James Altucher:

TikTok’s $14 Billion Valuation in Trump Deal Stuns Investors

The $14 billion valuation that the Trump administration has estimated for TikTok’s U.S. business falls well below projections, surprising investors who say a deal at that price would be a bargain for potential buyers including Larry Ellison’s Oracle Corp. and partner Silver Lake Management LLC.

The rough estimate, cited by Vice President JD Vance on Thursday, pales in comparison to previous estimates that scaled closer to $40 billion. Vance’s comments came as President Donald Trump pushed forward a plan for American investors to buy the U.S. operation from Chinese internet firm ByteDance Ltd.

Vance conceded that the purchasers will “ultimately” determine the amount paid. While expected buyers would likely welcome a low-ball valuation, ByteDance and its existing investors may find it amusing, if not insulting.

Ashwin Binwani, who is founder of Alpha Binwani Capital and doesn’t hold ByteDance shares, said the proposal “could be the most undervalued tech acquisition of the decade.” He estimated the floated figure reflects a third of TikTok’s true value. “By every major financial metric and peer comparison, this price tag looks dramatically misaligned with reality.”

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Chris Campbell:

Crypto Shakeout: What We’re Doing!

This week, the crypto market went full Mike Tyson. Over $1.5 billion in longs got uppercut into oblivion. Four. Hundred. Thousand. That’s how many traders’ positions were just vaporized in hours. Panic sellers, diamond hands, and even careful hedgers got crushed.

But here’s the truth: Shakeouts like this one never happen at the top or the bottom. They happen on the climb. At the top, you see spot selling, ETF outflows, panic from the big money. That’s not what I’m seeing right now. ETFs keep taking in boatloads of cash. Stablecoin supply is staying strong.

Here’s what James and I are doing with our crypto portfolios: Nothing. Nada. Zilch. No panic selling. No hours lost sleeping. No late-night stress-eating. Why? Because crypto isn’t speculation anymore. It’s infrastructure.

Stablecoins now move more money than Visa. BlackRock is in the pool. Fidelity is in the hot tub. The rails are being laid, and they don’t go backwards.

The crypto market is a psychological torture chamber. It tests your patience, your ego, your ability to sit on your hands while the world screams at you to do something — anything.

But sometimes the smartest action is inaction. Especially when the rails are already being laid for a trillion-dollar future. Especially then.

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Ray Blanco:

HSBC Achieves Quantum Computing "Sputnik Moment" In Bond Market

HSBC Holdings Plc has achieved a "Sputnik moment" with the first real-world trial of quantum computing in bond markets, delivering up to a 34% improvement in predicting the probability of winning customer inquiries in the European corporate bond market. 

This marks the first empirical evidence of quantum computing solving real-world problems in algorithmic bond trading and could intensify the race among major banks to develop and deploy quantum computing in financial markets. 

"Working with a team from IBM, HSBC leveraged an approach that utilised quantum and classical computing resources to deliver up to a 34% improvement in predicting how likely a trade would be filled at a quoted price, compared to common classical techniques used in the industry," the London-headquartered bank wrote in a press release.

Philip Intallura, group head of quantum technologies at HSBC, described the breakthrough in deploying quantum computing in financial markets as a "Sputnik moment" for quantum, adding, "It will create a flurry of activity" as others step up efforts to harness the technology.

HSBC's trial signals the early commercial chapters of quantum computing in financial markets. However, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang stated earlier this year that "very useful" quantum computers are years out.

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