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Donald Trump reacts at the 2024 Bitcoin Conference
Donald Trump at the 2024 Bitcoin Conference (Johnnie Izquierdo/Getty Images)

Bad news for Trump Media and GameStop: The power of the “pivot to bitcoin” might be wearing off

Big gains for Trump Media and GameStop this week after bitcoin treasury announcements and purchases quickly reversed into massive losses.

Luke Kawa

The “pivot to” is one of the most tried-and-true ways for existing companies to ride the wave of a new mania and attract fresh investors.

It can be as simple as a name change: Ping Shan Tea Group Limited, which sold (you guessed it) traditional Chinese tea, magically became Blockchain Group Co Ltd. back in 2016. Or it can be more in the framing, like how banks tried to get everyone to think of them as tech companies. We’ve seen it over the past few years when executives tout their company’s AI capabilities regardless of how developed those are or their pertinence to business operations.

While an earlier wave of companies tried to pull off a pivot to blockchain through name changes alone, lately there’s been a more concrete way of tying your stock to bitcoin: by buying it. But this week suggests the power of a bitcoin treasury may be losing its luster.

Usually in journalism we wait for three examples before attempting a trend piece, but two in two days should suffice:

My best guess: if you want to buy what’s effectively a leveraged bitcoin holding company, well... Strategy exists. There was a first-mover advantage here, and it’s going to be incredibly difficult to wrap your stock more thoroughly in bitcoin than what Michael Saylor’s already done. Open to any alternative suggestions!

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Opendoor surges on bullish options bets as traders look to potential real estate tokenization

Opendoor Technologies is surging on Friday amid bullish options bets and social media posts referencing unconfirmed rumors about the company.

The stock moved higher in the premarket session after the soft inflation report boosted stocks and briefly pushed long-term bond yields lower (positive for a real estate company). But the real gains came after the opening bell rang and options demand picked up.

As of 12:11 p.m. ET, roughly 664,000 call options have changed hands versus a 10-day average of about 364,000 for a full session.

What seems to be galvanizing members of the “$OPEN Army” is the potential for the company to pursue the tokenization of real-world assets, with Robinhood often bandied about as a potential partner in this endeavor.

(Robinhood Markets Inc. is the parent company of Sherwood Media, an independently operated media company subject to certain legal and regulatory restrictions.)

Opendoor bulls have often pointed to signs that Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev appears to be fond of the company, from what appeared on-screen during a demo of a social trading feature at HOOD’s conference in Las Vegas in September to offering support to Opendoor CEO Kaz Nejatian in setting up an opportunity for retail shareholders to ask questions during the online real estate company’s next earnings call.

Opendoor is currently in a quiet period ahead of earnings, which restricts what type of announcements a company can make.

The call options seeing the most demand expire this Friday with strike prices of $8, $8.50, and $9.

Intel Earnings Researchers

Wall Street analysts see some issues with Intel’s earnings

Even with the US government as a partial owner, Intel’s turnaround has a long way to go.

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Beyond Meat gains amid slightly better-than-expected Q3 sales, positive commentary on legal issues

Shares of Beyond Meat built on their premarket gains after the plant-based meat seller reported preliminary Q3 sales a bit ahead of Wall Street’s expectations, before paring this advance after the market opened.

For the three months ended September 27, management said net revenue would be approximately $70 million. That’s in line with their guidance range of $68 million to $73 million, but Wall Street was expecting sales to skew toward the lower end of that range, at $68.7 million.

However, its anticipated gross margin of 10% to 11% is lower than analysts had been expecting (13.8%). That’s still the case even adjusting for expenses related to its downsizing of operations in China, which would have left margins around 12% to 13%, per Beyond.

Perhaps more importantly, the company provided positive commentary regarding arbitration discussions with a former co-manufacturer that appear to bring it closer to a resolution while limiting potential damages:

“As previously disclosed, in March 2024, a former co-manufacturer brought an action against the Company in a confidential arbitration proceeding claiming that the Company inappropriately terminated its agreement with the co-manufacturer and claimed damages of at least $73.0 million. On September 15, 2025, the arbitrator issued an interim award (the ‘Interim Award’) and found that the Company had a valid basis to terminate the agreement with the Manufacturer. The details of the Interim Award are confidential, and a final arbitration award has not been issued. Additional proceedings will be held to determine the award of attorneys’ fees, prejudgment interest and costs, if any, before a final arbitration award will be issued. On September 25, 2025, the Manufacturer filed a request with the arbitrator to re-open the arbitration hearing. On September 29, 2025, the Company opposed this request. On October 20, 2025, the arbitrator denied the Manufacturer’s request.”

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