What Crypto Market Slowdown? This Sector of the Crypto Market Has Tripled In Value Since 2025.

While Bitcoin and Ethereum struggle amid macro headwinds, the tokenized real-world assets (RWA) market has tripled to $7.4 billion, driven by practical financial utility rather than speculation. Major financial institutions like BlackRock, JPMorgan Chase, Mastercard, and Robinhood are expanding into this nascent market, with tokenized Treasuries, stablecoins, and gold leading growth. Robinhood's tokenized stock trades have accelerated since launching its blockchain, indicating growing retail investor interest.

08/18/2026, 12:05 PM • The Motley Fool

Breakfast News: Mastercard's CEO Speaks

Mastercard's CEO Michael Miebach discusses the company's strategic positioning as the operating system of the digital economy, emphasizing its role in cybersecurity, stablecoin interoperability, and emerging agentic commerce. The CEO highlights that by 2030, cyber risk-driven damage could reach $15.6 trillion, positioning Mastercard's security and trust infrastructure as critical. The company is expanding beyond traditional card rails into stablecoins and machine-to-machine payments while maintaining an agnostic approach to underlying payment infrastructure.

08/15/2026, 7:25 AM • The Motley Fool

Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Just Bought Netflix and 5 Other Stocks. Here’s What Investors Need to Know.

Bill Ackman's Pershing Square deployed 85% of its $5 billion capital raise by purchasing Netflix, Visa, Mastercard, S&P Global, Intercontinental Exchange, and Alcon. The fund targeted stocks that have sold off due to AI disruption concerns, believing these companies have competitive advantages that will allow them to thrive despite AI-related headwinds.

08/13/2026, 12:12 PM • The Motley Fool

Visa and Mastercard Have Both Reported. Which Payments Giant Is the Best Buy Now?

Both Visa and Mastercard reported strong Q2/Q3 results with 14% year-over-year revenue growth. While both are exceptional businesses with unassailable competitive positions, Mastercard is identified as the better buy due to faster operating income growth (19.5% vs 11.1% CAGR), greater international exposure (70% vs 55% of TPV), and a slightly cheaper valuation multiple despite its smaller size offering more upside potential.

08/12/2026, 5:15 AM • The Motley Fool

Is the Market Underrating American Express's Growth Runway?

American Express stock has underperformed its competitors and major indexes this year, down 6% YTD while Visa is up 6% and Mastercard is flat. However, the article argues the stock may be underrated based on strong Q2 earnings (revenue +10% YoY, EPS beat), raised revenue guidance to 10% growth, and projected 14% earnings growth for 2026. Concerns about higher operating expenses are offset by CEO commentary on necessary investments in customer acquisition and long-term growth. Trading at 20x earnings with a long growth runway, American Express is positioned as an underrated buy.

08/06/2026, 11:30 AM • The Motley Fool

Which Financial Stock Would Hold Up Better in a Recession: PayPal or American Express?

American Express is better positioned to weather a recession than PayPal due to its stronger business model, affluent customer base, and natural resistance to economic downturns. While American Express benefits from higher interest rates and has a wider competitive moat, PayPal faces declining margins, slowing growth, and vulnerability to retail spending slowdowns. Analysts expect American Express to grow faster through 2028, making it the more resilient choice during economic uncertainty.

08/03/2026, 3:10 PM • The Motley Fool

Where Will Mastercard Stock Be in 5 Years?

Mastercard reported strong Q2 results with 14% revenue growth and 19% net income growth. The analyst projects the stock could reach $900-$1,200 by mid-2031 (roughly 12-13% annual returns) based on continued transaction volume growth, expanding value-added services, and aggressive share buybacks. However, regulatory pressure on fees, competition from stablecoins, and potential consumer slowdowns pose downside risks.

08/02/2026, 4:22 PM • The Motley Fool

IonQ vs. D-Wave Quantum: Which Quantum Computing Stock Is a Better Buy in 2026?

IonQ and D-Wave Quantum are competing quantum computing companies with different technological approaches. IonQ uses trapped-ion technology and generated $130M in FY2025 revenue with 201.9% YoY growth, while D-Wave specializes in quantum annealing with $24.6M revenue and 178.5% growth. Both are unprofitable with significant operating losses, but IonQ is recommended as the better buy due to stronger revenue growth, the SkyWater Technology acquisition providing end-to-end chip capabilities, and a more comprehensive quantum solution portfolio.

08/02/2026, 9:34 AM • The Motley Fool

As Financials Rally, Is the Steady Vanguard Financials ETF or the Leveraged ProShares Ultra Financials the Better Buy Right Now?

The article compares two financial sector ETFs: Vanguard Financials ETF (VFH), a low-cost broad-market index fund with 427 holdings, and ProShares Ultra Financials (UYG), a leveraged 2x ETF with 84 holdings. While UYG offers amplified returns, it carries significantly higher volatility and leverage decay risk. VFH is recommended as the better long-term choice due to its steadier performance, lower expense ratio (0.09% vs 0.94%), and superior 5-year returns ($1,696 vs $1,473 on $1,000 invested).

07/26/2026, 1:31 PM • The Motley Fool

Correction: Agentic Day Lands in Toronto, Completing a Three-Country, Two-Continent 2026 Series

Agentic Day Canada, an invite-only AI Infrastructure & Investment Summit, takes place July 21-22 in Toronto as an official side event of Blockchain Futurist Conference. The event features discussions on AI infrastructure, agentic finance, commerce, and investment, with speakers from major companies including the Solana Foundation, Mastercard, and Capgemini. This marks the third edition of the 2026 series following events in Miami and Amsterdam.

07/21/2026, 7:43 AM • GlobeNewswire

Agentic Day Lands in Toronto, Completing a Three-Country, Two-Continent 2026 Series

Agentic Day Canada, an invite-only AI Infrastructure & Investment Summit, takes place July 21-22 at Blockchain Futurist Conference in Toronto. The event brings together AI compute leaders, crypto investors, and infrastructure builders to discuss autonomous AI scaling. It features sessions on AI infrastructure, agentic finance, commerce, and capital, with speakers from Nasdaq-listed Axe Compute, Solana Foundation, and prominent crypto market analysts.

07/20/2026, 3:36 AM • GlobeNewswire

Berkshire Hathaway Sold Mastercard Stock. Should You Follow?

Berkshire Hathaway's exit from Mastercard doesn't necessarily indicate the business has weakened. The sale likely reflects opportunity cost considerations, as Berkshire tripled its Alphabet investment during the same period. For long-term investors, the key question is whether Mastercard's fundamentals have deteriorated, not whether to blindly follow Berkshire's portfolio moves. Mastercard remains a high-quality business with strong margins, capital-light operations, and exposure to digital payment growth.

07/20/2026, 3:05 AM • The Motley Fool

Flywire vs. Mastercard: Which Financial Payments Stock Is a Better Buy in 2026?

The article compares Flywire, a high-growth specialist in cross-border payments for education, healthcare, and travel, against Mastercard, an established global payments giant. Flywire offers cheaper valuation metrics (P/S ratio of 3.4x vs 14.3x) and strong growth (27% YoY revenue growth), while Mastercard provides massive scale, exceptional profitability (45.6% net margin), and substantial free cash flow ($16.4B). Both companies benefit from the global shift to digital payments, though they face different risks including regulatory challenges for Flywire and competitive threats from fintech and government-backed systems for Mastercard.

07/16/2026, 9:17 AM • The Motley Fool

Coinbase Just Joined a 140-Company Stablecoin Alliance. Here's What It Means for the Stock.

Coinbase joined a coalition of 140+ companies to back the new Open USD (OUSD) stablecoin, signaling a shift away from its exclusive partnership with Circle's USDC. This move is bullish for Coinbase as it diversifies stablecoin exposure and positions the company to benefit from growing stablecoin adoption, which now represents 19% of its revenue. However, it threatens Circle's business model as the new coalition will jointly manage OUSD and split reserve income.

07/16/2026, 8:30 AM • The Motley Fool

Mobile Payment Market Size Worth $19,864.19 Billion by 2035 | SNS Insider

The global mobile payment market, valued at $3.55 trillion in 2025, is projected to reach $19.86 trillion by 2035, growing at a CAGR of 18.80%. Growth is driven by smartphone penetration, digital wallets, NFC-based contactless payments, and government-led real-time payment initiatives. The U.S. market is expected to grow from $851.37 billion to $4.17 trillion, while Europe is projected to reach $3.45 trillion by 2035.

07/16/2026, 2:30 AM • GlobeNewswire