory.

Visit the BTC Bull token website today.

BTC Options Expire, But Outlook Is Bullish for Bitcoin

With $15B in Bitcoin options expiring, narrowing volatility, and consistent ETF inflows, Bitcoin’s foundation looks stronger than ever.

For investors looking to capitalize on Bitcoin’s momentum, BTC Bull Token offers a bold, milestone-based roadmap aligned with $BTC’s rise to $250K. But be warned – there’s mere days left in the presale, so the window to join is closing fast.

Always do your own research. This is not financial advice.

President Donald Trump has reportedly intervened in a dispute between EchoStar (SATS 48.16%) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), urging the two sides to come together and work out a deal. Absent a resolution, EchoStar was said to be considering a bankruptcy filing.

Investors are understandably excited by the latest development, sending EchoStar shares up 40% as of 10 a.m. ET.

Image source: Getty Images.

Walking back from the brink

EchoStar is a satellite television and communications company that’s building a nationwide cellular business under the Boost Mobile brand. However, that network rollout requires a lot of spectrum, and the FCC is displeased with the speed at which that spectrum is being deployed.

There’s at least the potential for the FCC to seize some or all of the spectrum and allocate it to others who have clamored for access, including SpaceX. In response, EchoStar was said to have been considering a bankruptcy filing, which caused the company’s shares to plummet last week.

According to Bloomberg, Trump has reached out to EchoStar Chairman Charlie Eagan and FCC chair Brendan Carr to urge the two sides to come to a deal that would allow EchoStar to avoid a bankruptcy filing.

Is EchoStar stock a buy?

The latest report is good news for EchoStar shareholders, but the company isn’t out of danger yet. A deal could involve EchoStar selling some of its spectrum licenses, which could put Boost at a long-term disadvantage. Alternatively, the two sides could fail to reach an agreement, which could cause the stock to give back Monday’s gains.

Investors considering buying the stock today should keep those risks front of mind and limit EchoStar to a small part of a well-diversified portfolio.

Nvidia (NVDA -2.20%) continues to dominate the lion’s share of the chips going into data centers for artificial intelligence (AI). The company just reported another monster quarter of growth, and the stock is closing in on new all-time highs.

There’s still a case for buying Nvidia stock, but investors shouldn’t put all their chips in one basket (no pun intended). Nvidia is not capturing all the demand for AI semiconductors. Hyperscalers like Alphabet‘s Google and Amazon are designing custom chips for specific AI workloads in their cloud services, and this is creating tremendous growth for other leading semiconductor companies.

Shares of Broadcom (AVGO -2.88%) and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM -2.04%) recently were up 73% and 29%, respectively — both outperforming Nvidia’s 18% return over the last year. These chip stocks can broaden your exposure to the growing demand for AI chips across the data center market.

Image source: Getty Images.

1. Broadcom

Broadcom is a top supplier of custom AI accelerators (XPUs) and networking solutions for data centers and other markets. Its networking business supplies components that help move data at high speeds, which is vital as hyperscalers shift to more advanced AI workloads.

Broadcom has reported five consecutive quarters of 20% or more revenue growth. Specifically, AI-related revenue jumped 46% year over year in the most recent quarter. Broadcom is turning this growth into strong profits, with free cash flow reaching $6.4 billion last quarter, representing a high 43% margin on revenue.

AI networking revenue, including Broadcom’s Ethernet networking products, grew 170% year over year, representing nearly half of its total revenue from AI. This incredible growth in networking signals a massive ramp in computing power to create the next wave of AI applications and services.

Broadcom is also supplying XPUs, which are more cost-efficient for specific workloads than Nvidia’s general-purpose chips. Broadcom sees at least three customers deploying 1 million custom AI-accelerated clusters by 2027, and it reported on the last earnings call that these large hyperscalers are “unwavering” in their plans to continue investing in the near term.

The long-term outlook for custom chip demand should support shareholder returns over the next several years. In fact, management expects custom XPU demand to accelerate through 2026. The stock isn’t cheap, trading at a forward price-to-earnings multiple of 38, but the opportunity could justify the premium.

Image source: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing.

2. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (also known as TSMC) plays a vital role in the global supply chain for the chip industry. It’s the largest chip foundry, with more than 65% market share, according to Counterpoint. It makes chips for several companies, including Nvidia, Broadcom, Advanced Micro Devices, and Apple, as well as hyperscalers.

The stock is surging to new highs following a monster quarter, during which revenue in U.S. dollars grew 35% year over year. This strong growth was despite weak smartphone revenue in the quarter, representing over a quarter of the company’s revenue, due to seasonal demand trends.

TSMC has spent decades investing in cutting-edge chip-making technology to meet customer needs for the world’s most advanced chips. Its competitive advantage is based on superior manufacturing capabilities and massive chip-making capacity, enabling it to make more than 16 million 12-inch equivalent wafers annually. These advantages enabled TSMC to earn a sky-high profit margin of 41% on a trailing-12-month basis.

TSMC is planning to double its chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) capacity in 2025, indicating growing support for the demand that Nvidia and other customers are experiencing. TSMC recently announced a substantial investment of $165 billion to launch new manufacturing facilities in the U.S., in addition to expansion plans in other geographies.

AI accelerator revenue tripled in 2024, and management expects it to double in 2025. Through 2029, the company expects demand for AI chips to grow at an annualized rate topping 40%.

Taiwan Semiconductor shares may be the best value among chip stocks right now. The stock trades at just 23 times 2025 earnings estimates, despite analysts expecting 21% annualized earnings growth. While earnings multiples above 20 are historically expensive for chip stocks, these companies are experiencing a once-in-a-generation growth spurt that will likely deliver excellent returns to investors through the end of the decade.

Many companies have failed to disrupt the complicated U.S. healthcare market. Hims & Hers (HIMS 6.96%) may finally be succeeding in cracking the code. The online telehealth platform focuses on circumventing the insurance market; its business of selling affordable medications directly to individuals is growing like a weed, and expects to generate $6.5 billion in revenue by 2030.

It has had a tumultuous start to 2025, as Hims & Hers waged a battle to sell new weight loss medications on its online marketplace. Now, with momentum back on its side, the stock is up 118% year to date and 446% in the last five years. Let’s take a deeper look at this company, and see whether you might want to buy Hims & Hers stock for your portfolio now.

Disrupting the healthcare market

Hims & Hers’ model is simple. It has two separate web platforms — Hims for men and Hers for women — that sell medications and deliver to customers’ front doors. It began with sexual health, but has moved into dermatology, hair loss, mental health, and now weight loss medications.

A key to its success has been avoiding the insurance market with products that don’t break the bank. Customers loathe dealing with health insurers in the United States, and sometimes would rather not use insurance at all. Plus, some of these products aren’t covered by insurance.

This strategy has helped the company close in on over $2 billion in projected revenue in 2025. To keep up this impressive growth, Hims & Hers wants to offer weight loss medications, which have been a blockbuster set of drugs for the pharmaceutical market. For a while the popularity of these drugs, such as Novo Nordisk‘s Wegovy, left them in short supply; that allowed third parties such as Hims & Hers to produce them as a compounding pharmacy and sell them at much cheaper prices. This ended up generating $200 million of Hims & Hers’ $1.4 billion in 2024 revenue.

But with the shortage of Wegovy over and the compounding pharmacy exception ended, the company’s weight-loss business was at a major turning point. Luckily, at the end of April Hims & Hers announced a partnership with Novo Nordisk that seems to resolve this issue: It gives Hims & Hers the ability to sell Wegovy directly on its platform. Hims & Hers is not an exclusive supplier of the drug — or any drugs on its marketplaces, to be fair — but it hopes to use its subscription business model, marketing expertise, and simplified user proposition to drive sales for Novo Nordisk in the huge obesity-care market.

Image source: Getty Images.

Going abroad and personalization

Besides weight loss drugs, Hims & Hers has more ambitions to reach its goal of $6.5 billion in revenue by 2030. Just recently, the company announced its intent to acquire European competitor Zava so it could expand its telehealth service to Europe. The acquisition will add a platform with 1.3 million active customers in the U.K., Germany, France, and Ireland. It makes sense that Hims & Hers can supercharge growth for the platform with its plethora of medications offered to customers, keen marketing skills, and subscription-based selling model.

Over the long run, Hims & Hers aims to make healthcare for its customers more personalized. This includes unique drug combinations, its own outsourcing facility, and at-home testing capabilities. Details remain sparse, but the vision is clear: disrupting more and more of the trillions of dollars spent on healthcare by building a business that people actually enjoy interacting with. This is why 2.4 million active customers use Hims & Hers today.

HIMS Gross Profit Margin data by YCharts.

Should you buy Hims & Hers stock?

A revenue goal of $6.5 billion seems well within reach by 2030. Hims & Hers is only at 2.4 million active customers, and there are tens of millions of people in the United States alone who could start using or switch to one of its telehealth platforms. Add on the Zava acquisition in Europe, and the runway for growth gets even larger.

The company has an impressive gross profit margin of 77%, which should lead to high levels of profitability at scale. On $6.5 billion in future revenue, it could very well post a net profit margin of over 20%, and achieve $1.5 billion in bottom-line profits and free cash flow. A 20% profit margin is easily achievable because of its high gross margins and the fact it currently spends 40% of revenue on marketing today, a figure that has come down over time and should come down even more as Hims & Hers keeps scaling.

However, Hims & Hers has played fast and loose with laws and regulations in the past. It sold weight loss drugs when the legality of doing so was unclear, and although that dispute seems to have been resolved, management could easily start playing with fire again and burn its reputation as a trusted provider of medications.

Otherwise, this looks like a fantastic growth stock that just doubled its addressable market with the Zava acquisition. Today, Hims & Hers has a market cap of $12.3 billion. You might think it’s overvalued because of the stock’s recent run-up in price, but the numbers show that patient investors could be rewarded by holding for the long term.

A $12.3 billion market cap is only around 8 times my 2030 earnings estimate of $1.5 billion, which would be a dirt cheap price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio for a fast-growing company compared to the current market cap. Most likely, the stock will be valued at a higher multiple than 8, meaning that the stock will be higher in five years. It doesn’t come without risks, but if you’re a growth investor, you might love Hims & Hers stock for its long-term potential.

Five Below (FIVE 3.73%) stock is gaining ground in Thursday’s trading. The company’s share price was up 6.5% as of 12:45 p.m. ET. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 (^GSPC 0.08%) was up 0.1%, and the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC 0.07%) was up 0.4%.

After the market closed yesterday, Five Below published results for the first quarter of its current fiscal year. It delivered sales and earnings that beat Wall Street’s expectations for the quarterly period, which ended May 3.

Image source: Getty Images.

Five Below stock jumps on Q1 sales and earnings beats

For fiscal Q1, Five Below posted non-GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) adjusted earnings per share of $0.86 on revenue of $970.53 million. Meanwhile, the average analyst estimate had called for the business to record adjusted earnings per share of $0.83 on sales of $966.49 million. Overall revenue was up 19.5% year over year in the period, with a 7.1% increase for same-store sales and new location openings helping to power strong revenue expansion in the period. Adjusted earnings per share were roughly 43% compared to last year’s quarter.

What’s next for Five Below?

For the current quarter, Five Below is guiding for sales to come in between $975 million and $995 million. The guidance range came in significantly better than the average Wall Street forecast, which had called for sales of $958.33 million. Five Below management expects same-store sales growth between 7% and 9% this quarter.

Meanwhile, adjusted earnings per share in fiscal Q2 are projected to be between $0.50 and $0.62. For comparison, the average Wall Street analyst estimate had called for adjusted earnings per share of $0.58 prior to Five Below’s recent quarterly report. While the midpoint of management’s earnings guidance came in below the average analyst estimate, guidance for strong same-store sales growth appears to have offset concerns related to the shortfall on the profit target.

Shares of Opendoor Technologies (OPEN 26.28%) were soaring today after the online home flipper posted better-than-expected results in its first-quarter earnings report.

The stock had fallen sharply in recent months, but the latest round of results gave investors some hope that the company can build a viable business over the long term, especially in the face of a weak housing market.

Image source: Getty Images.

Opendoor moves closer to breakeven

Opendoor reported a revenue in decline of 2% to $1.15 billion in the quarter, ahead of the consensus at $1.06 billion. However, revenue isn’t a useful metric for a company like Opendoor, as it can earn revenue from simply buying and selling homes, even if it doesn’t earn a profit.

The real test is profitability, and the company did take a step toward breakeven with its adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) loss of $30 million, narrowing from a loss of $50 million.

Management said that buyer demand continued to be weak, and that the rate at which homes go under contract is down 25% and delistings are up 30%, indicating weak demand from homebuyers due to high mortgage rates and concerns about a recession.

Despite those headwinds, investors were pleased with second-quarter guidance that called for an adjusted EBITDA profit of $10 million-$20 million. The company also acquired 3,609 homes in the first quarter, up 4% from a year ago heading to peak buying season.

What’s next for Opendoor

Opendoor’s share price has fallen to less than $1, a sign that investors have largely given up on the stock, and a recovery will be difficult to achieve without a significant improvement in the housing market.

Opendoor has $559 million in cash on the balance sheet, meaning it’s not in danger of failure, but the company can’t lose money forever. Peers like Zillow and Redfin have already given up on the iBuying business model.

At this point, it’s still unclear if it will work for Opendoor.