QTR’s Fringe Finance

One week ago I argued that the most important change in Strategy’s new bitcoin framework was the company’s willingness to be a seller and how important that makes bitcoin’s price now that the market knows it. We may soon find out. According to the company’s latest filing, Strategy sold 3,588 Bitcoin between June 29 and July 5.

By Peter Schiff, Schiff Sovereign In December 1916, with German and Austro-Hungarian armies closing in on Bucharest, the Romanian government made a decision that must have felt entirely sensible at the time. Romania had gambled its way into the Great War a few months earlier, sending its army across the Carpathian Mountains to grab Austro-Hungarian Transylvania, believing that Germany and Austria-Hungary were too exhausted to stop them. But Romania’s gamble fell apart in weeks.

So far, one of the best calls I’ve made coming into 2026 was psychedelics. While everyone else was fixation on AI and semiconductors, at the beginning of the year I said it was my favorite sector for the year, arguing that the market was dramatically underestimating both the progress being made on the regulatory front and the amount of upside that could materialize once investor sentiment finally turned. So far, that thesis has played out about as well as I could have hoped.

Happy Fourth of July to all of my kind readers. Today, when thinking independence, most Americans celebrate by farting hot dogs, guzzling Busch Light on speedboats while blasting “Free Bird”, pointing fireworks at one another and lighting them and, occasionally, thinking about our Founding Fathers telling the most powerful government on Earth to politely go fuck themselves. Lately, as I’ve written, I’ve been thinking about a different kind of independence: the independence to think for yourself.

By Shawn Ritenour, Mises Institute When I was a boy, one of my favorite holidays was Independence Day. I was an enthusiastic student of the War for Independence. My favorite book was the How and Why Wonder Book of the American Revolution by Felix Sutton. I spent a lot of my childhood reading about the colonial era, the lives of people like Sam Adams, Paul Revere, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, and George Washington.

One of the risks I repeatedly warned about in my 10 Areas Of The Market I’d Avoid Right Now was commercial real estate and the regional banks that remain heavily exposed to it. That wasn’t a particularly popular view this year as the market chased AI, crypto, and mega-cap tech higher, but the underlying problems in commercial real estate never actually went away. This year, much of the market’s attention has shifted toward private credit, another area I cautioned investors about.

Yesterday, during a Spaces discussion where I was making the case for being cautious on Bitcoin, someone challenged me with a fair question: “Okay, if you’re skeptical on bitcoin, are there any companies you actually like?” Two names immediately came to mind. My subscribers have likely heard about both already from me, but I wanted to re-iterate my thoughts here today on both since it’s been a while.

There was a time when Bitcoin’s biggest selling point was that it existed outside the financial system. No governments. No central banks. No bailouts. No “too big to fail.” It was supposed to be the antidote to everything that happened in 2008. In fact, I once argued that another 2008 is what could standardize bitcoin. Fast forward fifteen years, and we’ve somehow reached the point where I’m asking myself whether the last remaining bailout for crypto might actually be...the U.S. government.

By Per Bylund, American Institute for Economic Research Led by Ozempic and Wegovy, glucagon-like peptides (GLP-1s) have become a global phenomenon, with one in eight US adults currently taking one. Those two branded compounds, both made by Novo Nordisk, emerged from attempts to develop a diabetes drug. It effectively lowers blood glucose, slows gastric emptying, and reduces hunger, leading many patients to experience profound weight loss.

This morning Strategy unveiled what is easily its most comprehensive overhaul yet of how it intends to support its growing stack of preferred securities. On paper, it’s a meaningful step forward. The company is creating dedicated cash reserves, formalizing its dividend policy, authorizing billions in buybacks, and introducing a much more disciplined capital allocation framework. If you’re a holder of Strategy’s preferred shares, there’s a lot to like.