…and bitcoin's NFT surge makes for merry miners
| Mission accomplished, Jeff (Blue Origin) | |
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Yesterday's Market Moves | | Dow Jones
37,082 (-1.27%) | S&P 500
4,698 (-1.47%) | Nasdaq
14,778 (-1.50%) | Bitcoin
$43,601 (+3.16%) |
| Dow Jones
37,082 (-1.27%) | S&P 500
4,698 (-1.47%) | Nasdaq
14,778 (-1.50%) | Bitcoin
$43,601 (+3.16%) |
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Hey Snackers, A shopper scored the deal of the century when a vase she bought for $4 at Goodwill turned out to be made by a renowned Italian architect and later sold for $107K at auction. What a way to urn a living. The Dow ended its nine-day win streak yesterday, halting the recent market rally. The S&P 500 went along for the ride, notching its worst day since September thanks partly to disappointing FedEx earnings. | |
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Blue Origin blasts off (again) as Bezos prioritizes catching Musk in the billionaire space race | To infinity and Bezos… Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin hurtled its New Shephard rocket into space for the 23rd time on Tuesday — the company's first successful launch since a failed attempt last year. After a day's delay, the uncrewed rocket carried science experiments for NASA and schools, along with thousands of kids' postcards to space. S'cute. Space taxi: Blue Origin's taken 31 people to the edge of space, including Bezos and William Shatner (aka Captain Kirk). The actor's review: "it felt like a funeral." Moonward bound: New Shepard is Blue Origin's only operating project at the moment, but Bezos has galactic-size goals, including the XL New Glenn rocket and the Blue Moon lunar lander.
Tangled in SpaceX's contrails… Winning a $3.4B NASA contract in May to build the Blue Moon lunar lander was an astronomical moment for Blue Origin, which had been passed over for a previous contract in favor of Elon Musk's SpaceX. In the billionaire space race, SpaceX is like Usain Bolt, closing in on nearly 100 launches this year. SpaceX mostly ferries NASA astronauts and assorted stuff into space, but it took private citizens into orbit in 2021 and later to the International Space Station — meaning space tourism isn't solely Bezos' bag. |  | THE TAKEAWAY |
| Winning the space race takes more than just $$... This week, Bezos acknowledged Blue Origin's slow progress (he founded it in 2000). He said the CEO of a publicly traded company can't give another company the attention it needs — perhaps a dig at Musk, who's the boss at SpaceX and Tesla and pays a lot of attention to X. Bezos stepped down as Amazon's chief exec in 2021, and recently said on Lex Fridman's pod that, going forward, he'll be leading Blue Origin directly. | |
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| | A quarter-century of curiosity | |
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Surging bitcoin NFTs send transaction fees skyward — and miners are reaping the rewards | Too much of a good thing… Ordinals are having a moment. Launched early this year, the NFT-like "inscriptions" let owners store and trade photos, videos, and (yes) ape jpegs directly on the bitcoin blockchain. They're wildly popular, with 1.2M+ new ordinals made just last weekend. And last week trading volume hit $305M+, more than triple the NFT trading volume on ethereum and solana over the same period. But that popularity comes at a cost: Pay to play: Bitcoin transaction fees skyrocketed to $37 on Sunday (up from $1 to $2 in September), a high not seen since April 2021. All queued up: Ordinals are contributing to blockchain congestion, with 300K+ transactions stuck waiting to confirm over the weekend.
Toll booths welcome traffic… While everyday crypto traders may gripe about climbing fees, for bitcoin miners the spike couldn't come at a better time. That's because companies like Riot Platforms, Marathon Digital, and Hut 8 are staring down the barrel of this coming spring's bitcoin halving, when once every four years the amount of BTC miners get for mining a block is cut in half. Now, ordinal-driven transaction fees are swooping in to boost bottom lines: Q4 mining revenue is already up 60% to $2.5B. | | THE TAKEAWAY |
| Stumbling blocks can help build a foundation… The long-term viability of bitcoin is tied to the fortunes of miners. And while transaction fees bumped by ordinals could serve as an impediment to crypto adoption (picture: a $37 fee to buy a latte), they also incentivize miners to validate transactions. Now, as fees go up, publicly traded miners are seeing their stocks pop. Still, some critics say ordinals are "spamming the blockchain" and should be banned. | |
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What else we're Snackin' | FYP: TikTok parent ByteDance's sales are said to have grown ~30% this year to $110B+ as its ecomm biz boomed. ByteDance has become one of China's digital big dogs, likely overtaking Tencent and closing in on Alibaba. EBrake: Bird, once a $2.5B e-scooter giant, filed for bankruptcy after a year that's seen it get delisted from the NYSE as its shares plunged 97%. Cities from Paris to Philly have banned e-scooters as accidents soar. Tracking: FedEx shares fell 12% yesterday after it projected a year-over-year revenue decline. Experts are anticipating a lackluster year for holiday shipping as shoppers navigate inflation. Soggy: General Mills shares dipped yesterday after the food co's earnings were light on sweets. It cited shoppers' stronger-than-expected deal seeking (think: buying store brands) as it lowered its outlook. Jolly: The IRS said it'll waive $1B in fees for 4.7M people and businesses that owe back taxes (70% of recipients make under $100K). The agency said its pause in mailing payment reminders last year led to the decision.
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Snack Fact Of the Day | Today's the first day of winter in the Northern Hemisphere — and the shortest day of the year | | |
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Thursday | Authors of this Snacks own bitcoin and ethereum and shares of: Riot Platforms | |
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Sherwood Media, LLC produces fresh and unique perspectives on topical financial news and is a fully owned subsidiary of Robinhood Markets, Inc., and any views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of any other Robinhood affiliate... See more | |
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