The Ozempi-conomy… Weight-loss drugs have raked in billions as folks look to curb their cravings. In November, the FDA greenlighted Eli Lilly's new appetite-suppressing prescription, Zepbound, which is predicted to become the best-selling drug ever (joining go-tos like Novo Nordisk's Ozempic and Wegovy). Nearly half of US adults are obese, but that could change with ~7% of Americans forecast to be on weight-loss meds by 2035. Analysts fear suppressed appetites could also trim the economy. Walmart’s already seeing them hit grocery spend, while snack biggies like Pepsi plan to keep a close eye.
Humanoid robots rise up… and clock in. As corporates including Tesla and Amazon build and test human-shaped robots, Goldman Sachs said AI + automation could affect 300M jobs. Amazon said it’s deploying humanoids in warehouses, and over the past decade the # of bots it made shot to 750K from 10K. Companies including Agility Robotics and Figure AI are rushing to develop dexterous bots to replace flesh-and-blood workers, and NASA’s building a humanoid to operate in space. Experts say the next five years could see robots taking repetitive and potentially dangerous jobs, like lifting heavy boxes.
Crypto’s reverse “flippening”… Ethereum fans have argued that the blockchain’s market cap would one day overtake bitcoin’s (aka: the flippening), sealing ether’s place as the one true crypto. Yet things might be trending in the opposite direction: over the past month, bitcoin dethroned ethereum as the top chain for NFTs as ordinal inscriptions surged. Looking forward, a proposal that’d let the OG chain have ethereum-style smart contracts could see bitcoin eat ether’s lunch. But soaring BTC transaction fees (at a two-year high last month) may be a roadblock.