Finimize - ☀️ Solana's ready for a comeback

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Today's big stories

Berkshire Hathaway continued its investment spree by buying a stake in HP
Now might be a good time to buy into Solana after a favorable run of events – Read Now
Eurozone retail sales disappointed, and retailers are trying to recover

Signed, Sealed, Delivered

What’s Going On Here?

Filings this week showed that Berkshire Hathaway has bought a stake in HP – the third company to get Buffett’s multibillion dollar stamp of approval in the last few weeks.

What Does This Mean?

Berkshire’s investments are like buses: you wait an eternity for one, and three come along at once. First, the conglomerate bought insurance firm Alleghany for $12 billion, following up with $8 billion worth of Occidental Petroleum’s stock. And now Berkshire’s adding $4.2 billion worth of HP’s stock to that tally – a move that’ll turn the conglomerate into the PC company’s biggest shareholder. That’s an endorsement of HP’s shift in strategy if ever there was one: the computer firm recently bought workplace hardware solutions company Poly, and it’s planning to push deeper into areas like 3D printing and gaming too.

Why Should I Care?

Zooming in: “Be greedy when others are fearful.”
This sudden bullishness makes sense: the combination of interest rate hikes and the Ukrainian war have knocked global stock markets, which means Berkshire – which specializes in finding stocks that are going cheap – can do exactly that. Thing is, stocks are down all over the world, so the fact that Berkshire’s chosen three American companies has made analysts hopeful that Buffett sees long-term growth in the US – even if there is a slowdown in the meantime.

The bigger picture: Inflation hurts.
Buffett has previously warned against holding too much cash at the best of times, given that its value will just be eroded by inflation. So these latest purchases might just be a savvy way to put Berkshire’s cash mountain to work. Too right: at the current inflation rate, the company’s near-$150 billion stockpile would only be able to afford half as many goods and services within 10 years as it can today.

You might also like: Where else is Buffett investing his money?

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Analyst Take

Is Solana Set For The Comeback Of The Year?

By Jonathan Hobbs, Analyst

What’s Going On Here?

Solana’s investors have been on an emotional rollercoaster in the past year or so.

The blockchain’s price went from $1.51 in January to $260 in November – only to collapse by 70% over the next three months.

Now, though, a string of good news has put it back on the map.

Coinbase has said it’s adding support for Solana to its wallet extension, while Opensea – the world’s biggest NFT marketplace – is adding the crypto to its lineup of integrated chains.

Plus, Solana has recently been at the center of two major investment product launches, including a fund from Grayscale that counts Solana as its biggest holding.

So that’s today’s Insight: everything Solana has going in its favor, and whether you should buy in.

Read or listen to the Insight here

Out with the new, in with the old?

If you invest in crypto, you probably use Binance, Coinbase, or Ledger.

But business research specialist Attest was curious to know what it would take for a traditional institution to win you over.

So Attest asked 1,000 Americans for their opinion, and it discovered that 49% of people would at least think about switching to a bank that offers crypto products.

But when asked to rank key banking features by importance, the participants put the ability to invest in crypto right at the bottom. That’s all down to a lack of knowledge and trust.

This is just the tip of the iceberg: see more of Attest’s findings here.