ratpack223/iStock via Getty Images Circle Internet Group ( CRCL ) is a major issuer of stablecoins. There's a lot of growth tailwinds for the industry. There's also controversy, and Circle found itself in some. It's worth checking out to see how it affects the stock. Circle's earning power The first thing to understand is how Circle makes money. It's a very simple business. They tokenize real-word...
ratpack223/iStock via Getty Images Circle Internet Group ( CRCL ) is a major issuer of stablecoins. There's a lot of growth tailwinds for the industry. There's also controversy, and Circle found itself in some. It's worth checking out to see how it affects the stock. Circle's earning power The first thing to understand is how Circle makes money. It's a very simple business. They tokenize real-word currencies, and these tokens are called stablecoins. Their flagship product is their USD stablecoin ( USDC-USD ). USDC accounts for almost all of the stablecoins they mint. Circle's Key Metrics (2025 Form 10K) Circle holds the real USD that is tokenized. They put it into Treasury Bills to keep it pegged to the dollar and earn interest. That's their revenue model. They rely on distributors too, like crypto exchanges, to offer USDC to users. Distributors get a cut of this interest income. If the interest income is more than distribution costs and their own overhead, they're profitable. Right now the market cap of USDC is $78.6B, and T-Bill yields are about 3.6 %. So USDC can currently yield about $2,829.6M for Circle. After distribution costs, this gives them about $1,103.5M in gross profit, and they guided for a high end of $994M in operating expenses. This means they can earn about $110M as they are. Tether, the main competition Circle's main competition is Tether. In fact, Tether is globally the leader in USD stablecoins with their product, USDT ( USDT-USD ). Even Circle's investor materials point this out. It also means this is mainly a rivalry between these two companies. USDC vs. USDT Market Share Data (Q4 2025 Earnings Presentation) USDT typically holds about 70% of the USD market, with USDC usually having about 25%. 2025 closed some of this gap. Tether remains a big leader. So what's the difference? Circle chose the path of transparency and compliance. Tether only recently announced it was having its assets audited. The doubt has always been if they hold T-Bills; som...
Gunvor Group ’s outgoing owner Torbjörn Törnqvist received over $1 billion in upfront payments as part of a hasty sale of his company to its management, according to documents seen by Bloomberg News. The commodity trader rushed to separate itself last year from its co-founder after the US Treasury described the company as “ the Kremlin’s puppet .” Financial details of the management buyout were no...
Gunvor Group ’s outgoing owner Torbjörn Törnqvist received over $1 billion in upfront payments as part of a hasty sale of his company to its management, according to documents seen by Bloomberg News. The commodity trader rushed to separate itself last year from its co-founder after the US Treasury described the company as “ the Kremlin’s puppet .” Financial details of the management buyout were not disclosed when it was announced in December, with Gunvor saying only that it would be funded in part by a vendor loan from Törnqvist. The company appointed then-head of Americas Gary Pedersen as its new CEO. The details of the deal are contained in unpublished company accounts that were seen by Bloomberg. They show how the buyout has delivered an immediate and previously undisclosed windfall to Törnqvist, while leaving the company with reduced financial firepower at a time when the war in the Middle East is upending global energy markets. The accounts show that Gunvor made an upfront cash payment of $1.2 billion to its shareholders as part of the buyout. It wasn’t clear whether Törnqvist received all of that money or only an amount in proportion to his shareholding — which was 86.1% immediately before the deal. Either way, he would have received more than $1 billion. The company also transferred $200 million in assets to Törnqvist, as well as canceling approximately $500 million in related-party loans that it said were “mainly” to him. Overall there was a $1.9 billion transfer as part of the deal, which led to an equivalent reduction in the company’s share capital in the first quarter of 2026. There remains a “negligible balance of related party loans post-MBO,” according to the accounts. That’s still only a fraction of the total value of Gunvor, whose equity was worth $6.5 billion at the end of 2024, according to its accounts. Gunvor said in December that the loan from Törnqvist to help fund the buyout would be repaid to his family foundation for a period of up to 10 yea...
Rice faces late fitness test for clash with Sporting Arteta has ‘zero fear’ could end season without silverware Mikel Arteta has insisted that he has “zero fear” that Arsenal could end the season without silverware but admitted that there are major doubts over when Bukayo Saka will return from an achilles injury. Arsenal head into the second leg of their Champions League tie against Sporting on We...
Rice faces late fitness test for clash with Sporting Arteta has ‘zero fear’ could end season without silverware Mikel Arteta has insisted that he has “zero fear” that Arsenal could end the season without silverware but admitted that there are major doubts over when Bukayo Saka will return from an achilles injury. Arsenal head into the second leg of their Champions League tie against Sporting on Wednesday having lost three of their last four matches in all competitions, culminating with Saturday’s damaging home defeat to Bournemouth in the Premier League that left the door open to title rivals Manchester City. Continue reading...
ORCL deepens Bloom Energy tie-up with a 2.8 GW deal to fast-track AI data centers, but massive spending and execution risks raise questions for investors.
ORCL deepens Bloom Energy tie-up with a 2.8 GW deal to fast-track AI data centers, but massive spending and execution risks raise questions for investors.
Earnings Call Insights: BlackRock (BLK) Q1 2026 Management View Martin Small (Senior MD, CFO & Global Head of Corporate Strategy) said it was “a standout start to the year for BlackRock,” highlighting “$130 billion of net inflows” and “8% organic base fee growth,” while noting “we expanded margins by over 100 basis points.” Small attributed growth to “deep engagement with clients,” adding that “Bl...
Earnings Call Insights: BlackRock (BLK) Q1 2026 Management View Martin Small (Senior MD, CFO & Global Head of Corporate Strategy) said it was “a standout start to the year for BlackRock,” highlighting “$130 billion of net inflows” and “8% organic base fee growth,” while noting “we expanded margins by over 100 basis points.” Small attributed growth to “deep engagement with clients,” adding that “BlackRock is winning mind share and wallet share,” and pointed to accelerating contributions from acquired and scaled platforms: “Aperio flows accelerating,” “iShares leading the industry,” and “infrastructure fundraising and deployment ahead of plan.” Small framed the quarter against volatility, but contrasted client activity with sentiment: “While headlines and sentiment remain uneven, BlackRock's performance tells a very different story. Our fundamentals are strong.” Small gave a capital return anchor: “we still anticipate repurchasing at least $450 million of shares per quarter for the balance of the year, consistent with our January guidance.” Laurence Fink (Founder, CEO & Chairman) called Q1 “one of the strongest starts to a year in BlackRock's history,” tying momentum to platform breadth: “Clients awarded us with $130 billion of net inflows in the first quarter.” Fink emphasized product and channel growth areas, including active ETFs: “Our active ETF platform has grown 4x in the last 2 years to more than $110 billion in AUM,” and reiterated a longer-term target: “we believe that active ETFs can be a $500 million or greater revenue generator by 2030, and we're already more than halfway there.” Fink highlighted private markets integration: “The combinations of GIP and HPS with BlackRock are surpassing the highest expectations we underwrote,” and added on private credit: “Demand is structural.” Outlook Martin Small (Senior MD, CFO & Global Head of Corporate Strategy) did not provide formal EPS or revenue guidance in the prepared remarks; instead, he reiterated a long-term...
The cloud-computing startup Fluidstack Ltd. is holding funding talks with investors to bring in about $1 billion at a target valuation of $18 billion, according to people briefed on the matter. Investors Jane Street and Situational Awareness are in talks to co-lead the new funding round, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private information. Morgan Stanley is advising Flui...
The cloud-computing startup Fluidstack Ltd. is holding funding talks with investors to bring in about $1 billion at a target valuation of $18 billion, according to people briefed on the matter. Investors Jane Street and Situational Awareness are in talks to co-lead the new funding round, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private information. Morgan Stanley is advising Fluidstack on the round, one of the people said. Read More: Fluidstack Drops Out of Marquee €10 Billion AI Project in France The new funding would make Fluidstack one of the more valuable startups in the US — more than doubling its valuation from about $7.5 billion when the company raised money earlier this year, one of the people said. That previous deal included a cash influx from Situational Awareness, the fund of former OpenAI researcher Leopold Aschenbrenner . The deal isn’t finalized and the details could change. Representatives for Jane Street, Situational Awareness and Morgan Stanley declined to comment. A spokesperson for Fluidstack didn’t respond to requests for comment. Fluidstack helps develop data centers through building and operating high-performance computing infrastructure, an area of business that is booming amid the rise of artificial intelligence. The firm recently announced a $50 billion deal with Anthropic to build custom data centers for the large language model maker. Last month, Fluidstack pulled out of a major data center project in France, part of a shift toward working primarily in the US. Late last year, the company moved its headquarters to New York from London.