Crypto World
XRP’s Next Bullish Wave Depends on These Crucial Price Levels: Analyst
There has been a lot of talk about an impending XRP breakout lately as the asset has been stuck in a relatively tight range since the early February crash.
Although each attempt has been met with immediate selling pressure, analysts are still hopeful that the token will overcome its most crucial resistance levels soon and head toward new peaks.
The Levels XRP Has to Surpass
In May alone, the cross-border token has already initiated three consecutive attempts to escape the captivity of its own consolidation. Although it was stopped almost instantly after each try, the good news is that it managed to mark higher highs before the subsequent rejections.
On May 6, it went from under $1.40 to $1.45 before it dumped back down to its starting point. However, it kept grinding and soared past $1.50 last Sunday before the bears stepped up once again. It managed to remain above $1.42, and Thursday’s attempt pushed it north to a two-month high of $1.55 before it was halted once again.
According to popular analyst EGRAG CRYPTO, XRP needs to overcome two major resistance levels before it goes on a more profound and sustainable run. The first is the one that stopped it in May at $1.51. If it falls, the second is located at $1.82, a level not seen since late January.
If the bulls managed to push XRP decisively above those lines, it would solidify the asset’s transition into a bullish Wave 5 expansion within the Elliott Wave structure. The analyst added that the most challenging parts of Elliott Wave are “NEVER Wave 3 or Wave 5;” instead, they point to fake breakouts, deep retracements, emotional traps, and complex structures.
“But once the correction is identified correctly: Wave 3 and Wave 5 become the easiest and most powerful moves to capitalize on,” EGRAG concluded.
We Still Play Range
Crypto Tony also mentioned XRP’s range between $1,30 and $1.55, in which the asset has remained for the past three and a half months. The analyst said he can look for more exposure once the asset breaks out in either direction, but until then, he will keep playing this range.
Fellow analyst CW added that XRP has liquidated a lot of short positions on its way up on Thursday, while the size of longs is “not large.” This would provide a more sustainable price rally structure if high-leveraged positions remain low.
Almost short positions in $XRP have been liquidated.
In addition, the size of long positions is not large. Most high-leverage positions in the $XRP futures market have been liquidated. pic.twitter.com/3WFZA0xMN3
— CW (@CW8900) May 15, 2026
The post XRP’s Next Bullish Wave Depends on These Crucial Price Levels: Analyst appeared first on CryptoPotato.
Several of Wall Street’s most-watched billionaires converged on a single conviction trade in their Q1 2026 13F filings. Bill Ackman, David Tepper, and other managers each boosted their stakes in Amazon (AMZN).
The disclosures show the e-commerce and cloud platform topping multiple hedge fund books. Amazon emerged as the most repeated overweight name across major filings.
Ackman and Tepper Lead the Amazon Add
Pershing Square added 1.84 million Amazon shares in the first quarter. The buy lifted Ackman’s position by roughly 19%, according to the fund’s filing.
Amazon now sits among its largest disclosed holdings alongside Brookfield, Uber, and a newly initiated Microsoft stake.
David Tepper’s Appaloosa Management nearly doubled its Amazon position during the quarter. The 98% increase made the stock the firm’s largest disclosed equity holding, valued at roughly $900 million.
The fund also boosted Uber by 242% and added to Taiwan Semiconductor while trimming Nvidia, Alphabet, and Alibaba.
Hedge funds run by Daniel Loeb, Seth Klarman, and Chase Coleman also list Amazon among their top US holdings.
The overlap reinforces a shared positioning theme. Amazon’s appeal rests on resilient e-commerce cash flow, AWS cloud demand tied to AI buildouts, and accelerating digital ad revenue.
AI and Quality Names Anchor the Rest
Beyond Amazon, the filings show a broader tilt toward AI-adjacent platforms and durable compounders. Tepper, Coleman, and Loeb hold Alphabet, Nvidia, Meta Platforms, and Taiwan Semiconductor.
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway made an outsized purchase of Alphabet and trimmed its Bank of America stake. Bill Gates and Chris Hohn cluster in industrials, railways, and quality payments names like Visa.
The 13F snapshots lag by 45 days. They also exclude options, short positions, and non-US holdings, so consensus reads should be paired with live price action.
Notwithstanding, the Amazon trade persisting into Q2 hinges on cloud capex guidance and advertising trends. The broader rotation between AI growth and value names also matters.
The post Wall Street Billionaires Make Amazon Their Top AI Trade appeared first on BeInCrypto.
Crypto World
Yaroslav Ivanov at Consensus 2026: Crypto’s Institutional Era Became Impossible to Ignore
Having worked across blockchain and digital asset ecosystems since 2015, Yaroslav Ivanov, Co-Founder and Chief Visionary Officer of ALTA Blockchain Labs, has witnessed crypto evolve from a niche movement into a sector increasingly intertwined with global finance, a shift that became especially evident at Consensus Miami 2026.
Ivanov is a strategic executive working closely with Web3 founders through ALTA Blockchain Labs, advising on tokenization and liquidity strategy, go-to-market execution, and ecosystem development.
Through his work with both founders and institutional investors, he observes how capital flows and builder sentiment evolve across market cycles. The event brought together senior voices from digital assets, banking, asset management, technology, and policy, with ALTA Blockchain Labs participating as a media and community partner of Consensus 2026.
ALTA sits at the layer where Web3 projects transition into broader liquidity markets.
For Ivanov, the atmosphere showed how much the industry has changed. The early crypto conference image of retail excitement, experimental culture, and chaotic builder energy was still visible, but it no longer defined the room.
The strongest presence came from banks, asset managers, public companies, policy voices, and technology providers speaking about tokenization, regulated settlement, stablecoins, and institutional adoption.
“The scale and institutional presence this year is impressive,” Ivanov said. “It reflects how seriously global finance is beginning to treat digital assets.”
The Rise of Institutional Crypto
Crypto’s new audience is more formal, more corporate, and more connected to existing financial power.
The Wall Street Journal captured this mood in its coverage of Consensus Miami, describing a more corporate atmosphere at the event, with representatives from major banks including JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup.
Its phrase “Lamborghinis Out, Suits In” pointed to a visible cultural change around one of crypto’s biggest annual gatherings.
For Ivanov, this creates a more complicated question than simple “maturity.” Institutional adoption brings capital, legitimacy, liquidity, and a larger market. It also forces the industry to decide which parts of its original culture deserve protection.
Crypto was built around distrust of concentrated financial control. Today, many institutions once skeptical of digital assets are entering the sector with large balance sheets, regulated products, and established client networks.
“Institutional influence over crypto is inevitable,” Ivanov said. “The key is to preserve the authenticity of decentralization and the mission laid out by Satoshi.”
Adoption Brings Pressure
Crypto’s institutional phase can support growth, but adoption alone does not preserve openness, self-custody, or permissionless innovation.
A market can grow while its original purpose becomes less visible.
This tension ran through Consensus 2026, where tokenized securities, stablecoin settlement, bank-grade custody, regulatory alignment, and institutional distribution dominated many discussions.
Meanwhile, at side events, founder meetings, informal gatherings, and community conversations around Miami still focused on networks, applications, user ownership, and mass participation outside traditional finance.
The result was a collision between two versions of the same industry.
Bullish Brings Public Equity Onchain
One of the strongest examples came from Bullish. During Consensus Miami 2026, the company announced plans to let shareholders hold BLSH ordinary shares as tokens on Solana. Bullish described the launch as the first full tokenization of an NYSE-listed company’s equity cap table, administered by Equiniti, its SEC-registered transfer agent.
This gave the institutional conversation a concrete example. Tokenization now reaches public-company ownership records, transfer agents, shareholder visibility, settlement timing, and regulated market operations.
For founders, it validates blockchain as a technology for financial markets. It also shows how quickly crypto language can be absorbed into institutional design.
Solana and the Speed of Open Networks
Solana’s presence at Consensus added another angle to the same discussion. Ivanov met with Anatoly Yakovenko, Co-Founder of Solana Labs, during the event.
Yakovenko’s public comments at Consensus focused on the advantages global blockchain networks may have over companies built around regulated domestic markets. He made the point that crypto-native teams operate globally and can adapt faster than firms tied to legacy market structures.
This idea sits close to the heart of the current debate. Traditional finance is entering crypto because the technology has become too useful to ignore. Crypto-native networks still move faster because they were built with different assumptions from legacy finance.
The next stage of competition may be more about open networks challenging the operating models of traditional markets.
The Builder Spirit Around the Edges
Consensus 2026 showed an industry large enough for major institutions to take seriously, but still young enough for its future to remain unsettled.
Institutional finance wants efficiency, settlement speed, new products, and access to tokenized markets. Crypto-native founders still speak about sovereignty, user ownership, transparency, and global participation.
The risk for crypto is that institutional language becomes the dominant language of success. If the industry measures progress only through ETFs, tokenized cap tables, bank partnerships, and regulated liquidity, the users and builders who carried crypto through earlier years are more easily overlooked.
At the same time, institutional participation brings distribution, compliance experience, and liquidity. These forces can make digital assets easier to use globally. The challenge is accepting institutional growth while preserving crypto’s independent foundation.
Crypto Enters Wall Street’s Room
Consensus Miami 2026 did not resolve the tension between institutional adoption and crypto’s original builder culture, but it did make it harder to ignore.
For Ivanov, the most important lesson came from the contrast between the official program and the surrounding community. Inside the main venue, crypto looked increasingly like a financial market industry.
Around the edges, the original builder spirit remained alive through side events, founder conversations, and communities still focused on open participation.
This contrast may define the next era of digital assets. Crypto has, indeed, entered the room with Wall Street.
The post Yaroslav Ivanov at Consensus 2026: Crypto’s Institutional Era Became Impossible to Ignore appeared first on BeInCrypto.
Starbucks (SBUX) has compounded roughly 40,000% since its 1992 IPO, turning a $10,000 ticket into close to $4 million.
On Friday, the company that built that record told 300 more corporate workers they were out, took a $400 million restructuring charge, and watched the stock rise anyway. Wall Street called it the right move.
A 408x Run Built on a $5 Habit
Starbucks went public on June 26, 1992, at $17 per share. After six 2-for-1 stock splits, that adjusts to roughly $0.26. The stock closed Friday near $106.79, pushing its market cap to about $121.7 billion.
Pure price-to-earnings now runs around 408 times the IPO level, before the 2.32% dividend yield is even factored in.
To put that in numbers a crypto trader can feel, Bitcoin would need to roughly 400x from today’s price to match what Starbucks has already done.
The compounding survived the 2008 crash, the pandemic shutdowns and the 2022 inflation shocks. It also survived two CEO transitions and a multi-year same-store sales slump.
SBUX is up 26% year to date in 2026, the latest reminder that boring assets sometimes outrun the flashy ones and that the crypto-versus-stocks debate rarely ends the way Twitter expects.
The Turnaround Behind the New Record
Niccol’s “Back to Starbucks” plan finally showed up in the numbers last month. Q2 FY26 revenue rose 9% to $9.53 billion, beating consensus.
Global same-store sales jumped 6.2%, with North America up 7.1% on a 4.4% lift in transactions. It was the first quarter in more than 2 years when both the top and bottom lines grew.
Management raised full-year guidance to at least 5% same-store sales growth, up from a prior 3% target, and reaffirmed plans for 600 to 650 net new coffeehouses in fiscal 2026.
The global footprint now exceeds 41,000 stores. A China joint-venture sale separately freed up roughly $3.1 billion in cash, the kind of quiet infrastructure play that crypto keeps trying to imitate.
The Layoffs Wall Street Cheered
On May 15, Starbucks said it would cut 300 US corporate roles in marketing, human resources, and supply chain functions and shut some regional support offices. Coffeehouse staff are not affected.
The move will trigger $400 million in restructuring charges, including a $280 million write-down on long-term assets and $120 million in cash severance.
It is Niccol’s third corporate cut since taking the job, and Jim Cramer framed it on CNBC as a setup play.
“He has said over and over again that he’s got to right-size. This is it. He’s getting it done,” CNBC reported, citing Cramer.
The market is still pricing SBUX at roughly 81 times earnings, a multiple that assumes the compounding machine keeps running.
The next leg of public-market consumer stories, which has now matched the last 34 years, hinges on whether Niccol’s margin reset turns into real offense or just another expensive defense of an already bid-up name.
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The post A $5 Coffee Habit Compounded 40,000% Yet Wall Street Still Cheers the Layoffs appeared first on BeInCrypto.
Crypto World
Crypto users are choosing juicy yields over protection, putting billions at risk of hacks
DeFi insurance protocols debuted with huge ambitions during the 2020 crypto boom. But as hacks evolved and users chased yields over protection, most of the sector collapsed under the same risks it was built to cover.
Kevin Warsh, nominee for US Federal Reserve Chair, testifies during a Senate Banking Committee hearing on his nomination on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on April 21, 2026.
Mandel Ngan | Afp | Getty Images
If new Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh is still itching for a “good family fight” over monetary policy, he is likely to get one if he sticks to his guns on interest rate cuts.
With inflation spiking and Treasury yields surging, Warsh is likely to confront a Federal Open Market Committee in no mood to ease. In fact, several officials of late have stressed the need for the Fed to keep its options open for rate hikes ahead.
If it looked like outgoing Governor Stephen Miran was a lone wolf howling for reductions, seeing a Fed chair trying to defy his fellow policymakers and push for cuts will loom even larger.
Those who have watched Warsh over the years, from his prior stint as a Fed governor through his high-profile public disagreements with Fed policy since, expect him to put up strong arguments for cutting. The problem is, he’s likely to lose at least in the short term, a situation that sets up some interesting communication issues for the new central bank leader.
“I saw him in action. He does base his decisions on his view of the economy, and even his arguments for why he would favor rate decreases in general were based on his read of what’s happening structurally in the economy,” said former Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester, who served with the Philadelphia Fed during the prior period when Warsh was on the board. “I just don’t think right now he can make those arguments in a credible way, because we have an inflation problem.”
Indeed, surging inflation will be Warsh’s first and primary policy challenge.
Officially, Warsh has echoed much of the Trump administration’s position on the current run of price surges — mainly that they are temporary and will fade once the fighting in Iran ceases and various disinflationary forces, such as increased productivity, take over.
However, those arguments face a tougher audience now with inflation levels at multi-year highs.
Warsh made the “family fight” remarks during his Senate confirmation hearing, a remark, along with other caustic comments he’s made about the Fed, that central bank observers privately say could come back to haunt him.
Rampant dissent
At the most recent meeting, in late April, three members of the Federal Open Market Committee, the central bank’s rate-setting arm, voted against the policy statement.
The vote homed in on one sentence in the missive that investors took to imply that the next move would be a cut: “In considering the extent and timing of additional adjustments to the target range for the federal funds rate, the Committee will carefully assess incoming data, the evolving outlook, and the balance of risks.”
However, it is just that disagreement that could allow Warsh to put a quick imprint on the Fed. By convincing the balance of the other 11 FOMC voters to remove it, he would further his oft-stated disdain for such “forward guidance” while also rallying the panel around a common objective, namely to preserve optionality for future moves.
“You get plenty of contrarian thinking in there. Kevin Warsh is a very fortunate man in his experience. Family fights generally lead to constructive outcomes,” said Lou Crandall, chief economist at Wrightson ICAP and a leading voice in internal Fed machinations.
“On the one hand, he can present this as not a tightening signal, just a shift to more agnostic communications framework,” he added. “There is a PR element that would be helpful to him. He doesn’t have to say that the committee forced his hand in his first meeting to go to an effectively more restrictive stance.”
Warsh’s problems would be far from over, though.
Facing the president
President Donald Trump nominated the new chair with clear statements that he expected lower interest rates. Should Warsh fail to deliver, it could set up the same kind of relationship Trump had with outgoing Chair Jerome Powell: a perpetual clash that saw frequent personal attacks and ultimately involved the Justice Department, as well as a historically unprecedented level of discord between the administration and central bank.
So might Warsh be left to present the decision of the committee, then state in his post-meeting news conference that he disagreed and tried but failed to persuade his cohorts to vote for a cut?
Not likely, say those familiar with inner FOMC workings, primarily because it would serve to further undercut Warsh’s credibility.
“That would undermine his power as chair. Part of the job of chair is you get the committee to reach a consensus.” said Mester, the former Cleveland president.
While there’s a perception that Fed officials enter the meeting room and then hash out positions, Mester, who served in various capacities at the Fed from 1985 until 2024, said it doesn’t really work that way.
“Chair Powell and the chairs before him, Ben [Bernanke] and Janet [Yellen], they both made a point of calling each participant right before the meeting so they would know where people are,” she said. “The driving towards consensus is part and parcel of the setup of the FOMC.”
Making the case
Former Governor Miran, who leaves the board with Warsh’s arrival, said in a Bloomberg News interview earlier in the week that “it’s important to understand that people at the Fed are responsive to arguments.” Though he voted against each of the rate decisions at the six meetings he attended, Miran noted that other officials “started to respond” to his contrarian arguments “but it takes time.”
Those who worked with Warsh say he’s up to the job, despite less-than-ideal circumstances surrounding the current Fed climate.
In addition to basic matters of rates, the new chair faces additional communications challenges.
He has spoken out not only against providing guidance, but also the Fed’s vaunted “dot plot” of individual officials’ rate expectations and even has shown misgivings about hosting news conferences after each meeting, a process that Powell began that deviated from the prior practice of quarterly meetings with the press.
Bill English, former head of monetary affairs at the Fed and now a professor at Yale, served with Warsh and deemed him “good at working with people, and I think he’ll try to find a reasonable consensus” among the myriad issues ahead.
“At least from what I saw years ago when he was a governor, he just doesn’t seem like the sort of guy who’s going to want to pick a fight with the committee,” English said. “My guess is he’s going to want to continue to be a chair who’s going to try to find consensus and move the committee over time with arguments and with data.”
Crypto World
Intesa Sanpaolo Doubles Crypto Holdings to $235 Million in Q1 2026 With New ETH and XRP Positions
TLDR:
- Intesa Sanpaolo more than doubled its crypto exposure from $100M to $235M in the first quarter of 2026.
- The bank entered Ethereum for the first time via BlackRock’s iShares Staked Ethereum Trust with 3.1M shares.
- A new XRP position through Grayscale XRP Trust held 712,319 shares, valued at around $18M on March 31.
- Solana holdings collapsed from 266,320 shares to just 2,817, while Bitcoin and Coinbase positions grew notably.
Intesa Sanpaolo, Italy’s largest bank, has sharply increased its cryptocurrency exposure in Q1 2026. The bank’s crypto-related assets grew from roughly $100 million in Q4 2025 to around $235 million by March 31.
New positions in Ethereum and XRP drove much of this growth. The bank also expanded its Bitcoin holdings through multiple ETFs during the same period.
New Crypto Positions Mark a Shift in Strategy
The bank entered the Ethereum market for the first time through BlackRock’s iShares Staked Ethereum Trust. It acquired 3,147,918 shares in this ETF, which also offers staking rewards. This move marked a notable addition to its existing digital asset portfolio.
Intesa Sanpaolo also established a new position in XRP via the Grayscale XRP Trust. The bank held 712,319 shares, valued at approximately $18 million as of March 31. At current values, that position has grown to around $26 million.
When reached by Criptovaluta.it, the bank confirmed that these are “detentions for proprietary trading purposes,” without offering further details.
This was consistent with statements the bank had made in prior quarters regarding its digital asset activity.
Meanwhile, the bank increased its Bitcoin exposure through the ARK 21Shares BTC ETF and the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF.
Share counts in both funds rose compared to the prior quarter. The bank also added call options on the iShares BTC ETF for the first time.
Solana Reduced While Equity Holdings Shift
Intesa Sanpaolo made a sharp cut to its Solana exposure during the quarter. Its holdings in the Bitwise Solana Staking ETF dropped from 266,320 shares to just 2,817. This reduction stands out against the broader increase in crypto assets.
On April 15, Ripple announced it had offered custody services to Intesa Sanpaolo. The timing followed closely after the bank’s XRP position became public.
As Ripple stated in its announcement, it had extended “its custody services to Intesa Sanpaolo,” adding a layer of infrastructure to the bank’s growing XRP exposure.
On the equities side, the bank added a new position in BitGo, holding 165,600 shares. At the same time, it closed its holdings in Bitmine and reduced its stake in Cantor Equity Partners II. The bank also closed its put options on Strategy entirely.
Coinbase shares increased from 1,500 to 10,357, showing a stronger bet on crypto infrastructure stocks. Positions in BTCS and Ethzilla remained unchanged from the previous quarter.
As early as January 13, 2025, the bank had confirmed to Criptovaluta.it “the purchase of 11 Bitcoins,” valued at approximately one million euros at the time, signaling that this crypto push has been building for over a year.
TLDR:
-
- The CLARITY Act passed the Senate Banking Committee 15-9 after a last-minute bipartisan deal during the markup itself.
- Senators Alsobrooks and Gallego voted yes in committee but have not committed to supporting the bill on the Senate floor.
- An ethics provision barring officials from financial interests in digital assets remains the top Democratic demand before floor passage.
- Galaxy Research puts the CLARITY Act at a 75% chance of becoming law in 2026 if it clears the Senate by mid-July.
The CLARITY Act passed the Senate Banking Committee in a 15-9 vote on Thursday. The bipartisan outcome came after last-minute negotiations during the markup itself.
Two Democratic senators, Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland and Ruben Gallego of Arizona, crossed party lines to advance the bill.
Both senators, however, noted their floor votes are not guaranteed. The bill now moves toward a full Senate debate, with a tight timeline ahead.
Last-Minute Deal Shapes the Committee Vote
The markup began with uncertainty over Democratic support. About 90 minutes in, Sen. Gallego signaled he would vote yes to advance the bill, though he clarified this was not a commitment for the floor. Shortly after, Committee Chairman Sen. Tim Scott announced a bipartisan compromise had been reached.
As part of that deal, five amendments from Sen. Cynthia Lummis were added for consideration. Most passed with five Democrats joining in favor — Warner, Warnock, Alsobrooks, Gallego, and Cortez Masto. However, on the final committee vote, only Gallego and Alsobrooks voted yes.
Alex Thorn of Galaxy Research noted the outcome in a post on X, writing that the bipartisan advancement raises the odds of final passage and placing the bill at a 75% chance of becoming law in 2026.
Both Alsobrooks and Gallego stated that further changes are needed before they commit to a floor yes vote. The central Democratic concern is an ethics provision.
This would bar senior officials and elected members from holding financial interests in or promoting digital assets.
What Comes Next for the CLARITY Act
The Senate Banking text must now be reconciled with the Senate Agriculture Committee version, which advanced in January.
After that, Majority Leader Sen. John Thune must schedule floor time for a full Senate debate, which is expected to take about a week.
The proposed timeline suggests Banking and Agriculture reconciliation could begin the week of June 1. Senate floor consideration may follow around June 15, with a possible final Senate passage by June 22.
A Senate-House reconciliation process could wrap up by late July, with a presidential signature targeted for the week of August 3.
Outside of ethics, other open issues include the treatment of DeFi under Title III and the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act in Section 604. These areas remain concerns for law enforcement-focused lawmakers on both sides.
The CLARITY Act, paired with last year’s GENIUS Act, is expected to establish a broad framework for digital asset markets in the United States.
Legislators and industry participants have worked on this type of market structure legislation for several years, with the goal of keeping crypto innovation within U.S. regulatory boundaries.
Key Takeaways
- Duquesne Family Office, managed by Stanley Druckenmiller, completely liquidated its 385,000-share Alphabet (GOOGL) stake during Q1 2026.
- TCI Fund Management, led by Christopher Hohn, established a fresh 2.46 million-share Alphabet Class A position and expanded Class C holdings to 8.85 million shares.
- TCI dramatically reduced its Microsoft exposure, cutting shares from 16.78 million down to 2.73 million.
- Third Point, managed by Daniel Loeb, launched new positions in Meta, Alphabet, bitcoin miner Hut 8, and SPDR Gold Shares ETF.
- Druckenmiller’s fund established fresh stakes in Broadcom, Caris Life Sciences, and Revolution Medicines while nearly eliminating its Amazon position.
Major hedge fund managers submitted their Q1 2026 13F reports late Friday evening, exposing significant portfolio adjustments across technology holdings. Alphabet emerged as a focal point, with prominent investors taking opposing positions on the tech giant.
Stanley Druckenmiller’s Duquesne Family Office led the exits. The investment firm completely liquidated its 385,000-share Alphabet Class A holding throughout the first quarter. This position had been substantially expanded during Q4 2025, when Duquesne boosted it from 102,000 shares. The firm has not issued public statements explaining the rationale behind this complete withdrawal.
Alphabet finished Friday’s trading session at $396.78, gaining 1% for the day. Year-to-date, the stock has climbed 27% in 2026. Notably, during the January through March period, shares declined 8%, indicating Druckenmiller’s exit occurred while the stock was underperforming.
Duquesne Establishes Broadcom Position, Nearly Eliminates Amazon
While divesting from Alphabet, Duquesne remained aggressive in other sectors. The fund launched a new Broadcom position comprising 195,955 shares. Additionally, it established a significant stake in Caris Life Sciences totaling 1.89 million shares and acquired 315,860 shares of Revolution Medicines.
The fund executed substantial reductions elsewhere in its portfolio. Its Amazon holdings were slashed dramatically, declining from 737,940 shares to merely 9,539 shares. Teva Pharmaceuticals was reduced from 5.87 million shares to 2.37 million, while Coupang saw its stake drop from 6.77 million shares to 2.67 million.
Duquesne completely exited several positions during the quarter, including State Street Financial Select Sector SPDR, Cogent Biosciences, Entegris, Delta Air Lines, and American Airlines.
TCI Expands Alphabet Holdings While Third Point Enters Crypto Exposure
Contrasting with Druckenmiller’s approach, Christopher Hohn’s TCI Fund Management aggressively accumulated Alphabet shares. The fund initiated a substantial 2.46 million-share Alphabet Class A position from scratch. Simultaneously, it expanded its Alphabet Class C holdings from 7.6 million to 8.85 million shares.
TCI strengthened other core holdings as well. Visa shares were increased to 30.47 million, while both S&P Global and Moody’s saw expanded positions. However, the fund executed a dramatic reduction in Microsoft, slashing its stake from 16.78 million shares to just 2.73 million.
Daniel Loeb’s Third Point pursued a distinct strategy. The fund initiated fresh positions across Meta, Alphabet, SPDR Gold Shares, and Hut 8, a bitcoin mining operation. These moves signal expansion into both established technology leaders and cryptocurrency-related investments. Third Point simultaneously exited Microsoft, PG&E, Brookfield Asset Management, Casey’s, and CoStar throughout Q1.
The contrasting approaches to Alphabet across elite hedge funds underscores the divergent perspectives on the stock during a quarter when shares traded below their year-start levels.
These portfolio changes were revealed through mandatory 13F regulatory filings, which capture positions held as of March 31, 2026. As of Friday’s market close, Alphabet shares have appreciated 27% year-to-date.
Key Takeaways
- Atlassian (TEAM) climbed 8.1% following a diplomatic summit between Trump and Xi that boosted technology sector confidence, with the S&P 500 reaching a new record exceeding 7,500.
- Trade relations between the US and China transitioned from hostile to moderately optimistic, alleviating concerns for software companies with global operations.
- Strong performance from Figma (46% revenue expansion) and ServiceNow’s AI collaboration with Experian bolstered confidence in enterprise AI revenue generation.
- Truist maintained its Buy recommendation with a $100 target price, highlighting Atlassian’s artificial intelligence approach and Rovo credit consumption framework.
- TEAM remains significantly depressed with a 44% decline year-to-date and sitting 60.8% beneath its 52-week peak of $220.89.
Shares of Atlassian (TEAM) advanced 8.1% on May 15, reaching $86.61, following a diplomatic meeting between Trump and Xi in Beijing that altered the trajectory of US-China trade discussions.
The summit delivered fewer tangible agreements than investors anticipated. However, the overall atmosphere evolved from adversarial to moderately positive — and for an industry as internationally integrated as enterprise software, that shift proved sufficient.
The S&P 500 achieved a milestone, surpassing 7,500 during the same trading session. Technology stocks experienced broad-based buying interest.
This upward movement wasn’t isolated. Two distinct developments from the broader enterprise software landscape reinforced the positive sentiment.
Figma disclosed 46% revenue expansion, demonstrating genuine progress in early AI monetisation efforts. ServiceNow unveiled a multiyear artificial intelligence collaboration with Experian. Both announcements conveyed a consistent message: enterprise software providers are successfully integrating AI capabilities into their offerings and generating revenue from these features.
This storyline holds significance for Atlassian. Earlier this year, apprehension that artificial intelligence would destabilize rather than strengthen enterprise software platforms had pressured the sector. These recent developments helped diminish those worries.
Analyst Perspectives
Truist Securities maintained its Buy stance and $100 price objective on TEAM, referencing the company’s artificial intelligence roadmap unveiled at its Team 26 conference.
The firm emphasized how Atlassian intends to generate revenue from AI through its Rovo credit framework, which encompasses both internal platform usage and external consumption. Truist views Atlassian as strategically positioned to function as a supplier of enterprise context for AI implementations.
Company leadership has highlighted adoption of the Teamwork Collection as proof that interest in its AI offerings is expanding. Truist anticipates the extended strategy involves adding proprietary context over tokens through a usage-based pricing structure.
Other Wall Street firms have shown less unanimous optimism but remain generally positive. Bernstein SocGen Group maintains a $295 price objective. Cantor Fitzgerald projects $107. BofA forecasts $100. Piper Sandler carries an Overweight designation with a $175 target. Macquarie holds a $130 estimate with an Outperform classification.
These projections reveal their own narrative — substantial divergence exists, with minimal consensus among the figures.
TEAM’s Broader Context
Atlassian’s third-quarter fiscal 2026 performance demonstrated strength. Cloud revenue exceeded analyst projections by 4.5% and expanded 29% year-over-year, accelerating from 26% in the previous quarter. Data center transitions and the DX acquisition fueled that expansion.
Free cash flow fell short of expectations due to severance costs, though cloud revenue and non-GAAP operating income surpassed analyst estimates.
The equity remains depressed by 44% year-to-date. It trades 60.8% under its 52-week maximum of $220.89, achieved in July 2025.
For perspective: a $1,000 position in Atlassian from five years ago currently holds a value of $407.94.
TEAM has experienced 33 movements exceeding 5% during the past year. Thursday’s 8.1% advance aligns with this volatility pattern — notable, yet not the type of movement that fundamentally alters the investment thesis independently.
The stock’s prior significant fluctuation was a 3.8% decline two trading days earlier, triggered by the April PPI data driving Treasury yields to 10-month peaks.
TLDR:
- BNB Chain processes around 40% of all global stablecoin transactions, with millions of monthly active users.
- Over 179,000 AI agents currently use BNB Chain as a financial layer, a major share of all onchain agents.
- The network holds roughly $4 billion in RWA assets and supports approximately 60,000 RWA holders onchain.
- BNB Chain plans to scale throughput from 6,000 to 20,000 TPS while launching a new dedicated Agentic SDK.
BNB Chain has outlined its priorities for 2026, with a sharp focus on stablecoins, real-world assets (RWAs), and AI agents.
The blockchain network is positioning itself as core infrastructure for the next wave of onchain activity. Nina Rong, the network’s Executive Director of Growth, shared these plans during a recent Binance Online session.
Her remarks covered infrastructure upgrades, developer tooling, and the growing role of AI in decentralized finance.
Stablecoins and RWAs Take Center Stage
BNB Chain now processes roughly 40% of all global stablecoin transaction activity. Millions of users conduct stablecoin transactions on the network each month.
The network is also pushing beyond USD-denominated stablecoins into local and cross-border payment use cases.
This expansion reflects a broader effort to bring everyday financial activity onchain. Rather than competing on narrative alone, BNB Chain is building the rails for real financial use. The goal is making stablecoin payments as routine as any traditional digital transaction.
On the RWA side, the ecosystem has grown quietly but steadily. BNB Chain now holds around $4 billion in tokenized real-world assets. The network also supports hundreds of live tokenized instruments and approximately 60,000 RWA holders.
The combination of stablecoin volume and RWA growth positions BNB Chain as a serious contender in institutional finance.
As more capital moves onchain, having both pieces in place becomes increasingly valuable for institutions exploring blockchain-based settlement.
AI Agents Emerge as a Financial Layer
One of the more striking disclosures from the session involved AI agents. Over 179,000 AI agents are currently using BNB Chain as a financial layer. This figure represents a large share of all active onchain agents across the crypto industry today.
Rong captured the shift in a single line during the livestream: “BNB Chain is serving not only humans but also non-humans.”
This reflects how automated systems are now interacting with onchain infrastructure at scale. The line between human and machine users is narrowing quickly.
To support this, BNB Chain is developing an Agentic SDK. The tool will allow AI agents to accept jobs, negotiate pricing, and interact with onchain services. Each agent will also be able to operate with its own onchain identity and financial rails.
This infrastructure layer is new territory for most blockchain networks. By building dedicated tooling for AI agents, BNB Chain is preparing for a future where automated systems handle a significant share of onchain activity.
Infrastructure Upgrades and Developer Support
BNB Chain is also investing heavily in performance improvements this year. The network plans to increase throughput from 6,000 transactions per second to 20,000 TPS. Alongside this, the team is working to reduce latency and improve transaction finality.
Rong described the broader user experience goal clearly: “BNB Chain should just be as easy as breathing air.” The intention is for users to interact onchain without needing to think about the underlying infrastructure. Speed and reliability should simply be expected.
For developers, the focus includes AI-focused infrastructure, onchain identity standards, and middleware for institutional use. New APIs and easier building blocks are also being introduced for teams launching onchain products.
Beyond tooling, BNB Chain is also expanding its builder support programs. Hackathons, incubator initiatives, and business development resources are all part of helping projects move from concept to live product more efficiently.
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