Bitcoin's Resilience During Tariff Chaos Impresses Wall Street Firm Bernstein
"Hi Curly, kill anyone today," said Billy Crystal's Mitch to Jack Palance's Curly in City Slickers. "Day ain't over yet," replied Curly.
Bernstein, though, is ready to call it a day, saying bitcoin's (BTC) being down just 26% from its record high of less than three months ago shows resilience.
Previous crises, such as the Covid-19 epidemic and interest rate shocks, saw the world's largest cryptocurrency "fall of the cliff" with 50-70% drawdowns, the report noted.
The price action "suggests demand from more resilient capital," the analysts led by Gautam Chhugani wrote.
"Bitcoin's digital gold thesis has strengthened driven by growing institutional adoption - institutional flows via ETFs and corporate treasuries," the authors wrote.
Still, tariffs are bad news for the miners.
They impact the mining supply chain, and this has negative implications for the U.S. bitcoin miners' hashrate, Bernstein said. The hashrate refers to the total combined computational power used to mine and process transactions on a proof-of-work blockchain, and is a proxy for competition in the industry and mining difficulty.
Large bitcoin miners, such as Riot Platforms (RIOT), IREN (IREN), MARA Holdings (MARA) and CleanSpark (CLSK), could gain market share as they are already scaled and have artificial intelligence (AI) optionality, the report added.
Read more: Why Trump's Tariffs Could Actually Be Good for Bitcoin
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Business Insider
an hour ago
- Business Insider
GameStop's (GME) Contrarian Market Path Leaves Wall Street Divided
For over five years, GameStop (GME) has moved beyond its roots as a traditional brick-and-mortar video game retailer. Its transformation began in 2021, when the meme-stock phenomenon catapulted the company into financial headlines and dramatically reshaped its investor base. Since then, GameStop has remained one of the most polarizing stocks in the market, driven by retail investor enthusiasm and a leadership overhaul led by activist investor-turned-CEO Ryan Cohen, who aimed to revitalize a business facing consistent losses and declining relevance. Confident Investing Starts Here: As of 2025, the company has eked out a modest profit and built a substantial cash reserve, largely through opportunistic equity offerings that capitalized on retail-driven momentum. GameStop is now pivoting toward digital assets, including a sizable bet on Bitcoin, supported by a recent $1.3 billion convertible bond issuance. Despite these bold moves, the company's core fundamentals remain uncertain. Revenue continues to decline, and its valuation remains difficult to justify through traditional financial metrics. Cohen, until recently, has maintained a low public profile, while insider buying activity has subtly supported ongoing investor interest. In my view, this highly unconventional situation—where the fundamentals are neither weak enough to justify a sharp sell-off nor strong enough to support a clear long-term value thesis—makes it difficult to adopt a definitive stance. As such, I'm maintaining a Hold rating for now. The CEO Who Finally Spoke Far from standard practice for a mid-cap publicly traded company, GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen rarely speaks publicly. Since taking the helm, he's never hosted an earnings call and has only given one interview since 2023. More recently, though, Cohen sat down for a rare conversation with crypto-focused media outlet The Crypto Times. In the interview, Ryan Cohen offered a candid assessment of GameStop's past, acknowledging that the company was in poor financial condition and experiencing significant losses when he first became involved. He attributed much of the decline to the broader industry shift from physical game sales to digital downloads—a trend that severely impacted GameStop's legacy business model. To reverse the company's trajectory, Cohen and his team implemented aggressive cost-cutting measures and instilled greater fiscal discipline. The strategy appears to have paid off: in Fiscal 2024, GameStop reversed a $313 million net loss from the prior year and reported a modest profit of $6.7 million. By Fiscal 2025, the company posted net income of $131.3 million, with operations approaching breakeven margins. Cohen also emphasized GameStop's strategic pivot toward collectibles, particularly in the trading card segment, spanning both sports and trading card games (TCGs). Most notably, he underscored that GameStop has become a leaner and more profitable retailer, despite the continued decline in quarterly revenue. One of the more revealing aspects of the interview was Cohen's candid account of his years-long battle to reshape the company. He made it clear that cleaning house—both at the executive and board levels—was critical to realigning GameStop with long-term shareholder interests. 'We got rid of all of that nonsense, and we focused on running the business profitably,' he said. Since becoming GameStop's largest shareholder in 2020, Ryan Cohen has played a central role in reshaping the company's leadership. He led a complete overhaul of the board, facilitated the departure of then-CEO George Sherman, supported the appointment of Matt Furlong as his successor, and ultimately assumed the CEO role himself in 2023. Meme Hype, Net Cash, and Bitcoin Bets As much as skeptics may be reluctant to acknowledge it, GameStop's management has made meaningful progress in steering the company toward profitability, despite significant challenges. Perhaps even more noteworthy is how Ryan Cohen and his team have successfully managed the complexities of the meme-stock phenomenon. Rather than resisting the volatility, they capitalized on it—executing timely equity offerings during momentum-driven rallies, such as those triggered by high-profile events like Y ouTuber Keith 'Roaring Kitty' Gill disclosing a sizable stake in the stock. In FY 2024 alone, GameStop raised an impressive $3.45 billion through stock sales, resulting in substantial shareholder dilution—nearly 50%, including that of Cohen himself. Prior to the offering, the company held a net cash position, with $921 million in cash against $616 million in debt. Following the capital raise, GameStop's net cash position rose sharply to $4.36 billion, according to its most recent filings. Following that, Cohen made a pivotal—though largely quiet—change to GameStop's strategy by revising the company's investment policy. Previously limited to fixed-income securities, the updated policy now permits broader equity investments, all under Cohen's direct oversight. This strategic shift set the stage for a bold move: an allocation to Bitcoin. As of the latest filings, GameStop holds 4,710 bitcoins, currently valued at approximately $513 million. In a recent interview, Cohen outlined his rationale, describing Bitcoin as a modern hedge against global currency debasement and systemic financial risk, similar to gold, but with distinct advantages. Unlike gold, he argued, Bitcoin offers superior portability, greater transparency, and more long-term upside. While gold's market capitalization hovers around $20 trillion, Bitcoin's remains under $2 trillion. 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San Francisco Chronicle
an hour ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
How the Vatican manages money and where Pope Leo XIV might find more
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U.S. bishops contributed over one-third of the $22 million (19.3 million euros) collected annually under the provision from 2021-2023, according to Vatican data. The other main source of annual donations is more well-known to ordinary Catholics: Peter's Pence, a special collection usually taken on the last Sunday of June. From 2021-2023, individual Catholics in the U.S. gave an average $27 million (23.7 million euros) to Peter's Pence, more than half the global total. American generosity hasn't prevented overall Peter's Pence contributions from cratering. After hitting a high of $101 million (88.6 million euros) in 2006, contributions hovered around $75 million (66.8 million euros) during the 2010's then tanked to $47 million (41.2 million euros) during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, when many churches were closed. Donations remained low in the following years, amid revelations of the Vatican's bungled investment in a London property, a former Harrod's warehouse that it hoped to develop into luxury apartments. The scandal and ensuing trial confirmed that the vast majority of Peter's Pence contributions had funded the Holy See's budgetary shortfalls, not papal charity initiatives as many parishioners had been led to believe. Peter's Pence donations rose slightly in 2023 and Vatican officials expect more growth going forward, in part because there has traditionally been a bump immediately after papal elections. New donors The Vatican bank and the city state's governorate, which controls the museums, also make annual contributions to the pope. As recently as a decade ago, the bank gave the pope around 55 million euros ($62.7 million) a year to help with the budget. But the amounts have dwindled; the bank gave nothing specifically to the pope in 2023, despite registering a net profit of 30 million euros ($34.2 million), according to its financial statements. The governorate's giving has likewise dropped off. Some Vatican officials ask how the Holy See can credibly ask donors to be more generous when its own institutions are holding back. Leo will need to attract donations from outside the U.S., no small task given the different culture of philanthropy, said the Rev. Robert Gahl, director of the Church Management Program at Catholic University of America's business school. He noted that in Europe there is much less of a tradition (and tax advantage) of individual philanthropy, with corporations and government entities doing most of the donating or allocating designated tax dollars. Even more important is leaving behind the 'mendicant mentality' of fundraising to address a particular problem, and instead encouraging Catholics to invest in the church as a project, he said. Speaking right after Leo's installation ceremony in St. Peter's Square, which drew around 200,000 people, Gahl asked: 'Don't you think there were a lot of people there that would have loved to contribute to that and to the pontificate?' In the U.S., donation baskets are passed around at every Sunday Mass. Not so at the Vatican. Untapped real estate The Vatican has 4,249 properties in Italy and 1,200 more in London, Paris, Geneva and Lausanne, Switzerland. Only about one-fifth are rented at fair market value, according to the annual report from the APSA patrimony office, which manages them. Some 70% generate no income because they house Vatican or other church offices; the remaining 10% are rented at reduced rents to Vatican employees. In 2023, these properties only generated 35 million euros ($39.9 million) in profit. Financial analysts have long identified such undervalued real estate as a source of potential revenue. But Ward Fitzgerald, the president of the U.S.-based Papal Foundation, which finances papal charities, said the Vatican should also be willing to sell properties, especially those too expensive to maintain. Many bishops are wrestling with similar downsizing questions as the number of church-going Catholics in parts of the U.S. and Europe shrinks and once-full churches stand empty. Toward that end, the Vatican recently sold the property housing its embassy in Tokyo's high-end Sanbancho neighborhood, near the Imperial Palace, to a developer building a 13-story apartment complex, according to the Kensetsu News trade journal. Yet there has long been institutional reluctance to part with even money-losing properties. Witness the Vatican announcement in 2021 that the cash-strapped Fatebenefratelli Catholic hospital in Rome, run by a religious order, would not be sold. Pope Francis simultaneously created a Vatican fundraising foundation to keep it and other Catholic hospitals afloat. 'They have to come to grips with the fact that they own so much real estate that is not serving the mission of the church,' said Fitzgerald, who built a career in real estate private equity. ___ AP reporter Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed. ___
The Hill
an hour ago
- The Hill
How the Vatican manages money and where Pope Leo XIV might find more
VATICAN CITY (AP) — The world's smallest country has a big budget problem. The Vatican doesn't tax its residents or issue bonds. It primarily finances the Catholic Church's central government through donations that have been plunging, ticket sales for the Vatican Museums, as well as income from investments and an underperforming real estate portfolio. The last year the Holy See published a consolidated budget, in 2022, it projected 770 million euros ($878 million), with the bulk paying for embassies around the world and Vatican media operations. In recent years, it hasn't been able to cover costs. That leaves Pope Leo XIV facing challenges to drum up the funds needed to pull his city-state out of the red. Anyone can donate money to the Vatican, but the regular sources come in two main forms. Canon law requires bishops around the world to pay an annual fee, with amounts varying and at bishops' discretion 'according to the resources of their dioceses.' U.S. bishops contributed over one-third of the $22 million (19.3 million euros) collected annually under the provision from 2021-2023, according to Vatican data. The other main source of annual donations is more well-known to ordinary Catholics: Peter's Pence, a special collection usually taken on the last Sunday of June. From 2021-2023, individual Catholics in the U.S. gave an average $27 million (23.7 million euros) to Peter's Pence, more than half the global total. American generosity hasn't prevented overall Peter's Pence contributions from cratering. After hitting a high of $101 million (88.6 million euros) in 2006, contributions hovered around $75 million (66.8 million euros) during the 2010's then tanked to $47 million (41.2 million euros) during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, when many churches were closed. Donations remained low in the following years, amid revelations of the Vatican's bungled investment in a London property, a former Harrod's warehouse that it hoped to develop into luxury apartments. The scandal and ensuing trial confirmed that the vast majority of Peter's Pence contributions had funded the Holy See's budgetary shortfalls, not papal charity initiatives as many parishioners had been led to believe. Peter's Pence donations rose slightly in 2023 and Vatican officials expect more growth going forward, in part because there has traditionally been a bump immediately after papal elections. The Vatican bank and the city state's governorate, which controls the museums, also make annual contributions to the pope. As recently as a decade ago, the bank gave the pope around 55 million euros ($62.7 million) a year to help with the budget. But the amounts have dwindled; the bank gave nothing specifically to the pope in 2023, despite registering a net profit of 30 million euros ($34.2 million), according to its financial statements. The governorate's giving has likewise dropped off. Some Vatican officials ask how the Holy See can credibly ask donors to be more generous when its own institutions are holding back. Leo will need to attract donations from outside the U.S., no small task given the different culture of philanthropy, said the Rev. Robert Gahl, director of the Church Management Program at Catholic University of America's business school. He noted that in Europe there is much less of a tradition (and tax advantage) of individual philanthropy, with corporations and government entities doing most of the donating or allocating designated tax dollars. Even more important is leaving behind the 'mendicant mentality' of fundraising to address a particular problem, and instead encouraging Catholics to invest in the church as a project, he said. Speaking right after Leo's installation ceremony in St. Peter's Square, which drew around 200,000 people, Gahl asked: 'Don't you think there were a lot of people there that would have loved to contribute to that and to the pontificate?' In the U.S., donation baskets are passed around at every Sunday Mass. Not so at the Vatican. The Vatican has 4,249 properties in Italy and 1,200 more in London, Paris, Geneva and Lausanne, Switzerland. Only about one-fifth are rented at fair market value, according to the annual report from the APSA patrimony office, which manages them. Some 70% generate no income because they house Vatican or other church offices; the remaining 10% are rented at reduced rents to Vatican employees. In 2023, these properties only generated 35 million euros ($39.9 million) in profit. Financial analysts have long identified such undervalued real estate as a source of potential revenue. But Ward Fitzgerald, the president of the U.S.-based Papal Foundation, which finances papal charities, said the Vatican should also be willing to sell properties, especially those too expensive to maintain. Many bishops are wrestling with similar downsizing questions as the number of church-going Catholics in parts of the U.S. and Europe shrinks and once-full churches stand empty. Toward that end, the Vatican recently sold the property housing its embassy in Tokyo's high-end Sanbancho neighborhood, near the Imperial Palace, to a developer building a 13-story apartment complex, according to the Kensetsu News trade journal. Yet there has long been institutional reluctance to part with even money-losing properties. Witness the Vatican announcement in 2021 that the cash-strapped Fatebenefratelli Catholic hospital in Rome, run by a religious order, would not be sold. Pope Francis simultaneously created a Vatican fundraising foundation to keep it and other Catholic hospitals afloat. 'They have to come to grips with the fact that they own so much real estate that is not serving the mission of the church,' said Fitzgerald, who built a career in real estate private equity. ___ AP reporter Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed. ___ Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP's collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
