Binance’s renewed push into tokenized stocks gained regulatory backing Tuesday as the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) approved trading of Ondo Finance’s tokenized equities on the exchange’s regulated platform.

The Financial Services Regulatory Authority of ADGM cleared Ondo Global Markets’ tokenized stocks and ETFs to trade on Binance’s FSRA-regulated Multilateral Trading Facility, according to a press release shared with CoinDesk. The listing includes tokenized versions of Amazon, Alphabet, Apple, Circle, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, Tesla and the Invesco QQQ ETF. The products are available for non-U.S. users.

This is the first time the ADGM approved tokenized securities trading under the its regulatory framework, allowing UAE-based financial institutions, intermediaries, and counterparties deal in token versions of equities, Ondo said.

“Through offering Ondo tokenized stocks for trading on Binance, we are expanding access to hundreds of millions of investors,” Ian de Bode, president of Ondo Finance, said in a statement.

The approval gives Binance a regulated venue to trade tokenized equities, nearly five years after it shut down a similar service following scrutiny from U.K. and German regulators. The move comes after Binance listed Ondo’s tokenized equities on its Alpha platform, dedicated to riskier, early-stage projects.

Tokenized stocks have drawn interest from crypto exchanges such as Kraken, brokerages like Robinhood and traditional market operators like Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange. The market’s total value has surpassed $1 billion, RWA.xyz data shows.

Supporters argue that putting equities on blockchain rails can widen investor access and allow the assets to move across trading and lending platforms more easily, linking stock markets with decentralized finance.

Ondo structures its products as equity-linked notes tied to the underlying shares. The firm says it has processed more than $11 billion in cumulative trading volume with over $600 million in total value locked since launching its offering less than six months ago.

Last year, Ondo secured approval for its base securities prospectus in the European Union, allowing public distribution across the European Union.

Key Takeaways

• Best Buy (BBY) exceeded Q4 adjusted EPS projections at $2.61 compared to analyst expectations of $2.47, driving shares up approximately 12% during premarket hours.
• Quarterly revenue totaled $13.81 billion, representing a 1% year-over-year decline and falling short of the $13.87 billion consensus estimate.
• Comparable store sales decreased 0.8%, contrasting with analyst predictions of a 0.1% increase.
• Annual guidance disappointed: EPS range of $6.30–$6.60 versus analyst expectations of $6.66, with comparable sales projected between -1% and +1% against estimates of +1.63%.
• The electronics retailer increased its quarterly dividend payout by one cent to $0.96 per share, delivering the strongest yield within the Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR ETF.

Best Buy (BBY) unveiled its fiscal fourth-quarter financial performance on Tuesday, delivering earnings that exceeded Wall Street predictions — though top-line results and forward guidance disappointed investors.

Shares surged as much as 11.8% during premarket hours following the earnings release, bouncing back from an 11-month trough reached just one trading session earlier.

Best Buy Co., Inc., BBY

BBY concluded Monday’s session with a 0.6% decline to $61.59, marking the end of a challenging four-month period that witnessed a nearly 25% depreciation. Entering Tuesday’s announcement, market sentiment was already subdued.

Adjusted profit per share reached $2.61, improving from $2.58 in the year-ago period and comfortably surpassing analyst projections of $2.46–$2.47. This positive surprise provided the catalyst shares needed.

Top-line results for the quarter concluding January 31 totaled $13.81 billion, reflecting a 1% year-over-year contraction and marginally trailing the consensus projection of $13.87 billion.

Comparable store sales contracted 0.8%, falling short of predictions calling for a 0.1% expansion. While disappointing, this decline remains manageable within the current retail environment.

Chief Executive Corie Barry emphasized that overall market positioning remained stable throughout the holiday quarter, notwithstanding softer consumer appetite across the electronics retail sector.

Cost of goods sold totaled $10.93 billion, down from $11.03 billion in the prior-year period — indicating effective cost management strategies.

Barry additionally highlighted that comparable sales for the complete fiscal year returned to positive territory for the first time in three years, and that Best Buy’s advertising division delivered solid performance.

Annual Projections Fall Short of Expectations

The retailer projected full-year revenue between $41.2 billion and $42.1 billion, trailing the consensus estimate of $42.2 billion. Comparable sales are anticipated to range from negative 1% to positive 1%, underperforming the analyst projection of 1.4% growth.

Adjusted EPS guidance spanning $6.30–$6.60 similarly disappointed relative to the $6.63–$6.66 consensus band.

CFRA Research analyst Ana Garcia characterized the quarter as evidence of “operational resilience,” while acknowledging “mounting headwinds” approaching fiscal 2027.

Evercore ISI’s Greg Melich adopted a more balanced perspective, noting the guidance “signals modest growth with overall demand normalization — which was better than feared.”

Wedbush’s Matthew McCartney had indicated prior to the release that diminished expectations were already reflected in valuations, with limited catalysts visible to reignite investor enthusiasm. The earnings surprise provided markets with a positive data point.

Dividend Payout Receives Incremental Increase

Best Buy elevated its quarterly dividend distribution by one cent to $0.96 per share. Using Monday’s closing price as a reference, this translates to an annualized yield of 6.23%.

This represents the most attractive dividend yield among all constituents of the Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR ETF — and exceeds five times the implied yield on the S&P 500 of 1.16%.

Management referenced a “mixed macro environment” as a contributing factor to its conservative annual outlook, with consumers facing pressure from tariff-driven cost escalations and an unpredictable employment landscape.

BBY has declined 29% over the trailing 12 months through Monday, while the S&P 500 advanced 17.6% during the identical timeframe.

Adjusted Q4 EPS of $2.61 exceeded projections of $2.46, whereas full-year EPS guidance spanning $6.30–$6.60 trailed the $6.63 consensus estimate.

Technological deflation driven by artificial intelligence could help push Bitcoin above $10 million within a decade by pressuring central banks to keep expanding the money supply, according to a report from Strive strategist Joe Burnett.

Burnett, Strive’s vice president of Bitcoin strategy, said in a report published Monday that faster productivity gains from AI will push down prices across goods and services, squeezing margins and prompting policymakers to respond with sustained monetary expansion. His “base case” calls for Bitcoin (BTC) to reach $11 million in the first quarter of 2036, he wrote.

”My base case for Q1 2036 is $11 million per Bitcoin.”

The forecast rests on a set of aggressive assumptions, including that Bitcoin would grow to about 12% of the value of global financial assets and that global wealth would compound at 7% annually through 2036. With Bitcoin currently accounting for about 0.2% of all financial assets, this would involve an over 176-fold increase in Bitcoin’s market capitalization during the next decade to hit $230 trillion.

The forecast would imply that Bitcoin becomes the dominant global reserve asset along with structurally loose monetary policy over the next decade, Nic Puckrin, co-founder and lead market analyst of educational platform Coin Bureau, told Cointelegraph.

”The forecast implies Bitcoin would become around 10 times as large as the current US M2 money supply, nearly four times as large as the US equity market today, and nearly double current global GDP.”

The prediction would also imply a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of around 53% per annum, which is not unprecedented considering Bitcoin’s average 60% CAGR between 2015 and 2024, but a slowdown may be expected due to its larger market capitalization, added Puckrin.

AI deflation engine to lead to structural monetary expansion

Burnett’s thesis centers on what he described as an “AI deflation engine,” arguing that AI-driven automation and cost reductions could create persistent deflationary pressure.

In a debt-based fiat system, sustained deflation can strain credit markets because wages and asset prices may fall while debt obligations remain fixed in nominal terms, he wrote, potentially pushing central banks and fiscal authorities to add liquidity to avoid a deflationary spiral.

Related: Bitcoin manipulation claims face pushback as ETFs snap 5-week outflow run: Finance Redefined

”Under a debt-based fiat framework, persistent deflation destabilizes credit markets because wages and asset prices decline while mortgages, corporate loans, and sovereign debt remain fixed in nominal terms,” Burnett said.

”As AI drives real-economy deflation, central banks and fiscal authorities expand liquidity to prevent a deflationary spiral.”

Burnett said this will lead to a persistent increase in money relative to the supply of scarce assets.

Related: Solo Bitcoin miner bags over $200K block reward using rented hashrate

Emergence of digital credit set to bolster Bitcoin demand

The report also points to what Burnett calls the emergence of “digital credit” models promoted by companies including Strategy, the largest corporate Bitcoin holder.

Digital credit provides US dollar income to investors through publicly traded securities backed by large Bitcoin balance sheets issued by treasury firms as a means to raise capital to acquire more Bitcoin.

Burnett foresees digital credit products creating a ”reflexive loop” between global yield demand and Bitcoin accumulation, marking the ”early stage of a credit system built on verifiably scarce money.”

Still, the $11 million forecast stands well above most bullish scenarios that use shorter time horizons. For instance, ARK Invest predicted a 2030 Bitcoin price target of $1.5 million in the company’s bull case and a $300,000 price target in the bear case, Cointelegraph reported in November 2025.

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