Plus: Inside The $150 Billion Bitcoin Treasury Boom Shakeout |
Good morning,
While gold’s rally has captured the headlines, silver has performed even better. But analysts caution it could be a riskier investment.Last week’s silver prices outshone a record set in 1980, and analysts from Goldman Sachs said the metal is likely to continue its rise amid the government shutdown and expected interest rate cuts. Both gold and silver are considered safe haven assets, but Goldman economists anticipate “more volatility and downside price risk” for silver. And unlike silver, gold is backed by demand from central banks.
Let’s get into the headlines, |
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As President Donald Trump has pushed companies to invest in his “America First” economic agenda, JPMorgan announced a $1.5 trillion “Security and Resilience Initiative” aimed at investing in industries like artificial intelligence, manufacturing and critical minerals. The news sent shares of companies like MP Materials and Lithium Americas soaring, as China dominates the industry key for making crucial technologies.
The average price for a new vehicle in the U.S. hit an all-time high of $50,080 last month, according to Kelley Blue Book. Average transaction prices were “likely” pushed up by a “rich mix of luxury vehicles and expensive EV models,” the report said, estimating that electric vehicles’ share of the U.S. market reached a record high of 11.6% in September. |
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 | | Illustration by Macy Sinreich for Forbes; Image by Andriy Onufriyenko |
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| In the span of just a few months, a corporate copycat phenomenon has swept through digital assets. The playbook, pioneered by Michael Saylor’s bitcoin-hoarding behemoth, Strategy, is ostensibly simple: create or rebrand a publicly traded company, raise money through debt and equity, use the proceeds to buy a single cryptocurrency, and market the stock as a safer and often leveraged way for investors to gain crypto exposure without holding the tokens themselves. Fueled by rising crypto prices and a friendlier regulatory environment for digital assets, the model has become so attractive that it has given rise to an industry of its own. According to Elliot Chun from Architect Partners, a Palo Alto-based financial advisory firm tracking the trend, 228 publicly traded companies have announced a digital asset treasury (DAT) strategy—most of them just in 2025—with a collective $148 billion funneled into crypto on the belief that holding tokens will turbo charge their stock value as it has for Strategy. For now, the vast majority of DAT companies are trading at a premium to the value of the crypto in their coffers. But about 15% are worth less than their stashes, which might make it harder for these firms to raise fresh capital—whether through debt or equity—to buy more crypto. |
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| “The trend is only months old, but investors are already starting to ask which DATs deserve a premium, and which are riding hype into extinction,” says Forbes deputy editor Nina Bambysheva. |
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| A reported deal to take Grindr private could value the LGBTQ dating app at $3 billion, sending shares surging 11% Monday. The firm’s majority shareholders Raymond Zage and James Lu are exploring the transaction after some of their stock, nearly all of which they’d pledged for personal loans, was seized and sold by private lender Temasek. |
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Tens of thousands of users have joined groups for 3D printed ghost gun enthusiasts on social media sites like Facebook and Discord. But amid rising concern about the proliferation of such weapons, the movement is up against the twin enforcers of social media companies and the U.S. government, as the Justice Department keeps tabs on user activity.
Tech executives like Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian and OpenAI cofounder Sam Altman have recently warned about “Dead Internet Theory,” or the idea that the internet is dominated by bot activity instead of humans. Experts once dismissed it as a conspiracy theory, but amid the rise of AI, some say it could be more plausible: 51% of internet traffic was generated by bots in 2024, according to cybersecurity company Imperva. |
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| At least seven U.S. airports are refusing to air a politicized video from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem that blames the government shutdown on Democrats. Still, one expert told Forbes the video is likely not a violation of the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees from engaging in partisan messaging, because “it’s not tied to an election.” |
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| NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory will shed hundreds of workers, a move its director said was a result of a “realignment” that began in July. The lab has been responsible for some of the most important advancements in space exploration: |
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Around 550 | How many employees will be impacted by the layoffs | |
| 5,500 | The approximate number of workers at JPL’s Pasadena, California campus | |
| 1936 | When the lab was founded at the California Institute of Technology |
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| The average job listing receives hundreds of résumés—so how can you ensure your application stands out? Be sure to tailor your résumé so that recruiters can see how your skills align with the company’s needs. And don’t be afraid to use ChatGPT: Try experimenting with different prompts, or even just to review the final version, to help it get past an application tracking system. |
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| GAMES | | QUIZ | | A major airline announced its new autumn menu with seasonal flavors including pumpkin spice available at its lounges. Which airline is it? | | A. | Delta Air Lines | | B. | American Airlines | | C. | JetBlue | | D. | United Airlines |
| | | FRASE BY FORBES |  | Unscramble today’s anagram to solve this hidden phrase!
Stumped? Scroll to the bottom of today’s newsletter for a hint. |
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