Well, I’ve been promising a lot of continued volatility, and that’s what we’ve been getting. And, unfortunately, I was right about my prediction of an escalating war in the Middle East. The Israel/Iran conflict is worsening, and the U.S. is now involved, whether it likes it or not. We can only hope for a deal that will bring the war to an end. Oil is now trading above $78 a barrel as a result. Domestically, in a bewildering but expected move, Fed Chair Powell kept the Fed Funds rate at 4.5% again despite what the data is telling us. A 50-basis-point drop would have been easily justified, and yet the Fed is leaving rates artificially high. This will continue to negatively impact the housing market as well as the Treasury’s ability to manage its debt and interest expenses. It hasn’t all been bad, though. The U.S. Senate passed the GENIUS Act stablecoin bill. The “Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins of 2025” – or GENIUS Act – is a bill that lays out a federal regulatory framework for payment with stablecoins. It clearly defines stablecoins and discusses a licensing framework and some protections for them, such as reserve requirements, disclosures, and oversight. We’ve been tracking the bill’s progress with regular updates in The Bleeding Edge. And now, it has passed the Senate. This is incredible news for the digital assets industry. It now goes to the House. We’ll see what happens there, but the Act is on track for signature before the August recess.

Full podcast : An overview of investing in Extropic, one of the most interesting semiconductor companies that I’ve seen in the last few years.

For more see the OODA Company Profile on Extropic.